Waiting on Wednesday: Diplomatic Immunity by Brodi Ashton

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  This week I've picked a new book by an author that I loved her first series, the Everneath series.  This one is a bit different, as it is more of a realistic story as opposed to the fantastical story in the other series.  Without any further ado, here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Aspiring reporter Piper Baird decides to write a scathing exposé on the overprivileged students at an elite Washington, DC, school, only for her life to change when she begins to fall for the story's main subject, in this new realistic contemporary romance from Brodi Ashton, the author of the Everneath trilogy.

Raucous parties, privileged attitudes, underage drinking, and diplomatic immunity...it’s all part of student life on Embassy Row.

Piper Baird has always dreamed of becoming a journalist. So when she scores a scholarship to exclusive Chiswick Academy in Washington, DC, she knows it’s her big opportunity. Chiswick offers the country’s most competitive prize for teen journalists—the Bennington scholarship—and winning will ensure her acceptance to one of the best schools in the country.

Piper isn’t at Chiswick for two days before she witnesses the intense competition in the journalism program—and the extreme privilege of the young and wealthy elite who attend her school. And Piper knows access to these untouchable students just might give her the edge she’ll need to blow the lid off life at the school in a scathing and unforgettable exposé worthy of the Bennington.

The key to the whole story lies with Rafael Amador, the son of the Spanish ambassador—and the boy at the center of the most explosive secrets and scandals on Embassy Row. Rafael is big trouble—and when he drops into her bedroom window one night, asking for help, it’s Piper’s chance to get the full scoop. But as they spend time together, Piper discovers that despite his dark streak, Rafael is smart, kind, funny, and gorgeous—and she might have real feelings for him. How can she break the story of a lifetime if it could destroy the boy she just might love?

Sounds like it could be a good story, and with what I know of the author from her other books, I'm guessing the characters will totally stand out for me.  So, what book are you eagerly awaiting this week?

Review: Evertrue (Everneath #3) by Brodi Ashton (Series Ender Challenge #5)

This is a book that I'm way behind on reading.  I got a copy through the YA Book Exchange website before it closed down.  The first book I got as an egalley, and really enjoyed.  You can read my review of it here:  Everneath.  I read the 2nd book as part of my September is for Sequels Challenge back in 2013.  I had won an e-book copy of it, and you can read my review of it here:  Everbound.  Now, of course since this is a review of the final book in the trilogy, there will be spoilers for the first two books for sure.  So you might want to stop reading now if you haven't started reading either of them yet.  I feel like this was for sure a good way to end a trilogy.  For the most part I was very happy with it.

In the last book, Nikki was able to rescue her boyfriend Jack.  Unfortunately Cole wasn't being quite as helpful as he'd seemed.  Or he was, but he'd done it for his own selfish reasons, he wanted to take over the Underworld by making Nikki his queen.  During the rescue mission he forced Nikki to feed off of him enough that she became the same as him, an Everliving.  And while she is now home with Jack and trying to get back to being a normal high school girl, she starts having issues.  She knows she needs to feed off of a soul now, but even though Jack offers to let her feed off of him, it doesn't seem to work.  They can't find  Cole, even though they know he has Nikki's heart.  But when they try to steal her heart back from his apartment, all of a sudden, Cole shows back up.  He is in Nikki's summer class, but looks different to everyone, except her, she still knows it is him.  He tells her that she will slowly need to feed more and more, and can only feed on the person who has her heart, which is Cole.  And eventually the only way she will be able to stay alive is to go do the 100 year feed in the Everneath.  But things go wrong for Cole, and when the Everneath goes into a fighting mode, the Queen not giving up easily, Nikki and Jack will need to go down and fight.  To save Nikki's soul, as well as to try to destroy the Everneath if they can.  In a way they get Cole to help them, with or without his knowledge of their true plans.

The ending is happy for the most part.  Of course there are some losses, and not everything goes as planned.  But it is good to see that love can win, and to find that while Jack does love her, Cole really has as well.  A good conclusion to a good series.  And now I'm eager to read what the author has coming out next!

November is for Novellas Challenge #10: Neverfall (Everneath 1.5) by Brodi Ashton

This is one of my favorite novellas of all that I've read so far this month.  Not only are we getting a look at the first book, and some of the 2nd book, from Cole's point of view, we also get almost a whole other storyline, that I'm eager to see if it carries on into the 3rd book.

This story tells Cole's side of his first meeting with Nikki.  We get to see her true, or as he calls it, "epic" love, from his eyes.  What he sees is quite a bit different from what we see through Nikki's eyes.  The story kind of jumps all over the place, not in a confusing way, but it isn't like we follow a storyline straight through. There are lots of times we jump back to that first night when they met.  And Cole is thinking he wants to take over and rule the Everneath, something that can only be done by a Forfeit that survives the Feed like she does.  Since she chose Jack at the end of the first book over him, he decides he must find out what makes the ones who survive different.  So he even goes to the dangerous Delphines to get some answers.  And in doing so, he kind of goes back on his deal with them, and is thrown into their prison.  While in the prison he realizes he doesn't want just a girl like Nikki, he wants her, he loves her, he can't live without her.
Again I have to say this was a really awesome story.  While it did definitely depend on the original story, it also was quite a story on its own.  I'm now really eager to read the 3rd book to find out what happens next, and if Cole's little time in the dungeon and what he learned there will carry over into the story.

Let's see, there are only 4 days left, but if you want to join into my November is for Novellas Challenge, that would only be one novella a day, I think you could do it!

Everbound (Everneath #2) by Brodi Ashton

This is only my 6th book I've read for my September is for Sequels Challenge, out of the 12 I had hoped to read.  :-(  I think, I guess that I will be happy if I meet my same amount that I read last year, which was 8.  It just seems that September gets so busy that I don't get to read as much as I planned.  And probably now that I've been making sure I blog every day as part of my summer blogging goal, sometimes when I get on here to blog, then I go check the other blogs I follow and comment or enter giveaways, and I spend more time online than I planned, and end up with less time to read before I must get to bed.  Oh well.  It is what it is.  Now that summer is officially over, I won't stress about blogging every day.  Only reviews, and other posts I have scheduled.  If I do have time I may do others, but for now that is the plan.  And, on with the review!  I was lucky enough to win an e-book copy of this a while back, and didn't get to it until my September challenge.
This book was a quick one to get back into.  There was a little bit of a recap of what happened, Jack went to the tunnels for Nikki at the end of the first one, so as you would expect, Nikki is now looking for a way to get back down there and save him.  And until she can, she is doing what she can to help keep him alive, the way he did for her, she dreams every night of him.  In order to get back to the Everneath, she knows that she will need Cole, whether she likes it or not.  Her first plan is to just steal a hair from Cole, and use that to get into the Everneath on her own to find Jack.  Which she tries, and when it doesn't work out so well, Cole saves her before the other everlivings down there, as well as the queen, can catch her.  Cole can see that she is determined to get back to Jack, so he finally agrees to help her.  It is obvious that Cole loves her, but Nikki doesn't know how much is real, and how much is just that he wants her to help him take over the Everneath by becoming the queen.  But she knows that Jack is her true love, even as she has feelings for Cole as well.  Like many 2nd books in a series, this one has a journey.  The journey is through the Everneath, to try to get to the tunnels to find Jack.   In a sense there are parts like Dante spoke about, different levels/rings.  And there is the river to cross, and the Elysium fields, etc.  So the journey seems to bring Cole and Nikki closer together even as Jack seems to become more and more distant in Nikki's dreams.  We learn more about the Everneath, and the Everlivings, as well as what it takes to get humans down there, and how the Shades actually do what they do.  The end, wow, it was a twist!  Can I say I didn't quite see what happened?  I knew that something was up with how the findings from the search ended up.  Just didn't see that happening.  So, now, don't know how I'll wait till 2014 to read it!