Can't-Wait Wednesday: A Court of Splintered Harmony by Sarah J. Maas

 

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read.
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A Court of Splintered Harmony by Sarah J. Maas
Expected publication: October 27, 2026 by Bloomsbury Publishing

What was broken will be remade.

Deep in the heart of the continent, Koschei the Deathless is stirring. Though he's been bound to a mountain lake for millennia, the insidious threat of his return now spreads across the Fae territories, attracting powerful allies hell-bent on reclaiming what was once theirs: the human lands.

The Night Court will not stand idly by while innocents are attacked. But with Prythian still piecing itself together in the wake of the devastating Hybern War, the task of uniting is proving more difficult by the day.

To make matters worse, those who rule and protect the Night Court are reeling from recent betrayals and revealed truths. The rifts dividing them seem insurmountable.

But to defeat Koschei's creeping shadow, they must find a way back to each other and resurrect their former alliances. To survive, they must find a way to repair the splintered harmony all around them.

I think it's needless to say that I'm really looking forward to this book (also equally scared). And I can't believe the previous book was released back in 2021. It's been a hot minute!

What book are you awaiting today?

Review: Mythica by Emily Hauser

Title: Mythica: A New History of Homer’s World, Through the Women Written Out of It
Author: Emily Hauser
Publication: April 17, 2025 by Transworld
Genre: Nonfiction, Ancient History
Find it on: Amazon UK | Amazon US | Kobo | Libro | Waterstones
Rating: 5/5★

Did you love Madeline Miller’s Circe? Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls? Jennifer Saint's Elektra? Natalie Haynes’ A Thousand Ships?

But did you ever wonder who the real women behind the myths of the Trojan War were?

Now award-winning classicist and historian Emily Hauser takes readers on an epic journey to uncover the astonishing true story of the real women behind ancient Greece’s greatest legends – and the real heroes of those ancient epics, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

Because, contrary to perceptions built up over three millennia, ancient history is not all about men – and it's not only men's stories that deserve to be told . . .

In Mythica Emily Hauser tells, for the first time, the extraordinary stories of the real women behind some of the western world’s greatest legends. Following in their footsteps, digging into the history behind Homer’s epic poems, piecing together evidence from the original texts, recent astonishing archaeological finds and the latest DNA studies, she reveals who these women – queens, mothers, warriors, slaves – were, how they lived, and how history has (or has not – until now) remembered them.

A riveting new history of the Bronze Age Aegean and a journey through Homer’s epics charted entirely by women – from Helen of Troy, Briseis, Cassandra and Aphrodite to Circe, Athena, Hera, Calypso and Penelope – Mythica is a ground-breaking reassessment of the reality behind the often-mythologized women of Greece’s greatest epics, and of the ancient world itself as we learn ever more about it.

History is about which facts we choose to recall. It's not that women weren't there in the historical record, or that they weren't making a name for themselves. It's simply that, in the past, women weren't chosen to be remembered.

Mythica by Emily Hauser takes its reader on a journey of the Bronze Age Aegean and Homer’s epics, explored through women’s stories. This book completely blew me away. I loved every minute of it, and it has easily become my favorite book of the year.

Emily Hauser seamlessly weaves together historical records, scientific discoveries and archaeological findings with Homer’s mythological stories. I was fascinated by the way she connected the myths to what we know about the Bronze Age Aegean, while putting the women of these stories at the center. I learned so much from this book, and I honestly couldn’t put it down.

The first part of the book, *Iliad: Women in War*, has chapters focusing on women like Helen: The Face, Briseis: The Slave, Hecuba: The Queen, and Thetis: The Mother. I really loved how Hauser pieced together the myths and historical evidence through their stories. I thought this was such a fascinating and engaging way to tell the history of Bronze Age life and the women living in it.

The second part of the book, Odyssey: Women at Home and Away, follows the same format, with chapters focusing on Athena: The Shapeshifter, Nausicaa: The Bride, and Circe: The Witch. I really enjoyed seeing these characters explored in the same way, and Hauser once again does a great job of bringing together mythology and historical evidence about the ancient world.

Mythica: A New History of Homer’s World, Through the Women Written Out of It by Emily Hauser was nothing short of brilliant. A must-read for anyone studying Homer, loves his epic poems or simply anyone who loves mythology and women's history. I can't recommend it enough!

About the author:

Emily Hauser is an award-winning ancient historian and Times bestselling author of Mythica: A New History of Homer’s World, through the Women Written Out Of It (Penguin Random House 2025). She studied Classics at Cambridge with Mary Beard, where she took a double first with distinction and won the prestigious Chancellor’s Medal for Classical Proficiency; with a PhD in Classics from Yale and a Junior Fellowship at the Harvard University Society of Fellows, she is also the author of the acclaimed Golden Apple trilogy retelling the stories of the women of Greek myth.

Website | Instagram | Goodreads

 

 

Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Wretched Divine by Adalyn Grace

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read.
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The Wretched Divine by Adalyn Grace
Expected publication: September 22, 2026 by Gollancz

Aurelie Chantelune was born to serve. Raised as a knight in a kingdom ravaged by demons, she's spent her life honing her blade, driven by the memory of the monsters who tore her family apart and by the knowledge that she's one of the few who can stop them.

If Aurelie can claim her first kill, she'll inherit a legacy passed down through the Chantelune bloodline: a soulbond with Yuriel, an angel whose power is vital to her kingdom's survival. But when those she loves begin turning into the very monsters she's sworn to destroy, Aurelie is forced to seek help from the last place she ever imagined. Desperate, she forges a second and far more dangerous bond with Severin, a demon she can hardly trust, but who claims to know how to end the war for good.

With their lives and fates entwined, Aurelie, Yuriel, and Severin must team up to hunt down a cure capable of turning demons back into humans. But the more they learn about one another and the deeper their relationships grow, the more Aurelie begins to question the war and her place in it. With both of her bonded on opposing sides, she'll have to make a choice: continue to stand with the angels, or risk everything by trusting a demon.

I saw this book last week on Lindsey Reads and was immedately obsessed. The cover, the synopsis... it sounds SO good!!

What book are you awaiting today?