So we just recently started doing weekly Netgalley Next posts and I decided to do this for another platform as well. Besides Netgalley I also use Edelweiss for e-arcs. This website doesn’t have a feedback ratio, but I still think it’s important to make sure to keep updated with these e-arcs as well.

So just like we do with Netgalley Next, I’m going to talk about 3 Edelweiss e-arcs I’m really wanting to read, read the first line/paragraph, and choose which one grabs me the most! Let’s take a look!

Daisy Darker – Alice Feeney

The New York Times bestselling Queen of Twists returns…with a family reunion that leads to murder.

After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in Nana’s crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. Finally back together one last time, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.

The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. Then at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows…

Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide comes in and all is revealed.

With a wicked wink to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Daisy Darker’s unforgettable twists will leave readers reeling.

“I was born with a broken heart. The day I arrived into this lonely little world was also the first time I died.”

That’s definitely an interesting start. I enjoyed Rock Paper Scissors by this author last year and have wanted to read more by Alice Feeney. A family reunion that leads to murder is definitely interesting. I have a feeling it’ll be hard to put this book down.

The Book Eaters – Sunyi Dean

Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book’s content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries.

Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairytales and cautionary stories.

But real life doesn’t always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds.

“These days, Devon only bought three things from the shops: books, booze, and Sensitive Care skin cream. The books she ate, the booze kept her sane, and the lotion was for Cai, her son. He suffered from eczema, especially in winter.”

The first paragraph of this book isn’t that catchy. All except the fact that the main character eats books. I need to know why and how this all works. I’m very intrigued!

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance – Foz Meadows

“Stolen me? As soon to say a caged bird can be stolen by the sky.”

Velasin vin Aaro never planned to marry at all, let alone a girl from neighboring Tithena. When an ugly confrontation reveals his preference for men, Vel fears he’s ruined the diplomatic union before it can even begin. But while his family is ready to disown him, the Tithenai envoy has a different solution: for Vel to marry his former intended’s brother instead.

Caethari Aeduria always knew he might end up in a political marriage, but his sudden betrothal to a man from Ralia, where such relationships are forbidden, comes as a shock.

With an unknown faction willing to kill to end their new alliance, Vel and Cae have no choice but to trust each other. Survival is one thing, but love—as both will learn—is quite another.

Byzantine politics, lush sexual energy, and a queer love story that is by turns sweet and sultry. A Strange and Stubborn Endurance is an exploration of gender, identity, and self-worth. It is a book that will live in your heart long after you turn the last page.

“We’d scarcely entered Father’s new lands when I realised how little I cared that I’d never inherit them.”

Out of all three books this sentence is the one that pulls me in the least, but I am most curious about A Strange and Stubborn Endurance. I’ve heard great things about this book and I really want to sit down and devour it.

 

All three of these books definitely have caught my eye and I need to read all three. At the moment I’m the most torn between Daisy Darker and A Strange and Stubborn Endurance. Which one do you think I should read first? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.