Waiting on Wednesday (6)

Waiting on Wednesday is a book meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we showcase some of our hotly anticipated releases!

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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT by COLLEEN CLAYTON

Release date: 9 October 2012

Poppy (Little Brown Books for Young Readers), 320 pgs

Goodreads

How can you talk about something you can’t remember? Before the ski trip, sixteen-year-old Cassidy “Sid” Murphy was a cheerleader (at the bottom of the pyramid, but still...), a straight-A student, and a member of a solid trio of best friends. When she ends up on a ski lift next to handsome local college boy, Dax Windsor, she’s thrilled; but Dax takes everything from Sid—including a lock of her perfect red curls—and she can’t remember any of it. Back home and unable to relate to her old friends, Sid drops her college prep classes and takes up residence in the A/V room with only Corey “The Living Stoner” Livingston for company. But as she gets to know Corey (slacker, baker, total dreamboat), Sid finds someone who truly makes her happy. Now, if she can just shake the nightmares and those few extra pounds, everything will be perfect... or so she thinks.

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MAID OF SECRETS by JENNIFER MCGOWAN

Release date: 16 April 2013
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 288 pgs

Goodreads

Seventeen-year-old Meg Fellowes is a wry, resourceful thief forced to join an elite group of female spies in Queen Elizabeth’s Court. There she must solve a murder, save the Crown, and resist the one thing that will become her greatest freedom–and her deadliest peril.  For Meg and her fellow spies are not alone in their pursuit of the murderer who stalks Windsor Castle. A young, mysterious Spanish courtier, Count Rafe de Martine, appears at every turn in the dark and scandal-filled corridors of the Queen’s summer palace. And though secrets and danger are Meg’s stock-in-trade, she’s never bargained on falling in love…

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I'm so excited for these two! Despite the cheesy title MAID OF SECRETS sounds like a really fun read and I love books set in court (any court, any place)! I can't wait to see the cover.

What are you waiting on this week? Link me because I'd love to see!

Waiting on Wednesday (5)

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we showcase some of our hotly anticipated releases!

I have two WoWs this week! (Summaries and covers taken from Goodreads)

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MAGISTERIUM by JEFF HIRSCH

Release date: 1 October 2012

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Goodreads

On one side of the Rift is a technological paradise without famine or want. On the other side is a mystery. Sixteen-year-old Glenn Morgan has lived next to the Rift her entire life and has no idea of what might be on the other side of it. Glenn's only friend, Kevin, insists the fence holds back a world of monsters and witchcraft, but magic isn't for Glenn. She has enough problems with reality: Glenn's mother disappeared when she was six, and soon after, she lost her scientist father to his all-consuming work on the mysterious Project. Glenn buries herself in her studies and dreams about the day she can escape. But when her father's work leads to his arrest, he gives Glenn a simple metal bracelet that will send Glenn and Kevin on the run---with only one place to go.

LOVE this cover + promises of monsters/witchcraft + hopefully some cool technology vs. magic contrasts. Can't wait to read this!

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EDEN by HELEN DOUGLAS

Release date: 2013

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Goodreads

2012 – A star-gazing teenager discovers the planet Eden, only visible from Earth every 700 years.  2053 – The first colonists inhabit this second world.  2085 – Life on Earth is decimated by an alien parasite brought from Eden. 2012. Cornwall. Eden Anfield loves puzzles, so when mysterious new boy Ryan Westland shows up at her school, she’s hooked. On the face of it, he’s a typical American teenager. So why doesn’t he recognize pizza? And how come he hasn't heard of Hitler? What puzzles Eden the most, however, is the interest he’s taking in her. As Eden falls in love with Ryan, she begins to uncover his secrets. Her breakthrough comes one rainy afternoon when she stumbles across a book in Ryan’s library – a biography of Connor Penrose, her oldest friend, written over 50 years in the future.  Confronting Ryan, she discovers that he is a boy from the future whose mission is to prevent Connor from discovering a planet he names Eden, in honour of the girl he loves. A planet with a deadly virus that is destined to destroy the earth in a hundred years time. Is it really possible to change the future?

Absolutely freaked when I saw this on Goodreads! Planet colonies + time travel + race against time + potential for tragic romance = pretty darn close to my dream novel. Helen Douglas also graduated from my university! A definite MUST READ for me. 

The ominous '2013' - no month, no date - is depressing, but fingers crossed this will be released sooner rather than later. Can't wait to see the cover! 

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That's it for me this week! What are you waiting on? Link me because I'd love to see.

Waiting on Wednesday (4)

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, where we showcase some of our hotly anticipated releases!

I have three WoWs this week that look amazing: (All information taken from Goodreads)

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STUNG by BETHANY WIGGINS

Release date: 2 April 2013

Publisher: Walker Childrens

Goodreads

Government attempts to save endangered bees by genetic modification causes their sting to induce deadly, flu-like symptoms in humans. A vaccine created in response changes children into ferocious, killer beasts. The uninfected have built a wall to keep the beasts out, & a girl has awakened on the wrong side.

While the premise doesn't sound too different from the many deadly plague novels out there, what gets me excited are the bugs! Everyone hates bugs! They're somehow scarier and seem more likely to evolve into monsters than, say, vampires. This + no mention of a love interest thus far + mystery as to how/why the girl has awakened so suddenly has me interested!

Waiting on Wednesday (3)

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, where we showcase some of our hotly anticipated releases!

I have two WoWs this week. First up is:

THE BONE SEASON by SAMANTHA SHANNON

Goodreads

Release date: 12 September 2013 

Publisher: Bloomsbury

The Bone Season begins in 2059. Nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney is working in the criminal underworld of London, based at Seven Dials, employed by a man named Jaxon Hall. She works as an envoy between secret cells: she drops in an out of people's minds. For Paige is a lucid dreamer, a clairvoyant, and in her world, the world of Scion, she commits high treason simply by breathing. It is raining the day her life changes forever. Attacked, kidnapped and transported to Oxford, a city that has been kept secret for two hundred years, she meets Warden, a Rephaite with dark honey skin and heavy-lidded yellow eyes. He is the single most beautiful and frightening thing she has every laid eyes on – and he will become her "keeper".

This comes out in over a year and I don't think it's YA, but there's been a lot of hype for this book and comparisons to J.K. Rowling, so I'm really curious. Poor Samantha Shannon must be feeling the pressure, especially since this is her debut novel (she's a student at Oxford University), and I'm really hoping this book lives up to the hype and manages to carve its own niche in the book world. The blurb definitely sounds intriguing, so fingers crossed. 

(Summary from Goodreads)

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Another book that looks AMAZING...

TEETH by HANNAH MOSKOWITZ

Goodreads | Amazon (pre-order)

Release date: 1 January 2013

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Hannah Moskowitz's (author of BREAK and INVINCIBLE SUMMER) TEETH features a sixteen-year-old boy whose family, in an effort to cure his ailing brother, relocates to a remote island where legendary magic fish are said to have healing powers, and he discovers the island has terrible secrets, including a half-teenager, half-fish.

I don't even know what to say. There is so much potential for awesomeness in that tiny blurb + the added reassurance of knowing Hannah Moskowitz wrote this + a gorgeous cover! What more could you ask for??

(Summary + image from Goodreads)

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What are YOU waiting on this Wednesday?

Waiting on Wednesday (2)

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine, where hotly anticipated books are showcased!

My WoW this week is...

LEVEL 2 by LENORE APPELHANS
Goodreads | Amazon
Release date: 15 January 2013 (US + UK)

Since her untimely death the day before her eighteenth birthday, Felicia Ward has been trapped in Level 2, a stark white afterlife located between our world and the next. Along with her fellow prisoners, Felicia passes the endless hours downloading memories and mourning what she’s lost—family, friends, and the boy she loved, Neil.

Then a girl in a neighboring chamber disappears, and nobody but Felicia seems to recall she existed in the first place. Something is obviously very wrong. When Julian—a dangerously charming guy Felicia knew in life—comes to offer Felicia a way out, she learns the truth: a rebellion is brewing to overthrow the Morati, the guardians of Level 2.

Felicia is reluctant to trust Julian, but then he promises what she wants the most—to be with Neil again—if only she’ll join the rebels. Suspended between Heaven and Earth, Felicia finds herself in the center of an age-old struggle between good and evil. As memories from her life come back to haunt her, and as the Morati hunt her down, Felicia will discover it’s not just her own redemption at stake… but the salvation of all mankind.

(Summary + Image from Goodreads)

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Okay, so part of my reasons for wanting to read this book so desperately may be completely misconceived. I got so excited when I read the first two paragraphs, thinking, "Oh, this sounds like a YA cross between The Matrix and Flight Plan! Amazing!" and then suddenly - BAM! Heaven and Earth, good/evil, potential love triangle. I was completely surprised. The idea's been planted though, and now whenever I think of this book I imagine a white, futuristic Heaven where Morgan Freeman is God... 

Source

... and Julian and Felicia are Neo and Trinity. The cover and descriptions totally fit! "Stark white afterlife"? Rebels? Observe:

"Guns. Lots of guns."
Source

Seriously though, what makes LEVEL 2 feel new and refreshing, and one of my most anticipated reads, is the futuristic element. I don't think I've read any YA books that have combined religious themes with a dystopian or sci-fi feel (or at least not so clearly), and I'm so excited to see how Lenore Appelhans merges the two. Of course, this could be completely off. The book may not focus on either at all, and I only really jumped logically to 'religious themes' from the mention of 'Heaven'. However, the fact that it has me considering all its possibilities after only a three-paragraph blurb is a really good sign, and the plot sounds fresh and exciting regardless!

Waiting on Wednesday

So, I know everyone does Waiting on Wednesdays (and by everyone I mean YA book bloggers; so really, not everyone at all), but it's such a huge part of what we as book lovers share - that crazy, unhealthy NEED that you feel - that I can't not take part! Waiting on Wednesday is a meme started by Jill of Breaking the Spine. :)

This Wednesday, I'm waiting on...

THRONE OF GLASS by SARAH J. MAAS

UK cover

I know a lot of people have read this already, but I honestly can't wait. I completely devoured the novellas:

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord (Goodreads | Amazon)
The Assassin and the Desert (Goodreads | Amazon)
The Assassin and the Underworld (Goodreads | Amazon)
The Assassin and the Empire (July 2012)

They were sooo good, and so much fun. It's been a while since I've read YA fantasy that just feels so natural. Her stories feel just like the fantasy I read when I was younger and really reminded me of Tamora Pierce. It doesn't feel forced at all. Celaena is so funny and so refreshingly girly for an assassin. I loved the world-building (especially the story of the spiders in The Assassin and the Desert). I loved the blossoming relationship between Sam and Celaena (why isn't he mentioned in the Throne of Glass blurb????). And this is just from reading the NOVELLAS. I can't wait for this book.


PRE-ORDER THRONE OF GLASS: Amazon | The Book Depository

US cover

Release date: 7 August 2012 (US) | 2 August 2012 (UK)
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Summary: (Taken from Goodreads)

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Her opponents are men—thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the kings council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom.

Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she’s bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it’s the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.