Waiting on Wednesday (72)

Like Water by Rebecca Podos
Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary/LGBTQIA+
Page Length: 304 pages
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: October 17, 2017

About Like Water (via Goodreads):

A gorgeously written and deeply felt literary young adult novel of identity, millennial anxiety, and first love, from the widely acclaimed author of The Mystery of Hollow Places

In Savannah Espinoza’s small New Mexico hometown, kids either flee after graduation or they’re trapped there forever. Vanni never planned to get stuck—but that was before her father was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease, leaving her and her mother to care for him. Now, she doesn’t have much of a plan at all: living at home, working as a performing mermaid at a second-rate water park, distracting herself with one boy after another.

That changes the day she meets Leigh. Disillusioned with small-town life and looking for something greater, Leigh is not a “nice girl.” She is unlike anyone Vanni has met, and a friend when Vanni desperately needs one. Soon enough, Leigh is much more than a friend. But caring about another person stirs up the moat Vanni has carefully constructed around herself, and threatens to bring to the surface the questions she’s held under for so long.

With her signature stunning writing, Rebecca Podos, author of The Mystery of Hollow Places, has crafted a story of first love and of the complex ways in which the deepest parts of us are hidden, even from ourselves.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that you are eagerly anticipating.

Blood Rose Rebellion (DNF Review)

Blood Rose Rebellion by Rosalyn Eves
Series: Blood Rose Rebellion #1
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy/Historical Fiction
Page Length: 416 pages
Format: ARC (received from Penguin/First In Line, still reaping the benefits from my B-Fest trivia win over the summer)
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: March 28, 2017

About Blood Rose Rebellion (via Goodreads):

The thrilling first book in a YA fantasy trilogy for fans of Red Queen. In a world where social prestige derives from a trifecta of blood, money, and magic, one girl has the ability to break the spell that holds the social order in place.

Sixteen-year-old Anna Arden is barred from society by a defect of blood. Though her family is part of the Luminate, powerful users of magic, she is Barren, unable to perform the simplest spells. Anna would do anything to belong. But her fate takes another course when, after inadvertently breaking her sister’s debutante spell—an important chance for a highborn young woman to show her prowess with magic—Anna finds herself exiled to her family’s once powerful but now crumbling native Hungary.

Her life might well be over.

In Hungary, Anna discovers that nothing is quite as it seems. Not the people around her, from her aloof cousin Noémi to the fierce and handsome Romani Gábor. Not the society she’s known all her life, for discontent with the Luminate is sweeping the land. And not her lack of magic. Isolated from the only world she cares about, Anna still can’t seem to stop herself from breaking spells.

As rebellion spreads across the region, Anna’s unique ability becomes the catalyst everyone is seeking. In the company of nobles, revolutionaries, and Romanies, Anna must choose: deny her unique power and cling to the life she’s always wanted, or embrace her ability and change that world forever.

DNF'd @ 28%

I believe this is a book that other people may enjoy, but it just wasn't right for me. I did like several elements of the novel, but there were also several issues that I could not get out of my head.

First, I want to briefly talk about the positives. I absolutely loved how Eves weaved the story and her magical system around historical Europe, and how she included so many different cultural aspects. Her writing flowed gracefully, and in general, things were masterfully created.

However, there was so much info-dumping in the first few chapters (and even beyond that). The information that was given could have definitely been more evenly distributed as the events of the novel unfolded. Especially because when there is a lot of explaining all at once, it is too easy to get swept up by it all and lose track of everything that was just dumped on the reader. I know I felt that way about the magic system and the world at first, and even as I continued reading because there was just too much for me to remember.

In addition, the pacing seemed really skewed to me. In the beginning, there seemed to be so much going on, yet it quickly became stagnant with very little plot progression at all. The pacing also negatively impacted my opinions of the characters. At the beginning, I could not develop any true feelings (much less positive ones) about any of the characters presented to me, including Anna, the protagonist. Almost immediately, the characters came across as snobbish and seem like massive, selfish jerks (other than their amazing Grandmama). I could barely sympathize with anyone.

Furthermore, although the setting and historical aspects were a nice change, most of the other aspects of the book were pretty trope-y and filled with cliches. There was the whole, almost reverse-chosen one thing going on where the girl with no powers in a world of super-humans somehow manages to overthrow society and change the world, and so much more that just seemed a repetition of the popular books before it.

Ultimately, Blood Rose Rebellion has a lot of potential, and I believe others may greatly enjoy it, but there were several flaws that were a turn-off for me. I honestly may pick it back up again in the near future, but as of right now, I have no intention of finishing.

Waiting on Wednesday (71)

Wicked Like a Wildfire by Lana Popović
Series: Hibiscus Daughter #1
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy
Page Length: 416 pages
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: August 15, 2017

About Wicked Like a Wildfire (via Goodreads):

All the women in Iris and Malina's family are born with a gleam—a unique way of manipulating beauty through magic. Seventeen-year-old Iris sees flowers as fractals and turns her kaleidoscope visions into glasswork, her twin sister Malina interprets moods as music, and their cold, distant mother Jasmina bakes scenery into decadent treats at her confectionery in Old Town Cattaro, Montenegro.

Jasmina forbids Iris and Malina to share their gleams with anyone, and above all, she forbids them to fall in love—being discovered could shatter the quiet lives they’ve built in their tucked-away, seaside town. But Iris and Malina are tired of abiding by their mother’s rules and rebel in secret whenever they can.

Yet when a mysterious, white-haired woman attacks their mother and leaves her hovering between life and death, the sisters unearth an ancient curse that haunts their line—a wicked bargain that masquerades as a blessing, and binds the twins’ fates—and hearts—to a force larger than life. To save each other, they must untangle a thousand years of lies and reveal their own hurtful secrets. But even the deepest sacrifice might not be enough.

Wicked Like a Wildfire is the first book in a sumptuous, bewitching duology about the power of love, death, magic, and the many faces of beauty.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that you are eagerly anticipating.

Waiting on Wednesday (70)

Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore
Genre: Young Adult/Magical Realism/LGBTQIA+
Page Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date: October 3, 2017

About Wild Beauty (via Goodreads):

Love grows such strange things.

Anna-Marie McLemore's debut novel The Weight of Feathers garnered fabulous reviews and was a finalist for the prestigious YALSA Morris Award, and her second novel, When the Moon was Ours, was longlisted for the 2016 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Now, in Wild Beauty, McLemore introduces a spellbinding setting and two characters who are drawn together by fate—and pulled apart by reality.

For nearly a century, the Nomeolvides women have tended the grounds of La Pradera, the lush estate gardens that enchant guests from around the world. They’ve also hidden a tragic legacy: if they fall in love too deeply, their lovers vanish. But then, after generations of vanishings, a strange boy appears in the gardens.

The boy is a mystery to Estrella, the Nomeolvides girl who finds him, and to her family, but he’s even more a mystery to himself; he knows nothing more about who he is or where he came from than his first name. As Estrella tries to help Fel piece together his unknown past, La Pradera leads them to secrets as dangerous as they are magical in this stunning exploration of love, loss, and family.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that you are eagerly anticipating.

Waiting on Wednesday (69)

Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller
Series: Untitled #1
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy/LGBTQIA+
Page Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: September 5, 2017

About Mask of Shadows (via Goodreads):

Perfect for fantasy fans of Sarah J. Maas and Leigh Bardugo, the first book in this new duology features a compelling gender fluid main character, impressive worldbuilding, and fast-paced action.

Sallot Leon is a thief, and a good one at that. But gender fluid Sal wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and get closer to the upper-class―and the nobles who destroyed their home.

When Sal steals a flyer for an audition to become a member of The Left Hand―the Queen's personal assassins, named after the rings she wears―Sal jumps at the chance to infiltrate the court and get revenge.

But the audition is a fight to the death filled with clever circus acrobats, lethal apothecaries, and vicious ex-soldiers. A childhood as a common criminal hardly prepared Sal for the trials. And as Sal succeeds in the competition, and wins the heart of Elise, an intriguing scribe at court, they start to dream of a new life and a different future, but one that Sal can have only if they survive.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that you are eagerly anticipating.

Waiting on Wednesday (68)

Definitions of Indefinable Things by Whitney Taylor
Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary
Page Length: 336 pages
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: April 4, 2017

About Definitions of Indefinable Things (via Goodreads):

This heartbreaking, humorous novel is about three teens whose lives intersect in ways they never expected.

Reggie Mason is all too familiar with "the Three Stages of Depression." She believes she’s unlocked the secret to keeping herself safe: Nobody can hurt you if you never let them in.

Reggie encounters an unexpected challenge to her misanthropy: a Twizzler-chomping, indie film-making narcissist named Snake. Snake’s presence, while reassuring, is not exactly stable—especially since his ex-girlfriend is seven months pregnant. As Reggie falls for Snake, she must decide whether it’s time to rewrite the rules that have defined her.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that you are eagerly anticipating.

Waiting on Wednesday (67)

The Seafarer's Kiss by Julia Ember
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy/Retelling/LGBTQIA+
Page Length: 230 pages
Publisher: Duet Books, the YA imprint of Interlude Press
Publication Date: May 4, 2017

About The Seafarer's Kiss (via Goodreads):

Having long-wondered what lives beyond the ice shelf, nineteen-year-old mermaid Ersel learns of the life she wants when she rescues and befriends Ragna, a shield-maiden stranded on the mermen’s glacier. But when Ersel’s childhood friend and suitor catches them together, he gives Ersel a choice: say goodbye to Ragna or face justice at the hands of the glacier’s brutal king.

Determined to forge a different fate, Ersel seeks help from Loki. But such deals are never as one expects, and the outcome sees her exiled from the only home and protection she’s known. To save herself from perishing in the barren, underwater wasteland and be reunited with the human she’s come to love, Ersel must try to outsmart the God of Lies.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that you are eagerly anticipating.