Waiting on Wednesday | An Ember in the Ashes

Oct 1

Waiting on Wednesday

An Ember in the Ashes • Sabaa Tahir

Book cover for Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Set in a terrifyingly brutal Rome-like world, An Ember in the Ashes is an epic fantasy debut about an orphan fighting for her family and a soldier fighting for his freedom. It’s a story that’s literally burning to be told.

LAIA is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire’s greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution.

ELIAS is the academy’s finest soldier— and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias is considering deserting the military, but before he can, he’s ordered to participate in a ruthless contest to choose the next Martial emperor.

When Laia and Elias’s paths cross at the academy, they find that their destinies are more intertwined than either could have imagined and that their choices will change the future of the empire itself.

Vow your blood and body to the empire.

Keep your heart for yourself.

YOOO, Roman-inspired fantasies are so exciting to me. The setting of Sabaa Tahir’s debut sounds dangerous and dramatic. Two of my favorite things. BRING IT, SABAA.

Obviously, I’m also very much looking forward to Laia and Elias and whatever this “intertwined destinies” means. Is it good? Bad? Both? ALL THE THINGS?! MY BODY IS READY.

Can’t wait for AN EMBER IN THE ASHES!

AN EMBER IN THE ASHES comes out on April 28, 2015 from Razorbill

An Ember in the Ashes Sabaa Tahir

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Top Ten Tuesday (125) | Fall TBR

Sep 23

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Books on My Fall TBR

Soooo, there was virtually NO CHANCE that I would be able to keep this post to just 10 books, friends. Way too many books that I’m dying to read coming out this fall! I’m absolutely LOSING MY SHIZZ over at least half of this list, I’ve preordered most of them, and am plain stoked about them ALL.

[Read more…]

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Waiting on Wednesday (58) | Suspicion

Aug 20

Waiting on Wednesday

Suspicion • Alexandra Monir

Book cover Suspicion Alexandra Monir

 

Mysterious. Magnificent. Creepy. Welcome to Rockford Manor.

“There’s something hidden in the Maze.” Seventeen-year-old Imogen has never forgotten the last words her father said to her seven years ago, before the blazing fire that consumed him, her mother, and the gardens of her family’s English country manor.

Haunted by her parents’ deaths, Imogen moves to New York City with her new guardians. But when a letter arrives with the news of her cousin’s untimely death, revealing that Imogen is now the only heir left to run the estate, she returns to England and warily accepts her role as duchess.

All is not as it seems at Rockford, and Imogen quickly learns that dark secrets lurk behind the mansion’s aristocratic exterior, hinting that the spate of deaths in her family were no accident. And at the center of the mystery is Imogen herself–and Sebastian, the childhood friend she has secretly loved for years. Just what has Imogen walked into?

Combining a fresh twist on the classic REBECCA with a spine-tingling mystery and powerful romance, SUSPICION is an action-packed thrill ride.

I MEAN. Doesn’t SUSPICION just sound so creepy and wonderful? *waits for you all to nod your heads* First of all, I’ve never read REBECCA, the novel upon which SUSPICION is loosely based. But I know that it’s a creepy book about a house and other things! What really draws me to this book, though, is this creepy maze. WUT. A creepy maze with a hidden SOMETHING in it. Anytime I hear about mazes it reminds me of GOBLET OF FIRE, and I imagine that this maze is just as full of unknowns and danger. WOOT!

Also, of course, there’s a friendship slash romance, and I love those too. A friendship slash romance, a creepy house, secrets, a potentially haunted maze…I CANNOT. NEEDS. I’ve never read anything by Alexandra Monir, despite intentions to, so I’m going to make sure SUSPICION is my first!

SUSPICION by Alexandra Monir comes out December 9, 2014 from Delacorte Press

Suspicion Alexandra Monir

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Waiting on Wednesday (57) | Winterspell

Jul 9

Waiting on Wednesday

Winterspell • Claire Legrand

Book cover Winterspell Claire Legrand

 

The clock chimes midnight, a curse breaks, and a girl meets a prince . . . but what follows is not all sweetness and sugarplums.

New York City, 1899. Clara Stole, the mayor’s ever-proper daughter, leads a double life. Since her mother’s murder, she has secretly trained in self-defense with the mysterious Drosselmeyer.

Then, on Christmas Eve, disaster strikes.

Her home is destroyed, her father abducted–by beings distinctly not human. To find him, Clara journeys to the war-ravaged land of Cane. Her only companion is the dethroned prince Nicholas, bound by a wicked curse. If they’re to survive, Clara has no choice but to trust him, but his haunted eyes burn with secrets–and a need she can’t define. With the dangerous, seductive faery queen Anise hunting them, Clara soon realizes she won’t leave Cane unscathed–if she leaves at all.

Inspired by The Nutcracker, Winterspell is a dark, timeless fairy tale about love and war, longing and loneliness, and a girl who must learn to live without fear.

So, shall I list all of the reasons I can’t wait for WINTERSPELL by Claire Legrand? Ok.

  1. Turn-of-the-century New York City
  2. Christmas
  3. “Beings distinctly not human.”
  4. Faery queens
  5. DROSSELMEYER
  6. NUTCRACKER RETELLING

Friends, a retelling of The Nutcracker just gets me so excited. I love The Nutcracker. When I was younger, my family would go the McCarter Theater in Princeton to see it at Christmas time, and since my dad has a soft spot for classical music, there were many holidays when we listened to Tchaikovsky during dinner. Also, there was the movie with Macauley Culkin, obvs. Claire Legrand is an author that I’ve just recently discovered, and I’m totally confident that her retelling will be fantastic. It sounds dark and magical, and THOSE are two things that are perfect together.

UPDATE: I completely forgot to address the fact that the girl on the cover is pretty much K. Stew. She generally bugs the crap out of me, but I’ll allow it. I do like this cover.

WINTERSPELL comes out September 30, 2014 from Simon & Schuster BFYR

Winterspell Claire Legrand

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Tripping Over July

Jul 3

Tripping Over JulyWHAT HOW IS IT JULY RIGHT NOW. It’s insane how fast the summer is going. As always, though, the good news is that each new month that goes by means more exciting books to look forward to! This month is no exception.

July

Book cover Sinner Maggie StiefvaterSinner: The Wolves of Mercy Falls #3.5 by Maggie Stiefvater {Goodreads}

It’s been a while since I read the first three books in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, but when I heard about the extension that tells the story of Cole and Isabel, I knew I needed to read it. (Scholastic)

Book cover Conversion Katherine HoweConversion by Katherine Howe {Goodreads}

Sooo, a book set in Salem, MA, at a boarding school where a bunch of young girls are trying to deal with the pressures of finishing high school, but instead get caught up in what appears to be another episode of the fits that served as the foundation of the original Salem witch trials. STAHHHPP. (Putnam Juvenile)

Book cover On the Fence Kasie WestOn the Fence by Kasie West {Goodreads}

Ok, I know, I need to read SOMETHING by Kasie West already. I’m hearing super cute things about both of her contemps, so I’ll probably start there. This one sounds ADORBS. (Harper Teen)

July

Book cover Breathe, Annie, Breathe Miranda KenneallyBreathe, Annie, Breathe by Miranda Kenneally {Goodreads}

I usually mostly enjoy Miranda Kenneally’s books. They’re swoony and fun and have just the right touch of feelings. BREATHE, ANNIE, BREATHE, sounds like her best yet, and lots of people I know who’ve read it have enjoyed it a ton. Maybe it will inspire me to start running. *snorts* (Sourcebooks Fire)

July

Book cover The Fire Wish Amber LoughThe Fire Wish: The Jinni Wars #1 by Amber Lough {Goodreads}

Guys, this jinni/jin thing that I’m seeing a lot recently is getting me VERY excited. I’m VERY excited for this debut about a princess and a jinni who trade places. (Random House Children’s)

What books are YOU excited for this month??

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Waiting on Wednesday (56) | The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Jun 25

Waiting on Wednesday

The Slow Regard of Silent Things: The Kingkiller Chronicle #2.5 • Patrick Rothfuss

Book cover The Slow Regard of Silent Things Patrick Rothfuss

Deep below the University, there is a dark place. Few people know of it: a broken web of ancient passageways and abandoned rooms. A young woman lives there, tucked among the sprawling tunnels of the Underthing, snug in the heart of this forgotten place.
Her name is Auri, and she is full of mysteries.

The Slow Regard of Silent Things is a brief, bittersweet glimpse of Auri’s life, a small adventure all her own. At once joyous and haunting, this story offers a chance to see the world through Auri’s eyes. And it gives the reader a chance to learn things that only Auri knows….

In this book, Patrick Rothfuss brings us into the world of one of The Kingkiller Chronicle’s most enigmatic characters. Full of secrets and mysteries, The Slow Regard of Silent Things is the story of a broken girl trying to live in a broken world.

GUYSSSSSS. I am deep into a Kingkiller Chronicle fanzone right now. I’m in the middle of re-listening to THE WISE MAN’S FEAR after just finishing a re-listen of THE NAME OF THE WIND, and I am loving all up on these books anew. When I found out that Patrick Rothfuss was writing a short story about one of my favorite secondary characters at The University, Auri, I was so excited. I mean, I can’t lie, I was hoping against hope that his big announcement would be something related to book 3, THE DOORS OF STONE, but Auri is going to be an excellent diversion, I think.

Auri is, as the synopsis states, “a broken girl.” Not everyone who attends The University is mentally strong enough to handle the pressure, and Auri is one of those former students. She’s simple, but not in the way of a disability. More in the way of no longer encumbered by the strictures of society. She speaks with whimsy and is skittish around strangers. But she has a very loyal, very sweet brother-sister relationship with Kvothe, and I just adore them. The idea of seeing more of Auri and where she lives is enormously intriguing to me. I AM STOKED.

THE SLOW REGARD OF SILENT THINGS comes out October 28, 2014 from DAW

The Slow Regard of Silent Things

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Waiting on Wednesday (55) | A Thousand Pieces of You

Jun 18

Waiting on Wednesday

A Thousand Pieces of You: Firebird #1 by Claudia Gray

Book cover A Thousand Pieces of You Claudia Gray

 

Every Day meets Cloud Atlas in this heart-racing, space- and time-bending, epic new trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray.

Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.

Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is more sinister than she ever could have imagined.

A Thousand Pieces of You explores a reality where we witness the countless other lives we might lead in an amazingly intricate multiverse, and ask whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure.

Can we talk about this cover? I know I’m maybe missing the point by talking about the cover of A THOUSAND PIECES OF YOU before anything else, but I love it. I love covers that have lots of white. But I also love that this cover has lots of other colors, too, and WHOA, WHAT IS THAT CITY ON THE FLIP SIDE THERE? Incredibly stoked, just from looking at it.

A THOUSAND PIECES OF YOU sounds fantastic, though. Parallel universes always bring out the extreme nerd in me. Plus this murder sounds like more than meets the eye for sure, and THAT intrigues me to no end. I’ve never read a book by Claudia Gray, but I’m very excited for A THOUSAND PIECES OF YOU to be the first.

A THOUSAND PIECES OF YOU comes out November 4, 2014 from Harper Teen

A thousand pieces of you

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Waiting on Wednesday (54) | The Accidental Highwayman

Jun 11

Waiting on Wednesday

The Accidental Highwayman: Being the Tale of Kit Bristol, His Horse Midnight, a Mysterious Princess, and Sundry Magical Persons Besides by Ben Tripp

Book Cover The Accidental Highwayman Ben Tripp

The Accidental Highwayman is the first swashbuckling adventure for young adults by talented author and illustrator, Ben Tripp. This thrilling tale of dark magic and true love is the perfect story for fans of William Goldman’s The Princess Bride.

In eighteenth-century England, young Christopher “Kit” Bristol is the unwitting servant of notorious highwayman Whistling Jack. notorious highwayman Whistling Jack. One dark night, Kit finds his master bleeding from a mortal wound, dons the man’s riding cloak to seek help, and changes the course of his life forever. Mistaken for Whistling Jack and on the run from redcoats, Kit is catapulted into a world of magic and wonders he thought the stuff of fairy tales.

Bound by magical law, Kit takes up his master’s quest to rescue a rebellious fairy princess from an arranged marriage to King George III of England. But his task is not an easy one, for Kit must contend with the feisty Princess Morgana, goblin attacks, and a magical map that portends his destiny: as a hanged man upon the gallows….

Fans of classic fairy-tale fantasies such as Stardust by Neil Gaiman and will find much to love in this irresistible YA debut by Ben Tripp, the son of one of America’s most beloved illustrators, Wallace Tripp (Amelia Bedelia). Following in his father’s footsteps, Ben has woven illustrations throughout the story.

I LOVE ALL THE THINGS about THE ACCIDENTAL HIGHWAYMAN. Look at it! A magical highwayman! Redcoats! Fairy princesses named Morgana! MAGICAL MAPS! And I can’t even with how much this reminds me of the Dread Pirate Roberts, with the way Kit dons his former master’s cloak and unwittingly becomes Whistling Jack. YES PLEASE.

Also, this cover is amazing. I love the red so much. I’m very much ecstatic about the illustrations as well. You don’t encounter many YA books with artwork inside, but the few I know of all feature outstanding images (I’m thinking right now of the Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld and illustrated by Keith Thompson). But Ben Tripp illustrated this one himself and that just sounds perfect.

I’ll never, ever turn down a historical fantasy, friends. NEVER. I’m certainly not going to start with THE ACCIDENTAL HIGHWAYMAN.

THE ACCIDENTAL HIGHWAYMAN comes out October 14, 2014 from Tor Teen.

The Accidental Highwayman

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Waiting on Wednesday (53) | The Darkest Part of the Forest

May 21

Waiting on Wednesday

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

Book cover The Darkest Part of the Forest Holly Black

Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.

Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.

At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.

Until one day, he does…

As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?

First of all, even though I haven’t read many of Holly Black’s books, I’m constantly and consistently intrigued by them and I have basically all of them on my TBR. THE DARKEST PART OF THE FOREST–a middle grade story about siblings and faeries and a boy with HORNS all sleeping in a coffin like Snow White–sounds excellent, and right up my alley.

Plus, I’m really curious about this sibling angle going on. A brother and sister in love with the same faerie? Well, yes, I WILL read that, thank you. And any synopsis that mentions “shifting loyalties” and the “sting of betrayal” will instantly pique my interest. I’m beyond excited that THE DARKEST PART OF THE FOREST is going to be at BEA this year because I can’t wait to read it!

THE DARKEST PART OF THE FOREST comes out January 13, 2015 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

The Darkest Part of the Forest

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Waiting on Wednesday (51): Stray

May 7

Waiting on Wednesday

Stray by Elissa Sussman

Book cover Stray Elisa Sussman

Princess Aislynn knows all about the curse. Its magic is a part of her, like her awkward nose and thin fingers. It’s also something she can’t control. And girls who can’t control their abilities have a tendency to disappear. So for her own protection, Aislynn is sworn into the Order of Fairy Godmothers where she must spend the rest of her life chaste and devoted to serving another royal family.

Tasked with tending to the sweet, but sheltered Princess Linnea, Aislynn also finds a reluctant friend in the palace gardener, Thackery, who makes no secret of his disdain for her former life. The more time they spend together, though, the more she begins to doubt the rules she has observed so obediently. As Aislynn’s feelings threaten to undo the sacred vows she has taken, she risks not only her own life but Linnea’s as well. With the princess engaged to a devoted follower of The Path, there are some who would do anything to keep Aislynn from straying.

WUTTTT STRAY sounds fantastic. I’m always going to be stoked to read books about magic. Fantasies with magic? Doesn’t get any better. But this? A girl with magic who is sworn to serve the Order of FAIRY GODMOTHERS?! SHUT THE FRONT DOOR. But I’m also very intrigued by these forbidden feelings with the gardener. And what is The Path?? Sounds cultish and ominous, aka EXCELLENT.

STRAY comes out October 7, 2014 from Greenwilow

Stray

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