Waiting on Wednesday #103

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine, which spotlights upcoming releases we can't wait to get our hands on! 

Title: The Rose and The Dagger

Author: Renee Ahdieh

Release Date: May 3rd, 2016

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

I am surrounded on all sides by a desert. A guest, in a prison of sand and sun. My family is here. And I do not know whom I can trust. 

In a land on the brink of war, Shahrzad has been torn from the love of her husband Khalid, the Caliph of Khorasan. She once believed him a monster, but his secrets revealed a man tormented by guilt and a powerful curse—one that might keep them apart forever. Reunited with her family, who have taken refuge with enemies of Khalid, and Tariq, her childhood sweetheart, she should be happy. But Tariq now commands forces set on destroying Khalid's empire. Shahrzad is almost a prisoner caught between loyalties to people she loves. But she refuses to be a pawn and devises a plan. 

While her father, Jahandar, continues to play with magical forces he doesn't yet understand, Shahrzad tries to uncover powers that may lie dormant within her. With the help of a tattered old carpet and a tempestuous but sage young man, Shahrzad will attempt to break the curse and reunite with her one true love.

Earlier this year I fell in love with Renee Ahdieh's debut novel,  The Wrath and The Dawn.  After meeting her, she became one of my new favorite people.  Her writing is incredibly unique, and words cannot explain how much I'm looking forward to the sequel in this series.

What awesome title are you waiting for this Wednesday?

Review: A Step Toward Falling by Cammie McGovern

Title: A Step Toward Falling
Author: Cammie McGovern
Publisher: HarperTeen
Age Group: Young Adult
Category: Contemporary
Release date: October 6th, 2015
Pages: 368 (eGalley)
Rating: 4 out of 5
Source: Edelweiss
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Sometimes one mistake can change everything. 

Emily doesn’t know why she froze. Or why Lucas did too. Afterward, she thought of different ways to rationalize it. But the truth is, they could have helped Belinda, and they didn’t. It’s a mistake they’ll both have to live with. 

Sometimes doing nothing is the only way to cope. Belinda doesn’t want to talk about what happened. Because when she does, it feels like it’s happening all over again. 

Sometimes good can come from bad. 

Emily and Lucas’s punishment is community service at a center for people with disabilities. People like Belinda. Soon they feel like maybe they’re starting to make a real difference. Like they would be able to do the right thing if they could do that night all over again. Like they could help not only those at the center but also each other. 

But when Belinda returns to school, Emily and Lucas have to figure out if they can do anything that will actually help the one person they hurt most.

Belinda has never done anything to deserve what happened to her one Friday night underneath the bleachers at a high school football game.  Emily and Lucas witnessed the unfortunate event, but they froze.  They knew what they needed to do, yet both of them figured that someone else would be the one to take care of everything.  Because of this, both students are sentenced to community service working with other people with disabilities like Belinda.  In their own ways, they each begin to understand how to interact with those different from their typical group of friends.

I enjoyed that this story is told from the point of view of Emily, a 17-year-old teenage girl who has never really fit into the popular crowd.  The second point of view is Belinda's, a 21-year-old student enrolled in the special education program.  At first, it's clear that Emily and Lucas aren't exactly learning much from their community service, but once Belinda comes back into their lives, they do whatever they can to try and make amends.  While Emily and Lucas are still figuring themselves out, they learn a few important lessons in how to care for others.

Belinda is a sweet girl who typically asks for very few things in life.  One of them is to act and the other is to be with Colin Firth, lead actor in the Pride & Prejudice mini series.  When she comes back to school after 6 weeks of trying to cope on her own, Emily and Lucas find that this may be the only shot they have at making it up to her.  They take her two true joys in life and decide to put on a mini play of Pride and Prejudice, starring Belinda herself.  What they don't realize is how much she'll open up after her grandmother tried hard to keep things buried deep inside.  She's an intelligent and charming character, and I'm glad that the author chose to make her a narrator.

Overall, A Step Toward Falling was more than I expected it to be just from reading the description.  The mystery behind the assault pulled me in, but the nature of each character and how well they worked together made me hold on until the end.  This story is honest and well-written.  Cammie McGovern gives voices to those I haven't gotten to hear much of in YA so far.

Review: A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis

Title: A Madness So Discreet
Author: Mindy McGinnis
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Category: Historical Fiction/Mystery
Release date: October 6th, 2015
Pages: 384 (eGalley)
Rating: 4 out of 5
Source: Edelweiss
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Grace Mae knows madness. 

She keeps it locked away, along with her voice, trapped deep inside a brilliant mind that cannot forget horrific family secrets. Those secrets, along with the bulge in her belly, land her in a Boston insane asylum. 

When her voice returns in a burst of violence, Grace is banished to the dark cellars, where her mind is discovered by a visiting doctor who dabbles in the new study of criminal psychology. With her keen eyes and sharp memory, Grace will make the perfect assistant at crime scenes. Escaping from Boston to the safety of an ethical Ohio asylum, Grace finds friendship and hope, hints of a life she should have had. But gruesome nights bring Grace and the doctor into the circle of a killer who stalks young women. Grace, continuing to operate under the cloak of madness, must hunt a murderer while she confronts the demons in her own past.

The only thing that Grace has done wrong is trust the wrong people.  Coming from a very wealthy, important family, our main character has been locked away to keep certain secrets from leaking out.  She chooses not to use her voice, as if it was taken from her, along with the rest of her rights when she was put in the insane asylum.  When she gets herself into deep trouble, she makes connections that help save her from the life her family meant for her to live, but she does everything she can to make sure that her younger sister never suffers the same way she did.

I enjoyed so many aspects of this story, from the gothic theme to the fact that the line between sane and inside can be quite thin.  Grace meets a doctor who routinely performs lobotomies on the most difficult patients, but he disagrees when she proposes that he should "fix" her.  He sees that she has a brilliant mind and devises a plan to get her out of the asylum so she can become his assistant in the search for a murderer.  While out of the confining walls of the hospital, away from those who abuse her, Grace becomes a whole new person.  She finds her voice again and begins to take control of her life.

Grace is a strong character.  She isn't like many that I've come across in my usual reads.  She goes from looking forward to death to finding another escape, dealing with her monsters in her own way, and helping others, even if only by being their friend.  In a way, she even helps Dr. Thornhollow in more ways than solving the mystery behind each new death.  While there isn't any direct romance within the pages of this book, I definitely felt something between Grace and Thornhollow, which only added to the thrill of reading the story.

A Madness So Discreet is a dark, fast-paced read that will leave you hanging on until the very end.  Historical fiction isn't my favorite genre, but I can't imagine this story taking place in any better period.  Mindy McGinnis has a very unique touch when it comes to writing, and although this is my first of her books, it certainly won't be my last.

Review: Juniors by Kaui Hart Hemmings

Title: Juniors
Author: Kaui Hart Hemmings
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons BYR
Age Group: Young Adult
Category: Contemporary
Release date: September 22nd, 2015
Pages: 320 (ARC)
Rating: 4 out of 5
Source: Publisher
Goodreads | Amazon | Author

Lea Lane has lived in between all her life. 

Part Hawaiian, part Mainlander. Perpetual new girl at school. Hanging in the shadow of her actress mother’s spotlight. And now: new resident of the prominent West family’s guest cottage. 

Bracing herself for the embarrassment of being her classmates’ latest charity case, Lea is surprised when she starts becoming friends with Will and Whitney West instead—or in the case of gorgeous, unattainable Will, possibly even more than friends. And despite their differences, Whitney and Lea have a lot in common: both are navigating a tangled web of relationships, past disappointments and future hopes. As things heat up with Will, and her friendship with Whitney deepens, Lea has to decide how much she's willing to change in order to fit into their world. 

Lea Lane has lived in between all her life. But it isn’t until her junior year that she learns how to do it on her own terms.

Lea Lane doesn't quite fit in.  She followed her actress mother to Hawaii during her junior year of high school, where everyone already knows everyone else.  The only attention she seems to get is from the West family, who invite Lea and her mother to stay in their guest house during her latest project, a popular upcoming drama that the entire island seems to be buzzing about.  Once she steps into this new territory, there's no going back.  Over the next few months, secrets begin to unravel and surprising bonds are made.  Not everyone is what they seem, but some definitely are.

The setting for Juniors is beautiful. I believe this may be the first book I've read which is set in Hawaii, but I thought that the author did a great job bringing readers into the tropical climate, relaxing space and ultimate vacation destination.  Though I've never been to Hawaii, I could imagine every part of the island that Lea wandered.  This book gives you just the right summer feelings.

Friendship is the most important part of the story and it's done well, because each character had their flaws, although some weren't as obvious as others.  As Lea got to know Will and Whitney as friends, she realizes that they're more alike than anyone could have guessed.  The Wests come from a wealthy family, and it's no secret that Lea and her mother have significantly less.  While they've never struggled or gone without anything they need, they don't exactly own a beach side mansion, either.

Throughout the book, we see Lea blossom.  Although she was a little hesitant to get close to Whitney, they end up with a true friendship that could last a lifetime.  There are a lot of feelings in this book, from self doubt, judgement, and the value of others to love, excitement, and true happiness.  Juniors is a great beachy read for summer or just for when you want to get away from the chill of those colder months.

Release Day: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

It's no secret that Rainbow Rowell is one of my favorite authors.  I first fell in love with Eleanor & Park, then I got wrapped up in her second young adult novel, Fangirl.  This is where readers are introduced to Simon Snow, a fictional character within another fictional book.  He's almost like Harry Potter to Rowell's main character, Cath.  In Carry On, we get to dive deeper into Simon Snow's world and see why Cath became so obsessed.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Rainbow Rowell continues to break boundaries with Carry On, an epic fantasy following the triumphs and heartaches of Simon and Baz from her beloved bestseller Fangirl. 

Simon Snow just wants to relax and savor his last year at the Watford School of Magicks, but no one will let him. His girlfriend broke up with him, his best friend is a pest, and his mentor keeps trying to hide him away in the mountains where maybe he’ll be safe. Simon can’t even enjoy the fact that his roommate and longtime nemesis is missing, because he can’t stop worrying about the evil git. Plus there are ghosts. And vampires. And actual evil things trying to shut Simon down. When you’re the most powerful magician the world has ever known, you never get to relax and savor anything. 

Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story — but far, far more monsters.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

RAINBOW ROWELL writes books. Sometimes she writes about adults (Attachments and Landline). Sometimes she writes about teenagers (Eleanor & Park, Fangirl and Carry On). But she always writes about people who talk a lot. And people who feel like they're screwing up. And people who fall in love. When she's not writing, Rainbow is reading comic books, planning Disney World trips and arguing about things that don't really matter in the big scheme of things. She lives in Nebraska with her husband and two sons.

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GIVEAWAY

I'm so excited for this release that I'm giving away a copy of the book.  This giveaway is open internationally!  Good luck, everyone!

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