Can’t Wait Wednesday: Hall of Smoke by H.M. Long

Do you know how I know that my reading bug is back? I’ve started browsing forthcoming titles again. Yup, my need to know what new books are on the horizon is back! Ah, this feels good. 2020 has been a really weird year, and it feels good to be excited about new books again!

Anyway, I ramble. I’m here to showcase one of those books today for Can’t Wait Wednesday. Are you ready?

**Can’t-Wait Wednesday** is a weekly meme hosted here, at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. It’s based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at **Breaking the Spine**. If you’re continuing with WOW, feel free to link those up as well! Find out more **here**.

Today’s glorious pick not only looks drool worthy on the outside, but has a synopsis that immediately had my attention. Spoiler alert, this girl loves a good fierce female.

Epic fantasy featuring warrior priestesses and fickle gods at war, for readers of Brian Staveley’s Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne.

Hessa is an Eangi: a warrior priestess of the Goddess of War, with the power to turn an enemy’s bones to dust with a scream. Banished for disobeying her goddess’s command to murder a traveller, she prays for forgiveness alone on a mountainside.

While she is gone, raiders raze her village and obliterate the Eangi priesthood. Grieving and alone, Hessa – the last Eangi – must find the traveller, atone for her weakness and secure her place with her loved ones in the High Halls. As clans from the north and legionaries from the south tear through her homeland, slaughtering everyone in their path, Hessa strives to win back her goddess’ favour.

Beset by zealot soldiers, deceitful gods, and newly-awakened demons at every turn, Hessa burns her path towards redemption and revenge. But her journey reveals a harrowing truth: the gods are dying and the High Halls of the afterlife are fading. Soon Hessa’s trust in her goddess weakens with every unheeded prayer.

Thrust into a battle between the gods of the Old World and the New, Hessa realizes there is far more on the line than securing a life beyond her own death. Bigger, older powers slumber beneath the surface of her world. And they’re about to wake up.

Goodreads | B&N | Bookshop

This beauty of a book will be out on January 19, 2021 and I simply cannot wait! Did I not tell you that the cover is stunning? Warrior princess, check. Goddesses, check. Epic fights? One can only hope.

What are you waiting on?