Category Archives: Can’t-Wait Wednesday

Apr25

Can’t-Wait Wednesday – 25th April, 2018

Posted on April 25, 2018 by sjhigbee

40276268 – vintage old pocket watch and book

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. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. It’s based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.

This week’s Can’t-Wait offering – Crimson Ash by Haley Sulich

#YA #adventure #science fiction #dystopian

You may live as a soldier or face death. Choose wisely.

Solanine Lucille wants her little sister back. Eight years ago, the government kidnapped her sister Ember, stole her memories, and transformed her into a soldier. But Solanine refuses to give up. Now that she and her fiancé have located the leader of a rebel group, she believes she can finally bring Ember home.

This is the first part of a very chatty blurb that seemed to be blurting far too many plotpoints, so I would avoid it if I were you. I picked this one up because I liked the sound of a sister going the extra mile to rescue her younger sibling – and it’s been a while since I had some YA sci fi dystopia in my life. I hope it’s an enjoyable read.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday – 18th April, 2018

Posted on April 18, 2018 by sjhigbee

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This week’s Can’t-Wait offering – The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes by Ruth Hogan

#fiction #death #grief

Masha is drowning.

Once a spirited, independent woman with a rebellious streak, her life has been forever changed by a tragic event twelve years ago. Unable to let go of her grief, she finds solace in the silent company of the souls of her local Victorian cemetery and at the town’s lido, where she seeks refuge underwater – safe from the noise and the pain. But a chance encounter with two extraordinary women – the fabulous and wise Kitty Muriel, a convent girl-turned-magician’s wife-turned-seventy-something-roller-disco-fanatic, and the mysterious Sally Red Shoes, a bag lady with a prodigious voice – opens up a new world of possibilities, and the chance to start living again.

Until the fateful day when the past comes roaring back…

I really enjoyed The Keeper of Lost Things so when I saw this one was available, I immediately requested it – and was delighted to be approved to receive an arc. I am really looking forward to diving back into Hogan’s quirky, emotional writing.

Apr11

Can’t-Wait Wednesday – 11th April, 2018

Posted on April 11, 2018 by sjhigbee

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40276268 – vintage old pocket watch and book

This week’s Can’t-Wait offering – Obscura – by Joe Hart

#adventure #science fiction #thriller #near future #psychological suspense

She’s felt it before…the fear of losing control. And it’s happening again.

In the near future, an aggressive and terrifying new form of dementia is affecting victims of all ages. The cause is unknown, and the symptoms are disturbing. Dr. Gillian Ryan is on the cutting edge of research and desperately determined to find a cure. She’s already lost her husband to the disease, and now her young daughter is slowly succumbing as well. After losing her funding, she is given the unique opportunity to expand her research. She will travel with a NASA team to a space station where the crew has been stricken with symptoms of a similar inexplicable psychosis—memory loss, trances, and violent, uncontrollable impulses.

I picked this one up because I like sci fi thrillers and crime – and I thought this premise looked intriguing. Again, I’ve cut the blurb in half – I thoroughly dislike the modern need to tell readers the first quarter of a book’s main plotpoints on the back cover – and I’m looking forward to tucking into this one very shortly.

Apr4

Can’t-Wait Wednesday – 4th April, 2018

Posted on April 4, 2018 by sjhigbee

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This week’s Can’t-Wait offering – Song of Blood & Stone – Book 1 of the Earthsinger Chronicles by L. Penelope

#adventure #fantasy #romance #YA

Orphaned and alone, Jasminda lives in a land where cold whispers of invasion and war linger on the wind. Jasminda herself is an outcast in her homeland of Elsira, where her gift of Earthsong is feared. When ruthless soldiers seek refuge in her isolated cabin, they bring with them a captive–an injured spy who threatens to steal her heart.

I picked this one up because I liked the look of the cover – having all the depth of a pavement puddle – and thought the premise looked interesting. I have cut short the rather chatty blurb and am looking forward to reading this one later on in the month – hopefully when the sun is shining and it stops raining!

Mar28

Can’t-Wait Wednesday – 28th March, 2018

Posted on March 28, 2018 by sjhigbee

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This week’s Can’t-Wait offering – The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor

#historical #adventure #thriller #murder mystery

London, September 1666. The Great Fire rages through the city, consuming everything in its path. Even the impregnable cathedral of St. Paul’s is engulfed in flames and reduced to ruins. Among the crowds watching its destruction is James Marwood, son of a disgraced printer, and reluctant government informer.

In the aftermath of the fire, a semi-mummified body is discovered in the ashes of St. Paul’s, in a tomb that should have been empty. The man’s body has been mutilated and his thumbs have been tied behind his back.

Under orders from the government, Marwood is tasked with hunting down the killer across the devastated city. But at a time of dangerous internal dissent and the threat of foreign invasion, Marwood finds his investigation leads him into treacherous waters – and across the path of a determined, beautiful and vengeful young woman.

I picked this one up because I liked the look of the cover – and when I saw it was a murder mystery set around the Great Fire of London, then it was a no-brainer that I would request it. I’m really looking forward to reading this one over the Easter break!

Mar21

Can’t-Wait Wednesday – 21st March, 2018

Posted on March 21, 2018 by sjhigbee

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This week’s Can’t-Wait offering – Breach of Containment – Book 3 of the Central Corps series by Elizabeth Bonesteel

#space opera #adventure #science fiction

Space is full of the unknown . . . most of it ready to kill you.

When hostilities between factions threaten to explode into a shooting war on the moon of Yakutsk, the two major galactic military powers, Central Corps and PSI, send ships to defuse the situation. But when a strange artifact is discovered, events are set in motion that threaten the entire colonized galaxy—including former Central Corps Commander Elena Shaw.

I picked up the first book The Cold Between at the library and loved it. So when I saw that this third book in the series is coming out this month, I should have time to read the second one before tucking into this one, too.

Mar7

Can’t-Wait Wednesday – 7th March, 2018

Posted on March 7, 2018 by sjhigbee

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This week’s Can’t-Wait offering – The Blood by E.S. Thomson

#crime #murder mystery #historical

I knew the smell of death well enough. But here the sweetness of decay was tainted with something else, something new and different. It was a curious, moist smell; a smell that spoke of the ooze and slap of water, of gurgling wet spaces and the sticky, yielding mud of low-tide…

Summoned to the riverside by the desperate, scribbled note of an old friend, Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain find themselves on board the seamen’s floating hospital, an old hulk known only as The Blood, where prejudice, ambition and murder seethe beneath a veneer of medical respectability.

On shore, a young woman, a known prostitute, is found drowned in a derelict boatyard. A man leaps to his death into the Thames, driven mad by poison and fear. The events are linked – but how? Courting danger in the opium dens and brothels of the waterfront, certain that the Blood lies at the heart of the puzzle, Jem and Will embark on a quest to uncover the truth. In a hunt that takes them from the dissecting tables of a private anatomy school to the squalor of the dock-side mortuary, they find themselves involved in a dark and terrible mystery.

I’ll be honest – after reading the blurb, I am slightly spluttering and wondering WHAT was going through my mind as I requested this one… That said, it never hurts to step out of your comfort zone from time to time – right? And even if it is a tad grittier than I generally like, it certainly looks like it’s an excellent read…

Feb28

Can’t-Wait Wednesday, 28th February 2018

Posted on February 28, 2018 by sjhigbee

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This week’s Can’t-Wait offering – Meet me in the Strange by Leander Watts

#science fiction #YA #magic realism

Davi tries to help a new friend, Anna Z, escape a cruel and controlling brother, and the teens end up running away to follow the tour of their rock idol, the otherworldly Django Conn. The story is set in a weird and wonderful retro-futuristic city of glam-girls and glister-boys and a strange phenomenon that Anna Z calls the “Alien Drift.”

This one sounds a bit weird and interesting. I’m hoping for the same kind of vibe that Justina Robson manages in her Quantum Gravity series. I’ve never come across anything quite like it before or since. And that cover is fabulous, isn’t it? Not that I am ever unduly influenced by book covers. In any way. At all…

Feb21

Can’t-Wait Wednesday – 21st February, 2018

Posted on February 21, 2018 by sjhigbee

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This week’s Can’t-Wait offering – The Magic Chair Murder: a 1920s English Mystery – A Black and Dod Mystery:1 by Diane James

#crime #murder mystery #historical

1929.

The night before she’s due to make a speech to the Robert Barnaby Society on the subject of the famous writer’s ‘magic chair’, committee member Linda Dexter disappears. When her body is discovered two days later, fellow members Frances Black and Tom Dod determine to find out the truth about her death.

Could Linda have discovered something about Robert Barnaby that got her killed? Or does the answer lie in the dead woman’s past? As they pursue their investigations, Fran and Tom find the Barnaby Society to be a hotbed of clashing egos, seething resentments and ill-advised love affairs – but does a killer lurk among them?

I think this one sounds great fun. Though I haven’t read anything by this author before, Severn Publishing have produced a steady stream of well-written, enjoyable murder mysteries that I have scooped up on Netgalley – and this looks to be another entertaining addition.

Feb14

Can’t-Wait Wednesday – 14th February, 2018

Posted on February 14, 2018 by sjhigbee

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This week’s Can’t-Wait offering – Fire and Bone – Book 1 of the Otherborn series

#urban fantasy #YA #godpunk

“Gossip Girl meets Percy Jackson in the glitz and grit of L.A….”

In Hollywood’s underworld of demigods, druids, and ancient bonds, one girl has a dangerous future.

Sage is eighteen, down on her luck, and struggling to survive on the streets of Los Angeles. Everything changes the night she’s invited to a party—one that turns out to be a trap.

I liked the sound of this one – I don’t know much about Gossip Girl, but I really like what I’ve seen of the Percy Jackson series, since reading snippets of it to my granddaughter. Fire and Bone comes out later this month on 20th February, so I shan’t have too long to wait.