Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves created and hosted by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out Lisa’s introductory post, here.

Temeraire
by Naomi Novik

Captain Will Laurence has been at sea since he was just twelve years old. Rising on merit to captain his own vessel, Laurence has earned himself a beautiful fiancée, society’s esteem and a golden future. But the war is not going well. It seems Britain can only wait as Napoleon plans to invade.

After a skirmish with a French ship, Laurence finds himself in charge of a rare cargo: a dragon egg bound for the Emperor himself. Dragons are much prized: properly trained, they can mount a fearsome attack from the skies. One of Laurence’s men must take the beast in hand and join the aviators’ cause, thus relinquishing all hope of a normal life.

But when the newly-hatched dragon decides to imprint itself on Laurence, the horrified captain’s world falls apart. Gone is his golden future: gone his social standing, and soon his beautiful fiancée, as he is consigned to be the constant companion and trainer of the fighting dragon Temeraire…

Spinning Silver is one of my all-time favourite novels and I’m so excited for the first book in Novik’s new series,  A Deadly Education, which is coming out later this year, but I still haven’t started the series she’s best known for despite owning a copy of Temeraire for years. Considering I’ve grown more and more fond of historical fiction set during the Georgian/Regency era, this is a book I’d really like to try and cross off my TBR this year.

Do you have a favourite dragon book?

It’s the final week of the OWLs Readathon, and the final week of what’s been a fairly rough month for my family. Today is two weeks since my lovely Grandma died after she contracted COVID-19 and a part of me has felt guilty for still managing to read so much, and enjoy what I’ve read, even though it’s been two weeks without my Grandma in the world.

I know she wouldn’t want me to be miserable and not enjoying things, though, and ultimately we’re all still in lockdown and I’m still furloughed, so there’s not much else for me to do but to escape into a different world with a book.

Before

I read Amy Rose Capetta’s contemporary fantasy about queer witches in the woods, The Lost Coast, in one day earlier this week and loved it. It wasn’t quite a 5 star read but I still really enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to reading more from Capetta!

Now

I’ve mentioned that my goal for the OWLs Readathon is to ‘pass’ all 12 subjects like I managed to do last year, and right now the only subject left for me to get under my belt is Herbology which I’m reading Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire for. I feel like I haven’t quite got into the swing of this one yet, but I am liking it, so I’m hoping to really get into it soon and to finish it in time for it to count towards Herbology.

Next

I started Hannah Abigail Clarke’s The Scapegracers back in March after I received it through NetGalley and I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve read so far, I’ve just had life and the OWLs Readathon get in the way of finishing it. I’d like to finally finish this one up next and get it reviewed for Wyrd & Wonder.

What are you reading right now?