Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is a Freebie, so we each choose whatever topic we’d like. I’m keeping it simple this time. I’ve decided to focus on 10 ARCs I have coming up to read and review in the first few months of 2020. I’m excited for all of these!
(Covers and synopses via Goodreads)
1. Welcome to the Pine Away Motel & Cabins by Katarina Bivald – release date 1/7/2020
What it’s about: A charming tale of the folks who reunite at a ramshackle roadside motel in Pine Creek, Oregon, after the unfortunate death of Henny, a local who worked at the cabins all her life, and who isn’t going to let a tiny thing like death stop her from living fully — not when her friends and her little town need her the most.
Why I want to read it: I loved Katarina Bivald’s first novel, The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend (review). This new book sounds just as sweet and quirky.
Release date: 1/7/2020
2. The Vanished Birds by Simon JImenez
What it’s about: Nia Imani is a woman out of place and outside of time. Decades of travel through the stars are condensed into mere months for her, though the years continue to march steadily onward for everyone she has ever known. Her friends and lovers have aged past her; all she has left is work. Alone and adrift, she lives only for the next paycheck, until the day she meets a mysterious boy, fallen from the sky.
Why I want to read it: Time travel and space travel and mysterious encounters… this definitely sounds like a book for me.
Release date: 1/14/2020
3. Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
What it’s about:Lately, seventh grader Nizhoni Begay has been able to detect monsters, like that man in the fancy suit who was in the bleachers at her basketball game. Turns out he’s Mr. Charles, her dad’s new boss at the oil and gas company, and he’s alarmingly interested in Nizhoni and her brother, Mac, their Navajo heritage, and the legend of the Hero Twins. Nizhoni knows he’s a threat, but her father won’t believe her.
When Dad disappears the next day, leaving behind a message that says “Run!”, the siblings and Nizhoni’s best friend, Davery, are thrust into a rescue mission that can only be accomplished with the help of Diné Holy People, all disguised as quirky characters. Their aid will come at a price: the kids must pass a series of trials in which it seems like nature itself is out to kill them. If Nizhoni, Mac, and Davery can reach the House of the Sun, they will be outfitted with what they need to defeat the ancient monsters Mr. Charles has unleashed. But it will take more than weapons for Nizhoni to become the hero she was destined to be . . .
Why I want to read it: I loved Rebecca Roanhorse’s The Sixth World books (and can’t wait for more!). This middle grade novel sounds like such fun, and I already know I love the author’s writing.
Release date: 1/14/2020
4. A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers
What it’s about:In 1895, sixteen-year-old Juliet LaCompte has a passionate, doomed romance with the married Parisian painter Auguste Marchant. When her mother — a witch — attempts to cast a curse on Marchant, she unwittingly summons a demon, binding her daughter to both the artist and this supernatural being for all time. Juliet is fated to re-live her affair and die tragically young lifetime after lifetime as the star-crossed lovers reincarnate through history. The demon — who appears to Juliet in all her reincarnations as a mysterious, handsome, and worldly benefactor-has been helplessly in love with her since 19th century France, even though she forgets him each time she dies. He falls for her in 1930s Hollywood, in 1970s Los Angeles, and finally in present-day Washington D.C. — where she begins to develop powers of her own. In this life, she starts to remember her tragic past lives. But this time, she might have the power to break the cycle…
Why I want to read it: More timey-wimey intrigue and romance! Sounds amazing.
Release date: 2/11/2020
5. Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales
What it’s about: When Ollie meets his dream guy, Will, over summer break, he thinks he’s found his Happily Ever After. But once summer’s ended, Will stops texting him back, and Ollie finds himself one prince short of a fairytale ending. To complicate the fairytale further, a family emergency sees Ollie uprooted and enrolled at a new school across the country—Will’s school—where Ollie finds that the sweet, affectionate and comfortably queer guy he knew from summer isn’t the same one attending Collinswood High. This Will is a class clown, closeted—and, to be honest, a bit of a jerk.
Ollie has no intention of pining after a guy who clearly isn’t ready for a relationship. But as Will starts ‘coincidentally’ popping up in every area of Ollie’s life, from music class to the lunch table, Ollie finds his resolve weakening.
The last time he gave Will his heart, Will handed it back to him trampled and battered. Ollie would have to be an idiot to trust him with it again.
Right?
Right.
Why I want to read it: Doesn’t it just sound sweet and fun? I think by March, I’ll be ready for a strong dose of YA romance.
Release date: 3/3/2020
6. In Five Years by Rebecca Searle
What it’s about:Where do you see yourself in five years?
When Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Cohan is asked this question at the most important interview of her career, she has a meticulously crafted answer at the ready. Later, after nailing her interview and accepting her boyfriend’s marriage proposal, Dannie goes to sleep knowing she is right on track to achieve her five-year plan.
But when she wakes up, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. The television news is on in the background, and she can just make out the scrolling date. It’s the same night—December 15—but 2025, five years in the future.
Why I want to read it: More time-shifting! Plus romance! Plus, I just read my first book by this author, The Dinner List (review), and completely fell in love with it.
Release date: 3/3/2020
7. A Murderous Relation (Veronica Speedwell #5) by Deanna Raybourn
What it’s about: Veronica Speedwell and her natural historian colleague Stoker are asked by Lady Wellingtonia Beauclerk to help with a potential scandal so explosive it threatens to rock the monarchy. Prince Albert Victor is a regular visitor to the most exclusive private club in London, known as the Club de l’Etoile, and the proprietess, Madame Aurore, has received an expensive gift that can be traced back to the prince. Lady Wellie would like Veronica and Stoker to retrieve the jewel from the club before scandal can break.
Why I want to read it: I love this series! Veronica is an amazing heroine, and her adventures with Stoker are always exciting, funny, and steamy. I’ve been ready for this book ever since I finished #4, A Dangerous Collaboration (review).
Release date: 3/10/2020
8. The Deep by Alma Katsu
What it’s about:Someone, or something, is haunting the Titanic.
This is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the passengers of the ship from the moment they set sail: mysterious disappearances, sudden deaths. Now suspended in an eerie, unsettling twilight zone during the four days of the liner’s illustrious maiden voyage, a number of the passengers – including millionaires Madeleine Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, the maid Annie Hebbley and Mark Fletcher – are convinced that something sinister is going on . . . And then, as the world knows, disaster strikes.
Years later and the world is at war. And a survivor of that fateful night, Annie, is working as a nurse on the sixth voyage of the Titanic’s sister ship, the Britannic, now refitted as a hospital ship. Plagued by the demons of her doomed first and near fatal journey across the Atlantic, Annie comes across an unconscious soldier she recognises while doing her rounds. It is the young man Mark. And she is convinced that he did not – could not – have survived the sinking of the Titanic . . .
Why I want to read it: Horror set on the Titanic? I need no further convincing — this is an absolute yes for me.
Release date: 3/10/2020
9. The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian
What it’s about:The first time Alexis saw Austin, it was a Saturday night. Not in a bar, but in the emergency room where Alexis sutured a bullet wound in Austin’s arm. Six months later, on the brink of falling in love, they travel to Vietnam on a bike tour so that Austin can show her his passion for cycling and he can pay his respects to the place where his father and uncle fought in the war. But as Alexis sips white wine and waits at the hotel for him to return from his solo ride, two men emerge from the tall grass and Austin vanishes into thin air. The only clue he leaves behind is a bright yellow energy gel dropped on the road. As Alexis grapples with this bewildering loss, and deals with the FBI, Austin’s prickly family, and her colleagues at the hospital, Alexis uncovers a series of strange lies that force her to wonder: Where did Austin go? Why did he really bring her to Vietnam? And how much danger has he left her in? Set amidst the adrenaline-fueled world of the emergency room, The Red Lotus is a global thriller about those who dedicate their lives to saving people, and those who peddle death to the highest bidder.
Why I want to read it: I’ve never yet been disappointed by a Chris Bohjalian book! The plot sounds fascinating — I’m dying to know what happens.
Release date: 3/17/2020
10. The Last Human by Zack Jordan
What it’s about:The last human in the universe is on the run from a godlike intelligence in this rip-roaring debut space opera.
Sarya is the civilized galaxy’s worst nightmare: a Human.
Most days, Sarya doesn’t feel like the most terrifying creature in the galaxy.
Most days, she’s got other things on her mind. Like hiding her identity among the hundreds of alien species roaming the corridors of Watertower Station. Or making sure her adoptive mother doesn’t casually eviscerate one of their neighbors. Again.
And most days, she can almost accept that she’ll never know the truth–that she’ll never know why humanity was deemed too dangerous to exist. Or whether she really is–impossibly–the lone survivor of a species destroyed a millennium ago.
That is, until an encounter with a bounty hunter and a miles-long kinetic projectile leaves her life and her perspective shattered.
Why I want to read it: Who doesn’t love a good/funny space adventure?
Release date: 3/24/2020
Are you planning to read any of these? What books are you most excited for in early 2020?
Please share your thoughts, and if you wrote a TTT post, please share your link!
And in the world of reading with my kiddo, we’ve just started Hoot by Carl Hiaasen. We read Chomp earlier this year and loved it, so we have high hopes for Hoot as well. Judging by the first few chapters, this should be a… 
Bookshelf Fantasies 