Upcoming books' excerpts

I thought I'd devote this post to highlighting some excerpts of up'n'coming books. If I'm buying a new author's works, I always like to have a sample of their writing to read so I know I'll like what I buy.

Of course, this isn't the case with Juliet Marillier, whose books I whole-heartedly love, but I thought I'd share this recently-released excerpt of her new book, Heart's Blood, anyway. The book looks good; to be honest, if I hadn't read her work before I might be a bit iffy about it; but because I already know I love her books, I can't wait for Heart's Blood (and have already pre-ordered it).

The second excerpt isn't from a debut author either, although it's an author I haven't read before. The excerpt is, however, from another book I've pre-ordered: Ice by Sarah Beth Durst. The book's about a re-telling of the story of the Polar Bear King and the North Wind's daughter — and if you don't immediately recall the fairy-tale, that's OK: Durst obligingly sets out the backstory to the fairytale in the excerpt.

I haven't had a chance to read the third excerpt myself: or, rather, the third lot of excerpts. Publisher Simon & Schuster have released a sampler of excerpts from several new books by Jessica Bendinger, Sarah Beth Durst, Nick Lake, Sarah Mussi, Amy Reed, Lauren Strasnick, Rhonda Stapleton, Jessica Verday and Becca Fitzpatrick (the only one, apart from Durst, that I've even heard of). Lots of new authors to discover!