Waiting On Wednesday #165 - The Dragon's Price

Waiting On Wednesday, where we put the spotlight on upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating, is hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week's choice is -

The Dragon's Price (Transference #1) - Bethany Wiggins

ISBN - 9780399549816

Publisher - Crown Books For Young Readers

Release date - February 21 2017

Find - Goodreads

Fans of Julie Kagawa’s Talon and Renee Ahdieh’s The Wrath and the Dawn will devour this action-packed fantasy adventure about a girl who chooses to surrender herself to a deadly dragon rather than marry an enemy prince.

When two warring kingdoms unified against a deadly menace laying waste to both their lands, they had to make a choice: vow to marry their heirs to one another, or forfeit their lives to the dragon.

Centuries later, everyone expects the sheltered princess Sorrowlynn to choose the barbarian prince over the fire-breathing beast - everyone, that is, except Sorrow, who is determined to control her own destiny or die trying.

As she is lowered into the dragon’s chamber, she assumes her life is over until Golmarr, the young prince she just spurned, follows her with the hopes of being her hero and slaying the dragon. But the dragon has a different plan. . . .

If the dragon wins, it will be freed from the spell that has bound it to the cave for centuries. If Sorrow or Golmarr vanquish the dragon, the victor will gain its treasure and escape the cave beneath the mountain. But what exactly is the dragon hiding?

There are no safe havens for Sorrow or Golmarr - not even with each other - and the stakes couldn’t be higher as they risk everything to protect their kingdom.

A girl who chooses a dragon over a prince? Yes please! An idiot prince who follows said princess into the dragon's lair? This ought to be fun! But overall, dragons...

Waiting On Wednesday #126 - In The Labyrinth Of Drakes

Waiting On Wednesday, where we put the spotlight on upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating, is hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week's choice is -

In The Labyrinth Of Drakes (Lady Trent's Memoirs #4) - Marie Brennan

ISBN - 9780765377630

Publisher - Tor

Release date - April 5 2016

Find - Goodreads | Book Depository

The thrilling new book in the acclaimed fantasy series from Marie Brennan, as the glamorous Lady Trent takes her adventurous explorations to the deserts of Akhia.

Even those who take no interest in the field of dragon naturalism have heard of Lady Trent's expedition to the inhospitable deserts of Akhia. Her discoveries there are the stuff of romantic legend, catapulting her from scholarly obscurity to worldwide fame. The details of her personal life during that time are hardly less private, having provided fodder for gossips in several countries.

As is so often the case in the career of this illustrious woman, the public story is far from complete. In this, the fourth volume of her memoirs, Lady Trent relates how she acquired her position with the Royal Scirling Army; how foreign saboteurs imperiled both her work and her well-being; and how her determined pursuit of knowledge took her into the deepest reaches of the Labyrinth of Drakes, where the chance action of a dragon set the stage for her greatest achievement yet.  

Look at that cover... It's a thing of beauty! I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of this because of both the story and the cover. I'm a huge fan of Marie Brennan's work so I'm happy to see that we get two more instalments of Lady Trent's memoirs, I assume we'll see the final fifth volume in early 2017 :(
 

Waiting On Wednesday #90 - Uprooted

Waiting On Wednesday, where we put the spotlight on upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating, is hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week's choice is -

Uprooted - Naomi Novik

ISBN - 9780804179034

Publisher - Del Rey

Expected release date - June 30 2015

Find - Goodreads | Book Depository

Naomi Novik, author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed Temeraire novels, introduces a bold new world rooted in folk stories and legends, as elemental as a Grimm fairy tale.

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”
 
Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows - everyone knows - that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose. 

I cannot wait to read this, I adore Naomi Novik's Temeraire books and Uprooted sounds like it was written just for me. But look at that release date, almost another year to wait...

Waiting On Wednesday #66 - Tropic of Serpents

Waiting On Wednesday, where we put the spotlight on upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating, is hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine.

This week's choice is -

The Tropic of Serpents - Marie Brennan
ISBN - 9781783292417 (UK)
            9780765331977 (US)
Publisher - Titan (UK)
                  Tor (US)
Release date - June 20th 2014 (UK)
                       March 4th 2014 (US)
Find - Goodreads/Book Depository

'The thrilling adventure of Lady Trent continues in Marie Brennan's The Tropic of Serpents . . .

Attentive readers of Lady Trent’s earlier memoir, A Natural History of Dragons, are already familiar with how a bookish and determined young woman named Isabella first set out on the historic course that would one day lead her to becoming the world’s premier dragon naturalist. Now, in this remarkably candid second volume, Lady Trent looks back at the next stage of her illustrious (and occasionally scandalous) career.

Three years after her fateful journeys through the forbidding mountains of Vystrana, Mrs. Camherst defies family and convention to embark on an expedition to the war-torn continent of Eriga, home of such exotic draconian species as the grass-dwelling snakes of the savannah, arboreal tree snakes, and, most elusive of all, the legendary swamp-wyrms of the tropics.

The expedition is not an easy one. Accompanied by both an old associate and a runaway heiress, Isabella must brave oppressive heat, merciless fevers, palace intrigues, gossip, and other hazards in order to satisfy her boundless fascination with all things draconian, even if it means venturing deep into the forbidden jungle known as the Green Hell . . . where her courage, resourcefulness, and scientific curiosity will be tested as never before.' - Goodreads

This is more a UK-centric Waiting On Wednesday as you can see from the release dates above. The Tropic Of Serpents is out in the US now but here in the UK it's another 108 days until it's released by Titan :( In view of my supposed book buying ban I will be impatiently waiting for June 20th rather than splurging on the US hardcover, plus I already own the UK paperback of A Natural History of Dragons so at least they'll match. Although I could really go mad and buy the hardcover of both even though I've only just bought Natural History... I borrowed it from the library when it first came out and loved it, Marie Brennan is an auto-buy author for me although I've now tried to buy book three of her Onyx Court series, A Star Shall Fall, three times and each time got the old 'I'm sorry we've been unable to fulfil this order' message.

Top Ten Tuesday #5

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely people at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is -

Top Ten Words/Topics That Instantly Make Me Buy/Pick Up A Book

This is a good one! This could have quite easily turned into a top fifty...

1. Dragons

Seraphina

 2. Fairies

The Iron King

 3. Witches

A Discovery Of Witches

 4. Mythology

Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief

 5. Libraries/Books

The Demon's Librarian

 6. Fairy Tales

Complete Fairy Tales

 7. Humor

Wyrd Sisters

 8. Gothic

We Have Always Lived In The Castle

9. Ghosts

Anna Dressed In Blood

10. Vampires

Interview With The Vampire