New year, new books: 15 YA releases to watch out for this January

Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore

It’s been a while since readers got new content from Kristin Cashore’s Graceling series, but Winterkeep picks things up four years after the events of Bitterblue, tossing fans right back into this beloved YA world. It sounds as though this fourth book will expand upon the world we know and love, and what more could we really ask for?

The novel will see Bitterblue’s envoys venturing to newly discovered land to the east — land that includes the titular Winterkeep, which is best explained by the book’s synopsis:

"“Winterkeep is a land of miracles, a democratic republic run by people who like each other, where people speak to telepathic sea creatures, adopt telepathic foxes as pets, and fly across the sky in ships attached to balloons.”"

Unfortunately, the envoys from Bitterblue drown in a mysterious manner before reaching Winterkeep, leading Bitterblue, Giddon, and her half-sister Hava to journey east and uncover what happened. When Bitterblue is kidnapped, however, solving the mystery becomes a more difficult task. A teenage girl named Lovisa Cavenda may be the key to piecing together the puzzle, but she’ll need to step up and solve the mystery before it’s too late.

Winterkeep sounds strange and mystical and exactly like the kind of sequel fans would expect from Cashore. It hits shelves on January 19, so we’d better start re-reading the other Graceling books ASAP.