Five Book Releases I'm Looking Forward To This Year

Last year, I wrote a similar post to this detailing some of the book releases I was most excited for that year. And with there being quite a large number of books on my 'pre-order' wish-list this year already, I thought it about time I share those I'm most looking forward to.

In my late teens, I read the Hunger Games trilogy. Then watched the movies. And fell in love with the whole franchise. But of course, all good things come to an end. And so did the Hunger Games. But guess what? It's back! And I couldn't be more excited.

"Ambition will fuel him. Competition will drive him. But power has its price.

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmanoeuvre his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined — every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favour or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes."

Of course, some of the book releases I look forward to the most are the next instalments in a series I've read and loved. This is one of them - the third book in the Manon Bradshaw series by Susie Steiner. This is the series I, inadvertently, read the second book before the first. But I've since read the first so am all caught up and ready for the third! 

"The body of a young migrant is found hanging from a tree.

No signs of struggle. No indication that it is anything other than a tragic suicide.

Except for a note, pinned to his trousers, that reads ‘The dead cannot speak’.

A murder investigation begins with DI Manon Bradshaw at the helm. But with the other migrants unwilling to speak, and protests on the streets, hatred is starting to drown out the facts.

 Can Manon uncover the truth before it happens again?"

Other book releases I look forward to the most are those from a favourite author of mine. One of those being Jodi Picoult. She's the only author I've ever been to the book signing of, the reason I fell (back) in love with reading, and I'm always excited to hear she's releasing a new book. This year, it's The Book of Two Ways and I cannot wait. 

"Who would you be, if you hadn't turned out to be the person you are now?

Dawn is a death doula, and spends her life helping people make the final transition peacefully.

But when the plane she's on plummets, she finds herself thinking not of the perfect life she has, but the life she was forced to abandon fifteen years ago - when she left behind a career in Egyptology, and a man she loved.

Against the odds, she survives, and the airline offers her a ticket to wherever she needs to get to - but the answer to that question suddenly seems uncertain.

As the path of her life forks in two very different directions, Dawn must confront questions she's never truly asked: What does a well-lived life look like? What do we leave behind when we go? And do we make our choices, or do our choices make us?

Two possible futures. One impossible choice."

This book release falls into the category of favourite author and series I've read and loved. I've been looking forward to this, the next instalment in the series for over a year, as there wasn't a new release last year. However, I do have the previous book in the DI Helen Grace series to read before this one's released later this year! 

"You have one hour to live."

Those are the only words on the phone call. Then they hang up. Surely, a prank? A mistake? A wrong number? Anything but the chilling truth... That someone is watching, waiting, working to take your life in one hour.

But why?

The job of finding out falls to DI Helen Grace: a woman with a track record in hunting killers. However, this is A case where the killer seems to always be one step ahead of the police and the victims.

With no motive, no leads, no clues - nothing but pure fear - an hour can last a lifetime..."

Who hasn't heard of Mindhunter? Whether you've read the books or seen the series on Netflix, Mindhunter was a sensation. An inside look at the FBI, criminal profiling and some of the scariest serial killers in history. And the authors of Mindhunter are back with a brand new true crime book; documenting their hunt for a white supremacist serial killer. I am ready!

"The legendary FBI criminal profiler and international bestselling author of Mindhunter and The Killer Across the Table returns with this timely, relevant book that goes to the heart of extremism and domestic terrorism, examining in-depth his chilling pursuit of, and eventual prison confrontation with Joseph Paul Franklin, a White Nationalist serial killer and one of the most disturbing psychopaths he has ever encountered.

Worshippers stream out of an Midwestern synagogue after sabbath services, unaware that only a hundred yards away, an expert marksman and  avowed racist, anti-Semite and member of the Ku Klux Klan, patiently awaits, his hunting rifle at the ready. 

 The October 8, 1977 shooting was a forerunner to the tragedies and divisiveness that plague us today. John Douglas, the FBI s pioneering, first full-time criminal profiler, hunted the shooter a white supremacist named Joseph Paul Franklin, whose Nazi-inspired beliefs propelled a three-year reign of terror across the United States, targeting African Americans, Jews, and interracial couples. In addition, Franklin bombed the home of Jewish leader Morris Amitay, shot and paralyzed Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, and seriously wounded civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. The fugitive supported his murderous spree robbing banks in five states, from Georgia to Ohio.

 Douglas and his writing partner Mark Olshaker return to this disturbing case that reached the highest levels of the Bureau, which was fearful Franklin would become a presidential assassin and haunted him for years to come as the threat of copycat domestic terrorist killers increasingly became a reality. Detailing the dogged pursuit of Franklin that employed profiling, psychology and meticulous detective work, Douglas and Olshaker relate how the case was a make-or-break test for the still-experimental behavioural science unit and revealed a new type of, determined, mission-driven serial killer whose only motivation was hate.

A riveting, cautionary tale rooted in history that continues to echo today, The Killer's Shadow is a terrifying and essential exploration of the criminal personality  in the vile grip of extremism and what happens when rage-filled speech evolves into deadly action and hatred of the other" is allowed full reign."

Any book releases you're looking forward to this year?