top ten most anticipated books for 2013

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we all get to exercise our OCD tendencies and come up with bookish lists.  If you’d like to play along, check out this post.

It feels a little bit crazy to put together a list of 2013 must-reads this far in advance.  I admit to looking at publishing catalogs now and again to find upcoming reads, but I don’t do that with any regularity.  What I’m trying to say: this list is incomplete and will probably be obsolete by next week.  But I am looking forward to all of these books.  Cool?

Top Ten Most Anticipated Books for 2013

1. Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund – Diana’s retelling of Persuasion, For Darkness Shows the Stars, made me feel ALL THE THINGS. And now she is doing a retelling of The Scarlet Pimpernel?! Be still my heart.

2. Saved by Cake by Marian Keyes – This memoir is out in the UK, but I’m waiting for its US release to get a copy. A funny take on baking obsession as therapy… I know I’ll see myself in this, and bonus factor: food!

3. Handbook for Dragon Slayers by Merrie Haskell – I like what Haskell does with fairy tales and myth, and I can’t wait to see how she twists the traditional this time around.

4. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman – Neil. Gaiman.  DONE.

5. The Year of Shadows by Claire Legrand – I was very impressed by how easily Legrand creeped me out in her middle grade debut The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, and I’m on definitely board for her next story.

6. Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger – The author of the Parasol Protectorate steampunk series is moving into YA territory and I just know this first book will delight and entertain.

7. Untold (The Lynburn Legacy #2) by Sarah Rees Brennan – After Unspoken unhinged me I couldn’t think of anything else for days.  I am a little afraid to let Ms. Brennan into my head again, but I’m also unbearably excited.

8. The Red Plague Affair (Bannon and Clare #2) by Lilith Saintcrow – I thought Saintcrow’s first in the series, The Iron Wyrm Affair, was FUN through and through.  I am looking forward to the further Sherlockian adventures of her magical/mental duo.

9. More Than This by Patrick Ness – Ness writes emotion that wrings your heart out… and he writes things that are important, asks big questions, and he tells story in such a way… I don’t have words.  This is the title of his next YA project, out in September.  I’m excited.

10. Shadows by Robin McKinley – I have no idea what this book is about, but it’s the latest McKinley.  That is enough – I’m sure to fall in love.

What are the 2013 releases you’re most excited about?