March 12 New Releases

Title: Strands of Bronze and Gold
Author: Jane Nickerson
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Genre: fairy tale, fantasy
Blurb: When seventeen-year-old Sophia Petheram’s beloved father dies, she receives an unexpected letter. An invitation—on fine ivory paper, in bold black handwriting—from the mysterious Monsieur Bernard de Cressac, her godfather. With no money and fewer options, Sophie accepts, leaving her humble childhood home for the astonishingly lavish Wyndriven Abbey, in the heart of Mississippi. Sophie has always longed for a comfortable life, and she finds herself both attracted to and shocked by the charm and easy manners of her overgenerous guardian. But as she begins to piece together the mystery of his past, it’s as if, thread by thread, a silken net is tightening around her. And as she gathers stories and catches whispers of his former wives—all with hair as red as her own—in the forgotten corners of the abbey, Sophie knows she’s trapped in the passion and danger of de Cressac’s intoxicating world.
Excitement factor: Yes please! (As an aside, if I have a weakness for any sub-genre of the fantastic, it’s retelling fairy tales)

And, because I missed a post last week due to workplace insanity, here are last week’s new releases, too:

Title: Orleans
Author: Sherri L. Smith
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Genre: science fiction
Blurb: After a string of devastating hurricanes and a severe outbreak of Delta Fever, the Gulf Coast has been quarantined. Years later, residents of the Outer States are under the assumption that life in the Delta is all but extinct…but in reality, a new primitive society has been born. Fen de la Guerre is living with the O-Positive blood tribe in the Delta when they are ambushed. Left with her tribe leader’s newborn, Fen is determined to get the baby to a better life over the wall before her blood becomes tainted. Fen meets Daniel, a scientist from the Outer States who has snuck into the Delta illegally. Brought together by chance, kept together by danger, Fen and Daniel navigate the wasteland of Orleans.  In the end, they are each other’s last hope for survival.
Excitement factor: Yes, please!

Title: Requiem
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperCollins
Genre: science fiction-ish
Blurb: Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has transformed. The nascent rebellion that was underway in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight. After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven. Pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels. As Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain of the Wilds, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor. Requiem is told from both Lena and Hana’s points of view. They live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.

Excitement factor: I don’t actually care about this, but it’s one of the bigger releases of the spring so I’d be remiss in not mentioning it.

 

Prodigy by Marie Lu

Title: Prodigy
Author: Marie Lu
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Genre: Sci-fi light
Page Count: 371

Day jolts awake beside me.

Within minutes of their arrival in Las Vegas in search of the Patriots, fugitives June and Day learn that the Elector has died and been replaced by his son, Anden. When the Patriots agree to take June and Day in on the condition that they assist in the assassination of the new Elector, the two young lovers must go their separate ways to play their parts in the plot; June, to Denver to manipulate Anden into falling into the Patriots’ plot, and Day, with the Patriots to stir up “the people” before he personally shoots the Elector. The roles they each play in the assassination plot causes them to question the nature of the Republic, the Patriots, and their relationship with each other.

First sentence: weak sauce.

Woof. This is the first book in a long time that I nearly gave up on after reading 200 pages. It was that bad. The best thing about the first book in this sequence, Legend, was its plot. It was fast, it was tense, it was an enjoyable popcorn read. This clunker of a sequel gets totally bogged down by plodding and incongruous character development and ANGST. So. Much. ANGST. I know this book is about teenagers. I get it. But do they have to be so fucking unbearable? Every time it switched to Day’s point of view I wanted to throw the book across the room. For being such a spontaneously charismatic orator in front of thousands of people, he sure does put his foot in it literally every other time he speaks.