Waiting on Wednesday #201/Can't Wait Wednesday: The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event which had been hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating. I'm now linking up with "Can't-Wait Wednesday" hosted over at Wishful Endings.

This week I am waiting on The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden. It's the sequel to The Bear and the Nightingale. 

Synopsis from Goodreads: 

Orphaned and cast out as a witch by her village, Vasya’s options are few: resign herself to life in a convent, or allow her older sister to make her a match with a Muscovite prince. Both doom her to life in a tower, cut off from the vast world she longs to explore. So instead she chooses adventure, disguising herself as a boy and riding her horse into the woods. When a battle with some bandits who have been terrorizing the countryside earns her the admiration of the Grand Prince of Moscow, she must carefully guard the secret of her gender to remain in his good graces—even as she realizes his kingdom is under threat from mysterious forces only she will be able to stop.

The Girl in the Tower is due out December 5, 2017 from Del Rey.

Why am I waiting on this one? I really enjoyed The Bear and the Nightingale. You can read my 5 star review of it here. I am looking forward to reading more about Vasya and her adventures as she seeks freedom from the confines of a woman's expected roles, and as she experiences the little magics in this version of Russia.

What book are you waiting on this week? Share it or a link in the comments so we can check it out and maybe add it to our TBR lists. Thanks for coming by and Happy Reading!

Review: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden is an enchanting book with its roots in Russian folklore and fairy tales.

Vasilisa Petrovna, with the nickname Vasya, is our heroine. The tale starts out while she is very young and listening to tales at the hearth from her nurse. One of her favorites to hear stories about is Morozko, the Frost.

After a time, as she grows, someone convinces her father it would be a good thing if she had a mother figure in the home other than her nurse. Her father marries a woman from Moscovy who frankly would rather have been a nun.

Her stepmother is adamant that the old guardians of the hearth and other house spirits should no longer be honored and all faith given to the Christian God. Her father, Pyotr, goes along with the stepmother. Vasya feels that this is wrong and that there will be far reaching consequences for their denial. Secretly she continues to honor the house spirits and asks for their protection for the people. As the story progresses, Vasya's stepmother decides that Vasya must either be married off or sent to a convent.

As the winter worsens, Vasya finds herself in a place where she will have to make a choice. She will have to defy the people she loves if she is to save them from something out of one of her nurse's most frightening tales.

The Bear and the Nightingale is well written. If you love fairy tales and folktales, you will love this book. It captures the early days of Christianity in Russia where the people continued to honor the house spirits side by side with the new God, giving each his due. An interview with the author on Unbound Worlds indicates that she drew on both the history and the folklore of old Russia in her writing.

I loved the way I felt pulled into the setting and among the characters. I especially became fond of Vasilisa and her family. The stepmother, not so much, although I did feel kind of sorry for her. Morozko is an interesting character and, according to Katherine Arden, will appear in future books in what is planned to be a trilogy at the moment.

The Bear and the Nightingale was released January 10, 2017 from Del Rey. I gave it 5 stars. It's a great debut by the author. It reads like a fairy tale or folktale. And it's quite entertaining. I really enjoyed it. I can't wait to read the next book.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Teaser Tuesday: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Ambrosia of The Purplebooker.
Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and author so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Vasya had been disappearing into the forest ever since she could walk. She would come back in time for dinner, as always bearing a handful of pine-nuts in apology, flushed and repentant, catlike on her small booted feet.

~ 7% on my Kindle

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden was published January 10, 2017 by Del Rey.

What's your teaser this week? Share it or a link in the comments. Are you enjoying your book? Let us know! Happy Reading!

Waiting on Wednesday #146: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating. 

Synopsis from publisher: 

A magical debut novel for readers of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, and Neil Gaiman’s myth-rich fantasies, The Bear and the Nightingale spins an irresistible spell as it announces the arrival of a singular talent with a gorgeous voice.
 
At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.
 
After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.
 
And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for marriage or confinement in a convent.
 
As danger circles nearer, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

Why am I waiting on this book? I love retellings of fairy tales. This seems like an interesting one. I like that it refers to Neil Gaiman's books in the praise as well as Uprooted and The Night Circus. It sounds promising as a quality fantasy tale. 

What book are you waiting on this week? Share it or a link in the comments so we can check it out and maybe add it to our ever-growing TBR lists. Thanks for coming by!