Can't Wait Wednesday #92

Can't Wait Wednesday is a wonderful meme hosted by Wishful Endings based on Waiting on Wednesday created by Jill from Breaking the Spine where we highlighted an upcoming release that we're eagerly anticipating. 

10 Things I Hate About Pinky

(Dimple and Rishi #3)

by Sandhya Menon 

Expected publication: July 21st 2020 

by Simon Pulse 

Goodreads | 

The follow-up to When Dimple Met Rishi and There’s Something about Sweetie follows Pinky and Samir as they pretend to date—with disastrous and hilarious results. 

Pinky Kumar wears the social justice warrior badge with pride. From raccoon hospitals to persecuted rock stars, no cause is too esoteric for her to champion. But a teeny-tiny part of her also really enjoys making her conservative, buttoned-up corporate lawyer parents cringe.

Samir Jha might have a few . . . quirks remaining from the time he had to take care of his sick mother, like the endless lists he makes in his planner and the way he schedules every minute of every day, but those are good things. They make life predictable and steady.

Pinky loves lazy summers at her parents’ Cape Cod lake house, but after listening to them harangue her about the poor decisions (aka boyfriends) she’s made, she hatches a plan. Get her sorta-friend-sorta-enemy, Samir—who is a total Harvard-bound Mama’s boy—to pose as her perfect boyfriend for the summer. As they bicker their way through lighthouses and butterfly habitats, sparks fly, and they both realize this will be a summer they'll never forget.

The first book in the series was so adorable! I'm hoping this will also be the same. 

Can't Wait Wednesday #91

Can't Wait Wednesday is a wonderful meme hosted by Wishful Endings based on Waiting on Wednesday created by Jill from Breaking the Spine where we highlighted an upcoming release that we're eagerly anticipating. 

The Boundless (The Beholder, #2) by Anna Bright 
Expected Publication: June 9th, 2020
HarperTeen
Goodreads | 

When Selah found true love with Prince Torden of Norway, she never imagined she’d have to leave him behind. All because the Beholder’s true mission was a secret Selah’s crew didn’t trust her to keep: transporting weapons to the rebels fighting against the brutal tsarytsya, whose shadow looms over their next port of Shvartsval’d. A place Selah hoped she’d never go. But gone is the girl who departed Potomac filled with fear. With a stockpile of weapons belowdecks and her heart hanging in the balance, Selah is determined to see the Beholder’s quest to its end. 

The book has such a stunning cover! It took me some time to warm up to Selah since she's such a damsel in distress. But after finishing the first book and finding out about that twist, in the end, I just can't wait to get my hands on this one. 

Can't Wait Wednesday #90

Can't Wait Wednesday is a wonderful meme hosted by Wishful Endings based on Waiting on Wednesday created by Jill from Breaking the Spine where we highlighted an upcoming release that we're eagerly anticipating. 

We Hunt the Flame
by Hafsah Faizal
Expected publication: May 14th 2019 
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Goodreads | Amazon| B & N | TBD

Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the king. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways. 

Both are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya—but neither wants to be.

War is brewing, and the Arz sweeps closer with each passing day, engulfing the land in shadow. When Zafira embarks on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore magic to her suffering world and stop the Arz, Nasir is sent by the king on a similar mission: retrieve the artifact and kill the Hunter. But an ancient evil stirs as their journey unfolds—and the prize they seek may pose a threat greater than either can imagine.
Set in a richly detailed world inspired by ancient Arabia, We Hunt the Flame is a gripping debut of discovery, conquering fear, and taking identity into your own hands. 

Wow..that blurb sounds so amazing! I hardly ever read a YA set in a middle east setting so I'm really looking forward to this. Besides, it's about time that we have more diverse characters in YA. 

Waiting on Wednesday #89: Shadow of The Fox

Can't Wait Wednesday is a wonderful meme hosted by Wishful Endings based on Waiting on Wednesday created by Jill from Breaking the Spine where we highlighted an upcoming release that we're eagerly anticipating. 

Shadow of the Fox
by Julie Kagawa
ebook 
Expected publication: October 2nd 2018
by Harlequin Teen

Goodreads | 

Once Every Thousand Years...

Every millennium, one age ends and another age dawns...and whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers holds the power to call the great Kami Dragon from the sea and ask for any one wish. The time is near...and the missing pieces of the scroll will be sought throughout the land of Iwagoto. The holder of the first piece is a humble, unknown peasant girl with a dangerous secret.

Demons have burned the temple Yumeko was raised in to the ground, killing everyone within, including the master who trained her to both use and hide her kitsune shapeshifting powers. Yumeko escapes with the temple’s greatest treasure—one part of the ancient scroll. Fate thrusts her into the path of a mysterious samurai, Kage Tatsumi of the Shadow Clan. Yumeko knows he seeks what she has...and is under orders to kill anything and anyone who stands between him and the scroll. A wish will be granted and a new age will dawn. 

I am a big fan of Julie Kagawa's books. First it was fairies then vampires and now demons? I really can't wait for this. 

Waiting on Wednesday #88: Mirage

Can't Wait Wednesday is a wonderful meme hosted by Wishful Endings based on Waiting on Wednesday created by Jill from Breaking the Spine where we highlighted an upcoming release that we're eagerly anticipating. 

Mirage 
by Somaiya Daud Hardcover, 320 pages 
Expected publication: August 28th 2018
by Flatiron Books
Goodreads | 

In a star system dominated by the brutal Vathek empire, eighteen-year-old Amani is a dreamer. She dreams of what life was like before the occupation; she dreams of writing poetry like the old-world poems she adores; she dreams of receiving a sign from Dihya that one day, she, too, will have adventure, and travel beyond her isolated moon. 

But when adventure comes for Amani, it is not what she expects: she is kidnapped by the regime and taken in secret to the royal palace, where she discovers that she is nearly identical to the cruel half-Vathek Princess Maram. The princess is so hated by her conquered people that she requires a body double, someone to appear in public as Maram, ready to die in her place. 

As Amani is forced into her new role, she can’t help but enjoy the palace’s beauty—and her time with the princess’ fiancé, Idris. But the glitter of the royal court belies a world of violence and fear. If Amani ever wishes to see her family again, she must play the princess to perfection...because one wrong move could lead to her death. 

Another YA adventure in space! It sounds like the retelling of The Prince and the Pauper but with a gender twist. I hope that this YA debut will be amazing just like that blindingly beautiful cover. 

Waiting on Wednesday #87: Two Dark Reigns

Can't Wait Wednesday is a wonderful meme hosted by Wishful Endings based on Waiting on Wednesday created by Jill from Breaking the Spine where we highlighted an upcoming release that we're eagerly anticipating. 

Two Dark Reigns
by Kendare Blake
Hardcover, 320 pages
Expected publication: September 4th 2018 
by HarperTeen

Goodreads | Amazon| B & N | TBD

Queen Katharine has waited her entire life to wear the crown. But now that she finally has it, the murmurs of dissent grow louder by the day. There’s also the alarming issue of whether her sisters are actually dead—or if they’re waiting in the wings to usurp the throne.

Mirabella and Arsinoe are alive, but they’re dealing with a nightmare of their own. Stuck on the mainland, where their powers have weakened, the girls are being visited by a specter they think may be the fabled Blue Queen, pointing her rotting, boney finger toward Fennbirn.

Jules, too, is in a strange place—still on the island but in disguise. And her only confidantes, a war-gifted girl named Emilia and her oracle friend Mathilde, are urging her to take on a role she can’t imagine filling: a legion-cursed queen who will lead a rebel army to Katharine’s doorstep. This is an uprising that the mysterious Blue Queen may have more to do with than anyone could have guessed—or expected.

I'm so excited for this to come out! From a duology to a trilogy and now to four books? I do hope the pacing will not be off in this one. And please leave out all those nonsense romantic angles. Otherwise it will be perfect!

Waiting on Wednesday #86 : Sanctuary

Waiting on Wednesday is a wonderful meme created by Jill from Breaking the Spine where we highlighted an upcoming release that we're eagerly anticipating. 

Sanctuary 
by Caryn Lix
ebook, 480 pages
Expected publication: July 24th 2018 
by Simon Pulseby 

Goodreads | Amazon| B & N | TBD

Alien meets Alexandra Bracken’s The Darkest Minds in this thrilling debut novel about prison-guard-in-training, Kenzie, who is taken hostage by the superpowered criminal teens of the Sanctuary space station—only to have to band together with them when the station is attacked by mysterious creatures.

Kenzie holds one truth above all: the company is everything.

As a citizen of Omnistellar Concepts, the most powerful corporation in the solar system, Kenzie has trained her entire life for one goal: to become an elite guard on Sanctuary, Omnistellar’s space prison for superpowered teens too dangerous for Earth. As a junior guard, she’s excited to prove herself to her company—and that means sacrificing anything that won’t propel her forward.

But then a routine drill goes sideways and Kenzie is taken hostage by rioting prisoners.

At first, she’s confident her commanding officer—who also happens to be her mother—will stop at nothing to secure her freedom. Yet it soon becomes clear that her mother is more concerned with sticking to Omnistellar protocol than she is with getting Kenzie out safely.

As Kenzie forms her own plan to escape, she doesn’t realize there’s a more sinister threat looming, something ancient and evil that has clawed its way into Sanctuary from the vacuum of space. And Kenzie might have to team up with her captors to survive—all while beginning to suspect there’s a darker side to the Omnistellar she knows. 

It must the 'in thing' right now to have YA books set in space. There is so much YA fantasy and dystopian out there and readers are getting bored with all the usual tropes. I hope this one does not disappoint.

Waiting on Wednesday #85 : Sky in the Deep

Can't Wait Wednesday is a wonderful meme hosted by Wishful Endings based on Waiting on Wednesday created by Jill from Breaking the Spine where we highlighted an upcoming release that we're eagerly anticipating. 

Sky in the Deep
by Adrienne Young
Hardcover, 352 pages
Expected publication: April 24th 2018 
by Wednesday Books
Goodreads | Amazon| B & N | TBD

Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient, rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: fight and survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield—her brother, fighting with the enemy—the brother she watched die five years ago.

Faced with her brother's betrayal, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan thought to be a legend, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved family.

She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend, who sees her as a threat. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and family while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life hating. 

A Viking teen female warrior? Wll why not? I'm anticipating that it will be gory and violent with lots of dead bodies strewn around but a cool heroine with an unpredictable plotline. Please make this one as cool as it sounds. I've been burned too many times with so-called 'alpha female protagonist' before. 

Waiting on Wednesday #84: One Giant Leap

Waiting on Wednesday is a wonderful meme created by Jill from Breaking the Spine where we highlighted an upcoming release that we're eagerly anticipating.

One Giant Leap
by Heather Kaczynski
October 23rd 2018
Harperteen

Goodreads | 

The second book in Heather Kaczynski’s heart-pounding duology is perfect for fans of the Fifth Wave. When Cassandra Gupta was chosen to be the youngest member of a top-secret mission to the far reaches of the universe she knew to expect the unexpected. But nothing could have prepared her for the catastrophic events that would occur once she left Earth. Cassie and the rest of the crew have found themselves in the middle of a conflict between two alien civilizations hell-bent on destroying each other . . . and anyone else who gets in their way. What was supposed to be a reconnaissance mission soon becomes a fight for their lives. But Cassie knows that it isn’t enough to simply survive. The war is coming to Earth, and only she has the information that can possibly stop the devastation it will bring. With humanity’s fate in the balance, Cassie must decide who she can trust and who she is willing to sacrifice in order to complete her mission. 

Dare Mighty Things was one of my favourite book last year. It's heart pounding action and unpredictable storyline just hooked me from the start so I am really anxiously waiting for the final book. Hoping this doesn't dissapoint me like some of the other duology. 

Waiting on Wednesday #83: Strange the Dreamer

Waiting on Wednesday is a wonderful meme created by Jill from Breaking the Spine where we highlighted an upcoming release that we're eagerly anticipating.


Strange the Dreamer
by Laini Taylor
March 28th 2017 
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Goodreads | 

Strange the Dreamer is the story of: 
the aftermath of a war between gods and men 
a mysterious city stripped of its name 
a mythic hero with blood on his hands 
a young librarian with a singular dream 
a girl every bit as perilous as she is imperiled
alchemy and blood candy, nightmares and godspawn, 
moths and monsters, friendship and treachery, 
love and carnage. 

 Welcome to Weep.

If this is another continuation of the fabulous Daughter of Smoke and Bone series then I'm definitely in! Even the blurb sounds so mysterious and enticing. I'm just wondering what is Weep actually? Is it a place or a period of time?

Waiting on Wednesday #82: Beheld

Waiting on Wednesday is a wonderful meme created by Jill from Breaking the Spine where we highlighted an upcoming release that we're eagerly anticipating.


Beheld by Alex Flinn
Published by HarperTeen
ebook, 368 pages 
Expected publication: January 10th 2017

Goodreads | Amazon| B & N | TBD

Being a powerful witch, Kendra has survived it all. Since she first beheld James over three hundred years ago, Kendra has tangled with witch hunters and wolves, helped a miller’s daughter spin straw into gold, cowered in London as German bombs fell, and lived through who knows how many shipwrecks. But her powers have limits, and immortality can be lonely. Kendra isn’t ready to stop searching for the warlock she had met centuries ago. 
With the help of her magic mirror, Kendra will travel the world to reconnect with her lost love—and, of course, she can’t help but play a hand in a few more stories along the way. 
Featuring retellings of favorite fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood, Rumpelstiltskin, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and The Ugly Duckling, Alex Flinn’s latest young adult novel, Beheld, is fresh fairy-tale fun from beginning to end.

Alex Flinn is back people! Kendra is certainly my favourite character created by the author and I can't wait to sink my teeth into another fairy tale with her as the star. Mirrored, the last fare from Alex Flinn is a bit dark in my opinion. So I'm wishing that this will be able to capture the humour in Bewitching where Kendra is first introduced.