Waiting on Wednesday (#37)

 "Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.

Sweet Unrest by Lisa Maxwell
 

Expected publication: October 8th 2014 by Flux

 

 

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Lucy Aimes has always been practical. But try as she might, she can’t come up with a logical explanation for the recurring dreams that have always haunted her. Dark dreams. Dreams of a long-ago place filled with people she shouldn’t know…but does.

When her family moves to a New Orleans plantation, Lucy’s dreams become more intense, and her search for answers draws her reluctantly into the old city’s world of Voodoo and mysticism. There, Lucy finds Alex, a mysterious boy who behaves as if they’ve known each other forever. Lucy knows Alex is hiding something, and her rational side doesn’t want to be drawn to him. But she is.

As she tries to uncover Alex’s secrets, a killer strikes close to home, and Lucy finds herself ensnared in a century-old vendetta. With the lives of everyone she loves in danger, Lucy will have to unravel the mystery of her dreams before it all comes to a deadly finish.
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And I'm back with the voodoo.

What're you waiting on? :)

Review: Always Emily

Always Emily
Author: Michaela MacColl

Publication Date:  April 8th 2014        
~A copy was provided by Chronicle Books via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

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Emily and Charlotte Brontë are about as opposite as two sisters can be. Charlotte is practical and cautious; Emily is headstrong and imaginative. But they do have one thing in common: a love of writing. This shared passion will lead them to be two of the first published female novelists and authors of several enduring works of classic literature.

But they’re not there yet.

First, they have to figure out if there is a connection between a string of local burglaries, rumors that a neighbor’s death may not have been accidental, and the appearance on the moors of a mysterious and handsome stranger. The girls have a lot of knots to untangle—before someone else gets killed.


 

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• I confess, this is more of a mini-review.

I love Historical fiction, but it's one I always have to concentrate harder on than any other genre,  but Always Emily was different, though it had the feel and context of an historian. That could either be the way it was written or perceived, or mainly because of our MC's are not your traditional brand you'd expect from that century.  Emily's more headstrong and unconventional in what she wants, while Charlottes more diligent and conservative, but they both have one thing in common.

Review: Echo Boy

Echo Boy
Author: Matt Haig

Publication Date:  March 27th 2014
~A copy was provided by Random House Childrens via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

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Audrey's father taught her that to stay human in the modern world, she had to build a moat around herself; a moat of books and music, philosophy and dreams. A moat that makes Audrey different from the echoes: sophisticated, emotionless machines, built to resemble humans and to work for human masters.

Daniel is an echo - but he's not like the others. He feels a connection with Audrey; a feeling Daniel knows he was never designed to have, and cannot explain. And when Audrey is placed in terrible danger, he's determined to save her.

THE ECHO BOY is a powerful story about love, loss and what makes us truly human.



 

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Echo Boy was a complete surprise, but forget The Walking Dead, try my Walking Nightmare. It scared the crap out of me.

Have you seen Surrogates? If you have, I feel sorry for you, I mean, I feel sorry for myself. You haven't? Don't bother. Just read this, it's much better. It's not the same thing, since the "Echo's" are not you hooked up to a machine and mind controlling the robot body, and more Echo's are actual robots, created, made, signed, sealed and delivered all round technically human like advanced robots, but they are machines and nothing more.

Review: This Wicked Game

This Wicked Game
Author: Michelle Zink

Publication Date: November 14th 2013      
Publisher: Dial         

 

 

 



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Claire Kincaid’s family has been in business for over fifty years.

The voodoo business.

Part of the International Guild of High Priests and Priestesses, a secret society that have practiced voodoo for generations, the Kincaid’s run an underground supply house for authentic voodoo supplies. Claire plays along, filling orders for powders, oils and other bizarre ingredients in the family store, but she has a secret.

She doesn’t believe.

Struggling to reconcile her modern sensibilities with a completely unscientific craft based on suspicion, Claire can’t wait to escape New Orleans – and voodoo – when she goes to college, a desire that creates almost constant conflict in her secret affair with Xander Toussaint, son of the Guild’s powerful founding family.

But when a mysterious customer places an order for a deadly ingredient, Claire begins to realize that there’s more to voodoo – and the families that make up the Guild – than meets the eye.

Including her own.

As she bands together with the other firstborns of the Guild, she comes face to face with a deadly enemy – and the disbelief that may very well kill her.

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*Some spoilers ahead, since it's impossible to explain without them.

I can't believe I'm saying this but this wasn't good. I know,  it's about Voodoo, and darkness and curses and voodoo dolls and all those wonderful stuff that is just right up my alley. I love reading about it. And since it's set in New Orleans, the same as Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton, that though is more Greek Mythology than Voodoo, it's kind of a mixed one that I loved. I so wanted to love this one just the same...and didn't.

Waiting on Wednesday (#36)

 "Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.

Killer Instinct (The Naturals #2)  by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
 

Expected publication: November 4th 2014 by Disney-Hyperion

 

 

 

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 Seventeen-year-old Cassie Hobbes has a gift for profiling people. Her talent has landed her a spot in an elite FBI program for teens with innate crime-solving abilities, and into some harrowing situations. After barely escaping a confrontation with an unbalanced killer obsessed with her mother’s murder, Cassie hopes she and the rest of the team can stick to solving cold cases from a distance.

But when victims of a brutal new serial killer start turning up, the Naturals are pulled into an active case that strikes too close to home: the killer is a perfect copycat of Dean’s incarcerated father—a man he’d do anything to forget. Forced deeper into a murderer’s psyche than ever before, will the Naturals be able to outsmart the enigmatic killer’s brutal mind games before this copycat twists them into his web for good?

With her trademark wit, brilliant plotting, and twists that no one will see coming, Jennifer Lynn Barnes will keep readers on the edge of their seats (and looking over their shoulders) as they race through the pages of this thrilling novel.
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I loved The Naturals, because Criminology and Profiling are one of the fascinating things on the planet, and that cover? Love it.

Have you read The Naturals, what did you think of it?

What're you waiting on? :)

DNF Review: Faking Normal

Faking Normal
Author: Courtney C. Stevens

Publication Date: February 25th 2014

~Won an ARC from Amy Plum~

 

 

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An edgy, realistic, and utterly captivating novel from an exciting new voice in teen fiction.
Alexi Littrell hasn't told anyone what happened to her over the summer. Ashamed and embarrassed, she hides in her closet and compulsively scratches the back of her neck, trying to make the outside hurt more than the inside does.

When Bodee Lennox, the quiet and awkward boy next door, comes to live with the Littrells, Alexi discovers an unlikely friend in "the Kool-Aid Kid," who has secrets of his own. As they lean on each other for support, Alexi gives him the strength to deal with his past, and Bodee helps her find the courage to finally face the truth.

A searing, poignant book, Faking Normal is the extraordinary debut novel from an exciting new author-Courtney C. Stevens.

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Lets make this clear, it is not a DNF- Just not a now.

This is why I hate saying DNF, because this really isn't one. It's nothing to do with the writing of the story, well, it is, In a way but not in a bad way. If anything, it's too good, too real, and that's the scary part.

Faking Normal is a struggle. I read up to page 166 of my ARC and had to leave it there for my own sanity. I didn't not finish it because I wanted to, because I wanted to finish reading Lexi's story, but I left it there because I had to.