Waiting on Wednesday: The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

This week Julie Kagawa announced some very exciting news on twitter! If you follow Julie, you know she's been working on a SUPERSEKRIT project and now we finally know what it is! Ash's story! I know that I'm #TEAMPUCK and all, but this news gave me happy, excited chills. I love the Iron Fey series and the prospect of reading Ash's story is thrilling.

Normally I'd post a picture of the cover of The Iron Knight here, but since this has just been announced, the cover hasn't been revealed yet. But, we're also pretty excited about the upcoming release of The Iron Queen (February, 2011), so let's look at that cover because it's so pretty.


I've just started reading The Iron Queen (thank you NetGalley!) and am already completely hooked. The first page made me all teary, and I fear that this book might make me change my #TeamPuck status to #TeamAsh! *gasp* But, as I was reading, I was thinking that I don't want this series to end. Thank you Julie for not making me have to face the end quite yet! I still have The Iron Knight to look forward to and I can't wait!

What about you all? Are you as excited as we are for another book in The Iron Fey series?

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine

Lazy Book Club's Future?

After it took Leigh and I a whopping three months to post the LBC on Graceling, we thought it might be a good idea to think about doing our book clubs differently in the future. Here's the thing - you all have so much to say! And we LOVE that. But, we HATE leaving out some of these great things! There was so much submitted for Graceling that we just couldn't get to - and we really wanted to.

So, I had an idea that we do our LBC's more in the way we did our informal LBC on Mockingjay - where we basically had an entire discussion in the comments section. I love the back and forth that occurred in that format, and that's just not possible with the way we currently do things. We could always start a forum for each month's book... but then that wouldn't be lazy, now would it? You'd have to sign in and I know that, for myself, I tune out if it's "too much work" to do something online.

Thus the question that we'd like your help in answering: Should we continue with LBC as is, or switch to the more informal format where we can discuss in the comments? Leigh and I would post our thoughts to get the discussion started, but then the rest of you can chime in and we can actually (sort of) discuss the book with you all. What do you think? We'd love to hear what you think!

Reading Rainbow: Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

A few weeks ago, I posted a Waiting on Wednesday on Nightshade by Andrea Cremer. I was so excited to read this book, and happily, it not only lived up to my expectations, but exceeded them. Truth be told, I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK.

From Goodreads:

While other teenage girls daydream about boys, Calla Tor imagines ripping out her enemies’ throats. And she wouldn’t have it any other way. Calla was born a warrior and on her eighteenth-birthday she’ll become the alpha female of the next generation of Guardian wolves. But Calla’s predestined path veers off course the moment she saves the life of a wayward hiker, a boy her own age. This human boy’s secret will turn the young pack's world upside down and forever alter the outcome of the centuries-old Witches' War that surrounds them all.

For me, Nightshade was one of those, "ignore your children/husband/dogs/job/laundry/etc." kind of books. I couldn't put it down and I even had Nightshade dreams. And trust me, this is a good thing. Dreams about Ren or Shay are a good thing. I should explain. This book is hot. I think my exact words to Leigh were, "If only this weren't a YA book..." But even being YA, it was full of passion and it was, well, hot. And while I thought I was a little over the whole "love triangle" thing, Nightshade does it so well that I was back on board and ready to buy my Team Ren tee-shirt. Or maybe Team Shay. Or both.

Aside from the love triangle (and the hotness), Nightshade has an amazingly well told, multi-layered story. The hierarchy of the wolves was fascinating, and the history behind the Witches War has me completely sucked-in. And I say "has" because this story is really just beginning. The ending was a cliff-hanger that left me wanting MORE Calla, Ren, and Shay. Imagine my excitement when I saw that I could read the first chapter of Wolfsbane here! Also, the cover for the second book is just beautiful. Really.

See?

So, if Nightshade is on your TBR, move it to the top of the pile! You will thank me - I promise. And if it's not on your TBR, add it right now. This is definitely one of my favorite books of the year! If you have already read the book, be sure to go read the Author Chat with Andrea Cremer at Mundie Moms. I missed it live (because I was still reading) and went back and read the whole thing - it's definitely worth it. And not just for Sophie's BinBons avatar. *wink*