Waiting on Wednesday: The Witch Hunter & The Winner's Kiss

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

This week's WoW selections are...








's Pick:

Title: The Witch Hunter
Author: Virginia Boecker
Series: The Witch Hunter #1
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: June 2nd, 2015

The magic and suspense of Graceling meet the political intrigue and unrest of Game of Thrones in this riveting fantasy debut.

Elizabeth Grey is one of the king's best witch hunters, devoted to rooting out witchcraft and doling out justice. When she's accused of being a witch herself, Elizabeth is arrested and sentenced to die at the stake. Salvation comes from a man she thought was her enemy. Nicholas Perevil, the most powerful wizard in the kingdom, offers her a deal: he will save her from execution if she can track down the person who laid a deadly curse on him.

As she's thrust into the world of witches, ghosts, pirates, and all-too-handsome healers, Elizabeth is forced to redefine her ideas of right and wrong, of friends and enemies, and of love and hate.

This one wasn't really on my radar, but then I saw it on NetGalley and read the description. It sounds pretty good. I've always enjoyed witchy books! :)





's Pick:



Title: The Winner's Kiss
Author: Marie Rutkoski
Series: The Winner's Trilogy, book #3
Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
Publication Date: March 1, 2016

War has begun. Arin is in the thick of it, with the East as his ally and the empire as his enemy. He’s finally managed to dismiss the memory of Kestrel, even if he can’t quite forget her. Kestrel turned into someone he could no longer recognize: someone who cared more for the empire than for the lives of innocent people—and certainly more than she cared for him. At least, that’s what he thinks.

But far north lies a work camp where Kestrel is a prisoner. Can she manage to escape before she loses herself? As the war intensifies, both Kestrel and Arin discover unexpected roles in battle, terrible secrets, and a fragile hope. The world is changing. The East is pitted against the West, and Kestrel and Arin are caught between. In a game like this, can anybody really win?

I don't know if I'll be able to handle this final book, but I need it in my hands NOW. I mean, that summary doesn't leave much hope that Arin and Kestrel will be together much in this book, but what's new, right? Aaagh...I have faith in Marie Rutkoski, but I also know what she's already done to her readers' hearts, and it ain't pretty. o_O


What are you desperately waiting for this Wednesday? Let us know in the comments or share a link to your own WoW post!

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Labels: beautiful covers, fantasy, favorite authors, favorites, grabby hands, Little Brown Books, macmillan, marie rutkoski, the winner's trilogy, the witch hunter, virginia boecker, waiting on wednesday (wow)

Review: Torn Away by Jennifer Brown

Title: Torn Away

Author: Jennifer Brown
Series: n/a
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: May 6th, 2014
Source: From Publisher via NetGalley
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Born and raised in the Midwest, Jersey Cameron knows all about tornadoes. Or so she thinks. When her town is devastated by a twister, Jersey survives -- but loses her mother, her young sister, and her home. As she struggles to overcome her grief, she's sent to live with her only surviving relatives: first her biological father, then her estranged grandparents.

In an unfamiliar place, Jersey faces a reality she's never considered before -- one in which her mother wasn't perfect, and neither were her grandparents, but they all loved her just the same. Together, they create a new definition of family. And that's something no tornado can touch.

There is one thing that drew me to this book and that was the promise of tornadoes. Tornadoes are fascinating. Maybe not to those of you who live out west, but for this little Pennsylvania chick, they are the unknown. Hubby and I used to watch that show storm chasers all the time, and I grew up listening to all my moms stories of the tornadoes she’s lived through. (She grew up in Texas). I'm so sad that show got canceled.

But anyway, when the blurb promised a Tornado, I jumped on it. I suppose it’s not just tornadoes that do it for me, it’s the whole natural disaster and aftermath that intrigues me.

In Torn Away, there is definitely a tornado. You get to live through it from start to end, which I really appreciated. I was afraid it would start off afterward and we would only get tidbits, but you are right there in the basement with Jersey when shit gets real. And boy does it get real.

Tornado's are destructive. They ruin lives. While I loved watching them rip through towns on Storm Chasers, I was always a little heart broken when they wrapped up the show with shots of people crying over the rubble. In Torn Away, the show continues and you get a front seat to Jersey’s feelings while she deals with the loss of her family.

You won’t find swoon in this story. Jersey is much too distraught for that. She’s taken everything for granted. She would have arguments with her Mom, ignore her little sister all the time… and bam.. they are gone. That is a tough pill to swallow. It’s so sad. She deals with so much crap after it all clears up, and the people in her life aren’t who she thought they were. I liked the realness in that, especially with her Step Fathers reaction to it all.

She has essentially lost everything that matters to her. She learns things about her mother she never knew before, and she gets a good look at why her biological father hasn’t been a part of her life. She goes through hell, but there’s hope in there too. I loved all the focus on how she worked through her grief.

The only thing I didn’t like is the cover, and that’s only because I’ve seen her face on so many covers lately and honestly, she doesn’t look anything like the main character. Aside from that, it was perfect. I really loved Torn Away. It was a total me book. It had the natural disaster stuff I like, along with the contemporary base.

About the author:



Two-time winner of the Erma Bombeck Global Humor Award (2005 & 2006), Jennifer's weekly humor column appeared in The Kansas City Star for over four years, until she gave it up to be a full-time young adult novelist.

Jennifer's debut novel, HATE LIST (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009) received three starred reviews and was selected as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a VOYA "Perfect Ten," and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. HATE LIST also won the Michigan Library Association's Thumbs Up! Award, the Louisiana Teen Readers Choice award, the 2012 Oklahoma Sequoyah Book Award, was an honorable mention for the 2011 Arkansas Teen Book Award, is a YALSA 2012 Popular Paperback, received spots on the Texas Library Association's Taysha's high school reading list as well as the Missouri Library Association's Missouri Gateway Awards list, and has been chosen to represent the state of Missouri in the 2012 National Book Festival in Washington, DC. Jennifer's second novel, BITTER END, (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2011) received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and VOYA and is listed on the YALSA 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults list and is a 2012 Taysha's high school reading list pick as well.

Jennifer writes and lives in the Kansas City, Missouri area, with her husband and three children.

Find Jennifer:

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

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Labels: contemporary, death, Jennifer Brown, Little Brown Books, reviews, Torn Away, tornado's

Review: The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith

Title: The Geography of You and Me
Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Series: n/a
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: April 15th, 2014
Source: From Publisher via NetGalley
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Lucy and Owen meet somewhere between the tenth and eleventh floors of a New York City apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they're rescued, they spend a single night together, wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is restored, so is reality. Lucy soon moves to Edinburgh with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father.

Lucy and Owen's relationship plays out across the globe as they stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and -- finally -- a reunion in the city where they first met.

A carefully charted map of a long-distance relationship, Jennifer E. Smith's new novel shows that the center of the world isn't necessarily a place. It can be a person, too.

I’ve been wanting to read this one for a while now, but I just haven’t found the time to squeeze it into my reading list. When I saw it on NetGalley, I grabbed it up, because that provided me with the perfect excuse to slide it in there.

Early on I thought I was going to love this one, but after the excitement of the black out, the novel slows down considerably. I found myself not even wanting to pick it back up at times. Not because it wasn’t good, but just because it wasn’t really grabbing me. The writing is great, but there just wasn't a whole lot going on.

One aspect I did like were all the places they both traveled to. That was really neat. However, that’s about the extent of this story, and I can see why this wasn’t loved as much as The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. I also enjoyed This is What Happy Looks Like. While The Geography of You and Me was okay, it just didn’t hold the magic of the other two. At least in my opinion.

Lucy and Owen meet during a black out, and then they are separated, both parties moving far away from where they meet. Owen heading west, and Lucy heading overseas. There really isn’t much swoon going on, because they aren’t together. And I knew that there wouldn’t be going into this, but there is also not much interaction between them while they were apart. I expected a little more I guess.

The ending, that kinda fell flat for me as well. I sat there with my kindle in hand saying out loud, “ … Um… okay…” My 6 year old asked what I meant, so I explained to her how the ending of the book was a little lack luster for my taste. She just stared at me, with a "huh?" look in her eyes. lol

You would think she'd be used to my bookish ramblings by now, I guess now. Anyway, I liked it… It wasn’t bad, but I really had hoped for so much more. I won’t let that discourage me though, because her writing is always good, I just didn’t connect with this story as much as her others.

About the author:


Jennifer E. Smith is the author of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, The Storm Makers, You Are Here, and The Comeback Season. She earned her master's degree in creative writing from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and currently works as an editor in New York City. Her writing has been translated into 28 languages.



Find Jessica:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Labels: contemporary, jennifer e. smith, Little Brown Books, reviews, the geography of you and me, travel