Birthstone Book Covers: April 2026

Hey. I hope everyone’s had a good weekend!

Leslie @ Books Are the New Black created a fun monthly post called Birthstone Book Covers. Each month, she features book covers that are either the same color of that month’s birthstone or include the color in the title.

Rules:

  • Mention the creater (Leslie @ Books Are the New Black) and link back to her so she can check out your post
  • Pick 5+ books covers that match the current month’s birthstone
  • HAVE FUN!
  • Nominate people if you want!

April had one birthstone: Diamond.

This one’s usually a little tougher for me, but this time around I didn’t really have any trouble. Anyway, I always go with white book covers, or at least have a fair amount of white on them.

Among the Beasts and Briars by Ashley Poston
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
The One by Kiera Cass
The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

What are your favorite books with white book covers? If you participated in Birthstone Books, which books did you choose this April?

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have the most amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: The Devils

Hey everyone and Happy Wednesday!

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings (and was previously hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine where it was known as Waiting on Wednesday) to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. They’re usually books that have not yet been released.

This week’s book is:

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie! 💀🔥

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie

SERIES: The Devils #1

LENGTH: 560 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Tor Books

RELEASE DATE: 13 May 2025

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

A brand-new epic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Joe Abercrombie, featuring a notorious band of anti-heroes on a delightfully bloody and raucous journey

Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds.

Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters. The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.

Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it’s a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side. 

Are you looking forward to the release of The Devils? Have you read any of Joe Abercrombie’s other books? What other books are coming out in the next few weeks that you’re looking forward to?

As always, thank you all so much for reading and have a fantastic day/night!

See ya ~Mar

First Line Friday: 11/22

Happy Friday everybody! Three weeks in a row!

First Line Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers (formerly) hosted by Wandering Words, but I saw it over at One Book More.

What if instead of judging a book by the cover, author or most everything else, we judged it by its content? Its first lines?

If you want to join in, all you gotta do is:

📚 Take a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open it to the first page
📝 Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
📙 Finally… reveal the book!

Here are the first lines:

Logen plunged through the trees, bare feet slipping and sliding on the wet earth, the slush, the wet pine needles, breath rasping in his chest, blood thumping in his head. He stumbled and sprawled onto his side, nearly cut his chest open with his own axe, lay there panting, peering through the shadowy forest.

Any ideas on the book yet? If not, here comes another hint or two.

Still don’t know? Hmm. Look at these awesome pictures of books while you think on it a bit more…

Annnd the book is… 🥁🥁 The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie!!

(Did you guess it?)

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

SERIES: The First Law Trilogy #1

LENGTH: 542 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Orbit

RELEASE DATE: 4 May 2006

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

The first novel in the First Law Trilogy and debut fantasy novel from New York Times bestseller, Joe Abercrombie.

Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he’s on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian — leaving nothing behind him but bad songs, dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies.

Nobleman, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, Captain Jezal dan Luthar has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules.

Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government, if he can stay alive long enough to follow it.

Enter the wizard, Bayaz. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he’s about to make the lives of Logen, Jezal, and Glokta a whole lot more difficult.

Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood.

Unpredictable, compelling, wickedly funny, and packed with unforgettable characters, The Blade Itself is noir fantasy with a real cutting edge.

What books have you been reading lately? What’s on your TBR that you’re currently the most excited about?

As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar