The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

The Wayfarer isn’t the most beautiful ship ever to roam the galaxy, but for Rosemary Harper, it’s now home. Rosemary isn’t a spacer—someone who lives primarily out in the open of the Galactic Commons—far from it. In fact, she’s never even left her home planet before. But open space does seem to be the ideal place to escape her troubled past, so she accepts a job aboard the Wayfarer. The ship has a truly motley crew, both human and alien, and life aboard tends toward the chaotic. When the captain decides to take a lucrative commission building a wormhole on the other side of the galaxy for a strange and largely unknown race, things get downright dangerous and Rosemary must learn to trust her crew mates in order to survive.

Though this is Becky Chambers’ debut novel, her writing is masterful and already feels classic. The galaxy she has created feels lived-in and true, thanks largely in part to the care with which she crafts the many species that people it. An absolute must-read for sci-fi aficionados and fans of series like Joss Whedon’s Firefly. Even readers who have never picked up a science fiction title before will appreciate Chambers’ quirky characters and careful world-building.

Travelers Rest by Keith Lee Morris

The Addisons-Julia and Tonio, ten-year-old Dewey, and recovering alcoholic Uncle Robbie-are traveling east from Washington back to South Carolina over winter break. When a terrifying blizzard strikes outside the town of Good Night, Idaho, they seek refuge in the town at the Travelers Rest, a formerly opulent but now crumbling and eerie hotel where the physical laws of the universe are bent. Soon, the family is separated and they must fight to escape the building's alluring yet frightening pull.

With its slow burn pacing, readers are swept up into a time bending, haunted house story that is terrifying without any blood, but features a menace that is definitely not of this world. It is a story about familial love, memory, and identity that will make you think, but it is the creepy tone that will continue to haunt you after the final page. Travelers Rest is both a mind-altering meditation on the nature of consciousness and a heartbreaking story of a family on the brink of survival.

The Wedding Girl by Madeleine Wickham

This is a big week for Milly. On Saturday, she is going to get married. Her mother has been furiously making the final preparations, and her sister is about ready to fly in for the big day. There is just one little problem. Milly is already married. None of her family or friends know about it. It happened years ago and was just a favor for a college friend, so to her, it shouldn’t even count. In fact, shortly after the wedding, she lost touch with "her husband." The event was so inconsequential to her that she hasn’t even told her fiance, Simon, about it. Unfortunately, when she meets her wedding photographer, she comes face to face with someone from her past. He was there the day she got married all those years ago, and he could potentially give away her secret. How is she going to dig herself out of this situation?

Madeleine Wickham has written a light, breezy novel that is sure to please readers of Sophie Kinsella, Jane Green, Lauren Weisberger, and Jennifer Weiner.

A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn

While working on cataloging an earl's vast collection of artifacts and curiosities, Veronica Speedwell, lepidopterist by profession, is approached by royalty to exonerate a fellow aristocrat accused of murdering an artist, and he will hang if the true culprit is not found. Veronica recruits her partner in crime, Stoker, to investigate, and the two insert themselves into the Bohemian artist community of Victorian London. Everyone has an ulterior motive, and secrets abound as nearly all of the artists are hiding affairs and love interests.

Veronica remains as plucky and boldly independent in this installment as in A Curious Beginning, the first of the "Veronica Speedwell" series, while Stoker is just as mercurial. Raybourn carefully doles out a bit more back story for both Veronica and Stoker and even introduces Stoker's brothers into the mix. The sexual tension between the two has abated a bit from the first book, but almost as if to make up for this, the rest of the story is focused around clandestine trysts, adultery, and orgies. Readers who enjoy humorous historical mysteries with a naughty side will greatly enjoy Raybourn's latest. Although there is some introduction to Veronica and Stoker here, those new to the series may want to start with A Curious Beginning. The scheduled release date for A Perilous Undertaking is January 10, 2017.

The Queen of the Tearling Trilogy by Erika Johansen

Princess Kelsea Raleigh Glynn has spent her entire childhood hidden away, in training for the day when she will claim her birthright. The first book in the trilogy, The Queen of the Tearling, describes Kelsea's harrowing journey to claim the throne with her Queen's Guard, evading assassins sent by her uncle, the Regent. But death threats are not Kelsea's only troubles; once she arrives at her kingdom's seat in New London, Kelsea realizes how far her countrymen have fallen, keeping peace with the dangerous neighboring kingdom of Mortmesne by forcibly gathering dozens of citizens each month to be sent as slaves to the Red Queen. As the new Queen of the Tearling, Kelsea ends this practice immediately, but at the cost of war.

The Invasion of the Tearling ratchets up the suspense further, with the Tear army trying to slow the invasion of the Mort forces, and all the while Queen Kelsea tries to organize protection for her citizens and deal with the powerful but corrupt Holy Father of the Arvath. Meanwhile, Kelsea tries to understand the magical powers she is gaining from wearing the Tear sapphires and why she is having visions of the past from the perspective of a mysterious woman. This sequel ends on a cliffhanger, with the Mort army and the Red Queen at the gates of the capital as well as Kelsea's visions of "the crossing" many years before.

The final installment in the trilogy, The Fate of the Tearling, comes out the end of this month and is the most climactic with both the Tear and Mort kingdoms teetering on the brink, with Mort citizens and soldiers rebelling, the treacherous Arvath vying for more power, and creepy little beasts running amok everywhere. The shocking end should take readers by surprise.

Despite the medieval feel to the time period, events of the Tearling take place years in the future after the American government deteriorates into an increasingly conservative and surveillance-driven world where everyone and everything is censored and class divides are greater than ever between the rich and the poor. Epic fantasy fans and apocalyptic science fiction fans alike will enjoy this trilogy, as well as any reader interested in frank discussions of humanity and feminism.

Ōoku: the Inner Chambers, Vols. 1 & 2 by Fumi Yoshinaga

In seventeenth century Japan, a plague called the Red Pox inflicts only men, decimating the male population. With so few men left in the country, women take over the roles of men, becoming farmers, shopkeepers, and heads of households. Healthy men are prized, and only wealthy women are able to take them as husbands. Despite these reversals, women are not to rule, leaving politics to men, but the current shogun is secretly a woman. Rather than the traditional female concubines, her inner chambers are filled with men - men who can never leave, lest they reveal the true gender of their imperial ruler.

The first two volumes in the "Ōoku" series tell the origins of the first few female shoguns. Issues arise with pride and jealousy between the men and whom the shogun favors at that moment. Love is rare and cherished but cannot always be embraced as the men must be able to produce heirs with the shogun; otherwise, a shogun is forced to move on to a new male partner. The female concubine is frequently portrayed in fiction, while Ōoku is utterly unique for its frank portrayal of male concubines and their lives.

The Trespasser by Tana French

Detective Antoinette Conway grew up mixed-race and without a father in conservative Dublin, Ireland, so she’s used to not fitting in. She has always worn her differences defiantly and proudly, and styled herself a lone wolf, happy to be an outsider. She didn’t think she would fit right into Dublin’s all-male Murder squad, but she didn’t expect the level of harassment she’s receiving—pee in her locker, spit in her coffee, her paperwork thrown away and her cases jeopardized. It’s clear to Conway that everyone in the squad wants her out except for maybe her rookie partner, Steve Moran.

As the harassment begins to take a toll on Conway’s psyche, she and Moran are handed a seemingly straightforward murder—the victim, Aislinn Murray, led a boring life and there’s only a single suspect, her new boyfriend, Rory. The case should be an open-and-shut domestic, but nothing quite adds up. As their investigation is blocked at every turn by members of their own squad, Conway and Moran begin to suspect that finding Aislinn’s killer may lead them to a dangerous truth.

The Trespasser combines beautiful writing and intense psychological drama to create a literary mystery that draws the reader in completely and doesn’t let go until the final page. Though it is book six in French’s Dublin Murder Squad series, this novel is more than capable of standing alone.