Another Sunday, more additions to the TBR.  Except this Sunday there’s also some dismay because of the lack of Game of Thrones tonight.  Good thing the next book is almost out!

This week was an exciting week – two of my most anticipated new releases from this year showed up.  I also ended up with hand-me-down copies of the entire Hunger Games trilogy, but I’m not going to list them here since I already did list the first book in one of these posts when I got it – and I suspect everyone has both seen the covers and heard what the books are about plenty of times by now.

The Tempering of Men by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth BearThe Tempering of Men by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear

Words cannot express how excited I am to read this book!  Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear are two of my favorite authors, and it’s a sequel to A Companion to Wolves, which I really enjoyed (review).  It’s an animal companion fantasy based on Norse mythology in which men and wolves bond together to protect the people from trolls and other creatures. Of course, being Bear and Monette, there are also some issues of gender and sexuality included. It was also a little bit coming of age story since the main character was a teenager who had to discover for himself the differences between what he thought about the world and what his father believed.  It will be interesting to see what happens in this sequel!

I had some other books on the list to read first, but I’ll probably make this my first book to read in August if I can hold out that long.  The Tempering of Men will be released on August 16 (hardcover, ebook).

In Iskryne, the war against the Trollish invasion has been won, and the lands of men are safe again…at least for a while. Isolfr and his sister, the Konigenwolf Viradechtis, have established their own wolfhaell. Viradechtis has taken two mates, and so the human pack has two war leaders. And in the way of the pack, they must come to terms with each other, must become brothers instead of rivals–for Viradechtis will not be gainsaid.

She may even be prescient.

A new danger comes to Iskryne. An army of men approaches, an army that wishes to conquer and rule. The giant trellwolves and their human brothers have never hunted men before. They will need to learn if they are to defend their homes.

One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuireOne Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire

This is the fifth book in the October Daye series.  It will be released on September 6 (mass market paperback, ebook).  The first four books in this series are: Rosemary and Rue (review), A Local Habitation (review), An Artificial Night (review), and Late Eclipses (review).

I have to admit, there was some jumping up and down and squealing involved when I opened this one.  October Daye is one of my top three urban fantasy series – maybe even top two since I’ve been enjoying the more recent installments of this one even more than the most recent Mercy Thompson books.  Each book in this series so far has been better than the one that came before, and the last book, Late Eclipses, was especially satisfying and unputdownable.

October “Toby” Daye is settling into her new role as Countess of Goldengreen. She’s actually dating again, and she’s taken on Quentin as her squire. So, of course, it’s time for things to take a turn for the worse.

Someone has kidnapped the sons of the regent of the Undersea Duchy of Saltmist. To prevent a war between land and sea, Toby must find the missing boys and prove the Queen of the Mists was not behind their abduction. Toby’s search will take her from the streets of San Francisco to the lands beneath the waves, and her deadline is firm: she must find the boys in three days’ time, or all of the Mists will pay the price. But someone is determined to stop her-and whoever it is isn’t playing by Oberon’s Laws…