Waiting on Wednesday #61 + WWW Wednesday #31

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

The Spiritglass Charade

(Stoker & Holmes #2)

by Colleen Gleason

Publication Date: October 7, 2014

From Goodreads:

After the Affair of the Clockwork Scarab, Evaline Stoker and Minda Holmes are eager to help Princess Alix with a new case. Seventeen-year-old Willa Aston is obsessed with spiritual mediums, convinced she is speaking with her mother from beyond the grave. What seems like a case of spiritualist fraud quickly devolves into something far more menacing: someone is trying to make Willa "appear lunatic," using an innocent-looking spiritglass to control her. The list of clues piles up: an unexpected murder, a gang of pickpockets, and the return of vampires to London. But are these events connected? As Uncle Sherlock would say, "There are no coincidences." It will take all of Mina's wit and Evaline's muscle to keep London's sinister underground at bay.

Why I'm Excited

The premise of this whole series is actually quite good. I really enjoyed the steampunk alternate reality in the first book, and I liked Mina and Evaline. . . .when they weren't together. This series has a ton of potential, and I'm excited to see what direction it decides to take with this second installment.

The Fall

by Bethany Griffin

Publication Date: October 7, 2014

From Goodreads:

Madeline Usher is doomed.

She has spent her life fighting fate, and she thought she was succeeding. Until she woke up in a coffin.

Ushers die young. Ushers are cursed. Ushers can never leave their house, a house that haunts and is haunted, a house that almost seems to have a mind of its own. Madeline's life - revealed through short bursts of memory - has hinged around her desperate plan to escape, to save herself and her brother. Her only chance lies in destroying the house.

In the end, can Madeline keep her own sanity and bring the house down? The Fall is a literary psychological thriller, reimagining Edgar Allan Poe's classic The Fall of the House of Usher.

Why I'm Excited

I really enjoyed Bethany Griffin's previous duology: Masque of the Red Death and Dance of the Red Death. I love Edgar Allan Poe's stories, and I love retellings. But above all - The Fall of the House of Usher is one of my absolute favorite Poe stories, and the Vincent Price movie still effectively freaks me out even to this day. So of course The Fall sounds awesome!

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Should Be Reading

What are you currently reading?

Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who's becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn't ready to let her go - especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil - and also her father.

To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings - and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

Book #2 in The Mortal Instruments series. I'm halfway through - a little more than halfway - and I have issues. No surprise. I still very much love the Author's world building and the action and all that - extremely awesome. I am even still mostly indifferent to the characters, and at least don't hate them. But the romance is getting super irritating and downright weird and awkward and just. . . .yeah.

What have you recently read?

Conceived on May Morning, Nell is claimed by the pixies and faeries as a merrybegot, one of their own. She is a wild child: herb gatherer and healer, spell-weaver and midwife. . . .and, some say, a witch.

Grace is everything Nell is not. She is the Puritan minister's daughter: beautiful and refined, innocent and sweet-natured. . . .to those who think they know her. But she is hiding a secret - a secret that will bring everlasting shame to her family should it ever come to light.

A merrybegot and a minister's daughter - two girls who could not have less in common. Yet their fates collide when Grace and her younger sister, Patience, are suddenly spitting pins, struck with fits, and speaking in fevered tongues. The minister is convinced his daughters are the victims of witchcraft. And all signs point to Nell as the source of the trouble. . . .

I gave this relatively short book 3/5 strawberries - I enjoyed it. It was interesting and quick, with some really good characters. My main complaint is that I just wish it had had more to it.

What do you plan on reading next?

When the dead come back to haunt the living, Lockwood & Co. step in. . . .

For more than fifty years, the country has been affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions.

Lucy Carlyle, a talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career. Instead she finds herself joining the smallest, most ramshackle agency in the city, run by the charismatic Anthony Lockwood. When one of their cases goes horribly wrong, Lockwood & Co. have one last chance of redemption. Unfortunately this involves spending the night in one of the most haunted houses in England, and trying to escape alive.

Book #1 in the Lockwood & Co. series. This is the October pick of the month for my Young Adult Biblio Babble Book Club, and I have made a vow to get right on top of book club reads as soon as possible. Also, I've been wanting to read this one for a while now! It sounds awesome!