Can't Wait Wednesday

 

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.

 

Knives Out meets The Inheritance Games with magic in this standalone supernatural thriller by Sarah Henning: thirteen witches, a locked-room murder, and two non-magical sisters trapped in a deadly game of Clue

Ruby and her sister, Wren, are normal, middle-class Colorado high school students working a summer job at the local Renaissance Fest to supplement their meager college savings.

So when an eccentric old lady asks them to impersonate her long-absent grandchildren at a fancy dinner party at the jaw-dropping rate of two grand―each―for a single night… Wren insists it’s a no-brainer. Make some cash, have some fun, do a good deed.

But less than an hour into the evening at the mysterious Hegemony Manor, Ruby is sure she must have lost her mind to have agreed to this.

 

 

Excited for Henning's debut thriller! I enjoyed her Sea Witch duology and her fantasy trilogy so I'm ready to tackle a new genre from her! This one sounds incredible too!

 

TITLE: The Lies We Conjure
AUTHOR: Sarah Henning
PUBLISHER: Tor Teen
GENRE: YA Thriller
RELEASE DATE: September 17, 2024

 

 

Prepare for the action-packed, ruthless, and romantic new fantasy from the #1 New York Times bestselling and National Book Award winning author Sabaa Tahir about love, legacy, and vengeance.

An orphan.
An outcast.
A prince.
And a killer who will bring an empire to its knees.

Growing up in the Kegari slums, AIZ has seen her share of suffering. An old tragedy fuels her need for vengeance, but it is love of her people that propels her. Until one hot-headed mistake lands her in an inescapable prison, where the embers of her wrath ignite.

Banished from her tribe for an unforgiveable crime, SIRSHA is a down-on-her-luck tracker who speaks to the earth, air, and water to trace her marks. Destitute, she agrees to hunt down a killer who has murdered children across the Empire. All she has to do is carry out the job and get paid. But then, she falls for a charismatic and inconvenient fugitive who keeps getting in her way.

QUIL is the crown prince of the Empire, nephew of a famed and venerated empress, but he’s loathe to pick up the mantle when his aunt steps down. As the son of the most hated emperor in the history of his people, he, better than anyone, understands that power corrupts. When a vicious new enemy threatens the survival of the Empire, Quil must ask himself if he can rise above his tragic lineage and be the heir his people need.

Beloved storyteller Sabaa Tahir masterfully interweaves the lives of three young people as they grapple with the burdens of power, the treachery of love and the devastating consequences of unchecked greed. Get ready for a dark and breathless journey that will captivate readers and that may cost these young people their lives―and their hearts. Literally.

 

Super excited for Tahir's next fantasy book! I am so ready to be emotionally destroyed by this book! Lol. It will truly depend on my level bravery if I will read this one right away or wait until the duology is completed. It'll be a gamble for sure!

 

TITLE: Heir
AUTHOR: Sabaa Tahir
PUBLISHER: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
GENRE: YA Fantasy
RELEASE DATE: October 1, 2024
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Teaser & Top Ten Tuesdays

 

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Purple Princess of The Purple Booker. 

Here are the rules:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a page
3. Pick out 2 lines that are SPOILER FREE
4. Name the title, author, etc.

 

"The carelessness, the disregard for my body, for my life. It's robbed me of my strength, my resolve. I let my eyes close without the faith I'll open them again." p 12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TITLE: Such Sharp Teeth
AUTHOR: Rachel Harrison
PUBLISHER: Berkley
GENRE: Paranormal Mystery
RELEASE DATE: October 4, 2022

 

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and The Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. 

This week's topic is: Top Ten Books I Wish Had "More" in Them

*in no particular order
**I belated realized I didn't pick an exact theme of more for this one. I just basically chose 10 books and said what I wanted more of! Lol.
***also to note, despite my wanting "more" from these books, I still gave them all fairly good ratings. I can't remember if any of them fell below 3 stars but pretty sure they were all 3 & above!

10. WHERE ECHOES LIE by Shannon Schuren--I remember wanting this one to be more spooky.
9. OUR CROOKED HEARTS by Melissa Albert--I think I wanted more spookiness out of this one too. I knew it wasn't going to be a horror fest, but something a little more creepy would've be nice!
8. SHATTERED SOULS by Mary Lindsey--I think this one I needed just more from. More depth, more ghosts as ghosts were involved and maybe a little more world-building.

7. THE HAUNTED by Danielle Vega--I think I wanted more details about the haunting and the history of the ghost story. I felt like there wasn't enough detail about that one.
6. THE BROKEN GIRLS by Simone St. James--more ghosts! Yes, there's a haunting but I felt like it needed more ghostly encounters.
5. HORROR HOTEL by Victoria Fulton & Faith McClaren--I wanted more details about the mystery that happened in the past at this hotel that led to the teens investigating. I felt like there wasn't a lot of detail to that.

4. THE HAUNTING OF MADDY CLARE by Simone St. James--more jump scares! I feel like this one had the right amount of ghost business, but I wanted to have a few more jump scares when I was reading. I know, me! She who does not like to be scared! Lol.
3. BLOODWITCH by Susan Dennard--more kissing! Lol. I feel like this one needed a few more kisses!
2. CRUSH THE KING by Jennifer Estep--I felt like this one needed a few more kisses too! Being the final book of the trilogy I felt like an extra kiss or two was warranted.

1. A CURSE FOR TRUE LOVE by Stephanie Garber--definitely needed a little more of Jacks. This was the final book of the trilogy and I just felt like we didn't get enough of Jacks on the page. Still a fabulous read though!

Review--Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison

 

A young woman in need of a transformation finds herself in touch with the animal inside in this gripping, incisive novel from the author of Cackle and The Return.

Rory Morris isn't thrilled to be moving back to her hometown, even if it is temporary. There are bad memories there. But her twin sister, Scarlett, is pregnant, estranged from the baby's father, and needs support, so Rory returns to the place she thought she'd put in her rearview. After a night out at a bar where she runs into an old almost-flame, she hits a large animal with her car. And when she gets out to investigate, she's attacked.

Rory survives, miraculously, but life begins to look and feel different. She's unnaturally strong, with an aversion to silver--and suddenly the moon has her in its thrall. She's changing into someone else--something else, maybe even a monster. But does that mean she's putting those close to her in danger? Or is embracing the wildness inside of her the key to acceptance?

This darkly comedic love story is a brilliantly layered portrait of trauma, rage, and vulnerability.

 

I finally picked up a Rachel Harrison book and thought I'd start with Such Sharp Teeth, because werewolves! I wasn't entire sure what to expect from the story. Something mysterious, something borderline horror...something good! But once again, I found myself reading something entirely different from my expectations. Sadly, this one read a lot like a contemporary novel where the heroine just happens to turn into a werewolf.

Rory takes a leave of absence from her career in the big city to help her twin sister out who is pregnant. She's about seven months along at the start of the novel, so Rory figures she'll stick around for a few months after the baby is born. Scarlett's boyfriend pulled a runner when he found out about the pregnancy, so Rory is obligated to help, and she wants to too. Coming back home after years away is surreal to her, but she finds herself talking to her old friend, Ian, from high school who she knew had a crush on her. And perhaps she is now seeing him in a new light. On her way home from the bar though, trouble strikes.

When Rory accidentally hits a deer on her way home, she gets out for at first, she wasn't sure what she hit and then when she investigates she soon learns what the deer was running from; a massive wolf who takes chase and Rory runs. Rory barely survives the encounter, but lives to tell the tale.

And life moves on. After recovering, Rory does start to notice little things that seem different. She notices smells a lot more, her sister's dog now hates her, she craves meat a lot, and her senses seem heightened. As the days go by, she starts researching what might be happening to her and the term werewolf pops up a lot and she starts to wonder. Needless to say her answers are confirmed on the night of the full moon. Rory is in fact a werewolf now.

With such an intense and fast opening, I was hoping for something exciting to follow this revelation. I can understand the downward slope in pacing due to Rory needing to come to terms with her new set in life. There's things to learn, she has to realize she's changing and all that. But afterwards, after that full moon? I was not expecting everything to just go back to normal. We are talking blatantly normal.

I guess to mix it up a bit, we learn that Rory suffered something pretty traumatic as a child that put a restraint on her relationship with her mother. Sometimes things with her sister seem a little unsteady? As a non-contemporary reader, I would assume this is par for the course. Where there's no action, we deal with feelings and the past and just all that kind of stuff.

You're probably surprised I didn't DNF this one, well, in a way, I am too. I guess I kept hoping there would be some spontaneous murders popping up. Did Rory accidentally kill someone while she was a wolf? What about the wolf who bit her? Would we turn it into a mystery where Rory is determined to find them and figure out why they did this to her? Nope and nope. None of that. We dealt with feelings; both past and present.

If it wasn't for the fact that Rory was a werewolf, I would've so DNF'd this after a few chapters. But I kept hoping and holding out for some big shift in the novel to amp up the game. Sadly, that did not come. It wasn't integral to the story apparently. I will say, we do learn who bit Rory and honestly, I saw it coming pretty much from the get-go. It felt obvious to me. But sadly, even this just didn't do much to add anything to the story.

It was truly one of those "everyday lifestyles" of this character who just happens to be a newly turned werewolf. No murders. No mystery. Nothing whatsoever other than a young woman trying to deal with being a supernatural creature. So yeah, a bit of a letdown if I am perfectly honest. I do distantly recall reading books like this in the past where there just didn't seem to be any real kind of story or conflict. The conflict here was Rory learning what it means to be a werewolf. Plain and simple. She also is still human with an ordinary life to be lived and we see that too, in great detail.

There was the bit of romance she had with her friend from high school. That was cute, but Rory isn't really the commitment type so even that kind of made me not like her all too much as a character. Granted, she goes through lots of changes in the story so it's kind of predictable as to where she winds up.

All in all, not what I had expected from the book with that cover and subject matter. It was mildly disappointing since I kept waiting for that other shoe to drop, but apparently, there was never another shoe. I can only hope the next Harrison book I pick up has a little something more to it. If you're a reader looking to slowly dip your toe into the paranormal world, this would be a good start as the paranormal only plays a very, very small role in things.

 

Overall Rating 2.5/5 stars

 

 

 

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. It's a fun meme where we gather to share what we've read last week and our reading plans for this week.

 

 

Last Week I Read:

Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson (3.5 stars)
These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan (4.5 stars)
These Twisted Bonds by Lexi Ryan (4.5 stars)

 
Currently Reading:

Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison

What I Plan to Read Next:

House of Marionne by J. Elle

Other Posts of Interest:

The Olympic Book Tag
Top Ten Tuesdays
Can't Wait Wednesday
Books from the Backlog #93
Book Blogger Hop #316
MIA
Stacking the Shelves