Waiting on Wednesday – Fateful

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine, and specifically spotlights upcoming novels we can't wait to read. This week’s choice is:

Title: Fateful
Author: Claudia Gray
Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books
Publish Date: Sept. 13, 2011
Pages: 356 pages
Genre: Paranormal

Summary: It's about a servant girl named Tess in 1912, who wants to escape from the house where she works, and most particularly the lecherous young lord of the manor. But that's not her biggest problem. While on a voyage to America, where she plans to escape and start a new life, she meets Alec, who's ruggedly handsome, fabulously wealthy, intelligent and yet so clearly troubled that she'd rather not fall for him, but she does. That also is not her biggest problem. Alec, it turns out, is a werewolf ... one cursed to change every night, unless and until he surrenders his independence and joins the Brotherhood, a pack of violently misogynistic werewolves who have been tracking him for months. You'd think that would be their biggest problem, wouldn't you?

But no. Their biggest problem -- though they don't know it yet -- is that they're aboard the RMS Titanic.

I have yet to read Claudia Gray’s Evernight series but I fully intend to as I have heard good things about it. Fateful seems to have a lot going on (werewolves on the Titanic!) and that’s exactly why I want to read it. It just sounds so crazy and awesome!

What books are you waiting on?

Review of The Lost Saint by Bree Despain

Release Date: Dec. 28, 2010
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Pages: 404 pages
Genre: Paranormal
Rating: 5 stars
Source: Library

This summary and review contains spoilers to The Dark Devine, the first book in this series!

Goodreads Summary: A family destroyed. A love threatened. An enemy returns. Grace Divine made the ultimate sacrifice to cure Daniel Kalbi. She was infected with the werewolf curse while trying to save him, and lost her beloved brother in the process.

Desperate to find Jude, Grace befriends Talbot, a newcomer to town. But as the two grow closer, Grace's relationship with Daniel is put in danger -- in more ways than one. Unaware of the dark path she is walking, Grace begins to give into the wolf inside of her -- not realizing that an enemy has returned and a deadly trap is about to be sprung.

Review:  Rarely do I think that that a sequel is better than the original book, but Bree Despain has done that with The Lost Saint, the darker, exciting sequel to The Dark Divine.

The Lost Saint picks up where The Dark Divine ended and is fast paced all the way through. Grace’s character is not nearly so naïve as she was in the first book, and even though she is more mature, she still makes mistakes and bad decisions. That’s not a bad thing, it makes her character more real. She is also bolder, stronger, more willing to take risks to help her family. She kicks butt and looks great doing it!

There are no perfect characters in the story, even Grace’s dad who is a pastor and her mom are just human in their intense sadness over Jude’s disappearance. There are beautiful themes in this book about love, faith, trust, and forgiveness.

I really love Grace and Daniel as a couple. Unfortunately, they do go through the sequel phase, best described by Enna at Squeaky Books as the following: “The sequel-phase is where our happy couple (who fought to be a couple in the first book) begin to drift apart. Whether from misunderstanding, change of interests, homicidal angels/werewolves/vampires, or all of the above, it doesn’t matter. The point is, our couple breaks up.” Thankfully, this is not the only point to the book and as far as sequel phrases go, this one is really good.  

There are great new characters, new mythical creatures, awesome fight scenes, and a cliffhanger ending I did not see coming. I highly recommend this series and cannot wait for the third book!

Content: Violence, demons.