Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 

You can find the releases I’m most anticipating this year over on my Unmissable list, but I use Can’t-Wait Wednesday to feature books I’m hopeful about but aren’t 100% sure will be five star reads.

This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is The Witch Who Chases the Sun by Dawn Chen!

The Witch Who Chases the Sun by Dawn Chen
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Chinese-inspired cast and setting, F/F
Published on: 1st October 2025
Goodreads

Sometimes, true love is not the answer.

A decade after the Second War, Aixauhan Alchemist Ying Cai-Li seeks to rekindle her relationship with her ex-lover, the Inabrian Oracle Anne Barberry.

However, the war changed them both. Estranged by their losses, Cai-Li has gained a notorious reputation as the dark magic-wielding Blood Hawk and Anne barricades herself in a castle on a hill where her family’s dark secrets lie. Rumors in the village say Anne is a monster, responsible for the disappearance of innocent visitors.

But when the two witches reunite and begin unraveling the mysteries of the village, it becomes clear that scars left by the war do not easily fade. Things are not as they seem. Old ghosts come back to haunt them. Past truths are revealed. Can the witches be each other’s salvations or are they doomed to repeat the past that tore them apart?

Fans of The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang and The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon will fall in love with Dawn Chen’s sapphic high fantasy epic about anti-colonialism, grief, generational trauma, and the cycles of war.

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I mean…look at that synopsis: which part am I NOT supposed to be excited about? Two messed-up, very-not-NiceTM witches having to deal with their trauma together! With lots of tangled, thorny themes! (…I actually didn’t mean for that to alliterate, but I’m keeping it.)

Some of the early reviewers have mentioned that not only are there multiple magic systems, but that they draw influence from Chinese and British mythology. Which – I always love when we have more than one kind of magic that humans can practice, but I’m not sure I’ve often seen multiple systems with such wildly different influences! Probably the British-esque magic is going to be tied up with the anti-colonial theme?

This post from the publisher also promises an ‘unconventional happily ever after’, which, GIMME! I’m not holding my breath that the two characters won’t be romantically together at the end, whatever the blurb is trying to imply – and honestly, by the time I get to the end I’ll probably want them to be happily together. But I would really, really like a happy ending that doesn’t look like a thousand others I’ve seen before. Just for variety’s sake!

This one is out NEXT WEEK – not long to wait now!

The post I Can’t Wait For…The Witch Who Chases the Sun by Dawn Chen appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.