Waiting on Wednesday - YA Edition

Waiting on Wednesday is a book blog meme hosted by Breaking the Spine, where we discuss the upcoming book releases we're anticipating.

Over the past few months I have started a few different YA series that are unfinished and I am patiently hanging out in book purgatory with cliffhangers and open endings until these books are released.





Allegiant - Veronica Roth
Book #3 in the Divergent trilogy.  Ok, this is the one and only "cheat" I have on this list.  I read Divergent in the beginning of 2012 and then waited until this summer to read Insurgent on a borrowed copy from the library.  The time between reading the first and second books in the series left me pretty confused about what was going on and I was kind of disappointed because Insurgent didn't seem very interesting or worth reading to me.  However, now that the third book has been released I want to read it to bring closure to the characters and story line of Divergent - but not enough to buy it.  I put a hold on this book at the library and I am only #26 on the list so I will hopefully get to read it by the end of the year.
Release Date: October 22, 2013

Cress by Marissa Meyer
Lunar Chronicles #3.  I mistakenly read the first chapter of this book after finishing Cinder and Scarlett this year and you guys? It's gonna be awesome.  I really enjoyed to innovative take on fairy tales that Meyer brought to the table and I am really excited to see what she does next.
Release Date: February 4, 2014

Dreams of Gods and Monsters - Laini Taylor
Book #3 in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy (can you sense a theme to these books I'm posting about yet?).  I loved the first book, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, until the last 100 pages or so but was compelled to pick up the second installment, Days of Blood and Starlight which ended on a really intense plot line that promises to make a great third book.  I have the first two books on Kindle and I will be pre ordering the third book so I can read it as soon as it is released.
Release Date: April 8, 2014

The One - Kiera Cass
Book #3 in The Selection series.  I devoured The Selection on audiobook in September thinking it was a stand alone - and incredibly disappointed when I learned that it was a trilogy and that I would have to wait almost an entire year until the third book is released.  I read The Elite immediately after reading The Selection and we were left on an unpleasant cliffhanger.  I will be acquiring this book as soon as it is released.
Release Date: May 6, 2014

City of Heavenly Fire - Cassandra Clare
The Mortal Instruments #6.  Cassandra Clare has been  pretty popular for a while but I never had any interest in her books (the series is so long! too much of an investment!) until I became aware of and fell in love with the Infernal Devices trilogy this year. The story, characters, and world building in that trilogy made me take the leap into the Mortal Instruments, and that leap took me over the edge.  I have read all of Clare's books in one sitting, sometimes two or three in a weekend.  There is something so indulgent and attractive about the characters that I stay up all night reading about them.  I consider them one of my ultimate guilty pleasures because I know when I pick up one of these books I am checking out of the world for a couple of hours with no thought other than what is happening in the book.  I have not read City of Lost Souls (#5) yet because I need a buffer between now and book six to keep me going.
Release Date: May 2014

On Stacks & Shelves: Fall 2013 TBR

On Stacks and Shelves is a feature where I update you on my unread books shelf and my TBR pile for the next couple of months.

September is right around the corner with my favorite season of the year, fall!  The weather is cooling down at night and leaves are already starting to turn. I am a seasonal reader in that my taste for books changes depending on what time of the year it is.  As the fall (and Halloween) approaches, I stray away from the YA, romance and fantasy novels of the spring and summer and focus on darker books.

Fortunately, RIP VIII starts in September! I will be participating as a Peril the First reader this year (my first year) with the read-along -- 4 books that fit the RIP VIII guidelines and in the Estella Society read-along of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.  Carl @ Stainless Steel Droppings has updated his post with all of the challenges for this read-along that runs from September 1 - October 30.

Currently Reading:
The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel and The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern (audiobook).  I also have two books on hold at the library (Prodigy by Marie Lu and The Essence by Kimberly Derting) that I will finish by the end of August.

On Stacks: My Fall 2013 Short List

• Friday Night Lights - H.G. Bissinger
• House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski (Classics Club)
• Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (Classics Club)
• IT - Stephen King
• The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters
• Winter's Bone - Daniel Woodrell
• The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
• Daughters of Witching Hill - Mary Sharrat
• Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury (Classics Club Spin #3 Challenge)
• The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova

On Shelves
I currently have 24 unread physical books in my house right now which is an all time low.  At the beginning of the year I had 60+ books that I hadn't read and one of my goals for 2013 was to read or eliminate those books from my collection.  I have culled my bookshelves a few times this year so I am not going to get rid of any more unread books at this point, and I am very proud of the progress I've made so far.  I also have 17 unread Kindle ebooks, an all time high.  I don't have a plan to read through these any time soon but I will be travelling to Florida in September and that will probably be when I utilize my Kindle the most.  Most of the books I want to read I already own or have on hold at the library so I am going to hold off on purchasing any books for the next few weeks (with the exception of my Fall 2013 Anticipated Reads, of course!).

Fall 2013 Anticipated Reads

The next few months hold some of the most exciting book releases (in my opinion) since I was eagerly awaiting the next tome of Harry Potter in my teenage years.

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
The sequel to The Shining, finally! I have been a fan of Stephen King for about 10 years but I hadn't read The Shining until a few months ago despite seeing the movie several times.  After reading Joyland and a few of King's other novels that stray from his original horror genre I can't wait to see where he takes Danny Torrence.
Release date is September 24, 2013 by Scribner.

How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Present, Past, and Future by Rachel Swirsky
I discovered this novel through Publisher Weekly's list of big upcoming releases for Fall 2013.  It is a book of short stories about humanity and life.
Release date is September 30, 2013 by Subterranean.

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
When Gilbert first published her memoir Eat, Pray, Love, its' readers fell into two camps: love or hate.  I happened to absolutely love Eat, Pray, Love, and have reread it several times.   Once I found out she was writing a fiction novel I added it to my TBR list immediately.
Release date is October 1, 2013 by Viking Adult.



What are you looking forward to reading this this fall?