Waiting on Wednesday – League of Liars and Echoes and Empires

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy. I run this segment in conjunction with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings. Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them. In this latest Waiting on Wednesday I take a look at two great sounding upcoming young adult fantasy novels that I think have a lot of potential and could be some great reads.

We only have a few months left in the year, so many reviewers are looking to 2022 when it comes to upcoming books. I am always on the look out for fun new series, so I was quite intrigued when I came across two fantastic sounding upcoming young adult fantasy novels that are set for release in the first few months of next year. Both these books sound really fun and have awesome sounding stories that focus on illegal magic in two very different ways.

League of Liars Cover

The first of theses book is League of Liars by Astrid Scholte, a relatively new author who got a fair bit of attention with her two previous novels, Four Dead Queens and The Vanishing Deep. Her next novel is an intriguing fantasy thriller that follows four teens in a world where illegal users of extradimensional magic are arrested, tried, and sent to a maximum-security prison. Set for release on 22 February 2022, this book has a very awesome story to it which has really grabbed my attention.

Synopsis:

In this fantasy thriller, four teens charged with murder and the illegal use of magic band together to devise the ultimate jailbreak. Perfect for fans of Six of Crows and How to Get Away with Murder.

Ever since his mother was killed, seventeen-year-old Cayder Broduck has had one goal–to see illegal users of magic brought to justice. People who carelessly use extradimensional magic for their own self-interest, without a care to the damage it does to society or those around them, deserve to be punished as far as Cayder is concerned. Because magic always has a price. So when Cayder lands a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to apprentice under a premier public defender, he takes it. If he can learn all the tricks of public defense, the better he’ll be able to dismantle defense arguments when he’s a prosecutor. Then he’ll finally be able to make sure justice is served.

But when he meets the three criminals he’s supposed to defend, it no longer seems so black and white. They’re teenagers, like him, and their stories are . . . complicated, like his. Vardean, the prison where Cayder’s new clients are incarcerated, also happens to be at the very heart of the horrible tear in the veil between their world and another dimension–where all magic comes from.

League of Liars is a dark and twisty mystery set in a richly-drawn world where nothing is as it seems, rife with magic, villains and danger.

Ok, so an inventive fantasy tale that features both legal drama and a magical prison break, I think you can count me in on this one. This is one of the more unique plot synopses that I have seen, and it is one that I found to be extremely intriguing. I love the idea of a world where magic has appeared and is heavily regulated and criminalised, and I have no doubt this will be a cool setting to check out. Everything in League of Liars sound really cool, and I have no doubt that I will have an amazing time getting through this book.

Echoes and Empires Cover

The other book I want to highlight is the fascinating sounding Echoes and Empires by bestselling author Morgan Rhodes. Rhodes, who has previously found great success with her Falling Kingdom series, has come up with another compelling book, which will also serve as the first novel in her Echoes and Empires series. With a release date in early January 2022, this book sounds extremely awesome with an excellent story to it.

Synopsis:

A snarky seventeen-year-old must team up with an enigmatic criminal to cure herself of dangerous forbidden magic in the first book of a new fantasy duology from Morgan Rhodes, the New York Times bestselling author of the Falling Kingdoms series.

Josslyn Drake knows only three things about magic: it’s rare, illegal, and always deadly. So when she’s caught up in a robbery gone wrong at the Queen’s Gala and infected by a dangerous piece of magic—one that allows her to step into the memories of an infamously evil warlock—she finds herself living her worst nightmare. Joss needs the magic removed before it corrupts her soul and kills her. But in Ironport, the cost of doing magic is death, and seeking help might mean scheduling her own execution. There’s nobody she can trust.

Nobody, that is, except wanted criminal Jericho Nox, who offers her a deal: his help extracting the magic in exchange for the magic itself. And though she’s not thrilled to be working with a thief, especially one as infuriating (and infuriatingly handsome) as Jericho, Joss is desperate enough to accept.

But Jericho is nothing like Joss expects. The closer she grows with Jericho and the more she sees of the world outside her pampered life in the city, the more Joss begins to question the beliefs she’s always taken for granted—beliefs about right and wrong, about power and magic, and even about herself.

In an empire built on lies, the truth may be her greatest weapon.

This is another really cool sounding book that has a fantastic sounding plot loaded with potential and interesting features. Echoes and Empires is set in a more classic fantasy world where magic is illegal, I love the idea of someone being infected by magic and must try and find a way to get rid of it without alerting the authorities. Throw in a handsome roguish criminal and a newly gifted magical ability that is slowly turning her evil, thanks to the influence of infamous warlock, and you have the recipe for a really awesome read.

Both these young adult fantasy novels sounds extremely good and I love the captivating and impressive stories they contain. Both these books have a lot of potential and I cannot wait to see what unique and thrilling tales these two talented authors have come up with in these great upcoming books.