Waiting on Wednesday #54 + WWW Wednesday #24

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine.
It's a weekly meme about upcoming books we're excited about!

Illusive

(Illusive #1)

by Emily Lloyd-Jones

Publication Date: July 15, 2014

From Goodreads:

When the MK virus swept across the planet, a vaccine was created to stop the epidemic, but it came with some unexpected side effects. A small percentage of the population developed superhero-like powers. Seventeen-year-old Ciere Giba has the handy ability to change her appearance at will. She's what's known as an illusionist. . . .She's also a thief.

After a robbery goes awry, Ciere must team up with a group of fellow super-powered criminals on another job that most would consider too reckless. The formula for the vaccine that gave them their abilities was supposedly destroyed years ago. But what if it wasn't?

The lines between good and bad, us and them, and freedom and entrapment are blurred as Ciere and the rest of her crew become embroiled in a deadly race against the government that could cost them their lives.

Why I'm Excited

Ever since reading Brandon Sanderson's Steelheart, I've become a fan of novels who turn people with superhero powers into criminals and/or villains. Because I'm sorry, but that's how it would work in reality. Give humans superhero powers and they're going to use them for their own gain. This book has the potential of being really stupid - or really awesome.

Marina

by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Publication Date: July 22, 2014

From Goodreads:

In May 1980, fifteen-year-old Oscar Drai suddenly vanishes from his boarding school in Barcelona. For seven days and seven nights no one knows his whereabouts. . . .

His story begins in an old quarter of the city, where he meets the strange Marina and her father, German Blau, a portrait painter. Marina takes Oscar to a cemetery to watch a macabre ritual that occurs on the last Sunday of each month. At exactly ten o'clock in the morning, a coach pulled by black horses appears. From it descends a woman, her face shrouded by a black velvet cloak. Holding a single rose, she walks to a gravestone that bears no name, only a mysterious emblem of a black butterfly with open wings.

When Oscar and Marina decide to follow her, they begin a journey that transports them to a forgotten, postwar Barcelona - a world of aristocrats and actresses, inventors and tycoons - and reveals a dark secret that lies waiting in the mysterious labyrinth beneath the city streets.

Why I'm Excited

Ghosts, mysterious disappearances, time travel - yeah, I have no idea why I'm excited (sarcasm). Marina sounds awesome! And look at the cover! So pretty!

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Should Be Reading

What are you currently reading?

The capital has fallen. The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction - and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she's fighting for.

Book #3 in The Grisha trilogy. I'm halfway through and OH MY GOSH, CAN THIS SERIES GET ANY BETTER?! It's amazing! I'm loving everyone in this - including Mal! They've finally set aside their jealousies and focusing on bringing the Darkling down. Finally! Mal has his priorities straight. And of course, Nikolai is in this, and Alina has grown so much stronger and confident. This is the best one yet!

What have you recently read?

Girls started vanishing in the fall, and now winter's come to lay a white sheet over the horror. Door County, it seems, is swallowing the young, right into its very dirt. From beneath the house on Water Street, I've watched the danger swell.

The residents know me as the noises in the house at night, the creaking on the stairs. I'm the reflection behind them in the glass, the feeling of fear in the cellar. I'm tied - it seems - to this house, this street, this town.

I'm tied to Maggie and Pauline, though I don't know why. I think it's because death is coming for one of them, or both.

All I know is that the present and the past are piling up, and I am here to dig. I am looking for the things that are buried.

I read an ARC and gave it 2/5 strawberries. I was expecting something more intense and mysterious; something involving actual murder and maybe a touch of supernatural. There's a touch of supernatural, but not much, and overall this book just kind of left me feeling disappointed. I kept reading because I wanted to know how it would end, but it was just kind of . . . . dull.

What do you plan on reading next?

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder - much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing - not even a smear of blood - to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . . .

I saw the movie a couple of weeks ago, and I admit that it has me intrigued. I'm not going into this book with high expectations - in fact, they are extremely low. But I do want to give it a try and see what I think. Besides, this is a library book and it's high time I've paid attention to my library books.