Waiting on Wednesday {117}: This Is Where the World Ends

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine. This week's can't-wait-to-read pre-publication book is: This is Where The World Ends.

This is Where The World Ends

by Amy Zhang

Publication date: March 22, 2016

From Goodreads:

The heart-wrenching new novel about best friends on a collision course with the real world, from the author of Falling into Place.

Janie and Micah, Micah and Janie. That’s how it’s been ever since elementary school, when Janie Vivian moved next door. Janie says Micah is everything she is not. Where Micah is shy, Janie is outgoing. Where Micah loves music, Janie loves art. It’s the perfect friendship, as long as no one finds out about it.

But when Janie is date-raped by the most popular guy in school—a guy she’s had a crush on for years—she finds herself ostracized by all the people she thought were her friends. Now only Micah seems to believe she’s telling the truth. But when even Micah expresses doubt about whether or not she was “asking for it,” it leads to disastrous consequences, and Janie Vivian goes missing.

Using a nonlinear writing style and dual narrators, Amy Zhang’s astonishing second novel masterfully reveals the circumstances surrounding Janie’s disappearance.

Finally Friday {9} This Raging Light

Finally Friday is a meme started by me (Jessica, aka @coffeelvnmom) and J from @life_love_fandoms. This week's I-finally-read-this-waiting-on-Wednesday-book is: THIS RAGING LIGHT.

4.5 stars

This Raging Light is a beautiful, heart-wrenching debut by Estelle Laure. I loved her voice and fell for both main characters, Lucille, and her little sister, Wren, hook, line, and sinker. Talk about good kids put in a horrible situation! Their dad goes crazy, their mom disappears, and Lucille is left to keep them both in school, stop everyone from finding out they're home alone, and find a way to support them.

The blurb really is the best summary without giving too much away, but I'd like to add that along with keeping "readers hooked and hoping until the very last page", Ms. Laure also gives you an intimate glimpse at young love, loss, and learning to deal with where loss leaves you. She shows how you never quite know who's going to step up to the plate and help out just when it's needed most, and that, sometimes, though the choices we're given in life aren't always ones we want to deal with, they are the choices that make us who we are.

I loved loved loved This Raging Light, and highly recommend it! Use that Christmas money and BUY it (came out three days ago)... I promise you will thank me!

Waiting on Wednesday {116}: Sword and Verse

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine. This week's can't-wait-to-read pre-publication book is: Sword and Verse.

Sword and Verse

by Kathy MacMillan

Publication date: January 19, 2016

From Goodreads:

Raisa was just a child when she was sold to work as a slave in the kingdom of Qilara. Despite her young age, her father was teaching her to read and write, grooming her to take his place as a Learned One. In Qilara, the Arnathim, like Raisa, are the lowest class, and literacy is a capital offense. What’s more, only the king, prince, tutor, and tutor-in-training are allowed to learn the very highest order language, the language of the gods. So when the tutor-in-training is executed for teaching slaves this sacred language, and Raisa is selected to replace her, Raisa knows any slipup on her part could mean death.

Keeping her secret is hard enough, but the romance that’s been growing between her and Prince Mati isn’t helping matters. Then Raisa is approached by the Resistance—an underground army of slave rebels—to help liberate Arnath slaves. She wants to free her people, but that would mean aiding a war against Mati. As Raisa struggles with what to do, she discovers a secret that the Qilarites have been hiding for centuries—one that, if uncovered, could bring the kingdom to its knees.

Waiting on Wednesday {115}: The Rose and the Dagger

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine. This week's can't-wait-to-read pre-publication book is: The Rose and the Dagger.

The Rose and the Dagger

by Renee Ahdieh

Publication date: May 3rd, 2016

From Goodreads:

The much anticipated sequel to the breathtaking The Wrath and the Dawn, lauded by Publishers Weekly as "a potent page-turner of intrigue and romance."

I am surrounded on all sides by a desert. A guest, in a prison of sand and sun. My family is here. And I do not know whom I can trust.

In a land on the brink of war, Shahrzad has been torn from the love of her husband Khalid, the Caliph of Khorasan. She once believed him a monster, but his secrets revealed a man tormented by guilt and a powerful curse—one that might keep them apart forever. Reunited with her family, who have taken refuge with enemies of Khalid, and Tariq, her childhood sweetheart, she should be happy. But Tariq now commands forces set on destroying Khalid's empire. Shahrzad is almost a prisoner caught between loyalties to people she loves. But she refuses to be a pawn and devises a plan.

While her father, Jahandar, continues to play with magical forces he doesn't yet understand, Shahrzad tries to uncover powers that may lie dormant within her. With the help of a tattered old carpet and a tempestuous but sage young man, Shahrzad will attempt to break the curse and reunite with her one true love.

Waiting on Wednesday {114}: Thicker Than Water

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine. This week's can't-wait-to-read pre-publication book is: Thicker Than Water.

Thicker Than Water

by Brigid Kemmerer

Publication date: December 29, 2016

From Goodreads:

On his own

Thomas Bellweather hasn’t been in town long. Just long enough for his newlywed mother to be murdered, and for his new stepdad’s cop colleagues to decide Thomas is the primary suspect.

Not that there’s any evidence. But before Thomas got to Garretts Mill there had just been one other murder in twenty years.

The only person who believes him is Charlotte Rooker, little sister to three cops and, with her soft hands and sweet curves, straight-up dangerous to Thomas. Her best friend was the other murder vic. And she’d like a couple answers.

Answers that could get them both killed, and reveal a truth Thomas would die to keep hidden…

$10 FLORA SUPER SALE: Buy IF I SPEAK TRUE *and/or* OPEN THY HEART, get Rowan's novella, FREE!

Yep! This is happening!

Purchase If I Speak True or Open Thy Heart 

for only $10 and get By Sun & Candlelight, free

(plus free shipping)!* 

*US only. Sale ends Sunday, 12/6 at 11:59 p.m. PST. Payments via PayPal, only.

 This is a great deal and you can use it many ways. For example:

+ Scenario #1: You've seen IF I SPEAK TRUE around the interwebs, but haven't been sure whether or not a girl named Dahlia going to a place called Ambrosia and meeting a mysterious masked man named Rowan who is quite the looker (well, as much as she can see, anyway) who seems to know things even she doesn't know about her family is really something you want to read. Never mind that Dahlia has to hide these visitation/interactions from her bestest friends and family (especially her Aster, her "Ass-y" sister) back in Shaver, or the fact that um, Rowan really brings out the fire in her... if you know what I mean. *wink* Plus, he's got all of these secrets and there's got to be a reason he's keeping them... Wait, hmm... perhaps this is really your kind of read... It seems fun, and the covers are really pretty!

Solution: Well, IF I SPEAK TRUE is only ten dollars... Why not buy the darn thing (and get it signed to you, too)? There's free shipping... now that you think about it, this is one of those bookish deals you totes shouldn't refuse! And then if you like Rowan and want to know more about him and what makes him the hot kind lovely mysterious guy that he is, boom! You've already got his novella, BY SUN & CANDLELIGHT because it was FREE!!!

+ Scenario #2: You've already read IF I SPEAK TRUE and think a friend would love it (signed and personalized to them, obviously) but really want to read about Rowan and the rest of the Ambrosian's shenanigans (oh, and, you know, how Rowan feels about Dahlia from his perspective, because that's important). Also: What's this about a fox named Clementine? And a bet between Rowan and Briscoe????

Solution: Get IF I SPEAK TRUE for your friend (what a dear you are!) and have the novella signed to you! 

+ Scenario #3: You've already read IF I SPEAK TRUE and really want to check out OPEN THY HEART but the idea of getting IF I SPEAK TRUE for a friend sounds really fun (because bookish convos and fangirling), but the novella deal (that's a $9 value, free!) is too good to refuse!

Solution: Buy IF I SPEAK TRUE *and* OPEN THY HEART and receive a free novella with each (for a total of $20)! That's $30 being saved, not counting what you're saving with free shipping! 

+ Scenario #4: You've read IF I SPEAK TRUE and are totally interested in Rowan's point of view in BY SUN & CANDLELIGHT, but more IMPORTANTLY, what is this you keep hearing about David's birthday party, and some big secret of Dahlia's that gets out, and Tuberose being a psycho, and Aster (of all people) helping Dahlia? 

Solution: Buy OPEN THY HEART for yourself, and get Rowan's novella FREE! Two books for you, for only $10! That's a win-win!

If you're *still* not sure if Rowan or David the Flora series is for you, why not watch the book trailer (HERE) or see what people thought about the series (HERE and HERE--careful, there might be spoilers)?

Mind made up? Yay! Email me at coffeelvnmom at gmail dot com for personalization and payment info today! 

Waiting on Wednesday {113}: Perfekt Order

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine. This week's can't-wait-to-read pre-publication book is: Perfekt Order.

Perfekt Order

by ST Bende

Publication date: December 8th, 2015

From Goodreads:

All's fair when you're in love with War.

For 18-year-old Mia Ahlström, a world ruled by order is the only world she allows. A lifetime of chore charts, to-do lists and study schedules have helped earn her a spot at Redwood State University’s engineering program. And while her five year plan includes finding her very own happily-evah-aftah, years at an all-girls boarding school left her feeling woefully unprepared for keg parties and co-ed extracurricular activities.

So nothing surprises her more than catching the eye of Tyr Fredriksen at her first college party. The imposing Swede is arrogantly charming, stubbornly overprotective, and runs hot-and-cold in ways that defy reason . . . until Mia learns that she’s fallen for the Norse God of War; an immortal battle deity hiding on Midgard (Earth) to protect a valuable Asgardian treasure from a feral enemy. With a price on his head, Tyr brings more than a little excitement to Mia’s rigidly controlled life. Choosing Tyr may be the biggest distraction—or the greatest adventure—she’s ever had.