Friday five – Pre-orders

I can’t Find who started the Friday Five book blog meme. It seems to crop up in many different style such as “Five for Friday”, “Five on Friday” , “FridayFive Challenge”. I also can’t find a topic list like you would have for the Six on Sunday meme. Therefore I am just doing my own thing and setting my own topics just so I can chat books with you.

My topic this week is

Five Q1 2022 Pre-orders

I will admit I have quite a lot more than 5 books on pre-order already this year. I took full advantage of the pre-Christmas Waterstones points events that I have books from all throughout 2022 on order. The ones I am focusing on today are five books that are:

Released between Jan 1st and March 31st 2022
I do not have ARCs or eARCs for them (so can’t read them Early)
Some I hypothesize may be in book boxes I sub to

My Five…

The Kaiju Preservation Society
John Scalzi

UK Release Date: Mar 15th 2022

What is it about:
When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization.” Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on.
What Tom doesn’t tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world. They’re the universe’s largest and most dangerous panda and they’re in trouble.
It’s not just the Kaiju Preservation Society that’s found its way to the alternate world. Others have, too–and their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.

Why I Pre-ordered:

Scalzi is one of my favourite authors and is an auto-buy for me. This is a standalone too, and it sounds like its going to put a funny twist onto the pandemic.

Gallant
V. E. Schwab

UK Release Date: Mar 1st 2022

What is it about:
Olivia Prior has grown up in Merilance School for girls, and all she has of her past is her mother’s journal—which seems to unravel into madness. Then, a letter invites Olivia to come home—to Gallant. Yet when Olivia arrives, no one is expecting her. But Olivia is not about to leave the first place that feels like home, it doesn’t matter if her cousin Matthew is hostile or if she sees half-formed ghouls haunting the hallways.
Olivia knows that Gallant is hiding secrets, and she is determined to uncover them. When she crosses a ruined wall at just the right moment, Olivia finds herself in a place that is Gallant—but not. The manor is crumbling, the ghouls are solid, and a mysterious figure rules over all. Now Olivia sees what has unraveled generations of her family, and where her father may have come from.
Olivia has always wanted to belong somewhere, but will she take her place as a Prior, protecting our world against the Master of the House? Or will she take her place beside him?
New York Times bestselling author Victoria Schwab crafts a vivid and lush novel that grapples with the demons that are often locked behind closed doors. An eerie, standalone saga about life, death, and the young woman beckoned by both. Readers of Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, Melissa Albert, and Garth Nix will quickly lose themselves in this novel with crossover appeal for all ages.

Why I Pre-ordered:
Another auto-buy author I don’t actually have this one on pre-order but I highly suspect (due to them dropping heavy hints) it is in an upcoming book box I am subscribed to. I am keen to see where this one goes.

The God of Lost Words
A. J. Hackwith

UK Release Date: Feb 8th 2022

What is it about:
To save the Library of the Unwritten in Hell, former librarian Claire and her allies may have to destroy it first.
Claire, the rakish Hero, the angel Rami, and the muse turned librarian Brevity have accomplished the impossible by discovering the true nature of unwritten books. But now that the secret is out, Hell will be coming for every wing of the library in its quest for power.

Why I Pre-ordered:
Book 3 in a series a absolutely adore of course I am going to pre-order. I really cant wait to see what happens with Claire, Hero and Brevity especially after the ending of the last book.

The Verifiers
Jane Pek

UK Release Date: Feb 22nd 2022

What is it about:

Claudia Lin is used to disregarding her fractious family’s model-minority expectations: she has no interest in finding either a conventional career or a nice Chinese boy. She’s also used to keeping secrets from them, such as that she prefers girls—and that she’s just been stealth-recruited by Veracity, a referrals-only online-dating detective agency.
A lifelong mystery reader who wrote her senior thesis on Jane Austen, Claudia believes she’s landed her ideal job. But when a client goes missing, Claudia breaks protocol to investigate—and uncovers a maelstrom of personal and corporate deceit. Part literary mystery, part family story, The Verifiers is a clever and incisive examination of how technology shapes our choices, and the nature of romantic love in the digital age.

Why I Pre-ordered:
This was a bit of an impulse pre-order. Euan hear the author talking on a podcast as suggested I would be interested in this one and by the blurb I was so I just too a chance a pre-ordered. It just seems like its going to be really interesting “Part literary mystery, part family story” with strong tech leanings!

Wild and Wicked Things
Francesca May

UK Release Date: Mar 29th 2022

What is it about:

In the aftermath of World War I, a naïve woman is swept into a glittering world filled with dark magic, romance, and murder in this lush and decadent debut.
On Crow Island, people whisper, real magic lurks just below the surface. 
Neither real magic nor faux magic interests Annie Mason. Not after it stole her future. She’s only on the island to settle her late father’s estate and, hopefully, reconnect with her long-absent best friend, Beatrice, who fled their dreary lives for a more glamorous one. 
Yet Crow Island is brimming with temptation, and the biggest one may be her enigmatic new neighbour. 
Mysterious and alluring, Emmeline Delacroix is a figure shadowed by rumours of witchcraft. And when Annie witnesses a confrontation between Bea and Emmeline at one of the island’s extravagant parties, she is drawn into a glittering, haunted world. A world where the boundaries of wickedness are tested, and the cost of illicit magic might be death.

Why I Pre-ordered: This has been on my radar for a while but I had no luck in nabbing an ARC (so far). I have seen it described as a “sapphic gatsby but with witches” and that pretty much has me sold I love a bit of Decopunk and adding in witches yes please!

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So there are my 5 picks for pre-order in the first quarter of 2022. I am hoping to dive straight into these when they land on my doorstep so keep and eye out for reviews. And I have some exciting ARCs that have not been mentioned on this list too!

Are there any books you are looking forward to in Q1 of 2022?

I would love to chat all things bookish with you! You can comment down below or find me on Twitter or Goodreads!

Happy Reading!