Waiting on Wednesday – Week 103

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It's to spotlight on upcoming books that I'm DYING to get my hands on!

This week's WoW is:

Royally Lost by Angie Stanton

Dragged on a family trip to Europe’s ancient cities, Becca wants nothing more than to go home. Trapped with her emotionally distant father, over-eager stepmother, and a brother who only wants to hook up with European hotties, Becca is miserable. That is until she meets Nikolai, a guy as mysterious as he is handsome. And she unknowingly finds herself with a runaway prince.

Nikolai has everything a guy could ask for-he's crown prince, heir to the throne, and girls adore him. But the one thing he doesn't have...is freedom. Staging a coup, he flees his kingdom and goes undercover on his own European tour.

When Nikolai and Becca meet, it’s their differences that draw them together. Sparks fly as they share a whirlwind of adventures, all the while dodging his royal guard. But Becca's family vacation ends in a matter of days. Will Nikolai and Becca be forced to say goodbye forever, will his destiny catch up to him, or will they change history forever?

May 6, 2014 ● Goodreads

This one sounds really cute and reminds me of Roman Holiday. Definitely looking forward to diving into this one because I'm sure it'll be a fluffy distraction and book that I can gladly sink into after reading a ton of heavy books. This one's up on Edelweiss, so hopefully I'll be downloading it soon!

What are you waiting on?

Uninvited by Sophie Jordan

Uninvited by Sophie Jordan

Release Date: January 28, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: Uninvited, Book 1
Rated: YA 14+
Format: eGalley
Source: Edelweiss
Buy: Amazon ● The Book Depository
Goodreads ● Website

The Scarlet Letter meets Minority Report in bestselling author Sophie Jordan's chilling new novel about a teenage girl who is ostracized when her genetic test proves she's destined to become a murderer.

When Davy Hamilton's tests come back positive for Homicidal Tendency Syndrome (HTS)-aka the kill gene-she loses everything. Her boyfriend ditches her, her parents are scared of her, and she can forget about her bright future at Juilliard. Davy doesn't feel any different, but genes don't lie. One day she will kill someone.

Only Sean, a fellow HTS carrier, can relate to her new life. Davy wants to trust him; maybe he's not as dangerous as he seems. Or maybe Davy is just as deadly.

Before reading Uninvited, I had no idea what to expect. I'd heard about Sophie Jordan's other young adult series, Firelight, and the amazing things people have said about it, but I've unfortunately never had the chance to read it. Well, I'm definitely looking forward to it now, because I enjoyed this one a lot!
I haven't seen Minority Report or read The Scarlet Letter (yet), so I didn't know what was going to happen in terms of plot. It was an interesting concept though, really unique, and that's what caught my eye. It's difficult to find an original storyline for dystopians now days, and this one stood out. It's also set in the not-too-distant future, which made it all the more eerie.

Davina is such a strange name! Never heard of it anywhere until Uninvited. I liked her character because somehow she seemed different compared to other heroines in young adult fiction. I also found it particularly interesting with the relationship she has with music – if you read really carefully you can see how music sometimes determines her movements or actions. 
It's been ages since I've read a book with a good guy who stands up for the "weaker" crowd, but still has a tough exterior, and I gotta say: I really LOVED Sean. I loved the lengths that would go to in order to protect Davina, and it was very sweet. Gil was an adorable character as well and I love the connection these three have with one another. Davy's brother Mitchell, while not featured for most of the book, was also a great character. He was a minor character, but a still a good support for our protagonist and stood by her.

I thought the book's format was a little... strange. The book is split into two parts, which is normal, but because the tone shifted so drastically from one part to the next, it made it seem like there was two books in one. I liked it though, because the change in atmosphere really added to the action and the growing problem, pushing the carriers together even more.
I also liked the little "bits" in between chapters. There's reports of the testing, the texts between people, interviews, and so on. I thought it helped to build up this world, because even though it's not that different from our own today, there's still a lot of change concerning the testing for the kill gene, and so it aided to provide some sort of context for me while reading.

I really liked Uninvited: it was thrilling and riveting, a ride that seemed to always surprise me. Sophie Jordan is a brilliant composer of words, and has pulled me in (and I go willingly) to this strange new world that she's created. I'm definitely looking forward to the next instalment!

If you like this, try...

• Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi ● Goodreads
• Mind Games by Kiersten White ● Goodreads

Latest Obsession: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Hi everyone! I'm taking a small break from reviews to talk to you about one of my latest obsessions: THE LIZZIE BENNET DIARIES! I know– it's a web-series that came out a while ago... but I started it roughly two weeks ago and finished all of them in three or four days. Two really awesome friends of mine kept gushing about it a while back, and so I decided to give it ago, and judging by the amount of time it took me to finish all 100 episodes, it's clear that I really, really enjoyed them.

For those of you who are kind of going "huh?" "what?" "who now?" "why does that sound like a reference to Pride and Prejudice?", THE LIZZIE BENNET DIARIES is a web-series (on Youtube) developed by Hank Green and Bernie Su. I totally recommend watching them, especially if you're an Austen lover. I actually haven't read any of Austen's books, even though I've read some retellings and have watched the 2005 film a gajillion times. I'm in love with the story and really hope that I could actually finish reading it one day. I got through half-way and unfortunately had to stop because of school work. I even own THREE copies of the book for pete's sake:

Okay well, the last one is a compilation of seven novels (so in that case I own two copies of Emma), but you get the point! I NEED TO READ THIS BOOK!

I'm a huge fan of the film and BBC television series as well:

I know people are going to kill me for saying this, but I tend to prefer the 2005 film because I've seen it a GAJILLION times, in comparison to the BBC series. To be fair, I did watch the 2005 version first, and only watched the TV series last year.

Anyway, I think that's all for now. All the episodes of THE LIZZIE BENNET DIARIES can be found online HERE. Go watch them if you haven't already. You won't regret it... loads of humor, loads of drama, and of course, Darcy!

Her Dark Curiosity Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway

Her Dark Curiosity by Megan Shepherd

Release Date: January 28, 2014
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Series: The Madman's Daughter, Book 2
Rated: YA 14+
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Buy: Amazon ● The Book Depository ● Barnes & Noble
Goodreads ● Website

Read my review of The Madman's Daughter HERE

To defeat the darkness, she must first embrace it.

Months have passed since Juliet Moreau returned to civilization after escaping her father's island—and the secrets she left behind. Now, back in London once more, she is rebuilding the life she once knew and trying to forget Dr. Moreau’s horrific legacy—though someone, or something, hasn’t forgotten her.

As people close to Juliet fall victim one by one to a murderer who leaves a macabre calling card of three clawlike slashes, Juliet fears one of her father’s creations may have also escaped the island. She is determined to find the killer before Scotland Yard does, though it means awakening sides of herself she had thought long banished, and facing loves from her past she never expected to see again.

As Juliet strives to stop a killer while searching for a serum to cure her own worsening illness, she finds herself once more in the midst of a world of scandal and danger. Her heart torn in two, past bubbling to the surface, life threatened by an obsessive killer—Juliet will be lucky to escape alive.

With inspiration from Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, this is a tantalizing mystery about the hidden natures of those we love and how far we’ll go to save them from themselves.

I only started reading this series because I received an advanced copy of Her Dark Curiosity from the publisher, and I'm really glad I did! I've come to love these books, it's subject matter and the characters, and I found that this was as dark as the first one. The story picks up a couple of months after the events in The Madman's Daughter, with Juliet's return to London. It's interesting to see how the island has changed Juliet, and how she has so much more understanding of the science behind her father's experiments and uses this to her advantage.

I'm glad to say that I liked Juliet even more in this book! I thought in the last book, while I did still like her, she was a bit "drab" and too focused on which guy to pick. But this time round, her character is so much stronger and fiercely independent – no longer dependent on men that much in her life – that I really enjoyed her story. There's the return of characters from the previous book, which would be a spoiler (kind of) if I mentioned them, so I wont. We do get to learn a lot about Juliet's friend Lucy, who played a small part in The Madman's Daughter, and there's some new characters, such as the professor, who is Juliet's guardian, Elizabeth, and Inspector Newcastle.

Like The Island of Doctor Moreau, I haven't actually read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – I should really get around to reading more classics – but I knew at least something about it that I was able to recognize how it was embedded into this book. The end promises yet another retelling for the final book in the trilogy, and this one got me super excited because it's one that I've ACTUALLY read. I'm not going to tell though– you've got to read this book and find out for yourselves! It's a very well-done twist to the plot that Shepherd had included, and completely caught me off-guard.

Her Dark Curiosity was enthralling and spine-tingling, and the sequel is even more amazing than the first. It's clear to see that I loved this one, and I come upon regretting that I read the book so early, because it now means waiting until next year for the last book, and I don't want to wait so long! I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.

▪ ▪ ▪ Thank you so much to Megan from HarperCollins for sending a copy for review! ▪ ▪ ▪

If you like this, try...

• Savannah Grey by Cliff McNish ● Goodreads
• A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray ● Goodreads

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Megan Shepherd

Hello!

I've been many things, like a professional exchange student, park ranger in Montana, and LOST enthusiast, but what I am now is a writer.

I think it's fair to say I was born into it. I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina, raised behind the counter of my parent's independent bookstore, Highland Books in Brevard. Ah, so many free books. But I never thought being a writer could be a real career. After college I thought I'd end up as a foreign service officer somewhere dashing and exotic, like Canada. I studied French, Spanish, German, and Russian and still speak a few of those. Then I joined the Peace Corps and spent two years in Senegal, where I learned a few more languages I'll never speak again and lived in a mud hut with no electricity or running water. You can probably image how that experience went, but if you're curious, here are the dirty details.

I wasn't until a chance acquaintance read something I wrote and said, "have you ever considered being a writer?" that something clicked and I realized it was possible. My husband encouraged me, and I quickly fell head-over-heels in love with writing and children's literature in particular. I started out writing articles, which have appeared in Faces, Appleseeds, and Calliope magazines, and stories for younger children. I soon realized I wasn't sweet enough to write fiction for that age and found myself writing young adult literature instead, which doesn't require nearly as many tender moments and includes a lot more cursing.

When I'm not writing, I can usually be found horseback riding, day dreaming at coffee shops, or hiking in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina. I love to hear from readers, so please drop me a line!

I am represented by Josh Adams of Adams Literary.

Author Photo by Kristi Hedberg Photograph

Website ● Twitter ● Facebook ● Tumblr ● Goodreads

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