Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is a Buddy Read for A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna starting on September 17, 2024.


Happy Reading!

Looks like this has been delayed until September... I'll wait until spring/summer before rescheduling...

Oh why? I got this all queued up on my Libby.

Felina wrote: "Oh why? I got this all queued up on my Libby."

the release has been delayed... not the buddy read, except by default...

Oh…oh okay, In looking at my hold it now says ‘several months’ as the timeline. Well I’m still 18th in line for September.

Yeah, I saw that too... I'm #9th in line... but 5 copies ordered! That means 2 week wait max for me. There's 18 people waiting, so that #18 is you, eh, Felina? ^_^ Didn't you get the New Orleans card, too? Kind of funny to think of us all being in line for the same books.

Yeah, that’s me!

Audible now shows this as coming out December 24th.

Yea... it keeps getting delayed... we don't move things anymore, until close to when Yanique posts BR lists... so this isn't getting changed again until around August 30th...

I don’t know what this is but I love the name.

From the author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

Timelord Iain wrote: "From the author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches"

Oh I loved that book! I’m in for this one.

The Libby waitlist I'm in is now 45 people long... glad I got in early!

I’m 15th in that line. Where are you?

Felina wrote: "I’m 15th in that line. Where are you?"

I'm 9th!

No fair!

LOL You know I'll read it quick though.

I hate that you guys get put on a hold list and I don’t 😭. I’m a member of 3 libraries and none of them buy the book/put you on a hold list until it comes out. Right now I’m just set to notify me for all 3 of them. It’s going to be a long wait. Not sure if I’ll get a copy in time to read with the group.

That sucks. Yeah, I got on this list on December 27th.

I was just browsing titles to put into my planned BR list and this book now shows release only in 2025...

Yeah, we already permanently delayed it.

Yep... delayed from April/May 2024 to September to December, all the way to April 2025 now... the hype is high for this, since I requested a thread all the way back around Halloween 2023... sad...

It's why the thread just says [1 week after release] for now... as a mod, I can edit any thread title, but I need to bug Yanique to edit the first comment, and that isn't really worth it, until the release date is real... so sometime early next year, hopefully... only reason to bother Yanique, for now, is to make sure the book is removed from the bookshelf that'll make it appear in the currently reading list on the front page of the group in September...

I wonder why this keeps getting pushed back. Maybe she hasn't actually written it...!
I loved Very Secret Society so I'm really excited for this one!

No idea... it was probably put on the publishing schedule based on initial contract to have it written by the author at X time... no idea if delays are writing issues or life/health issues, or the publishers now just pushing it around to put it where they want in the schedule... publishers definitely like picking release times similar to movie releases, to maximize success... like how alot of Urban Fantasy seems to come out in early March and mid-August... I don't know the rationale on it all, but there's definitely some Big Publishing calendar magic going on...

Reddit says author knew it was moving to 2025 two months ago (and we should do)... apparently publishing houses don't release books the week of Christmas, and it's just a placeholder... according to reddit... and they were right...

Indie authors do whatever they want...

I was speaking to an author at a convention and she said that it is like a year on average from the submission of the first draft to book release and she was publishing with a small, niche press at the time. That was if there were no issues with the process so who knows what is going on with this one? Clearly there are issues that have delayed the release,

Yea... from following news of Brandon Sanderson's kickstarter projects, paper supply is a real issue in the book industry these days, for anything that wants a paperback/hardback release at launch... that and staggering book releases by the publisher to manage the paper supply/printing/etc process... so many factors... and all the edits come before that...

Strangely enough, I buy paper at work (patient information leaflets for drugs), and there aren't any shortages now. 2020/21 was a nightmare. 😅 Supply shouldn't be an issue now though.

It sounds like it isn't, from what I saw online... but it's also largely about managing supply requests over time, as paper mills have shut down...

This thing has been shifted on the publisher release schedule so many times, it makes me want to review bomb in frustration, even tho I know that's a bad thing to do to authors/creators/etc...

Amazon/Audible now says July 15th...

Yeah... I'd want to word-bomb the publishers more than the author... author might be slow in writing, but its the publishers who keep teasing a date...

At least we've got plenty to read in the meanwhile.

I found a recent reddit thread that talked about book delays, and mentioned this book... but also mentioned GRRM and Lies of Locke Lamora... those series release dates have no basis in reality, and generally don't have bookstore links anymore I don't think... this book has bookstore links and preorders... apples and oranges in my opinion...

Hm. I don't think Mandanna should be lumped in with the long gardeners yet. I think a book has to be expected for 5-10 years to reach that exalted club.

KD Edwards needs to get writing as well!

Agree Iain, I've got it preordered with Waterstones so it's annoying to keep hearing it's pushed back.

Ann-Marie wrote: "KD Edwards needs to get writing as well!"

I have faith in KD Edwards, but he's definitely a nascent Jim Butcher / Lynch / GRRM... he releases some short stories and content updates, but books take longer than initially projected, with regularity...

So... this thread. The book's coming out in July. Do we want to read it in July? Or kick it to Nov for cozy month? Do we want a new thread? Use this year-old baby?

Im good either way... Preordered forever ago ..

I’d vote to kick it back a little. I’m on vacation in July so my reading will be low, plus I need time to get the book.

Sounds good to me. Move to Cozy November?

Sure 🙂 thanks

We already waited most of 2 years... may as well make it the whole shebang...

Started, until chapter 16 (view spoiler)[I really like the Magical Inn and the crazy inhabitants. It's very cozy. But I can see where this is going to go: Sera will get her magic and then lose it when she takes Greys magic. And I don't think I'll like that. After being magicless for 15 years...She is a magic prodigy and has two librerians at her side, shouldn't they have another way of stopping him? Her daughter overthrowing him? Arresting him? Planting evidence or something? (hide spoiler)]

Finished (view spoiler)[ I almost got it right. I though they would ask Sera to stop Grey sacrificing her power. But no, she decided that. I still don't like it. Everything was perfect except those last few pages. And clemmie being elected? How? They don't know anything about her, only that she tried to cursed Grey and she was from an old family. (hide spoiler)]

The narration on this is making it alot harder to concentrate than Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches... it's a shame...

Paula's 3 star rating is sad, too :D

What is the problem of the narration? I was debating between 3 and 4 but 3 won. Its a shame, i was very excited

I dunno... some narrator's voices just stick in my head better... and this one doesn't... it's a very subjective thing... I usually don't have too many issues... Nirkatze mentions this kind of issue more often than I do...

I kinda get it, especially now that I am listening to I was a teenage slasher. I am getting a bit used to the narration but it's rough, so it affects the enjoyment

I opted to listen to some music and youtube instead of finding something else to listen to, in case it was me learning a new video game affecting my listening...

Now that I'm listening to something else, I'd say the easiest aspects to latch on to, are narrator intonation, and how much the story is dialog vs descriptions...

Witch's Guide is a British narrator I'm unfamiliar with, which may be playing into the issues... of course, I just searched up the narrator, and they narrated Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, which probably means it's the story more than the narrator, causing me issues... or the video game...