Waiting on Wednesday: Banner of the Damned by Sherwood Smith

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. Sorry for the late post! Here's a new release from Smith, the author of Crown Duel which I read and loved. Love the cover for this one as well!

Banner of the Damned by Sherwood Smith

Publication Date: April 3rd, 2012
Publisher: DAW

From Goodreads:
Princess Lasva is about to be named heir to her childless sister, the queen. But, when the queen finally bears an heir, Lasva's future is shattered. Grief-stricken, she leaves her country of Colend and falls into the arms of Prince Ivandred of Marloven Hesea. His people are utterly different-with their expertise in riding, weaponry, and magic- and the two soon marry.

When the sensational news makes its way to Lasva's sister, the queen worries for Lasva at the hands of the Marlovens, whose king's mage is in league with the magical land of Norsunder-considered by Colendi to be their enemy. The queen orders Emras, a scribe, to guard Lasva. But it may be too late-Lasva is already deeply involved with the Marlovens and their magic. War wages on, and all are forced to redefine love, loyalty, and power...

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Waiting on Wednesday: The Last Princess by Galaxy Craze

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine.

The Last Princess by Galaxy Craze

Publication Date: May 1st, 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown

From Goodreads:
Happily ever after is a thing of the past.
A series of natural disasters has decimated the earth. Cut off from the rest of the world, England is a dark place. The sun rarely shines, food is scarce, and groups of criminals roam the woods, searching for prey. The people are growing restless.
When a ruthless revolutionary sets out to overthrow the crown, he makes the royal family his first target. Blood is shed in Buckingham Palace, and only sixteen-year-old Princess Eliza manages to escape.
Determined to kill the man who destroyed her family, Eliza joins the enemy forces in disguise. She has nothing left to live for but revenge, until she meets someone who helps her remember how to hope--and to love--once more. Now she must risk everything to ensure that she not become... The Last Princess.

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Waiting on Wednesday: Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. This novel looks just absolutely hilarious.

Redshirts by John Scalzi

Publication Date: June 5th, 2012
Publisher: Tor Books

From Goodreads:
Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory. Life couldn’t be better...until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces, (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations, and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed. Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy belowdecks is expended on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is...and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.

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Waiting on Wednesday: The Book of Madness and Cures by Regina O'Melveny

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. I've been feeling historical lately, so here's a book set in 16th century Italy that caught my eye.

The Book of Madness and Cures by Regina O'Melveny

Publication Date: April 3rd, 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

From Goodreads:
Gabriella Mondini is a rarity in 16th century Venice: a woman who practices medicine. Her father, a renowned physician, has provided her entrée to this all-male profession, and inspired in her a shared mission to understand the secrets of the human body.

Then her father disappears and Gabriella faces a crisis: she is no longer permitted to treat her patients, women who need her desperately, without her father's patronage. She sets out across Europe to find where-and why-he has gone. Following clues from his occasional enigmatic letters, Gabriella crosses Switzerland, Germany and France, entering strange and forbidding cities. She travels to Scotland, the Netherlands, and finally to Morocco. In each new land she probes the mystery of her father's flight, and open new mysteries of her own. Not just mysteries of ailments and treatments, but ultimate mysteries of mortality, love, and the timeless human spirit.

Filled with medical lore and sensuous, vivid details of Renaissance life, The Book of Madness and Cures is an intoxicating and unforgettable debut

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Waiting on Wednesday: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. This one doesn't even seem to have an official cover yet, but I'm posting it anyways! This is a sequel high on my wishlist after reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone. It was one of my favourite reads last year.

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Publication Date: September 18th, 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown

From Goodreads:
In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed "Daughter of Smoke and Bone," Karou must come to terms with who and what she is, and how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, mysteries and secrets, new characters and old favorites, Days of Blood and Starlight brings the richness, color and intensity of the first book to a brand new canvas.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone was declared a "must read" by Entertainment Weekly, was named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon.com, and The New York Times called it "a breath-catching romantic fantasy."

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Waiting on Wednesday: What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. It's really hit or miss these days with YA dystopias, but this one sparked my interest because of the premise. Let's hope it doesn't turn out to be a gimmick.

What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang

Publication Date: September 18th, 2012
Publisher: HarperTeen

From Goodreads:

NEVER LET ME GO meets HIS DARK MATERIALS in a beautiful, haunting YA debut, the first book in The Hybrid Trilogy.

Eva and Addie live in a world where everyone is born with two souls, but where only the dominant one is allowed to survive childhood. Fifteen years old, and closer even than twins, the girls are keeping Eva, the ‘second soul’, a secret. They know that it’s forbidden to be hybrid, but how could they ever be apart?

When a dramatic event reveals what really happens to hybrids if they are discovered, Eva and Addie face a dangerous fight for survival, neither wanting to be the one left behind…

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Waiting on Wednesday: Worldsoul by Liz Williams

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. A story about super librarians that fight stuff that come alive out of books? Where have you been all my life?

Worldsoul by Liz Williams

Publisher: Prime Books
Publication Date: June 2012

From Goodreads:

What if being a librarian was the most dangerous job in the world?

Worldsoul, a great city that forms a nexus point between Earth and the many dimensions known as the Liminality, is a place where old stories gather, where forgotten legends come to fade and die—or to flourish and rise again. Until recently, Worldsoul has been governed by the Skein, but they have gone missing and no one knows why. The city is also being attacked with lethal flower-bombs from unknown enemy. Mercy Fane and her fellow Librarians are doing their best to maintain the Library, but...things...keep breaking out of ancient texts and legends and escaping into the city. Mercy must pursue one such dangerous creature. She turns to Shadow, an alchemist, for aid, but Shadow—inadvertently possessed by an ifrit—has a perilous quest of her own to undertake.

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Waiting on Wednesday: Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. Here's an upcoming release from Angry Robot that has a really striking cover. I follow Wendig's blog and he's pretty hilarious, so I'm interested to read one of his books.

Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig

Publisher: Angry Robot
Publication Date: April 24th, 2012

From Goodreads:

Miriam Black knows when you will die. She’s foreseen hundreds of car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, and suicides.

But when Miriam hitches a ride with Louis Darling and shakes his hand, she sees that in thirty days Louis will be murdered while he calls her name. Louis will die because he met her, and she will be the next victim.

No matter what she does she can’t save Louis. But if she wants to stay alive, she’ll have to try.

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Waiting on Wednesday: Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. Isn't this cover gorgeous? The premise sounds pretty awesome as well.

Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication Date: September 11th, 2012

From Goodreads:

In a desert land where serpents made of unbreakable glass fly through the sky and wolves made of only sand hunt within storms, Liyana is destined to be a vessel, to sacrifice herself so that her clan's goddess can inhabit her body... but her goddess never comes.

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Waiting on Wednesday: Blood Kin by M.J. Scott

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. This is the second installment of The Half-Light City series, of which the debut, Shadow Kin, I really liked (review). The main characters seem to have changed for this book, but it still looks pretty good. It's also a good example of gaslight fantasy.

Blood Kin by M.J. Scott

Publisher: Roc
Publication Date: June 5th, 2012

From Goodreads:

Imagine a city divided. A city where human and Fae magic rests uneasily next to the vampire Blood and the shapeshifting Beasts. A city where a fragile peace is brokered by a treaty that set the laws for all four races… a treaty that is faltering day by day. 

I didn’t plan on becoming a thief and a spy. But options are limited for the half-breed daughter of a Fae lord. My father abandoned me but at least I inherited some of his magic, and my skills with charms and glamours mean that few are as good at uncovering secrets others wish to hide. Right now the city has many secrets. And those who seek them pay so well… 

I never expected to stumble across a Templar Knight in my part of the city. Guy DuCaine is sworn to duty and honor and loyalty — all the things I’m not. I may have aroused more than his suspicion but he belongs to the Order and the human world. So when treachery and violence spill threaten both our kind, learning to trust each other might be the only thing that saves us. 

But even if a spy and a holy knight can work together, finding the key to peace is never going to be easy…

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Waiting on Wednesday: The King's Agent by Donna Russo Morin

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. Here's a historical pick that I found out through the author. I like that there's hints of the supernatural and am interested to see where the author takes it!

Title: The King's Agent
Author: Donna Russo Morin
Publisher: Kensington Books
Publication Date: March 1st, 2012

From Goodreads:

The King’s Agent is based loosely on the life of Battista della Palla-a patriotic plunderer, a religious rogue-of the 16th century, a lifelong friend to the great Michelangelo. 

As the cloistered ward of the Marquess of Mantua, Lady Aurelia is a woman with a profound duty, and a longing for adventure. In search of a relic intended for the King of France, Battista and Aurelia cross the breathtaking landscape of Renaissance Italy. Clues hide in great works of art, political forces collide, secret societies and enemies abound, and danger lurks in every challenge, those that mirror the passages of Dante's Divine Comedy. It is an adventurous quest with undercurrents of the supernatural, powers that could change the balance of supremacy throughout Europe.

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Waiting on Wednesday: Tooth and Nail by Jennifer Safrey

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. There's a lot of faerie books out there, but this one caught my eye because it involves a boxer who finds out she's part tooth faerie. I want to see where the author takes this. The cover is very nice, too!

Title: Tooth and Nail
Author: Jennifer Safrey
Publication Date: February 7th, 2012
Publisher: Night Shade Books

From Goodreads:

Gemma Fae Cross, a tough-girl amateur boxer whose fiance is running for congress, has just made a startling discovery about herself. She is half faerie - and not just any faerie, but a tooth faerie! A hybrid of fae and human, Gemma is destined to defend the Olde Way and protect the fae - who are incapable of committing violence - from threats to their peaceful and idyllic way of life, which must be maintained by distilling innocence collected from children''s baby teeth. But when a threat to the fae mission emerges, Gemma is called upon to protect her heritage, and become a legendary fae warrior... even if it means sacrificing everything she knows about being human!

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Waiting on Wednesday: Blue Magic by A.M. Dellamonica

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. Here is a sequel I am highly anticipating. I loved the first book, Indigo Springs, and it made my favorites list of 2011. I can't wait to get my hands on this!

Title: Blue Magic
Author: A.M. Dellamonica
Publication Date: April 10th, 2012
Publisher: Tor

From Goodreads:

The sequel to Indigo Springs, “A psychologically astute, highly original debut—complex, eerie, and utterly believable.”  —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

This powerful sequel to the A.M. Dellamonica's Sunburst Award–winning contemporary fantasy Indigo Springs starts in the small town in Oregon where Astrid Lethewood discovered an underground river of blue liquid—Vitagua—that is pure magic. Everything it touches is changed. The secret is out—and the world will never be the same. Astrid’s best friend, Sahara, has been corrupted by the blue magic, and now leads a cult that seeks to rule the world. Astrid, on the other hand, tries to heal the world.

Conflicting ambitions, star-crossed lovers, and those who fear and hate magic combine in a terrible conflagration, pitting friend against friend, magic against magic, and the power of nations against a small band of zealots, with the fate of the world at stake.

Blue Magic is a powerful story of private lives changed by earthshaking events that will ensnare readers in its poignant tale of a world touched by magic and plagued by its consequences.

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Waiting on Wednesday: Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. Any books about books or libraries has got to be awesome. Can't wait for this one!

Title: Libriomancer
Author: Jim C. Hines
Publication Date: August 7th, 2012
Publisher: DAW Books

From Goodreads:

Isaac Vainio has spent the past two years working at the Copper River Library in northern Michigan, secretly cataloguing books for their magical potential, but forbidden from using that magic himself . . . except for emergencies. Emergencies like a trio of young vampires who believe Isaac has been killing their kind, and intend to return the favor. 

Isaac is a libriomancer, brilliant but undisciplined, with the ability to reach into books and create objects from their pages. And attacking a libriomancer in his own library is never a good idea. 

But vampires are only the beginning. This was merely the latest in a series of attacks against members of Die Zwelf Portenære, a secret organization founded five centuries ago by Johannes Gutenberg to protect the world from supernatural threats. Among the casualties is Ray Walker, Isaac’s friend and mentor in magic. 

Complicating matters further is the arrival of a dryad named Lena Greenwood. Lena packs a pair of wooden swords and proves to be quite adept at helping to beat down various magical threats. She also seems to be a little too interested in Isaac . . . not that he minds. Yet Lena’s nature could make her a greater threat than any vampire. 

Along with a neurotic fire-spider named Smudge, Isaac and Lena set out to find and stop whoever is behind the attacks. But things are worse than Isaac imagined. An unknown killer of unimaginable power has been torturing and murdering humans and vampires alike. And Gutenberg, now more than six hundred years old, has disappeared. 

As Isaac searches for Gutenberg and the murderer, hoping they aren’t one and the same, he uncovers dark secrets about magic’s history and potential. Secrets which could destroy Die Zwelf Portenære and loose a magical war upon the world. If Isaac is to have any hope of preventing that war, he will have to truly master the magic of libriomancy. 

Assuming he doesn’t lose control and wipe himself from existence first.

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Waiting on Wednesday: Touchstone by Melanie Rawn

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. I love me some good ol' fantasy and this looks like a great new release.

Title: Touchstone
Author: Melanie Rawn
Publication Date: February 28th, 2012
Publisher: Tor

From Goodreads:

Cayden Silversun is part Elven, part Fae, part human Wizard—and all rebel. His aristocratic mother would have him follow his father to the Royal Court, to make a high society living off the scraps of kings. But Cade lives and breathes for the theater, and he’s good—very, very good. With his company, he’ll enter the highest reaches of society and power, as an honored artist—or die trying. Cade combines the talents of Merlin, Shakespeare, and John Lennon: a wholly charming character in a remarkably original fantasy world created by a mistress of the art.

Although Touchstone can stand alone, it is the first book of a brilliant, utterly engaging new fantasy series from the author of the bestselling Dragon Prince series.

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Waiting on Wednesday: The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. This one has a pretty interesting concept: changing bodies? What's all that about? I really want to find out!

Title: The Rook
Author: Daniel O'Malley
Publication Date: January 11th, 2012
Publisher: Little Brown & Co

From Goodreads:

"The body you are wearing used to be mine." So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her.

She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Chequy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own.

In her quest to uncover which member of the Chequy betrayed her and why, Myfanwy encounters a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are transformed into deadly fighters, and a conspiracy more vast than she ever could have imagined.

Filled with characters both fascinating and fantastical, THE ROOK is a richly inventive, suspenseful, and often wry thriller that marks an ambitious debut from a promising young writer.

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Waiting on Wednesday: Sins of the Son by Linda Poitevin

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. This is an especially anticipated release for me, the second book in the Grigori Legacy series! I read and reviewed the first book, Sins of the Angels, not too long ago and enjoyed it! I think this is another great cover for the series: a woman who's a cop and actually looks like one!

Title: Sins of the Son
Author: Linda Poitevin
Publication Date: March 27th, 2012
Publisher: Ace

From Goodreads:

A detective with a secret…

When homicide detective Alexandra Jarvis sees a photo of Seth Benjamin on a police bulletin, she knows that Heaven’s plan to halt Armageddon has gone terribly wrong. As the only mortal aware of Seth’s true nature, only she can save him.

An exiled angel turned assassin…

Aramael was a hunter of Fallen Angels until a traitor forced him into earthly exile. Now, with no powers and only a faint memory of Alex, his mortal soulmate, he will stop at nothing to redeem himself—even if it means destroying Seth in the name of the Creator.

A world with little chance of redemption…

As Alex’s need to protect Seth sets her on a fiery course with the determined Aramael, the coming conflict between them may push the world over the edge—and into the very chaos they’re trying to prevent.

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Waiting on Wednesday: All That Bleeds by Kimberly Frost

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. The cover of this one caught my eye (I love purple) and the premise looks interesting.

Title: All That Bleeds
Author: Kimberly Frost
Publication Date: January 3rd, 2012
Publisher: Berkley

From the author's website:

They should never have met.

In a glittering community in the Colorado Rockies called the Etherlin, the descendants of the ancient muses live behind a wall that separates them from the dangerous creatures that crave them.

Alissa North is inspiration made flesh, so she should never have met Merrick, a deadly half-vampire enforcer, but when they do meet, the connection is instantaneous, and an illicit flirtation is born. He sends her secret gifts. She writes him secret letters.

The long-distance friendship was never supposed to go any farther. But when she is kidnapped and thrown briefly into his world, everything changes. Now Alissa realizes he’s the only person she can trust, and Merrick finds he’ll do anything to protect her, even risk his life by crossing the wall.

As both worlds close in on them, Alissa knows that getting caught with Merrick could cost her everything she’s ever cared about, but giving him up proves harder than she ever imagined…

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Waiting on Wednesday: A Little Night Magic by Lucy March

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. Here's a little change from the regular books I pine for. This one sounds like a light and fun read with a touch of magic. I love the cover, too.

Title: A Little Night Magic
Author: Lucy March
Publication Date: January 31st, 2012
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

From Goodreads:

Deliciously witty and delightfully sexy, A LITTLE NIGHT MAGIC  is the story of Olivia Kiskey, a small town waffle house waitress who discovers she has magical powers which put her on the frontlines of a mystical war, forcing her to navigate her way between good and evil, day magic and night magic, love and waffles. But the waffles are really, really, really good.

Olivia Kiskey needs a change. She’s been working at the same Nodaway Falls, New York, waffle house since she was a teenager; not a lot of upward mobility there. She’s been in love with Tobias, the cook, for the last four years; he’s never made a move. Every Saturday night, she gathers with her three best friends—Peach, Millie, and Stacy—and drinks the same margaritas while listening to the same old stories. Intent on shaking things up, she puts her house on the market, buys a one-way ticket to Europe, and announces her plans to her friends . . . but then she meets Davina Granville, a strange and mystical Southern woman who shows Olivia that there is more to her life than she ever dreamed. As Liv’s latent magical powers come to the surface, she discovers that having an interesting life is maybe not all it’s cracked up to be. The dark side of someone else’s magic is taking over good people in town, and changing them into vessels of malevolence. Unwilling to cede her home to darkness, she battles the demons of her familial past and her magical present, with those she loves at her side . . . and in the cross fire. Can the most important things in life—friendship, love, magic, and waffles—get her through the worst that the universe can throw at her?

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Waiting on Wednesday: The Alchemist of Souls by Anne Lyle

Welcome back to another installment of Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine. Here is another Angry Robot upcoming release that caught my attention!

Title: The Alchemist of Souls
Author: Anne Lyle
Publication Date: February 28th, 2012
Publisher: Angry Robot

From Goodreads:

When Tudor explorers returned from the New World, they brought back a name out of half-forgotten Viking legend: skraylings. Red-sailed ships followed in the explorers’ wake, bringing Native American goods--and a skrayling ambassador--to London. But what do these seemingly magical beings really want in Elizabeth I’s capital?

Mal Catlyn, a down-at-heel swordsman, is seconded to the ambassador's bodyguard, but assassination attempts are the least of his problems. What he learns about the skraylings and their unholy powers could cost England her new ally--and Mal his soul.

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