11 exciting new SFF releases that will blow you away in March

The Midnight Lie – Marie Rutkoski

Set in the world of author Marie Rutkoski’s WInners Trilogy, The Midnight Lie is the first in a new fantasy duology that takes place twenty years after the original story. It follows the story of Nirrim, a Half Kith woman who lives in the Ward, a grim and punishing city kept behind a wall. She purposefully lives her life according to the Ward’s motto – “it is at it is” – and never questions the harsh conditions she and her people live under or why life’s pleasures are restricted to those above her station.

But when Nirrim encounters rakish traveler Sid, she learns that the High Kith might possess and decides to seek it out for herself. And along the way, she’ll find herself questioning everything she’s been told to believe in – including her growing romantic attachment to another woman, something that is illegal among her people.

An epic LGBT love story, The Midnight Lie is a story about  about learning to free ourselves from the lies others tell us ― and the lies we tell ourselves.

The official synopsis has a few more details.

"Where Nirrim lives, crime abounds, a harsh tribunal rules, and society’s pleasures are reserved for the High Kith. Life in the Ward is grim and punishing. People of her low status are forbidden from sampling sweets or wearing colors. You either follow the rules, or pay a tithe and suffer the consequences. Nirrim keeps her head down and a dangerous secret close to her chest. But then she encounters Sid, a rakish traveler from far away who whispers rumors that the High Caste possesses magic. Sid tempts Nirrim to seek that magic for herself. But to do that, Nirrim must surrender her old life. She must place her trust in this sly stranger who asks, above all, not to be trusted."

The Midnight Lie is available on March 3.