Waiting On Wednesdays: Scourged and Stormcaster

 

Waiting on Wednesdays is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine. The purpose is to spotlight upcoming book releases that we are excited for.

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Scourged (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #9) by Kevin Hearne

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publication Date: Apr. 3rd, 2018
Publisher: Del Rey
ISBN: 9780345548542
Add it: To your TBR Pile or your “Want to Read” list on Goodreads.

Kevin Hearne creates the ultimate Atticus O’Sullivan adventure in the grand finale of the New York Times bestselling Iron Druid Chronicles: an epic battle royale against the Norse gods of Asgard.

Unchained from fate, the Norse gods Loki and Hel are ready to unleash Ragnarok, a.k.a. the Apocalypse, upon the earth. They’ve made allies on the darker side of many pantheons, and there’s a globe-spanning battle brewing that ancient Druid Atticus O’Sullivan will be hard-pressed to survive, much less win.

Granuaile MacTiernan must join immortals Sun Wukong and Erlang Shen in a fight against the Yama Kings in Taiwan, but she discovers that the stakes are much higher than she thought.

Meanwhile, Archdruid Owen Kennedy must put out both literal and metaphorical fires from Bavaria to Peru to keep the world safe for his apprentices and the future of Druidry.

And Atticus recruits the aid of a tyromancer, an Indian witch, and a trickster god in hopes that they’ll give him just enough leverage to both save Gaia and see another sunrise. There is a hound named Oberon who deserves a snack, after all.

Stormcaster (Shattered Realms, #3) by Cinda Williams Chima

Hardcover: 544 pages
Publication Date: Apr. 3rd, 2018
Publisher: HarperTeen
ISBN: 9780062381002
Add it: To your TBR Pile or your “Want to Read” list on Goodreads.

The third book in the thrilling four-book Shattered Realms series from New York Times bestselling author Cinda Williams Chima.

The empress in the east—the unspeakably cruel ruler whose power grew in Flamecaster and Shadowcaster—tightens her grip in this chilling third installment in the series.

Vagabond seafarer Evan Strangward can move the ocean and the wind, but his magical abilities seem paltry in comparison to Empress Celestine’s. As Celestine’s bloodsworn armies grow, Evan travels to the Fells to warn the queendom of her imminent invasion. If he can’t convince the Gray Wolf queen to take a stand, he knows that the Seven Realms will fall. Among the dead will be the one person Evan can’t stand to lose.

Meanwhile, the queen’s formidable daughter, Princess Alyssa ana’Raisa, is already a prisoner aboard the empress’s ship. Lyss may be the last remaining hope of bringing down the empress from within her own tightly controlled territory.

Multiple intricately interwoven storylines converge in this gripping novel about a brave, coordinated effort to undermine a horrific tyrant.

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What are you waiting for this week?

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“Waiting On” Wednesdays: Tumbling

Waiting on Wednesdays is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine. The purpose is to spotlight upcoming book releases that we are excited for.

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“Waiting On” Wednesdays: The Long Game

Waiting on Wednesdays is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine. The purpose is to spotlight upcoming book releases that we are excited for.

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“Waiting On” Wednesdays: The Hidden Oracle

Waiting on Wednesdays is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine. The purpose is to spotlight upcoming book releases that we are excited for.

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The Hidden Oracle (The Trials of Apollo, #1) by Rick Riordan

Hardcover, 376 pages
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2016
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
ISBN: 9781484732748
Add it: To your TBR Pile or your “Want to Read” list on Goodreads.

How do you punish an immortal?

By making him human.

After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disorientated, he lands in New York City as a regular teenage boy. Now, without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus’s favour.

But Apollo has many enemies – gods, monsters and mortals who would love to see the former Olympian permanently destroyed. Apollo needs help, and he can think of only one place to go . . . an enclave of modern demigods known as Camp Half-Blood.

What can I say?  It’s Rick Riordan, and a continuation of Percy Jackson’s world. OF COURSE I want to read this book!!! LOL Sorry if I’m a bit too excited for some of you, but I can’t really care too much. These books are really that good. What I’m looking forward to with the start of this new series is that we’re getting the perspective of one of the Gods! Apollo takes center stage and that change in viewpoint is HUGE. I do hope we get the opportunity to see some of the characters from past books. I’d really like to know if Leo ever made it home. But even if it’s got a whole new set of Demigods I bet they’ll be just as cool as their predecessors. Combine Riordan’s trademark humor with his irreverent interpretation of the Ancient Greek and Roman myths, and I just know this will be another epic series!

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What are you waiting for this week?

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“Waiting On” Wednesdays: Flamecaster

Waiting on Wednesdays is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine. The purpose is to spotlight upcoming book releases that we are excited for.

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Flamecaster (Shattered Realms, #1) by Cinda Williams Chima

Hardcover, 535 pages
Publication Date: Apr. 5th, 2016
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780062380944
Add it: To your TBR Pile or your “Want to Read” list on Goodreads.

A burning vengeance.

Adrian sul’Han, known as Ash, is a trained healer with a powerful gift of magic—and a thirst for revenge. The son of the queen of the Fells, Ash is forced into hiding after a series of murders throws the queendom into chaos. Now Ash is closer than he’s ever been to killing the man responsible, the cruel king of Arden. As a healer, can Ash use his powers not to save a life but to take it?

A blood-based curse.

Abandoned at birth, Jenna Bandelow was told the mysterious magemark on the back of her neck would make her a target. But when the King’s Guard launches a relentless search for a girl with a mark like hers, Jenna assumes that it has more to do with her role as a saboteur than any birth-based curse. Though Jenna doesn’t know why she’s being hunted, she knows that she can’t get caught.

Destiny’s fiery hand.

Eventually, Ash’s and Jenna’s paths will collide in Arden. Thrown together by chance and joined by their hatred of the king, they will come to rescue each other in ways they cannot yet imagine.

Set in the world of the acclaimed Seven Realms series a generation later, this is a thrilling story of dark magic, chilling threats, and two unforgettable characters walking a knife-sharp line between life and death.

Okay y’all I’ve been waiting for Cinda Williams Chima’s new series for like… 2 years. I can’t do it much longer!!! First, it is set in the Seven Realms world (my favorite of hers) and picks up 25 years from the end of the 1st series. Yay!!! I’m SO looking forward to seeing Han and Raisa again! Next, this new series feels similar in that it’s two major character viewpoints, and I loved the way she split the story the first time around. Things (plot-wise) also seem like they are going to get crazy really quick with these murders, and Jenna being hunted. Then there’s the fact that Chima’s just an AMAZING writer. She sucks me into her stories so quickly and holds me there with a death grip. And I love her for it!

Plus, have you looked at this cover?? Go on, I’ll give you a minute to stare at the pretty… *Deep breath and… Le sigh.* You know, I think I’ll just leave it at that.

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What are you waiting for this week?

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“Waiting On” Wednesdays: Walk the Edge

Waiting on Wednesdays is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine. The purpose is to spotlight upcoming book releases that we are excited for.

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Walk the Edge (Thunder Road, #2) by Katie McGarry

Hardcover, 426 pages
Publication Date: Mar. 29th, 2016
Publisher: Harlequin TEEN
ISBN: 9780373211623
Add it: To your TBR Pile or your “Want to Read” list on Goodreads.

One moment of recklessness will change their worlds.

Smart. Responsible. That’s seventeen-year-old Breanna’s role in her large family, and heaven forbid she put a toe out of line. Until one night of shockingly un-Breanna-like behavior puts her into a vicious cyber-bully’s line of fire—and brings fellow senior Thomas “Razor” Turner into her life.

Razor lives for the Reign of Terror motorcycle club, and good girls like Breanna just don’t belong. But when he learns she’s being blackmailed over a compromising picture of the two of them—a picture that turns one unexpected and beautiful moment into ugliness—he knows it’s time to step outside the rules.

And so they make a pact: he’ll help her track down her blackmailer, and in return she’ll help him seek answers to the mystery that’s haunted him—one that not even his club brothers have been willing to discuss. But the more time they spend together, the more their feelings grow. And suddenly they’re both walking the edge of discovering who they really are, what they want, and where they’re going from here.

I’m such a big fan of Katie McGarry! Her stories, are always full of drama and tension, but still feel like the characters could step off the page and into this world with no problems! They are that real. The situations and problems they face are true to life and I feel like if I went down to Kentucky I would find these people walking around. With her new Thunder Road series, I liked the first book but wasn’t as into it as her previous series. But now with book 2, I find I’m really excited to read about Razor! We don’t really know too much about him from the first book so I’m kinda glad he’s the focus of this story.

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What are you waiting for this week?

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“Waiting On” Wednesdays: Rebel of the Sands and The Great Hunt

Waiting on Wednesdays is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine. The purpose is to spotlight upcoming book releases that we are excited for.

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Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

Hardcover, 400 pages

Publication Date: Mar. 8th, 2016
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780451477538
Add it: To your TBR Pile or your “Want to Read” list on Goodreads.

“You will cheer for Amani the whole way as she escapes the bonds of oppression and finds her own power, and you will mark your calendar for the sequel.”—Rae Carson, bestselling author of the Fire & Thorns trilogy

Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mythical beasts still roam the wild and remote areas, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinn still perform their magic.  For humans, it’s an unforgiving place, especially if you’re poor, orphaned, or female.

Amani Al’Hiza is all three.  She’s a gifted gunslinger with perfect aim, but she can’t shoot her way out of Dustwalk, the back-country town where she’s destined to wind up wed or dead.

Then she meets Jin, a rakish foreigner, in a shooting contest, and sees him as the perfect escape route. But though she’s spent years dreaming of leaving Dustwalk, she never imagined she’d gallop away on mythical horse—or that it would take a foreign fugitive to show her the heart of the desert she thought she knew.

Rebel of the Sands reveals what happens when a dream deferred explodes—in the fires of rebellion, of romantic passion, and the all-consuming inferno of a girl finally, at long last, embracing her power.

Mythical beasts, djinn, gunslingers, and a rebellion? Sign me up please! I’m really excited to find out more about the heroine, Amani. A girl embracing her power… and the setting sounds fantastic. I’m such a sucker for great world-building and I really hope this story can deliver the way it sounds.

And now, since there are so many wonderful books out there, here’s a second book I’m waiting for…

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The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins

Hardcover, 416 pages

Publication Date: Mar. 8th, 2016
Publisher: HarperTeen
ISBN: 9780062381330
Add it: To your TBR Pile or your “Want to Read” list on Goodreads.

Kill the beast. Win the girl.

A strange beast stirs fear in the kingdom of Lochlanach, terrorizing towns with its brutality and hunger. In an act of desperation, a proclamation is sent to all of Eurona—kill the creature and win the ultimate prize: the daughter of King Lochson’s hand in marriage.

Princess Aerity understands her duty to the kingdom though it pains her to imagine marrying a stranger. It would be foolish to set her sights on any particular man in the great hunt, but when a brooding local hunter, Paxton Seabolt, catches her attention, there’s no denying the unspoken lure between them…or his mysterious resentment.

Paxton is not keen on marriage. Nor does he care much for spoiled royals and their arcane laws. He’s determined to keep his focus on the task at hand—ridding the kingdom of the beast and protecting his family—yet Princess Aerity continues to challenge his notions with her unpredictability and charm. But as past secrets collide with present desires, dire choices threaten everything Paxton holds dear.

Inspired by the Grimm Brothers’ tale, “The Singing Bone,” New York Times bestselling author Wendy Higgins delivers a dark fantasy filled with rugged hunters, romantic tension, outlawed magic, and a princess willing to risk all to save her people.

I’m deeply interested in this story, especially the fact that it’s inspired by a fairy tale (my favorite!) And I like the fact that this seems to be a lesser-known one, instead of one of the biggies. It sounds so dramatic and full of magic and I’m already a fan.

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What are you waiting for this week?

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“Waiting On” Wednesdays: Delilah Dirk and the King’s Shilling

Waiting on Wednesdays is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine. The purpose is to spotlight upcoming book releases that we are excited for.

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Delilah Dirk and the King’s Shilling (Delilah Dirk, #2) by Tony Cliff

Paperback, 272 pages
Publication Date: Mar. 8th, 2015
Publisher: First Second
ISBN: 9781626721555
Add it: To your TBR Pile or your “Want to Read” list on Goodreads.

Delilah Dirk and the Blades of England lands Delilah and Selim right in the middle of yet more crazy adventures. When Delilah is framed as a spy by an English army officer, her passion for revenge threatens to sever her friendship with Selim. Is she willing to lose the companionship of her only good friend in order to reclaim her reputation? Selim finally gets to see the England he has only imagined, but how will he feel when the combined strains of social conventions and Delilah’s thirst for revenge overwhelm his experience?

The first Delilah Dirk book was recommended to me by a friend and coworker. And I’m SO SO glad that she did. It’s a fantastic story about a pair of unlikely comrades and adventurers, Delilah and Selim. It was such a wonderful surprise, how much I enjoyed the story, and Cliff’s art is absolutely delightful, action-packed, and humorous. It started out as a web comic and was then turned into books. I’m really excited for this next adventure! If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend checking it out!

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What are you waiting for this week?

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“Waiting On” Wednesdays: Passenger

Waiting on Wednesdays is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine. The purpose is to spotlight upcoming book releases that we are excited for.

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Passenger (Passenger, #1) by Alexandra Bracken

Hardcover, 464 pages
Publication Date: Jan. 5th, 2016
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
ISBN: 9781484715772
Add it: To your TBR Pile or your “Want to Read” list on Goodreads.

passage, n.
i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them— whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home . . . forever

Okay, yikes. Wednesday snuck up on me this week. But anyways, this sounds really interesting to me! I like that in this fantasy/sci-fi story (I’m not really clear which category this falls into yet) neither character appears all that powerful. Its kind of a nice change from a long string of stories I’ve been reading where characters have “powers they’ve never discovered before now” or are just really strong, or royalty so they have influence they can wield. These two don’t seem to have any of those things going for them, and yet they seem to be going on a quest of sorts — all of which is very cool. It will be interesting to see how they survive (if they survive) and how they will be helped on their journey.

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What are you waiting for this week?

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“Waiting On” Wednesdays: Truthwitch

Waiting on Wednesdays is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine. The purpose is to spotlight upcoming book releases that we are excited for.

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Truthwitch (The Witchlands, #1) by Susan Dennard

Hardcover, 416 pages
Publication Date: Jan. 5th, 2015
Publisher: Tor Teen
ISBN: 9780765379283
Add it: To your TBR Pile or your “Want to Read” list on Goodreads.

On a continent ruled by three empires, some are born with a “witchery”, a magical skill that sets them apart from others.

In the Witchlands, there are almost as many types of magic as there are ways to get in trouble—as two desperate young women know all too well.

Safiya is a Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lie. It’s a powerful magic that many would kill to have on their side, especially amongst the nobility to which Safi was born. So Safi must keep her gift hidden, lest she be used as a pawn in the struggle between empires.

Iseult, a Threadwitch, can see the invisible ties that bind and entangle the lives around her—but she cannot see the bonds that touch her own heart. Her unlikely friendship with Safi has taken her from life as an outcast into one of reckless adventure, where she is a cool, wary balance to Safi’s hotheaded impulsiveness.

Safi and Iseult just want to be free to live their own lives, but war is coming to the Witchlands. With the help of the cunning Prince Merik (a Windwitch and ship’s captain) and the hindrance of a Bloodwitch bent on revenge, the friends must fight emperors, princes, and mercenaries alike, who will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch.

(This WoW is coming out a little late in the day today, guys, but that’s only because I just got to play with the CUTEST baby on the planet! My little ‘nephew’ Will! Yay!)

Okay, so the first reason that I want to read Truthwitch is, honestly, because Sarah J. Maas (one of my favorite writers) has highly recommended it, and I will give most anything she recommends a try. But second, the blurb about the story sounds fantastic! I like the idea that this fantasy might be focusing on the friendship of these two girls, which is cool and a little different for the genre. I also like the idea of the “witchery” and that magic comes in all different kinds of forms and abilities. It reminds me in a good way of Graceling, and how people had various graces that gave them a variety of special gifts. Add in that dash of war and revenge, and I’m sold! Can’t wait to get started on this!

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What are you waiting for this week?

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