Waiting on Wednesday—1

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This is my first one ever, so I'm pretty excited, and let me know what you think!

The Clockwork Prince

By Cassandra Clare

In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa's powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister's war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will; the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

I read the Clockwork Angel a while back, after I'd read the Mortal Instruments, and I absolutely loved it! So now, in six mere days, this will be released, and I will pounce on my library in order to get it before anyone else does. I would buy it, but I don't have any money (only a teen, and so I'm broke) and my parents certainly aren't buying anything for me this Christmas. And the love triangle between Tessa and Will and Jem is just magical. It's definitely a great one! 

Teaser Tuesday: Tempest Rising by Tracy Deebs

This is it. My first Teaser Tuesday on this blog. I'm not as excited as I usually am. Maybe the lack of sleep I had last night is finally taking a toll on me. But anyway, this is the first one and I'm doing it from the novel I'm reading for my school requirement, so I might be slow in order to preserve it and keep the element of surprise. So you might not see the review until later on. Anyway, let me start with rules.


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I know I'm supposed to do only two sentences, but I couldn't resist from doing more. So here it is:

I was colder than I'd ever been—nearly frozen—my body struggling to regulate itself in the downpour. Another gift from dear old Mom, this inability to control my own body temperature except in the water. Not for the first time, I wondered if I was really as cold-blooded as I felt. (Page 50)

That's it. I hope you like it and add Tempest Rising to your TBR (To Be Read) list! It's really good so far, even though it's a little slow in the beginning, but still super dramatic!

In My Mailbox Monday

I know this is supposed to be a post for Sundays, but I'm usually so busy, and decided to postpone them to Mondays. Okay, so let's begin.

• The Iron Daughter and the Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa
• Die For Me by Amy Plum
• Tempest Rising by Tracy Deebs
• Tiger's Quest by Colleen Houck

This'll be my, like, fifth time reading the Iron Daughter and Iron Queen by now, and Tempest Rising is my independent reading novel that's required for school, and Tiger's Quest one my friend recommended, so I went out and got it. Die For Me, well, I think I remember someone posting a positive review, so when I saw it at the library, I borrowed it. And that's it for now. Anticipate reviews soon! 

My Soul to Save by Rachel Vincent

Author: Rachel Vincent

Publishing Company: Harlequin Teen

Pages: 288

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Website: rachelvincent.com

Rating:


Summary (rachelvincent.com)
The last thing Kaylee needs right now is to be skipping school, breaking her dad’s ironclad curfew and putting her boyfriend’s loyalty to the test. But starry-eyed teens are trading their souls for a flickering lifetime of fame and fortune in exchange for eternity in the Netherworld—a consequence they can’t possibly understand. Kaylee can’t let that happen, even if trying to save their souls means putting her own at risk...

Review

The cover once again amazed me beyond words. Harlequin Teen must have a flair for beautiful covers, because the Iron Fey series has beautiful covers, and so far, all the books that they've published are just amazing. Everything about that cover to me wails (sorry, I had to put the bad pun in, I seriously couldn't resist!) an awesome book. And I was right...for the most part.

Let's start with the problems first and then make our way to the good parts. Last review on the first book, I complained for the lack of action. Well, now I get that it's not an action book, so if any of you only like that stuff, I wouldn't read this. So that complaint sort of canceled out, but I can say that there was a little more action than before.

Some parts were super confusing, in my opinion. Either I was skipping over paragraphs, or one second Kaylee was somewhere, and then another second she was elsewhere. I got really confused, and wish Rachel had put a little more depth in her surroundings.

The good parts of this were definitely the fantasy aspect and Kaylee's guilt for letting so many souls go and her determination to save this pair. You really see her grow as both a bean sidhe and a person. Once again, I loved how the problem smacked you straight in the face within the first few pages. Usually, I wouldn't exactly care if a problem faced itself within the first few chapters, or maybe even in the middle, but having it smack-dab on the first page is great.

Here's what I don't like about a continuous series: each problem is disconnected. In a trilogy (my new favorite type of series), each problem has something to do with the next. That's basically the reason I usually only stick to trilogies now. Also, continuous series tend to drag things out, unless it's a big series like Harry Potter. Unless it was planned to be a certain number, and the author didn't just decide to add another book (the Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa being the exception. Everyone knows we needed that bok for Ash and Meghan!) for the sake of it, it's sort of slow. Of course, unless each book has to do with this big finale, then I can make an exception. UNLESS, there's been like ten books before it. Then it gets plain boring.

To make my long review short, this gets four snowflakes because Rachel's writing was very good and the book was capturing, if you could get past a few frustrated moments. And if you can deal with having to read the continuous series. As I've mentioned before, I feel that trilogies are much better.

My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent

Author: Rachel Vincent

Publishing Company: Harlequin Teen

Pages: 384

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Website: rachelvincent.com

Rating:

Summary (rachelvincent.com)

She doesn't see dead people, but she senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally.

Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about the need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who'll be next...

Review

This book was in the back flap of the Iron Knight, so I said, "Why not?" and gave it a try. When I saw it in the library, the cover just captured me and made me borrow the book! The cover is really magnificent, and really pretty! 

Despite the lack of action that I usually crave within a book, this was really good. I loved the idea of being a banshee or bean sidhe, and how she and Nash went on quests to make sure souls are properly kept in their spots. The idea overall is really ingenious and well played out.

The problem here started very early in the book, which is really good. Many books wait until the middle to say the problem, and it's good that in this novel, they start it in the very beginning. Rachel's writing is really good, and it captured me without a real explanation. I just really enjoyed her description of everything.

But, when she described the banshee's singing, I felt like there wasn't enough there to fully support the sound. Rachel described it as "magnificent" and used a few other words. I wish she elaborated on that a little more, but it was satisfactory overall. The story felt only a smidgen undeveloped to me, but it was still better than other books I'd read. 

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading romance and fantasy. If you can get past a few very minor problems here and there, then this is the book for you! 

Test Post

Testing. Testing. Testing. Test Post.