Tag Archives: YA Fantasy

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Waiting On Wednesday – 56

Hello gentle reader,

today I’m waiting on STRAY by Elissa Sussman (expected publication: 7th October 2014 by Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins. It’s a YA Fantasy pitched as “an original fairy tale, a cross between The Handmaid’s Tale and Wicked, with a dash of Grimm and Disney thrown in”. Needless to say, I’m intrigued…

Stray

From Goodreads:

Princess Aislynn has long dreamed about attending her Introduction Ball, about dancing with the handsome suitors her adviser has chosen for her, about meeting her true love and starting her happily ever after.

When the night of the ball finally arrives and Nerine Academy is awash with roses and royalty, Aislynn wants nothing more than to dance the night away, dutifully following the Path that has been laid out for her. She does not intend to stray.

But try as she might, Aislynn has never quite managed to control the magic that burns within her-magic brought on by wicked, terrible desires that threaten the Path she has vowed to take.

After all, it is wrong to want what you do not need. Isn’t it?

STRAY is the first in a collection of intertwined stories, all set in a world where magic is a curse that only women bear and society is dictated by a strict doctrine called The Path.

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by book blogger Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases we’re eagerly anticipating.

Have you heard about this book? Is it on your TBR list? What are you waiting on this week?

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Waiting On Wednesday – 54

Hello gentle reader,

this week, I’m waiting on RADIANT by Karina Sumner-Smith (expected publication: 9th September 2014 by Talos). It’s a YA Fantasy and the first book in the TOWERS trilogy. I’ve “met” Karina on Twitter a while ago and I’ve wanted to read her book ever since!

Radiant

From Goodreads:

Xhea has no magic. Born without the power that everyone else takes for granted, Xhea is an outcast—no way to earn a living, buy food, or change the life that fate has dealt her. Yet she has a unique talent: the ability to see ghosts and the tethers that bind them to the living world, which she uses to scratch out a bare existence in the ruins beneath the City’s floating Towers.

When a rich City man comes to her with a young woman’s ghost tethered to his chest, Xhea has no idea that this ghost will change everything. The ghost, Shai, is a Radiant, a rare person who generates so much power that the Towers use it to fuel their magic, heedless of the pain such use causes. Shai’s home Tower is desperate to get the ghost back and force her into a body—any body—so that it can regain its position, while the Tower’s rivals seek the ghost to use her magic for their own ends. Caught between a multitude of enemies and desperate to save Shai, Xhea thinks herself powerless—until a strange magic wakes within her. Magic dark and slow, like rising smoke, like seeping oil. A magic whose very touch brings death.

With two extremely strong female protagonists, Radiant is a story of fighting for what you believe in and finding strength that you never thought you had.

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by book blogger Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases we’re eagerly anticipating.

Have you heard about this book? Is it on your TBR list? What are you waiting on this week?

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Waiting On Wednesday – 53

Hello gentle reader,

today I’m waiting on BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE by Maggie Stiefvater (expected publication: 21st October 2014 by Scholastic Press). It’s a YA Fantasy book and the third book in the Raven Cycle which will comprise four books. I absolutely loved THE RAVEN BOYS and THE DREAM THIEVES, and I cannot wait to read this book. The Raven Cycle is one of the most unique YA Fantasy I’ve read, with amazing writing and characters. I’m really looking forward to finding out where Maggie Stiefvater takes us with this third installment!

Blue Lily Lily Blue

From Goodreads (no spoilers if you haven’t read Books 1 & 2):

There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up.

Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs.

The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost.

Friends can betray.
Mothers can disappear.
Visions can mislead.
Certainties can unravel.

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by book blogger Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases we’re eagerly anticipating.

Have you heard about this book? Is it on your TBR list? What are you waiting on this week?

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Waiting On Wednesday – 52

Hello gentle reader,

today I’m waiting on AN EMBER IN THE ASHES by Sabaa Tahir (expected publication: 28th April 2015 by Penguin/Razorbill). It’s a YA High Fantasy debut whose world-building was inspired by Ancient Rome. Paramount Pictures has already bought the rights to the book (se details here). Doesn’t it sound great?

An Ember In The Ashes

From Goodreads:

Set in a terrifyingly brutal Rome-like world, An Ember in the Ashes is an epic fantasy debut about an orphan fighting for her family and a soldier fighting for his freedom. It’s a story that’s literally burning to be told.

Laia is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire’s greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution.

Elias is the academy’s finest soldier— and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias is considering deserting the military, but before he can, he’s ordered to participate in a ruthless contest to choose the next Martial emperor.

When Laia and Elias’s paths cross at the academy, they find that their destinies are more intertwined than either could have imagined and that their choices will change the future of the empire itself.

Vow your blood and body to the empire.

Keep your heart for yourself.

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by book blogger Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases we’re eagerly anticipating.

Have you heard about this book? Is it on your TBR list? What are you waiting on this week?

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Waiting On Wednesday – 49

Hello gentle reader,

this week, I’m waiting on THE KISS OF DECEPTION by Mary E. Pearson (expected publication: 8th July 2014 by Henry Holt). It’s a YA Fantasy (first book in a trilogy) which comes out next week and sounds intriguing…

kissofdeception

From Goodreads:

In a society steeped in tradition, Princess Lia’s life follows a preordained course. As First Daughter, she is expected to have the revered gift of sight—but she doesn’t—and she knows her parents are perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to secure an alliance with a neighboring kingdom—to a prince she has never met.

On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her.

Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—even as she finds herself falling in love.

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by book blogger Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases we’re eagerly anticipating.

Have you heard about this book? Is it on your TBR list? What are you waiting on this week?

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Summer Reads – 2014 Edition

Hello gentle reader,

I’ve asked my friends which book they’re most looking forward to reading this summer. Here are their answers…

Lauren Garafalo chose The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (YA High Fantasy)

Queen of the Tearling

Jessica Rubinkowski picked Fire by Kristin Cashore and Warrior by Ellen Oh (both are YA High Fantasy)

Fire

Warrior

Ambiguous A. chose The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Fantasy)

The Night Circus UK

Kate Michael picked Autumn Bones by Jacqueline Carey (Urban Fantasy) and The Falconer by Elizabeth May (YA  Historical Fantasy)

Autumn Bone

The Falconer

Rachel O’Laughlin chose Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (Epic Fantasy) and Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne (YA High Fantasy)

final-empire

Midnight Thief

Jenny Adams Perinovic picked Written In My Own Heart’s Blood (Outlander #8) by Diana Gabaldon (Historical – Time Travel)

Written In My Own Heart's Blood

Katie Bucklein picked Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge (YA Fairy Tale Retelling)

Cruel Beauty

And almost everyone said they were either reading or abour to read Ruin and Rising (Grisha #3) by Leigh Bardugo (YA High Fantasy)

Ruin and Rising Final

Has your TBR pile suddenly grown? Yes, mine too 😉

Which book are you looking forward to reading this summer? Feel free to leave me a comment below!

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Waiting On Wednesday – 47

Hello gentle reader,

Today I’m waiting on MIDNIGHT THIEF by Livia Blackburne (expected publication: 8th July 2014 by Disney-Hyperion). It’s a YA Epic Fantasy and I’ve read great reviews about it (from book bloggers who were lucky enough to read the ARC!). And have you seen this great cover?!

Midnight Thief

From Goodreads:

Growing up on Forge’s streets has taught Kyra how to stretch a coin. And when that’s not enough, her uncanny ability to scale walls and bypass guards helps her take what she needs.

But when the leader of the Assassins Guild offers Kyra a lucrative job, she hesitates. She knows how to get by on her own, and she’s not sure she wants to play by his rules. But he’s persistent—and darkly attractive—and Kyra can’t quite resist his pull.

Tristam of Brancel is a young Palace knight on a mission. After his best friend is brutally murdered by Demon Riders, a clan of vicious warriors who ride bloodthirsty wildcats, Tristam vows to take them down. But as his investigation deepens, he finds his efforts thwarted by a talented thief, one who sneaks past Palace defenses with uncanny ease.

When a fateful raid throws Kyra and Tristam together, the two enemies realize that their best chance at survival—and vengeance—might be to join forces. And as their loyalties are tested to the breaking point, they learn a startling secret about Kyra’s past that threatens to reshape both their lives.

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by book blogger Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases we’re eagerly anticipating.

Have you heard about this book? Is it on your TBR list? What are you waiting on this week?

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Waiting On Wednesday – 46

Hello gentle reader,

Today I’m waiting on WINTERSPELL by Claire Legrand (expected publication: 30th September 2014 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers). It’s a YA Fantasy retelling of THE NUTCRACKER, which is exciting enough, but have you also seen this gorgeous cover?! I can’t wait for this book!

WINTERSPELL-FINAL

From Goodreads

The clock chimes midnight, a curse breaks, and a girl meets a prince . . . but what follows is not all sweetness and sugarplums.

New York City, 1899. Clara Stole, the mayor’s ever-proper daughter, leads a double life. Since her mother’s murder, she has secretly trained in self-defense with the mysterious Drosselmeyer.

Then, on Christmas Eve, disaster strikes.

Her home is destroyed, her father abducted–by beings distinctly not human. To find him, Clara journeys to the war-ravaged land of Cane. Her only companion is the dethroned prince Nicholas, bound by a wicked curse. If they’re to survive, Clara has no choice but to trust him, but his haunted eyes burn with secrets–and a need she can’t define. With the dangerous, seductive faery queen Anise hunting them, Clara soon realizes she won’t leave Cane unscathed–if she leaves at all.

Inspired by The Nutcracker, Winterspell is a dark, timeless fairy tale about love and war, longing and loneliness, and a girl who must learn to live without fear.

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by book blogger Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases we’re eagerly anticipating.

Have you heard about this book? Is it on your TBR list? What are you waiting on this week?

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Waiting On Wednesday – 45

Hello gentle reader,

Today I’m waiting on PRINCESS OF THORNS by Stacey Jay (expected publication: 9th December 2014 by Delacorte Press). It’s a YA Epic Fantasy and a fairytale retelling. I heard about it a while ago and I’ve read some really good reviews, so I’m curious to find out if it’s as good as advertised…

PRINCESS_THORNS_FRONT

From Goodreads:

Game of Thrones meets the Grimm’s fairy tales in this twisted, fast-paced romantic fantasy-adventure about Sleeping Beauty’s daughter, a warrior princess who must fight to reclaim her throne.

Though she looks like a mere mortal, Princess Aurora is a fairy blessed with enhanced strength, bravery, and mercy yet cursed to destroy the free will of any male who kisses her. Disguised as a boy, she enlists the help of the handsome but also cursed Prince Niklaas to fight legions of evil and free her brother from the ogre queen who stole Aurora’s throne ten years ago.

Will Aurora triumph over evil and reach her brother before it’s too late? Can Aurora and Niklaas break the curses that will otherwise forever keep them from finding their one true love?

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by book blogger Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases we’re eagerly anticipating.

Have you heard about this book? Is it on your TBR list? What are you waiting on this week?

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Waiting On Wednesday – 44

Hello gentle reader,

Today I’m waiting on SUSPICION by Alexandra Monir (expected publication: 9th December 2014 by Delacorte Press). It’s a YA Fantasy and a retelling of Daphne Du Maurier’s REBECCA. Isn’t this cover beautiful?

Suspicion

From Goodreads:

Mysterious. Magnificent. Creepy. Welcome to Rockford Manor.

“There’s something hidden in the Maze.” Seventeen-year-old Imogen has never forgotten the last words her father said to her seven years ago, before the blazing fire that consumed him, her mother, and the gardens of her family’s English country manor.

Haunted by her parents’ deaths, Imogen moves to New York City with her new guardians. But when a letter arrives with the news of her cousin’s untimely death, revealing that Imogen is now the only heir left to run the estate, she returns to England and warily accepts her role as duchess.

All is not as it seems at Rockford, and Imogen quickly learns that dark secrets lurk behind the mansion’s aristocratic exterior, hinting that the spate of deaths in her family were no accident. And at the center of the mystery is Imogen herself–and Sebastian, the childhood friend she has secretly loved for years. Just what has Imogen walked into?

Combining a fresh twist on the classic REBECCA with a spine-tingling mystery and powerful romance, SUSPICION is an action-packed thrill ride.

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by book blogger Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases we’re eagerly anticipating.

Have you heard about this book? Is it on your TBR list? What are you waiting on this week?