Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon

January 21, 2020 ~ Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense ~ 2 Comments

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings where bloggers share which upcoming releases they’re most looking forward to. Join us every Wednesday and watch your TBR list multiply.

I am so happy to see more fairy tale retellings by authors of color being published. I have an urge to buy them all. I am very excited to read Sandhya Menon’s Of Curses and Kisses which is based on Beauty and the Beast. I’ve enjoyed all of her previous novels and have high expectations for this one. Cover is linked to Goodreads.

Title: Of Curses and Kisses
Author: Sandhya Menon
Series: St. Rosetta’s Academy, #1
Pages: 384
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: February 18, 2020

“From the New York Times bestselling author of When Dimple Met Rishi comes the first novel in a brand-new series set at an elite international boarding school, that’s a contemporary spin on Beauty and the Beast.
Will the princess save the beast?
For Princess Jaya Rao, nothing is more important than family. When the loathsome Emerson clan steps up their centuries-old feud to target Jaya’s little sister, nothing will keep Jaya from exacting her revenge. Then Jaya finds out she’ll be attending the same elite boarding school as Grey Emerson, and it feels like the opportunity of a lifetime. She knows what she must do: Make Grey fall in love with her and break his heart. But much to Jaya’s annoyance, Grey’s brooding demeanor and lupine blue eyes have drawn her in. There’s simply no way she and her sworn enemy could find their fairy-tale ending…right?
His Lordship Grey Emerson is a misanthrope. Thanks to an ancient curse by a Rao matriarch, Grey knows he’s doomed once he turns eighteen. Sequestered away in the mountains at St. Rosetta’s International Academy, he’s lived an isolated existence—until Jaya Rao bursts into his life, but he can’t shake the feeling that she’s hiding something. Something that might just have to do with the rose-shaped ruby pendant around her neck…
As the stars conspire to keep them apart, Jaya and Grey grapple with questions of love, loyalty, and whether it’s possible to write your own happy ending.”

Are you participating in Can’t-Wait Wednesday or Waiting on Wednesday? Is this book on your TBR? Be sure to leave a link to your post in the comments and I’ll visit!

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

December 3, 2019 ~ Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense ~ 10 Comments

As far as I am concerned, Silvia Moreno-Garcia can write anything. All of her novels, though quite different from one another, have impressed me. She has become one of my auto-buy authors and I cannot wait to see what she does with her latest upcoming novel, Untamed Shore. I was lucky enough to be sent an ARC of this one from the publisher (I may have begged) and can’t wait to get to it this month. Cover is linked to Goodreads.

Title: Untamed Shore
Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Series: N/A
Pages: N/A
Publisher: Agora Books
Release Date: February 11, 2020

“Renowned author Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s first thriller, UNTAMED SHORE, is a coming-of-age story set in Mexico which quickly turns dark when a young woman meets three enigmatic tourists.
Baja California, 1979. Viridiana spends her days watching the dead sharks piled beside the seashore, as the fishermen pull their nets. There is nothing else to do, nothing else to watch, under the harsh sun. She’s bored. Terribly bored. Yet her head is filled with dreams of Hollywood films, of romance, of a future beyond the drab town where her only option is to marry and have children.
Three wealthy American tourists arrive for the summer, and Viridiana is magnetized. She immediately becomes entwined in the glamorous foreigners’ lives. They offer excitement, and perhaps an escape from the promise of a humdrum future.
When one of them dies, Viridiana lies to protect her friends. Soon enough, someone’s asking questions, and Viridiana has some of her own about the identity of her new acquaintances. Sharks may be dangerous, but there are worse predators nearby, ready to devour a naïve young woman who is quickly being tangled in a web of deceit.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of the most exciting voices in fiction, and with her first crime novel, UNTAMED SHORE, she crafts a blazing novel of suspense with an eerie seaside setting and a literary edge that proves her a master of the genre.”

Are you participating in Can’t-Wait Wednesday or Waiting on Wednesday? Is this book on your TBR? Be sure to leave a link to your post in the comments and I’ll visit!

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore

November 26, 2019 ~ Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense ~ 16 Comments

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. I love Anna-Marie McLemore’s books! Jokes aside, McLemore’s novels always dazzle me, always enrapture me, always makes me feel like they’ve cast a spell on me. Dark and Deepest Red is their fifth novel and it sounds just as magical as their previous ones and I cannot wait to dive in. Cover is linked to Goodreads.

Title: Dark and Deepest Red
Author: Anna-Marie McLemore
Series: N/A
Pages: 320
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Release Date: January 14, 2020

“Summer, 1518. A strange sickness sweeps through Strasbourg: women dance in the streets, some until they fall down dead. As rumors of witchcraft spread, suspicion turns toward Lavinia and her family, and Lavinia may have to do the unimaginable to save herself and everyone she loves.
Five centuries later, a pair of red shoes seal to Rosella Oliva’s feet, making her dance uncontrollably. They draw her toward a boy who knows the dancing fever’s history better than anyone: Emil, whose family was blamed for the fever five hundred years ago. But there’s more to what happened in 1518 than even Emil knows, and discovering the truth may decide whether Rosella survives the red shoes.
With McLemore’s signature lush prose, Dark and Deepest Red pairs the forbidding magic of a fairy tale with a modern story of passion and betrayal.”

Are you participating in Can’t-Wait Wednesday or Waiting on Wednesday? Is this book on your TBR? Be sure to leave a link to your post in the comments and I’ll visit!

Can’t Wait Wednesday: Seven Deadly Shadows by Courtney Alameda and Valynne E. Maetani

November 5, 2019 ~ Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense ~ 4 Comments

I’ve been itching for another Courtney Alameda book ever since I finished Pitch Dark. I’m not familiar with Valynne E. Maetani, but I love to see what authors do when they collaborate. I’m always on the lookout for good fantasy novels with a bit of a horror twist and Seven Deadly Shadows sounds incredibly intriguing when it comes to world building. Cover is linked to Goodreads.

Title: Seven Deadly Shadows
Author: Courtney Alameda and Valynne E. Maetani
Series: N/A
Pages: 384
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: January 28, 2020

“Seventeen-year-old Kira Fujikawa has never had it easy. She’s bullied by the popular girls in school. Her family ignores her. And she’s also plagued with a secret: She can see yokai, the ghosts and demons that haunt the streets of Japan. But things accelerate from bad to worse when she learns that Shuten-doji, the demon king, will rise at the next blood moon to hunt down an ancient relic and bring the world to a catastrophic end.
Not exactly skilled at fighting anything, much less the dead, Kira enlists the aid of seven powerful death gods to help her slay Shuten-doji. They include Shiro, a kitsune with boy-band looks who is more flirtatious than helpful, and O-bei, a regal demon courtesan with covert reasons of her own for getting involved.
As the confrontation with Shuten-doji draws nearer by the day, the fate of Japan hangs in the balance. Can Kira save humankind? Or will the demon king succeed in bringing eternal darkness upon the world?”

Are you participating in Can’t-Wait Wednesday or Waiting on Wednesday? Is this book on your TBR? Be sure to leave a link to your post in the comments and I’ll visit!