Waiting on Wednesday: Gameboard of the Gods

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted over at Breaking the Spine, looking at upcoming books we bloggers are already obsessing about. This week, I’m eagerly anticipating Gameboard of the Gods, the first instalment in Richelle Mead’s forthcoming Age of X series for adults. It’s due for release in April… But if I’m very lucky I might be able to get an ARC from work or a friend who’s got an in before that. Fingers crossed!

I’m a fan of Mead’s Vampire Academy series as well as her spin-off series, Bloodlines. I haven’t been as fond of some of the adult paranormal Mead stuff I’ve read, but I’m intrigued by the concept of Gameboard of the Gods. And more Richelle Mead to tide me over until November and the release of Fiery Heart (Bloodlines book #4) can only be a good thing!

In a futuristic world nearly destroyed by religious extremists, Justin March lives in exile after failing in his job as an investigator of religious groups and supernatural claims. But Justin is given a second chance when Mae Koskinen comes to bring him back to the Republic of United North America (RUNA). Raised in an aristocratic caste, Mae is now a member of the military’s most elite and terrifying tier, a soldier with enhanced reflexes and skills.

When Justin and Mae are assigned to work together to solve a string of ritualistic murders, they soon realize that their discoveries have exposed them to terrible danger. As their investigation races forward, unknown enemies and powers greater than they can imagine are gathering in the shadows, ready to reclaim the world in which humans are merely game pieces on their board.

Gameboard of the Gods, the first installment of Richelle Mead’s Age of X series, will have all the elements that have made her YA Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series such megasuccesses: sexy, irresistible characters; romantic and mythological intrigue; and relentless action and suspense.

(Synopsis from Goodreads.)

The Indigo Spell (Bloodlines Book 3) – by Richelle Mead

Ah! A long-awaited book arrives at last. Isn’t that the best feeling as a reader? I’m a huge Richelle Mead fan. Her Vampire Academy series is probably the best vampire-centric YA Fantasy around.

The Indigo Spell is the third instalment of her spin-off series, Bloodlines. Our protagonist is Sydney Sage, a member of a secret society called the Alchemists: sworn to protect humans from the vampires living amongst them. Bloodlines is (largely) the story of Sydney’s evolution.

This is also a story of magic and danger, friendship and love, secrets and high stakes. Initially, Sydney was only a facilitator, ensuring that her important Vampire charge, Jill Dragomir, wasn’t discovered by the wrong people. She never anticipated finding friends in the group she’d been assigned to, yet now she can’t imagine life without them (as reluctant as she may be to admit it).

Richelle Mead’s character development is one of my favourite things about her writing. She is consistent and plausible in allowing her creations to change – and to resist change. Each character gets this treatment to a degree, from Adrian and Jill, to Eddie and Angeline. In The Indigo Spell, Sydney Sage begins to realise how different she is in some aspects: and how she hasn’t altered in others.

The Diviners – by Libba Bray

This is a hefty novel! I love a book that’s long enough to really sink your teeth into, and at nearly 600 pages The Diviners certainly fit that category. I was given an ARC at work for this book, due to be released in Australia on November 1st, and in spite of the size I tore through this story. Here’s why:

New York in the 1920’s is an intoxicating miasma of old and new, tradition and progress, high society and low sobriety. It’s a time of probibition (hah!), ghost stories, flappers, gradual racial integration, and boundless optimism about the future.

Evie O’Neill is being punished – sent away from her home in Ohio to live with her Uncle Will, after causing a stir in her home town with her slightly spooky psychic party tricks. But when Uncle Will lives in the middle of the hip New York City, along with one of Evie’s best friends, Mabel, it’s a punishment she can bear! She’s looking forward to dancing and drinking and crushes and excitement. After all, NYC is a city of endless possibilities.

What Evie didn’t anticipate is that one possibility was being drawn into investigating a series of murders, apparently being committed by some sort of religious wacko, and each more gruesome than the rest. When the murderer turns out to be not quite human, will Evie be brave enough to use her not quite normal abilities to help defeat this being, before it’s too late to save anyone?

The Uninvited – By Liz Jensen

This intriguing new crime novel caught my eye at work: children inexplicably start killing their parents, before lapsing into a passive, fugue state and not recalling the murders. Creepy, interesting premise. Here’s my take on the follow through:

Hesketh Lock is an anthropologist by trade, brilliant at identifying patterns both in nature and in people, which makes him an excellent investigator for Phipps & Wexman. Currently, he’s working on uncovering the links between a series of corporate sabotages carried out by seemingly loyal employees, in dozens of unrelated companies all over the world. Add these strange occurrences to the outbreak of child murders and Hesketh is sure there’s a bigger, more dangerous pattern emerging – the implications of which may be felt for generations to come.

This novel has a compelling and creepy central mystery – is it just me, or are murderous children more frightening than their grown up counterparts? Hesketh, our protagonist, is an absolutely wonderful character. He has Asperger’s syndrome, and provides the reader with a unique perspective not only on his inner thought processes but also on the world through his eyes. I loved Hesketh for his incredibly unique and yet surprisingly relatable personality.

Wake – by Amanda Hocking

Amanda Hocking is the author of the YA Trylle trilogy of Switched, Torn and Ascend. I haven’t read these but this week was given an advanced reading copy of the first book in a new series, called Wake. I read it over the weekend, and this is what I thought:

Calling Gemma a water baby doesn’t do her justice. She’s a champion swimmer who’s planning to make it to the Olympics, and when she’s not training at school she’s night swimming in the bay, under the stars. Her family and new boyfriend know how amazing Gemma is, especially in the water – but they’re not the only ones who’ve taken an interest in her aquatic affinity.

There used to be four girls. Supermodel-pretty, they’re new in town and spend most of their time down at the cove, or in the bay like Gemma. When one of the girls disappears, the three remaining girls decide Gemma would be the perfect replacement. But why? Especially when Gemma has made it clear that she wants nothing to do with the eerie trio? And why won’t they take no for an answer?

The Golden Lily (Bloodlines Book 2) – by Richelle Mead

A few years ago I was reading a fair bit of Paranormal YA fiction, as you do. One of the books I picked up in spite of its somewhat cringeworthy title was Vampire Academy, by Richelle Mead. And I absolutely loved it. Since then I’ve read the entire Vampire Academy series and enjoyed them all immensely, so when Mead put out Bloodlines, the first book in a spin-off series using many of the characters I’d come to know in Vamp Academy, I naturally grabbed that too, and wasn’t disappointed. Now comes The Golden Lily, the second book in this new series. I read it over about three days – here’s what I thought of it:

 

Sydney, our protagonist, has always known that vampires are dangerous, unnatural and need to be contained for the good of the entire human race. She and her fellow Alchemists make it their sacred mission to keep vampires secret from humans, to keep people safe. The undead Strigoi would like nothing more than to kill and eat anyone they come into contact with. Even the living, ‘good’ vampires, the Moroi, rely on human blood to survive, and need to be kept within the bounds determined by their agreements with the Alchemists.