Waiting on Wednesday #76 - Cold Burn of Magic by Jennifer Estep

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


This week the book I am waiting on is Cold Burn of Magic by Jennifer Estep. This is the first book in a new YA urban fantasy series called The BlackBlade series. I've been enjoying her Elemental series for adults, but I haven't read any of her works aimed at the YA yet. On Jennifer Estep's homepage,  there is a brief explanation of each of the series along with relevant titles.This month there is a drawing on Goodreads for a copy of this book.

The synopsis from Goodreads.com: 

There Be Monsters Here. . .
It's not as great as you'd think, living in a tourist town that's known as "the most magical place in America." Same boring high school, just twice as many monsters under the bridges and rival Families killing each other for power. 

I try to keep out of it. I've got my mom's bloodiron sword and my slightly illegal home in the basement of the municipal library. And a couple of Talents I try to keep quiet, including very light fingers and a way with a lock pick. 

But then some nasty characters bring their Family feud into my friend's pawn shop, and I have to make a call--get involved, or watch a cute guy die because I didn't. I guess I made the wrong choice, because now I'm stuck putting everything on the line for Devon Sinclair. My mom was murdered because of the Families, and it looks like I'm going to end up just like her.

 So, 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. 

Waiting on Wednesday #50: Skink - No Surrender by Carl Hiaasen

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

This week I am eagerly waiting on Carl Hiaasen's first YA novel Skink- No Surrender. It's due out September 23, 2014 from Knopf Books for Young Readers. 

Skink is easily one of the most loved characters in Carl Hiaasen's books. I know he is one of my favorites. One of the things that impressed me was the library he keeps in the trunk of a car, another his kindness to an old lady. And don't forget he prefers to be called "Captain." The former governor of Florida with one eye and perfect teeth has had many wild adventures and this promises to be another one.

From the publisher and Goodreads:

Classic Malley: her parents are about to ship her off to boarding school, so she takes off with some guy she met online . . . Poor Richard: he's less of a rebel than Malley, and a lot less trusting. He knows his cousin is in trouble before she does. Wild Skink: he's a ragged, one-eyed, wandering vigilante, with perfect teeth. Also, a former governor of Florida. Also, supposedly dead. But he's a man who relishes a lost cause, and he's willing to do whatever it takes to find Malley. With Richard riding shotgun, this unlikely pair sets off on a breakneck chase, undaunted by blinding storms, crazed pigs, giant gators, and flying bullets.

In Carl Hiaasen's outrageous, hilarious, and wildly dangerous state of Florida, there are a million places an outlaw might stash a teenage girl. A million unpleasant ways to die. And two who'll risk everything to rescue a friend . . . and to, hopefully, exact a bit of swamp justice. With Skink at the wheel, the search for the missing girl is both nail-bitingly tense and laugh-out-loud funny. 

I've read many of his books for grownups and enjoyed them. I am really looking forward to this one and expecting it will be quite good as well. 

What's your WoW this week? Leave the title or a link in the comments.

Waiting on Wednesday #46 - The Cure for Dreaming by Cat Winters

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

This week I am anticipating the fall release of Cat Winters book The Cure for Dreaming due out October 14, 2014 by Amulet Books. 

From Goodreads: 

Olivia Mead is a headstrong, independent girl—a suffragist—in an age that prefers its girls to be docile. It’s 1900 in Oregon, and Olivia’s father, concerned that she’s headed for trouble, convinces a stage mesmerist to try to hypnotize the rebellion out of her. But the hypnotist, an intriguing young man named Henri Reverie, gives her a terrible gift instead: she’s able to see people’s true natures, manifesting as visions of darkness and goodness, while also unable to speak her true thoughts out loud. These supernatural challenges only make Olivia more determined to speak her mind, and so she’s drawn into a dangerous relationship with the hypnotist and his mysterious motives, all while secretly fighting for the rights of women. Winters breathes new life into history once again with an atmospheric, vividly real story, including archival photos and art from the period throughout.

Why am I waiting on this book? It's an interesting time period. And it sounds a bit like a fairy tale. Father wants the rebellion taken out of her, but instead she is given these terrible gifts. I look forward to seeing how she manages to work the gifts she is given to her advantage and the problems along the way.

So, What book are you waiting on this week?

Waiting on Wednesday #30 - Conversion by Katherine Howe

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

I've long been fascinated by all things witchy. And since I took a field trip with my parents to Salem when I was in third grade (many years ago), I became fascinated also with what happened there to those poor people in 1692. The hysteria, accusations, hangings etc that began with Tituba only seemed to end when the Governer's wife was accused of being a witch.

Conversion by Katherine Howe is due to be released July 1, 2014 by Putnam Juvenile. As best I can tell, the conversion in the title refers to the psychological conversion disorder where anxiety and stressful situations result in neurological symptoms with no physical causes.

Summary from Goodreads.com 

It’s senior year at St. Joan’s Academy, and school is a pressure cooker. College applications, the battle for valedictorian, deciphering boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends are expected to keep it together. Until they can’t.
 
First it’s the school’s queen bee, Clara Rutherford, who suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class. Her mystery illness quickly spreads to her closest clique of friends, then more students and symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. St. Joan’s buzzes with rumor; rumor blossoms into full-blown panic.
 
Soon the media descends on Danvers, Massachusetts, as everyone scrambles to find something, or someone, to blame. Pollution? Stress? Or are the girls faking? Only Colleen—who’s been reading The Crucible for extra credit—comes to realize what nobody else has: Danvers was once Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from a similarly bizarre epidemic three centuries ago . . .
 
Inspired by true events—from seventeenth-century colonial life to the halls of a modern-day high school—Conversion casts a spell. With her signature wit and passion, New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe delivers an exciting and suspenseful novel, a chilling mystery that raises the question, what’s really happening to the girls at St. Joan’s?

What book are you waiting on this week?