Waiting on Wednesday #76 + WWW Wednesday #46

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

Red Queen

by Victoria Aveyard

(Red Queen Trilogy #1)

Publication Date: February 10, 2015

From Goodreads:

The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.

To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.

Mae finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the center of those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.

But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win?

Why I'm Excited

- I love high/epic fantasy.

- Finally! Someone is writing a fantasy series where the magical people are the ones who rule and the normal people are the peasant class!

- Look at the GORGEOUS cover!

The Shadow Cabinet

by Maureen Johnson

(Shades of London #3)

Publication Date: February 10, 2015

From Goodreads:

Rory and her friends are reeling from a series of sudden and tragic events. While racked with grief, Rory tries to determined if she acted in time to save a member of the squad. If she did, how do you find a ghost? Also, Rory's classmate Charlotte has been kidnapped by Jane and her nefarious organization. Evidence is uncovered of a forty-year-old cult, ten missing teenagers, and a likely mass murder. Everything indicates that Charlotte's in danger, and it seems that something much bigger and much more terrible is coming.

Time is running out as Rory fights to find her friends and the ghost squad struggles to stop Jane from unleashing her spectral nightmare on the entire city. In the process, they'll discover the existence of an organization that underpins London itself - and Rory will learn that someone she trusts has been keeping a tremendous secret.

Why I'm Excited

- It's the third installment in the Shades of London series!

- After how The Madness Underneath ended, I simply must have this book!

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Should Be Reading

What are you currently reading?

Thursdays at Castle Glower have never been spent so far from home. After the Castle transports Princess Celie, Prince Lulath, Pogue, and Celie's siblings, Rolf and Lilah, to an unknown land, they find themselves in the sleeping ruins of the Castle, in a world full of wild griffins and scheming wizards.

Without the Castle to guide her, Celie is unsure whom to trust - especially when two strange wizards claim to be the Castle's original keepers. She and the others must set out into the unknown if they hope to awaken the Castle and return home. As they learn the story of the Castle's origins, a truth fraught with secrets is revealed. But Celie knows the Castle best of all, and with the help of her pet griffin, Rufus, and her motley crew, she must find a way to save the Castle and get them all home safe and sound.

Not very far into this third installment of the Castle Glower series (trilogy?), but I'm really enjoying it so far! This is such a fun book!

What have you recently read?

Days after Holmes and Moriarty disappear into the waterfall's churning depths, Frederick Chase, a senior investigator at New York's infamous Pinkerton Detective Agency, arrives in Switzerland. Chase brings with him a dire warning: Moriarty's death has left a convenient vacancy in London's criminal underworld. There is no shortage of candidates to take his place - including one particularly fiendish criminal mastermind.

Chase is assisted by Inspector Athelney Jones, a Scotland Yard detective and devoted student of Holmes's methods of deduction, whom Conan Doyle introduced in The Sign of Four. The two men join forces and fight their way through the sinuous streets of Victorian London - from the elegant squares of Mayfair to the shadowy wharfs and alleyways of the Docks - in pursuit of this sinister figure, a man much feared but seldom seen, who is determined to stake his claim as Moriarty's successor.

I gave this book 5 out of 5 strawberries. Anthony Horowitz has thoroughly impressed me as a writer. I enjoyed this Sherlockian novel, but it wasn't until the end that I was blown away. I did not see that coming! Can Moffat and Gatiss hire Anthony Horowitz to help write screenplays for Sherlock?

What do you plan on reading next?

Matteo Alcran was not born; he was harvested. His DNA came from El Patron, lord of a country called Opium: a strip of poppy fields lying between the United States and what was once called Mexico. Matt's first cell split and divided inside a petri dish. Then he was placed in the womb of a cow, where he continued the miraculous journey from embryo to fetus to baby. He is a boy now, but most consider him a monster; except for El Patron. El Patron loves Matt as he loves himself, because Matt is himself.

As Matt struggles to understand his existence, he is threatened by a sinister cast of characters, including El Patron's power-hungry family, and he is surrounded by a dangerous army of bodyguards. Escape is the only chance Matt has to survive. But escape from Alacran Estate is no guarantee of freedom, because Matt is marked by his difference in ways he doesn't even suspect.

This is the February read for my book club (yeah, we decided not to waste our time with a Valentine's Day-themed read; we went straight for weird!). I have to admit this has never been at the top of my TBR pile, but I am the leader and I must read what our club chooses. So I guess we'll see how I like this very strange book!