Waiting on Wednesday (5)

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. Every Wednesday, hosts spotlight one soon-to-be published, eagerly anticipated book.


The Falconer by Elizabeth May

Publication: 2013


Humans will be the hunted. Love will be tested. Vengeance will be had.


Edinburgh, Scotland, 1844

18-year-old Lady Aileana Kameron was destined to a life carefully planned around Edinburgh’s society events — until a faery killed her mother. 


Now, between the seeming endless parties and boring dances, Aileana has a new hobby: she secretly slaughters the fae who prey on humans in the city’s dark alleyways. 


Determined to find the faery who murdered her mother, vengeance has become Aileana's life. . . so she never anticipated her growing attraction to the magnetic Kiaran MacKay, the faery who trained her to kill his own kind. Or that there was a world beyond hers, filled with secrets that affect her past and have the potential to destroy her present.


But when her own world is about revenge, and when she holds Kiaran’s fate in her hands, how far is Aileana prepared to go for retribution?


Sadly, there is no specific publication date, which only makes me think that it will be released in the fall. (Please, oh, please, don't make it that far away!) The cover you're seeing is only a placeholder, unfortunately, as it is magnificent on its own.

I read a review by a critique partner who claims that there are no faerie courts or politics in this book only monsters called faeries. That alone had me click to-read faster than I could blink. But revenge stories for girls! A girl who doesn't just kill - she slaughters! The rest of the fangirling will have to wait until the book is released. Sadly.

Teaser Tuesday #4

Another spoiler free excerpt from Chiaroscuro. This one is for the setting:

Ari was positive she heard wrong, yet Lee was the one looking disturbed by the eye contact. Maybe she hadn’t said it loud enough. It had been a while since someone had commentated on the level of her voice.The bottle of water crinkled between Lee’s fingers. “What?”Ari cleared her throat. “Should I say it a little louder?”“Do I look like I need a hearing aid?”“Um, then, why aren’t you freaking out?”Lee lowered the bottle and smiled. The expression made Ari want to jump a little, but the presence behind her was too acute for her to even step back. “Well, if you wanted me to freak out about this, then maybe I should freak out about the fact that your boyfriend can somehow tear the heart out of a human body. Or maybe I should freak out about the fact that there are zombies running around my countryside, powered by high levels of energy coursing under my feet. Or - or - maybe I should freak out about the fact that the world’s ended, Britain’s infrastructure shot, and I’ve had to decapitate people in ways Henry the eighth would be proud of to survive.” Her grin glittered against her dark skin. “Where do you want me to start?”Clearing her throat a second time, Ari said, “Considering that you’ve had much more time to adjust to all that, Aza aside, I don’t see how you can correlate learning about the existence of magic with—”Enough disgust soaked Lee’s expression to shut Ari up without her speaking. “Never mind. Just get cleaned so we can get out of here. And preferably to find some more alcohol.”

Happy Tuesday!

Waiting On Wednesday (4)

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. Every Wednesday, hosts spotlight one soon-to-be published, eagerly anticipated book.

The Great Pearl Heist: London's Greatest Thief and Scotland Yard's Hunt for the World's Most Valuable Necklace by Molly Caldwell Crosby

Publication date: September 18

In the London summer of 1913, two brilliant minds from opposite sides of the law are pitted against each other in the hunt for the most precious necklace in the world—more valuable than the Hope diamond—and the psychological cat and mouse game between celebrated jewel thief Joseph Grizard and Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Alfred Ward, a real-life Sherlock Holmes. Thoroughly researched, compellingly colorful, The Great Pearl Heist is a gripping narrative account of an untold story.*

Winning the award for longest title, this book seems like so much fun. A mix of the Edwardian era, a lawful Sherlock Holmes and a good gentleman thief is right up my alley.

*Summary provided by Edelweiss

Follow Me Friday #4

Feature & Follow is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read for book blogs looking for followers and to be followed.

Q: This Sunday in the U.S. is Mother's Day. In celebration, what are some of your favorite books with strong mother/child relationships?

I'd have to say that Molly/Weasleys are my favorite. She was naggy and embarrassing and cooked a little bit too much, but I'm sure none of her children could say that she didn't love them. And that line of hers to Beatrix? It's famous for a reason.

Unfortunately, I can't think of any others, and find that sadly troubling. It's not just mother/child relationships that are lacking in YA, but strong parent/child dynamics as well.

What do you think?

Waiting on Wednesday (3)

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. Every Wednesday, hosts spotlight one soon-to-be published, eagerly anticipated book.

What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang

Publication date: September 18

Eva and Addie started out the same way as everyone else—two souls woven together in one body, taking turns controlling their movements as they learned how to walk, how to sing, how to dance. But as they grew, so did the worried whispers. Why aren’t they settling? Why isn’t one of them fading? The doctors ran tests, the neighbors shied away, and their parents begged for more time. Finally Addie was pronounced healthy and Eva was declared gone. Except, she wasn’t…                            

For the past three years, Eva has clung to the remnants of her life. Only Addie knows she’s still there, trapped inside their body. Then one day, they discover there may be a way for Eva to move again. The risks are unimaginable–hybrids are considered a threat to society, so if they are caught, Addie and Eva will be locked away with the others. And yet…for a chance to smile, to twirl, to speak, Eva will do anything.

It's no secret that I'd like to see more female relationships explored in YA. And with this book highlighting the dynamics between two souls (identifying themselves as female) trapped in one body and fighting for each other rather than fighting each other, I'm crossing every finger and toe in hoping that this book will be a smash hit and show the popularity of sisterhood in dystopia as opposed to girl hate.

Teaser Tuesday #3

Taking a break from my usual excerpts of Dance Macabre, here's one from the first draft of Chiaroscuro. Ari and Lee, my co-protagonists, have just stopped fighting - or sparring, as Lee would call it - because Ari suddenly started coughing like someone dying:


“So that’s your cost, then?” 
Even with Lee’s face cast partly in shadows, Ari could still see the little cut her one and only strike had made at the corner of Lee’s mouth. What she couldn’t make out was her expression, and Lee did have a track recording of saying one thing and feeling another thing.
“The cost of my magic?” Ari said carefully. 
“No, the cost of the car we’re driving in. Stop staring.” 
She switched hands on the bottle, keeping from the urge to clear her throat. “Sorry. No. The cost isn’t torture.” 
“Oh.” The disappointment in Lee’s voice had the plastic under Ari’s fingers crinkling. “Then what the hell was that just now?” 
“Part of it.” 
“There’s more?” 
Ari licked her lips. The water hadn’t washed away the sharpness of blood at all. “I don’t really feel comfortable talking about it.” 
“That’s nice. Wish I could feel comfortable about the fact that I'm traveling with a demon and a witch across post-apocalypse England.”


Happy Tuesday!

Follow Me Friday #3

F&F is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read for book blogs looking for followers and to be followed.

Q: What is one thing you wish you could tell your favorite author?

I'm sure this is one many of said before, but I wish I could have told Diana Wynne Jones how much I had adored her books and how they'd got me into writing. I wish I had sent her fan letter or email before cancer had taken her away. She will always be my favorite author, even J.K. Rowling has yet to topple her from that pedestal (sacrilege, I know!). 

Have you ever wished you had sent letters before your favorite authors passed away?

Waiting On Wednesday

Waiting on Wedbesday is hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. Every Wednesday, hosts spotlight one soon-to-be published, eagerly anticipated book.

The Culling by Steven dos Santos

From Goodreads:


Sixteen year-old Lucian Spark is the sole caretaker of his young brother, Cole, in a bleak and dangerous world that has arisen from the ashes of a devastating global apocalypse. Betrayed and drafted into the ruthless Establishment’s sadistic military boot camp, Lucian is plunged into the ultimate horror known as The Culling. Now, torn away from Cole, perhaps forever, Lucian must compete in a series of deadly challenges designed to purge the recruits of their humanity and transform them into amoral, cold-blooded killers by forcing them to make the most agonizing, emotionally devastating choices imaginable. 


During this terrifying ordeal, Lucian finds himself growing closer to Digory Tycho, a mysterious and rebellious young man who challenges him in ways he couldn’t have dreamed of, and awakens in him the courageous fires of rebellion. 


But in a world where loving someone can be used as the ultimate weapon, how can anyone stand a chance?

A gay dystopian romance? I'm pre-ordering as soon as available.

Teaser Tuesday #2

Continuing from my teaser (two weeks ago, I think?), here's another tidbit from Danse Macabre. Just like the other, it's spoiler free:

Cerek minimized the lacrosse picture and brought up an article. Before he could start, Rose giggled. Because it was creepier than the sound of the devil’s laughter, Cerek waited until she was finished to look at her.

Her legs were drawn up to her chest. The half-finished loaf balanced across her knees. “Do you suffer from obsessive compartmentalization?” 

Cerek felt the back of his neck heat up. “What? Why?” 

“You’re giving me a debriefing.” Rose gestured to the screen. “Enlargements, comparisons and now a newspaper article? Are you aiming for Quantico standards?” 

“You said to explain what I thought!” 

The creepy giggling returned. “Since when do explanations require side-by-side photographs?”  

If her objective was to entertain herself with Cerek’s embarrassment, then it had been achieved. He slammed the laptop lid down, and Rose all but jumped out of her seat, amusement gone. “Don’t take out your insecurities on my baby.”

Happy Tuesday!

Sad Songs Blogfest

This blogfest is hosted over at Spunk on A Stick. (Is that a creative name or what?) Each blog features a list of our favorite moving or touching songs. Music is right up my alley so I'm going to get to it. In no particular order:

1. Cras numquam scire by Yucca. This is the theme song for The Mystic Archives of Dantalian. The booklover-oriented show is a mixture of slice of life and the supernatural, with a dash of Lovecraft. It's a personal inspiration, and I cannot describe the feelings I have of this song.

2. Exit Music for a Film (Radiohead Cover) by The Scala & Kolacny Brothers. I promise this isn't going to be solely choir music. Radiohead's original song was moving enough, but the eerieness of this cover cannot be matched. I always feel like I'm about to view something holy whenever this comes to play.

3. Bad Moon Rising by Creedance Clearwater. (See? This is different.) To be honest, Supernatural has me jump whenever I hear this song. Mainly because of the muscle memory from the scenes of the show when it played. Every time it plays, you know something bad is about to happen. It's excellent for writing those cheerful-wham!bam!-whatjusthappened scenes.

4. Safe & Sound by Taylor Swift feat. The Civil Wars. I'm no Taylor Swift fan, but this song hits all those right buttons. It might be because it evokes that dreadful moment when (spoilers for the end of the Hunger Games no. 1!) Peeta and Katniss are on the train and they realize nothing's going to be the same. /tears.

5. Drumming Song by Florence + The Machine. This song. This song. I dare to listen to this and try not to feel yourself getting pumped up. Listening to this makes you feel like anything's possible.

6. Cry Cry Ballad Ver. by T-ara. K-Pop has been (awesomely!) getting traction in the Western world, and T-ara is one of those girl groups that lets out hit after ridiculously catchy hit. Cry Cry was released in November along with a fifteen minute dramatic music video that puts Lady Gaga and the majority of action blockbusters to shame. (It's also a cliffhanger, continued in their second release of - wait for it - Lovey Dovey.) As T-ara is filled with magnetic voices, the MV is accompanied by the ballad version. The version ripped straight from the MV starts with the haunting voice of a child crying out for her father and ends with the grown girl sobbing for her surrogate father. Listen to it. Weep. Watch the MV, and weep again.

7. Fan by Epik High . This is an example of Korean hip hop, and this song was composed and written exclusively by the group's three members, which include a poet turned rapper, an underground disc jockey and a Stanford graduate turned hip hopper. The song itself is catchy, but combined with thought-provoking lyrics and an equally controversial music video (an obsessive fan kidnapping her favorite celebrity), it raises itself above its genre propensity for dance and ballad hits. You may find yourself uncomfortable with the lyrics, but Epik High immerses itself often in the perspective of its subject (they even went so far as to embody a corpse in one song). They don't share feelings with their content.

8. This spot is tied with two songs from the Black Butler soundtrack. I myself haven't watched the show, but I stumbled upon Si Deus Me Relinquit on Youtube and have been hooked to all its dark melodies. It's haunting enough without the translation of the title and the Latin lyrics being If God has forsaken me. /cue sobfest. Then there's the eerie The Slightly Chipped Moon. If that title doesn't get your hairs all up in a row, the singer's wavering, operatic voice definitely will.

9. Girls Girls by Wonder Girls. Yes! Another K-Pop song! The Wonder Girls have made yet another US single (didn't knock Nobody from its top), but I'm still stuck listening to their other album. This song in particular holds a special place. It's basically a song about empowering girls. I dare you not to listen to the opening (This song is for the girls all around the world) and not end up singing along by the second chorus.

10. Main Theme by Senju Akira. If anyone was to ask what my favorite book in the world was I'd have to go with Fullmetal Alchemist. Yes, I understand it is a graphic novel. Yes, I am apologizing to my childhood for not going with Harry Potter or [Insert novel by Diana Wynne Jones or Tamora Pierce]. But FMA has to be the most intelligent, thought-provoking medium I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. It spawned two adaptions, and when you can hold the more inferior and divergent of the two above most things on TV, you know it's good. Even more, when you can listen to a song and feel every moment of shock and amazement and grand scale epicness, you know what you're listening to is good.

(Warning: do not read the comments. They are spoilers, sadly. Every one of them.)

Follow Me Friday #2

This meme is hosted over at Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. Each Friday, one blog is featured. This week it's Justin's Book Blog.

Q: Do you read one book at a time or do you switch back and forth between two or more?

I tend to juggle several at a time, as well as reviews. My schedule is a bit lopsided so I usually read whatever's handiest at the time, either in ebook format or paperback.

What about you?

Teaser Tuesday

New meme! I'm going to be teasing excerpts from my male-POV WIP every Tuesday after Top Ten. A quick pitch of my WIP would be a YA Sherlock Holmes meets American Gods. No spoilers, of course.

If Cerek ever saw a tube of lipstick, it would be a hundred years too soon.

“Oh, stop with the sulking. You got your prize in the end, didn’t you?”

He stared at Rose. “It took me half an hour to convince her that thing wasn’t for me.”

She straightened up from under the hood of the car and wiped at her nose with the crook of her elbow. “And now we both have confirmation that you won’t run away screaming whenever I ask you to do something questionable. It’s win-win. Get me a beer from the back.”

Cerek threw his hands up and climbed out of the passenger seat. Of course she had stolen beer. When he popped open the trunk, he wasn’t the least bit surprised to see his dad’s favorite cooler sitting beside his duffal bag and Rose’s backpack.

He still hesitated before opening the cooler. “We’re on the side of the road.”

“A road off the highway in mid-state Kansas. You think anyone’s going to care if two eighteen year olds knock a few?”

Cerek took out two bottles and shut the trunk with his elbow. Rose popped open them with a twist of his dad’s wrench. He had yet to say anything about the tools too, but at least she had taken the spare box. On top of stealing the Skylark, the cooler, the beer, maxing out the emergency credit card twice and kidnapping him, the spare toolbox should be considered the cherry on top.

“Even better, you didn’t phone your dad when you had the chance. You're starting to trust me.”

He ignored her amused tone and thought carefully. Cerek had checked the motel’s phone when Rose had gone to the bathroom. How she managed to talk her way into getting the phone blocked was well beyond anything he wanted to know. Then Cerek remembered the saleswoman eyeing the phone at her side and resisted the urge to slap his palm against his forehead. 

Despite his excellent self-control, Rose laughed. “Man, I bet you get itchy at the thought of lying to a falling star.”

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesdays is a book meme hosted over at The Broke and The Bookish. This (first) week's Top Ten is the Top Ten Spring TBR list. And go!

In My Mailbox

For my first In My Mailbox, hosted over at The Story Siren, I've got two great books!

Follow Me Friday

New(ish) blogger here. I lurk, but generally don't participate (a lot). (I promise to stop with the parentheses.)

Q: What is the best book you've read in the last month? What is the worst book you've read in the last month?.

The best would have to be (I'm cheating here) The Hound of Baskervilles. It was in preparation for my late, late marathon of Sherlock, and I'm sure I didn't have to ... but I've reread Holmes for less.

Taking a page out of Alison Can Read, I'd have to say the biggest disappointment for me was Double Cross. I think I went in with expectations way too high, but I can't stop remembering the awesomeness that was Mind Games. It might just be that I'm not that much of a romantic, since the relationship seemed to take over the plot. Oh, well. I know I won't be able to resist picking up the next in the series. Expectations be darned!