Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: Pretty Is

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

There’s nothing like a Wednesday for thinking about the books we want to read! My Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday post is linking up with two fabulous book memes, Wishlist Wednesday (hosted by Pen to Paper) and Waiting on Wednesday (hosted by Breaking the Spine).

This week’s pick:

Pretty Is by Maggie Mitchell
(to be released July 7, 2015 )

A fiercely inspired fiction debut in which two young women—an actress and an academic—face what really happened the summer they were twelve, when a handsome stranger abducted them.

Everyone thought we were dead. We were missing for nearly two months; we were twelve. What else could they think? —Lois

It’s always been hard to talk about what happened without sounding all melodramatic. . . . Actually, I haven’t mentioned it for years, not to a goddamned person. —Carly May

When precocious Lois and pretty Carly May were twelve years old, they were kidnapped, driven across the country, and held in a cabin in the woods for two months by a charismatic stranger. Maggie Mitchell’s spellbinding debut Pretty Is is about the repercussions of that formative summer, when two girls who previously did not know each other shared an experience that would shape all their days to come.

At the novel’s start, Lois Lonsdale has begun teaching British literature at a small college in upstate New York. Out in LA, Chloe Savage (formerly Carly May) is a lonely actress, drinking too much and struggling to revive her career. When a movie script with a shockingly familiar plot comes into their lives, the women must grapple with unresolved losses and gains that have lain hidden for years behind the public’s feverish presumptions.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? I’m really looking forward to this one!

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. You can find out more here — come play!

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Do you host a book blog meme? Do you participate in a meme that you really, really love? I’m building a Book Blog Meme Directory, and need your help! If you know of a great meme to include — or if you host one yourself — please drop me a note on my Contact page and I’ll be sure to add your info!

31Mar2015

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: The Aeronaut’s Windlass

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

This week’s pick:

The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher
Book #1, The Cinder Spires
(to be released September 29, 2015 )

Since time immemorial, the Spires have sheltered humanity, towering for miles over the mist-shrouded surface of the world. Within their halls, aristocratic houses have ruled for generations, developing scientific marvels, fostering trade alliances, and building fleets of airships to keep the peace.

Captain Grimm commands the merchant ship, Predator. Fiercely loyal to Spire Albion, he has taken their side in the cold war with Spire Aurora, disrupting the enemy’s shipping lines by attacking their cargo vessels. But when the Predator is severely damaged in combat, leaving captain and crew grounded, Grimm is offered a proposition from the Spirearch of Albion—to join a team of agents on a vital mission in exchange for fully restoring Predator to its fighting glory.

And even as Grimm undertakes this dangerous task, he will learn that the conflict between the Spires is merely a premonition of things to come. Humanity’s ancient enemy, silent for more than ten thousand years, has begun to stir once more. And death will follow in its wake

Jim Butcher has been on my mind lately, as I’ve been feeling grumpy about the long wait for a new Dresden Files book — and just in the nick of time, here comes the 1st book in a new series! OK, granted, the synopsis seems complicated, but I have complete faith in Jim Butcher’s ability to create a brand new world and make it amazing!

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. You can find out more here — come play!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

17Mar2015

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: Weightless

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

This week’s pick:

Weightless by Sarah Bannan
(to be released June 30, 2015 )

When 15-year-old Carolyn moves from New Jersey to Alabama with her mother, she rattles the status quo of the junior class at Adams High School. A good student and natural athlete, she’s immediately welcomed by the school’s cliques. She’s even nominated to the homecoming court and begins dating a senior, Shane, whose on again/off again girlfriend Brooke becomes Carolyn’s bitter romantic rival. When a video of Carolyn and Shane making out is sent to everyone, Carolyn goes from golden girl to slut, as Brooke and her best friend Gemma try to restore their popularity. Gossip and bullying hound Carolyn, who becomes increasingly private and isolated. When Shane and Brooke—now back together—confront Carolyn in the student parking lot, injuring her, it’s the last attack she can take.

Sarah Bannan’s deft use of the first person plural gives Weightless an emotional intensity and remarkable power that will send you flying through the pages and leave you reeling.

I’ll admit it: The pretty summer colors and imagery on the cover are what initially attracted me to this book, but the synopsis drew me right in as well. I’m intrigued, and hope to get a copy (maybe an ARC?) in time for those glorious summer reading months…

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. You can find out more here — come play!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

3Mar2015

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: After You

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

This week’s pick:

After You

After You by Jojo Moyes
(to be released September 24, 2015 )

A sequel to Me Before You!!! Need I say more? I was so excited to hear about this during the past week. For anyone wanting to know more, check out the announcement on the author’s website or this article from USA Today.

Note: If you don’t want to see spoilers from Me Before You, DO NOT click on the links or read any synopses for After You!

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. You can find out more here — come play!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

10Feb2015

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: Depth

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

This week’s pick:

Depth by Lev A. C. Rosen
(to be released April 28, 2015 )

Synopsis (Goodreads):

In a post-apocalyptic flooded New York City, a private investigator’s routine surveillance case leads to a treasure everyone wants to find – and someone is willing to kill for.

Depth combines hardboiled mystery and dystopian science fiction in a future where the rising ocean levels have left New York twenty-one stories under water and cut off from the rest of the United States. But the city survives, and Simone Pierce is one of its best private investigators. Her latest case, running surveillance on a potentially unfaithful husband, was supposed to be easy. Then her target is murdered, and the search for his killer points Simone towards a secret from the past that can’t possibly be real; but that won’t stop the city’s most powerful men and women from trying to acquire it for themselves, with Simone caught in the middle.

Lev A. C. Rosen’s debut novel, All Men of Genius, consistently makes it onto my list of favorites — and while this sounds completely different in setting and tone, I have complete faith that this upcoming new novel will be impossible to put down!

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. You can find out more here — come play!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

13Jan2015

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: The Alex Crow

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

This week’s pick:

The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith
(to be released March 10, 2015 )

Synopsis via Goodreads:

Once again blending multiple story strands that transcend time and place, Grasshopper Jungle author Andrew Smith tells the story of 15-year-old Ariel, a refugee from the Middle East who is the sole survivor of an attack on his small village. Now living with an adoptive family in Sunday, West Virginia, Ariel’s story of his summer at a boys’ camp for tech detox is juxtaposed against those of a schizophrenic bomber and the diaries of a failed arctic expedition from the late nineteenth century. Oh, and there’s also a depressed bionic reincarnated crow.

This sounds crazy and out-there… and given how much I loved Grasshopper Jungle, I can’t wait to read it!

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. You can find out more here — come play!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

6Jan2015

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: A Memory of Violets

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

This week’s pick:

A Memory of Violets by Hazel Gaynor
(to be released February 3, 2015 )

Synopsis (Goodreads):

In 1912, twenty-year-old Tilly Harper leaves the peace and beauty of her native Lake District for London, to become assistant housemother at Mr. Shaw’s Home for Watercress and Flower Girls. For years, the home has cared for London’s flower girls—orphaned and crippled children living on the grimy streets and selling posies of violets and watercress to survive.

Soon after she arrives, Tilly discovers a diary written by an orphan named Florrie—a young Irish flower girl who died of a broken heart after she and her sister, Rosie, were separated. Moved by Florrie’s pain and all she endured in her brief life, Tilly sets out to discover what happened to Rosie. But the search will not be easy. Full of twists and surprises, it leads the caring and determined young woman into unexpected places, including the depths of her own heart.

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. You can find out more here — come play!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

23Dec2014

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: Another Day

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

This week’s pick:

Another Day by David Levithan
(to be released August 25, 2015 )

Eeeeeeep! It’s a sequel (companion?) to Every Day! The only information I’ve seen so far is that “The new book is told from the perspective of A’s love interest, Rhiannon.” (Goodreads)

Good enough for me! August is a long way away, but I’ve already placed my preorder.

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. You can find out more here — come play!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

16Dec2014

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: At the Water’s Edge

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

This week’s pick:

At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen
(to be released June 2, 2015 )

In her stunning new novel, Gruen returns to the kind of storytelling she excelled at in Water for Elephants: a historical timeframe in an unusual setting with a moving love story. Think Scottish Downton Abbey.

After embarrassing themselves at the social event of the year in high society Philadelphia on New Year’s Eve of 1942, Maddie and Ellis Hyde are cut off financially by Ellis’s father, a former army Colonel who is already embarrassed by his son’s inability to serve in WWII due to his being colorblind. To Maddie’s horror, Ellis decides that the only way to regain his father’s favor is to succeed in a venture his father attempted and very publicly failed at: he will hunt the famous Loch Ness monster and when he finds it he will restore his father’s name and return to his father’s good graces (and pocketbook). Joined by their friend Hank, a wealthy socialite, the three make their way to Scotland in the midst of war. Each day the two men go off to hunt the monster, while another monster, Hitler, is devastating Europe. And Maddie, now alone in a foreign country, must begin to figure out who she is and what she wants. The novel tells of Maddie’s social awakening: to the harsh realities of life, to the beauties of nature, to a connection with forces larger than herself, to female friendship, and finally, to love.

I loved Water For Elephants, and this novel set in war-time Scotland sounds wonderful.

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. You can find out more here — come play!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

10Dec2014

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: The Secrets We Keep

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

This week’s pick:

The Secrets We Keep by Trisha Leaver
(to be released April 28, 2015 )

A girl takes over her twin sister’s identity in this emotionally charged page-turner about the complicated bond between sisters.

Ella and Maddy Lawton are identical twins. Ella has spent her high school years living in popular Maddy’s shadows, but she has never been envious of Maddy. In fact, she’s chosen the quiet, safe confines of her sketchbook over the constant battle for attention that has defined Maddy’s world.

When—after a heated argument—Maddy and Ella get into a tragic accident that leaves her sister dead, Ella wakes up in the hospital surrounded by loved ones who believe she is Maddy. Feeling responsible for Maddy’s death and everyone’s grief, Ella makes a split-second decision to pretend to be Maddy. Soon, Ella realizes that Maddy’s life was full of secrets. Caught in a web of lies, Ella is faced with two options—confess her deception or live her sister’s life.

Twins, stolen identities, and deception? I’m in!

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. You can find out more here — come play!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥