I Can't Wait For... 22 September, 2021

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by 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.

These are a couple books releasing in the next couple weeks that I can't wait to pick up...

The Wish

Standalone

by Nicholas Sparks
eBook, Hardcover, Audiobook, 400 Pages
September 28, 2021 by Grand Central Publishing

Blurb:

1996 was the year that changed everything for Maggie Dawes. Sent away at sixteen to live with an aunt she barely knew in Ocracoke, a remote village on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, she could think only of the friends and family she left behind . . . until she meets Bryce Trickett, one of the few teenagers on the island. Handsome, genuine, and newly admitted to West Point, Bryce gradually shows her how much there is to love about the wind-swept beach town—and introduces her to photography, a passion that will define the rest of her life.

By 2019, Maggie is a renowned travel photographer. She splits her time between running a successful gallery in New York and photographing remote locations around the world. But this year she is unexpectedly grounded over Christmas, struggling to come to terms with a sobering medical diagnosis. Increasingly dependent on a young assistant, she finds herself becoming close to him.

As they count down the last days of the season together, she begins to tell him the story of another Christmas, decades earlier—and the love that set her on a course she never could have imagined.

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Why I Want To Read The Wish:

It's been ages since I read or enjoyed a Nicholas Sparks book but this one really sounds like something I would like. 

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Lakesedge

World at the Lake's Edge #1

Lyndall Clipstone

ebook, Hardcover, 384 Pages

September 28, 2021

Blurb:

A lush gothic fantasy about monsters and magic, set on the banks of a cursed lake. Perfect for fans of Naomi Novik and Brigid Kemmerer.

There are monsters in the world.

When Violeta Graceling arrives at haunted Lakesedge estate, she expects to find a monster. She knows the terrifying rumors about Rowan Sylvanan, who drowned his entire family when he was a boy. But neither the estate nor the monster are what they seem.

There are monsters in the woods.

As Leta falls for Rowan, she discovers he is bound to the Lord Under, the sinister death god lurking in the black waters of the lake. A creature to whom Leta is inexplicably drawn…

There’s a monster in the shadows, and now it knows my name.

Now, to save Rowan—and herself—Leta must confront the darkness in her past, including unraveling the mystery of her connection to the Lord Under.

Add to Goodreads | Amazon | Snowbound Books 

Why I Want to Read Lakesedge:

I fell in love first with the cover, but the description - from the haunted estate and the boy with the dark past to the death god bound to the lake all sound so fantastic to me. 

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The Violent Season

Standalone

Sara Walters

ebook, Paperback, 320 Pages

October 5, 2021 by Sourcebooks Fire

Blurb:

There is something terribly wrong in Wolf Ridge. Every November, every teen is overwhelmed with a hunger for violence…at least, that’s the urban legend.

After Wyatt Green’s mother was brutally murdered last Fall, she’s convinced that the November sickness plaguing Wolf Ridge isn’t just a town rumor that everyone ignores…it’s a palpable force infecting her neighbors. Wyatt is going to prove it, and find her mother’s murderer in the process. She digs up every past brutal act she can find from Wolf Ridge’s past – from car wrecks, suicides, and unnamed victims turning up in rivers—and even reaches out to an out-of-state journalist that seems to believe her. But all of her digging leads to nowhere. Everyone in Wolf Ridge accepts that the November sickness is real, and absolutely no one will talk about it.

As Wyatt’s best friend Cash turns on her, and her friend is almost killed in a tragic accident, Wyatt panics – how can she keep her friends safe, and find her mother’s murderer, when no one believes her?

As the evidence stars to disappear, Wyatt wonders: is she just imagining everything? Is the sickness real, or are the people of Wolf Ridge just naturally prone to doing bad things?

Can Wyatt and her friends come out of the Violent Season unscathed, or is one of them going to be the next victim?

Add to Goodreads | Amazon | Snowbound Books

Why I Want to Read The Violent Season:

I read an excerpt of The Violent Season in an email newsletter about a month ago and it grabbed me right away. I can't wait to read more. 

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Will you be checking any of these books out? What upcoming releases are you looking forward to?

{Book Review} MARY, WILL I DIE? by Shawn Sarles

 

Mary, Will I Die? 

Standalone

Shawn Sarles

YA Horror

304 Pages, Hardcover, eBook

September 7, 2021 from Scholastic Press

Blurb:

Bestselling author Shawn Sarles' most terrifying YA horror yet...

It starts innocently enough. Four kids - three girls, one boy - are at one of their houses, playing games. One of them has read about "Bloody Mary" and the idea that if you look into a mirror and say her name thirteen times, she will show you the future. Some legends say she'll show you your one true love or a skull to mark your death within five years. Others say that conjuring Bloody Mary will bring her into your world.

Both sets of legends are true. The kids go through with the act, saying her name thirteen times. One girl looks in the mirror and sees her longtime crush. One girl looks in the mirror and sees the boy in the group. But she pretends to see something else. One girl looks in the mirror and sees a girl she's never seen before but can't get out of her mind. And the boy . . . he sees a skull. But he pretends to see something else. They try to laugh it off. And mostly they forget about it. Or at least they don't talk about it. Yes, over the next few years, whenever they look into a mirror, it's like there's always another figure standing in the background, getting closer.

Just short of five years later, the four of them are no longer friends, having gone on separate paths. The girl whose house it was has always tried to avoid the mirror they used - because she always sensed someone in the background. One morning as she's passing by, she sees much more than her own reflection - it's a scary figure taunting her. She startles and breaks the mirror. When the pieces are put back together (barely), the figure is gone.

That day in school, a new girl arrives. Her name is Mary...

My Review:

Elena, Steph, Calvin, and Grace used to all ride to school together when they were younger. One afternoon as a tornado is coming in Elena, who really doesn't like any of the others, takes them upstairs into her deceased grandmother's room and shows them the mirror. It starts out as a game to kill boredom. Stand in front of the mirror and say her name 13 times and Bloody Mary will show you an image of your true love or will show that you're going to die within five years. One girl sees the boy she's crushing on, one girl sees a girl she's never seen before, the third girl sees the boy, and the boy sees Bloody Mary. 

Five years later they four are no longer friends and the game is a distant memory. Elena is the most popular girl in school, Steph is tall and awkward but a star on the volleyball court, Calvin is a loner who draws in his sketchbook all the time, and Grace is a horror movie obsessed outcast. But as strange, horrifying things begin happening the four will have to reunite to vanquish an ancient evil. 

I found it difficult at times to like Grace and Steph and I absolutely hated Elena, even at the end of the book. I did read this book pretty quickly, despite not loving it. It was a fast read and I'm always up for anything to do with the Bloody Mary urban legend but it was just an okay read for me. Maybe it's because I'm past YA age, but I feel the book could have been scarier. The ending came together really quickly and was a little underwhelming. 

Overall, this book will probably be great for younger teens and is a nice read for the spooky season but it was a bit of a letdown for me. 

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟

3.75 of 5 Stars!

I Can't Wait For... All of Us Villains

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by 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.

I saw this one in a publisher's newsletter and added it to my TBR...

All of Us Villains

All of Us Villains Book 1

by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman
eBook, Hardcover, Audiobook, 400 Pages
November 9, 2021 by Tor Teen

Blurb:

The Blood Moon rises. The Blood Veil falls. The Tournament begins.

Every generation, at the coming of the Blood Moon, seven families in the remote city of Ilvernath each name a champion to compete in a tournament to the death.

The prize? Exclusive control over a secret wellspring of high magick, the most powerful resource in the world--one thought long depleted.

This year, thanks to a salacious tell-all book, the seven champions are thrust into worldwide spotlight, granting each of them new information, new means to win, and most importantly: a choice - accept their fate or rewrite their story.

But this is a story that must be penned in blood.

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Will you be checking this book out?