Waiting on Wednesday #58 + WWW Wednesday #28

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

Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms

by Katherine Rundell

Publication Date: August 26, 2014

From Goodreads:

Even a life on the untamed plains of Africa can't prepare Wilhelmina for the wilds of an English boarding school in this lovely and lyrical novel from the author of Rooftoppers, which Booklist called "a glorious adventure."

Wilhelmina Silver's world is golden. Living half-wild on an African farm with her horse, her monkey, and her best friend, every day is beautiful. But when her home is sold and Will is sent away to boarding school in England, the world becomes impossibly difficult. Lions and hyenas are nothing compared to packs of vicious schoolgirls. Where can a girl run to in London? And will she have the courage to survive?

Why I'm Excited

I love boarding school stories, especially set in England and in this era. I'm assuming it's probably sometime in the 1800s, maybe 1900s, but even if it isn't, I still love boarding school stories. Don't ask why. I have no idea. Probably something to do with A Little Princess having been my most favorite book as a child.

Amity

by Micol Ostow

Publication Date: August 26, 2014

From Goodreads:

Connor's family moves to Amity to escape shady business deals. Ten years later, Gwen's family movies to Amity for a fresh start after she's recovered from a psychotic break.

But something is not right about this secluded house. Connor's nights are plagued with gore-filled dreams of demons and destruction. Dreams he kind of likes. Gwen has lurid visions of corpses that aren't there and bleeding blisters that disappear in the blink of an eye. She knows Amity is evil and she must get her family out, but who would ever believe her?

Amity isn't just a house. She is a living force, bent on manipulating her inhabitants to her twisted will. She will use Connor and Gwen to bring about a bloody end as she's done before. As she'll do again.

Why I'm Excited

While I am not a fan of horror/slasher movies, I do tend to like a lot of horror books. At least, the ones I've read I have liked, and I suppose I haven't read all that many. Amity sounds downright creepy and perhaps for October/November. It may end up being too demonic for my liking, but I'm still very much excited to read it.

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Should Be Reading

What are you currently reading?

She wants to put an end to the Testing.
In a scarred and brutal future, The United Commonwealth teeters on the brink of all-out civil war. The rebel resistance plots against a government that rules with cruelty and cunning. Gifted student and Testing survivor, Cia Vale, vows to fight.

But she can't do it alone.
This is the chance to lead that Cia has trained for - but who will follow? Plunging through layers of danger and deception, Cia must risk the lives of those she loves - and gamble on the loyalty of her lethal classmates.

Who can Cia trust?
The stakes are higher than ever - lives of promise cut short or fulfilled; a future ruled by fear or hope - in the electrifying conclusion to Joelle Charbonneau's epic Testing trilogy. Ready or not. . . .it's Graduation Day.

The Final Test is the Deadliest!

So I literally just picked this book up and started reading. I'm not even a chapter in, much less 10 pages. But I'm sure I'll enjoy it! I liked the first book, and I loved the second, so the third can't be too disappointing, right?

What have you recently read?

A dead girl walks the streets.

She hunts murderers. Child killers, much like the man who threw her body down a well three hundred years ago.

And when a strange boy bearing stranger tattoos moves into the neighborhood so, she discovers, does something else. And soon both will be drawn into the world of eerie doll rituals and dark Shinto exorcisms that will take them from American suburbia to the remote valleys and shrines of Aomori, Japan.

Because the boy has a terrifying secret - one that would just kill to get out.

I'm still trying to decide what to rate this book. For now, I'm going with 3/5 strawberries, but I almost want to give it 4/5 because it was so bloody creepy - and it was supposed to be, so I have to give the Author props for pulling off what she intended. At the same time, though, I wasn't a huge fan of the narration style, I didn't really get attached to anyone beyond the ghost, and it was a disturbing creepy. I'm not really a fan of disturbing.

What do you plan on reading next?

Ever since Addison came back to Aileen, her she has been brighter and life is sweeter. Until a mysterious man slips and spellbinding cameo around her neck, a cameo that strangles memories. Aileen is left with not the faintest notion of who Addison is.

Addison, a three-hundred-year-old fugitive from the netherworld taking the form of Shadowflesh, recognizes the cameo and the curse cast upon his unsuspecting love. But he knows breaking the curse, which may bring back her memories, will cost Aileen her life. To love her means to let her go.

But Aileen can't take her eyes off the stranger who keeps ignoring her. The stranger who pushes her into the arms of another.

Geoff, who has waited oh, so long for Aileen, tries to sweep her off her feet at the Christmas masquerade ball. But a serendipitous moment lands Aileen back together with Addison. One passionate kiss later, she knows beyond a shadow of doubt that she loves Addison, the icy stranger who smoky blue eyes.

Remembering comes at too high a price, though. Aileen must run for her life with the curse only a breath away.

Sent to me by the Author, it's about time I got around to reading this book! It's the second a series - no, I haven't read the first one, and yes, that is driving me up a flipping wall. But I'll get over it eventually, I'm sure. ;-)