Waiting on Wednesday: Behold the Bones (Beware the Wild #2) by Natalie C. Parker

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 chosen a sequel that I didn't even think about coming out until I saw someone else post about  it.  You can read my review to the first book, Beware the Wild,  HERE.  It was such an original story, I thought, so now I'm just eager to see where the story goes next.  Here is the blurb for the sequel from Goodreads:

Candace “Candy” Pickens has been obsessed with the swamp lore of her tiny Louisiana town for . . . forever. Name any ghostly swamp figure and Candy will recite the entire tale in a way that will curl your toes and send chills up your spine.

That doesn’t mean Candy’s a believer, however. Even though she and her friends entered the swamp at the start of summer and left it changed, Candy’s the only one who can’t see or feel the magical swamp Shine. She’s also the only one who can’t see the ghosts that have been showing up and spooking everyone in town ever since. So Candy concentrates on other things—real things. Like fighting with her mother and plotting her escape from her crazy town.

But ghosts aren’t the only newcomers in Sticks, Louisiana. The King family arrives like a hurricane: in a blur and unwanted—at least by Candy. Mr. King is intent on filming the rumored ghostly activity for his hit TV show, Local Haunts. And while Candy can’t ignore how attracted she is to eighteen-year-old Gage King and how much his sister, Nova, wants to be friends, she’s still suspicious of the King family.

As Candy tries to figure out why the Kings are really in town and why the swamp that had previously cast her aside now seems to be invading every crack in her logical, cynical mind, she stumbles across the one piece of swamp lore she didn’t know. It’s a tale that’s more truth than myth, and may have all the answers . . . and its roots are in Candy’s own family tree.

Sounds like we have kind of a companion story to the first one, instead of the same main character, it is one of her friends.  Should be a neat way to continue the story!  Have you read the first book?  What about you?  What book are you eagerly awaiting this week?

Review: Cured (Stung #2) by Bethany Wiggins

As usual I must first thanks Bloomsbury USA Children's Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  I got to read the first book as an e-galley as well and really enjoyed it.  You can read my review of Stung HERE.  I enjoyed it so much that it is one of the first titles I ordered for the library in the school where I now work.

I was very excited to get this e-galley, but when I started it, at first I was a little confused at whether the story was way after the first one, or maybe going to tell the story before.  The main character in this book is a girl named Jacqui, or Jack, a boy as she has had to become in this new world when women are scarce.  Turns out she is the neighbor girl from the first book that gave that main character, Fiona, some food when she was running to find her brother.  Jacqui had decided she is tired of hiding in her family's home, and wants to go find her older brother who had left awhile back to get Fiona's mother to a safe place when she was kicked out of the walled city.  On her way to find her brother, she ends up at the city and gets Fiona and Bowen, as well as Fiona's twin brother Jonah, to help her go find her brother.  While they've brought not a lot of supplies, they did bring a huge backpack full of water.  Although it turns out, this may not be just plain water as we learn later on.  Along the way they must try to avoid the Raiders, as well as other dangers.  Their first stop is to get help from someone who is supposed to have maps.  Turns out he is a raider, and sets the others on their trail.  They run into a guy named Kevin, who helps them out, even leading them to an underground bunker full of food and basically as safe as can be.  Something about Kevin seems off though.  He knows that Jack is really Jacqui, but no one has told him, so that's a mystery.  Plus, there is something familiar looking about him.  And the shelter has a passage that goes to a house, where Jacqui learns more about who Kevin really is when she sneaks up there.

This book has lots of exciting moments, and while it is somewhat of a traveling book, they are trying to find people, there is a lot of dealings with the Raiders.  It gets really dangerous when some of them are caught, and they are threatened to be bait for the new dogs that have been created with the virus.  Jacqui's brother is found in an unusual place, and the backpack full of water turns out to be a big help as well.  The people being searched for are found, and so I wonder if this is the final book, or if it will go on.  There is nothing else listed on Goodreads, and this could definitely be an ending, but it is also left open for more possibly.  I will keep my eyes and ears open in hopes.

Vengeance (Transcend Time #2) by Michelle Madow

So this is the 2nd "book" in the Transcend Time series by Michelle Madow.  I wrote in my review of the first one about getting to meet the author last year at BEA, so I won't bore you about that again.  The reason I say book in quotation marks is because it is really just a short story.  When I ordered it in to the bookstore where I work, I was disappointed to see how small it was.  I actually was worried that it was just a sampler, and not a real book, and I was afraid I'd get in trouble for ordering it in.  But I was wrong, it is the actual short story in book form.
The premise is a good one.  It picks up with Lizzie's friend Chelsea at the point where Lizzie tried to explain the connection that she had with Drew, and why they were now dating.  And the story is about Chelsea wanting to get back at  her best friend.  We learn that there was another time that Chelsea felt she stepped back from a boy for Lizzie, although Lizzie didn't ever know how Chelsea felt.  But this time Lizzie knew, and that is what hurts Chelsea.  And Chelsea has found a new ally, Shannon.  One of Jeremy's new friend's girlfriend.  Someone that Lizzie never could quite get to like, as much as Jeremy asked her to try.  But Shannon has someone in her life who also knows about past lives.  And she helps Chelsea to realize that she has one, and that things aren't going the way they did last time, which was in Chelsea's favor.
I'm very interested to see how this leads into the 3rd book in the series, Timeless, and hope that I can get that ordered into my store soon now that it has been released.
Short review I know, but, short story!