Lisa's Looking Foward To #26 - August 13th, 2019

Back to joining up with the Waiting on Wednesday Posts, and the Can't Wait Wednesday posts hosted by Wishful Endings.  This week there are four on my list.

From my ARC list for August 13th:

Beautiful cover and sounds really good!

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Lottie collects dead creatures and lovingly cares for them, hoping to preserve them, to save them from disintegration. Her father understands—Lottie has a scientific mind, he thinks. Her aunt wants it to stop, and she goes to cruel lengths to make sure it does.

And her mother? Lottie’s mother died long ago. And Lottie is searching for a way to be close to her.

The Art of Taxidermy is a heartbreaking verse novel exploring love and death, grief and beauty, and the ways we try to make sense of it all.

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE. 
 

I'm a bit ashamed to say that I got an ARC of this and met the author last summer at ALA in NOLA.  And I have yet to read it.  I'm sure if I had read it,  I'd have needed a copy of this one sooner rather than later.  And just like with the first book, the cover is awesome!

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

The witches, beasties, goblins, and Royals return in this spellbinding conclusion to New York Times best-selling author Megan Shepherd’s Grim Lovelies duology. 

Ever since she discovered her affinity for magic, seventeen-year-old Anouk has been desperate to become a witch. It’s the only way to save her friends who, like Anouk, are beasties: animals enchanted into humans. But unlike Anouk, the other beasties didn’t make it out of the battle at Montélimar in one piece.

With her friends now trapped in their animal forms, Anouk is forced into a sinister deal involving a political marriage with her sworn enemy, a wicked plot to overthrow London’s fiercest coven of witches, and a deadly trial of fire to become a witch. The price for power has always been steep in the world of the Haute. Now, it will cost Anouk everything.

Wicked and delightful, this spellbinding sequel and conclusion to Grim Lovelies is perfect for fans of The Cruel Prince and The Hazelwood Wood.

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE.

Another deep story, one that I think would be good for my students to read, as well as myself just to know more about this event.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Based on the shocking Beslan school siege in 2004, this is a brave and necessary story about grief, resilience, and finding your voice in the aftermath of tragedy.

On the day she brings her sweet little sister, Nika, to school for the first time, eighteen-year-old Darya has already been taking care of her family for years. But a joyous September morning shifts in an instant when Darya's rural Russian town is attacked by terrorists. While Darya manages to escape, Nika is one of hundreds of children taken hostage in the school in what stretches to a three-day siege and ends in violence. In the confusion and horror that follow, Darya and her family frantically scour hospitals and survivor lists in hopes that Nika has somehow survived. And as journalists and foreign aid workers descend on her small town, Darya is caught in the grip of grief and trauma, trying to recover her life and wondering if there is any hope for her future. From acclaimed author Julie Mayhew comes a difficult but powerful narrative about pain, purpose, and healing in the wake of senseless terror.

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE. 

Sounds like a sweet romance.  And I kind of like trying to support Wattpad authors, especially as much as I loved the After series by Anna Todd.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Everything changed the day Drayton Lahey crashed into Dallas’s life…

Dallas Bryan is a no-nonsense cheerleader who has her sights set on a dance scholarship to CalArts. Drayton Lahey is the bad-boy quarterback from football royalty who’s completely wrong for her—at least, that's what she tells herself. The longer Dallas tells herself she doesn't need Dray, the quicker she realizes it might be time to forget what she needs and go after what she wants.

Sound good?  Add to Goodreads HERE.


Once again, I had one more in my planner, but again, it doesn't seem to be actually coming out, as its lack of cover and any more info on Goodreads seems to say.  It is one of the Entangled Teen books I mentioned last week, so I am hoping this means they are just putting the release off, but not too long.  If I hear more, I'll let you know, but  again it is Sky-Kissed by Pintip Dunn, sequel to  Star-Crossed, which I loved; which looks to have also listed this week as a pub date on Goodreads.
  
Final Thoughts:
Have you read any of these yet?  Are they on your TBR?  And hey, while you're here, you should go try to win some of my ARCs from Cleaning Up My TBR Post HERE. The US only giveaway is open till Friday at midnight, there are even some 2019 ARCs that can be one of your two choices.  I probably won't have a giveaway this coming Saturday because I'll be out of town at Book Bonanza.

Review: The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd (TBR Pile Challenge and It's New to Me Challenge)

The Madman's Daughter is a book I'd wanted to read for a long time.  I believe some time last year I won it in a giveaway on another blog.  But I keep forgetting to leave notes in those books to remind me when I blog about them.  This is the 2nd book by this author that I've read.  The first was The Cage, which is not related to this story at all.  Once again though, this author has written a story that is very unique.  I love that it is a retelling of a classic story, while not a fairy tale, still a story that is great to have more insight into. 

Basically it is kind of a retelling of The Island of Dr. Moreau.  Or more precisely not necessary a retelling, but some additions to the story.  The main character for us is Juliet, who is the daughter of Dr. Moreau.  Her father left her and her mother when she was just a girl.  He left because whatever kind of experiments he was doing were considered against the laws of nature, and he was chased out by the other doctors and scientists of the time.  As far as Juliet knows, he is dead.  Because she and her mother had to work at horrible low paying jobs, and lived terrible lives.  Juliet is 16 years old, and of course has an interest in medical science, as well as quite a vast knowledge of it thanks to her father.  But all she can do now is work as a maid at a college nearby.  But one day she discovers her father's old assistant is in town.  Montgomery was about her age, but because he was a boy, her father took him in and taught him to be his assistant.  She finds out from Montgomery that her father is still alive, and on an island where it seems he has continued his experiments.

As I mentioned, she works as a maid.  And one of the men she works for is kind of a jerk.  After she has a bad interaction with him, she decides she must leave town, and so she insists that Montgomery take her back with him.  They do, but the ship ride is long, and it is on an older, sketchier ship.  On the way the ship rescues a man who is floating by himself on a raft in the middle of the ocean.  His name is Edward, and he says he's from a well-to-do family back in London.  While they are on the island, her father tries to get Juliet and Edward together, as he feels they would be a good match, and he could take care of her back in town.  But Juliet still feels an attraction to Montgomery, which she's unsure if he reciprocates.

Now the island is full of genetically modified animals that are now very human like thanks to her father.  While they mostly seem to follow his rules, some are growing uneasy and unhappy.  Not to mention there is someone or something on the island that has begun killing.  Dr. Moreau takes the medicine away from his creatures in punishment, and then all chaos breaks loose.  Making it a fight to stay alive, and figure out how to get off the island.

Really an interesting way to make this story come alive.  I've never actually read the original story, but have seen the movie, the newer one.  This story makes me want to go back and watch the movie again, especially since I didn't really enjoy the movie, but think maybe now I will.  Maybe watching the original instead.  I'm looking forward now to reading the next book in the series, and I was glad to read that it would be based on another story instead of just a continuation of this one.

And this book also will count towards two of my challenges:  TBR Pile, as well as the challenge I'm hosting this year:   It's New to Me.  It's not too late to enter into my challenge either!

Waiting on Wednesday: The Hunt (The Cage #2) by Megan Shepherd

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  I've chosen a sequel to a book I read last summer.  While I had some issues with The Cage, it still had some interesting plot points and I am interested to see where the story goes next.  Here is the blurb for the sequel from Goodreads:

They’ve left the cage—but they’re not free yet.

After their failed escape attempt, Cora, Lucky, and Mali have been demoted to the lowest level of human captives and placed in a safari-themed environment called the Hunt, along with wild animals and other human outcasts. They must serve new Kindred masters—Cora as a lounge singer, Lucky as an animal wrangler, and Mali as a safari guide—and follow new rules or face dangerous consequences. Meanwhile, Nok and Rolf have been moved into an enormous dollhouse, observed around the clock by Kindred scientists interested in Nok’s pregnancy. And Leon, the only one who successfully escaped, has teamed up with villainous Mosca black-market traders.

The former inhabitants of the Cage are threatened on all fronts—and maybe worst of all, one of the Hunt’s Kindred safari guests begins to play a twisted game of cat and mouse with Cora. Separated and constantly under watch, she and the others must struggle to stay alive, never mind find a way back to each other. When Cassian secretly offers to train Cora to develop her psychic abilities—to prove the worthiness of humanity in a series of tests called the Gauntlet—she’ll have to decide fast if she dares to trust the Kindred who betrayed her, or if she can forge her own way to freedom.

I'm very interested to see where this story goes.  With aliens keeping humans as pets, or as zoo animals.  What book are you eagerly awaiting this week?

Review: The Cage by Megan Shepherd

First, thanks to Balzer and Bray for approving me for the e-galley of this title from Edelweiss.  I also won an ARC that I actually ended up reading for the most part.  This is my first book by the author.  I have a copy of The Madman's Daughter and its sequel, but haven't gotten around to them yet.  I'm even more eager to read them now that I have finished this one though.  I have to say I really enjoyed this book. 

It's a kind of new type of story,  or at least compared to the majority of what is out there at the moment.  The main character is Cora.  She is the daughter of a politician, and she just recently got out of juvenile detention for a wreck that killed a woman.  She wakes up in the desert.  She has no idea where she is or how she got there.  Only that the last thing she remembers is being in a car with her brother on the way to spend time with all of her family together. Something that hasn't happened since before her mother and father got divorced.  But now she's somewhere strange.  Alone she thinks, until she runs into a boy her age.  A cute boy, named Lucky.  Lucky knows Cora, even if she doesn't know him.  He knows about the accident that sent her to the Juvenile detention center, and he has a part in what got her sent there.  He feels guilty for it when he gets to know her.  They find a dead girl by the ocean that is strangely right on the edge of the desert.  They also find tattoos of strange patterns on each other's necks.  They begin to explore the area and find there are all kinds of different environments right next to each other, pretty much in impossible ways. They find what looks like a town from far away, but when they get up closer, it is one, but it is all different kinds of mismatched buildings. And when you go inside there are not normal interiors.  They also run into three more people their age. There's a big strong boy named Leon, a nerdy boy named Rolf, and a very skinny, pretty girl named Nok.  They soon find out they are not on Earth anymore. They have been taken by aliens.  The aliens are not really as different or strange as could be imagined. They are somewhat human like in their body forms, although their skin color is way different, their eyes are different, and they are bigger.  Plus they are psychic. They don't think humans are as "advanced" as they are.  They call themselves "The Kindred".  And supposedly they keep humans in little environments like this, for observation.  There were supposed to be 6, three girls and three boys.  Matched by the little marks on their necks. 

But while the other four seem to be settling in and accepting that this is their new home, Cora wants only to escape. Even as one of the aliens, the Caretaker, seems to be showing her favoritism.  She can't believe how easily the others are falling into what the aliens want them to do. But there is only a 21 day limit, and the caretaker shows Cora what will happen to them if they don't follow the directions and rules.  But she still wants to try to escape.  A new human girl named Mali is brought in to replace the girl who died, and she has lived with the aliens since she was 4 years old.  Cora hopes to convince her to help her with her plan.

The end will not go quite as expected, there will be a twist in who really is what they say they are, and what the aliens have been telling them will seem not so real. 

Honestly this is one that is hard to explain.  I just know that it was a very interesting story, some parts that were things I had thought about as a possible story in the past, but all put into the story in a very unique and new way.