Top Ten Tuesday #12: Top 7 Books on My Spring TBR List!

The weekly meme "Top Ten Tuesday" is brought to you by the awesome blog The Broke and the Bookish. This week we're geeking out about our Top 10 new spring releases! So, in order of release date, (and including books released at the beginning of March to make my list more substantial and exciting) let's shall get started, shall'st we?

 

1. A Study in Charlotte, by Brittany Cavallaro 
Release Date: March 1, 2016


Synopsis (via goodreads.com):

The last thing Jamie Watson wants is a rugby scholarship to Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school just an hour away from his estranged father. But that’s not the only complication: Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the famous detective’s great-great-great-granddaughter, who has inherited not only Sherlock’s genius but also his volatile temperament. From everything Jamie has heard about Charlotte, it seems safer to admire her from afar.

From the moment they meet, there’s a tense energy between them, and they seem more destined to be rivals than anything else. But when a Sherringford student dies under suspicious circumstances, ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Jamie can no longer afford to keep his distance. Jamie and Charlotte are being framed for murder, and only Charlotte can clear their names. But danger is mounting and nowhere is safe—and the only people they can trust are each other.

~~~ This has been getting great YA blogger reviews for months! Seems like a safe bet if you like re-tellings and anything Sherlock! ~~~~

2. Into the Dim, by Janet B. Taylor
Release Date:  March 1, 2016

Synopsis: 

When fragile, sixteen-year-old Hope Walton loses her mom to an earthquake overseas, her secluded world crumbles. Agreeing to spend the summer in Scotland, Hope discovers that her mother was more than a brilliant academic, but also a member of a secret society of time travelers. Trapped in the twelfth century in the age of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Hope has seventy-two hours to rescue her mother and get back to their own time. Along the way, her path collides with that of a mysterious boy who could be vital to her mission . . . or the key to Hope’s undoing.

~~~ Also one burning up the blogger TBR lists! This one is getting some mixed reviews, but it seems like you either love it or it's just not your style. It's YA time-travel in Scotland; you can't lose!! [They updated the cover to perhaps be more unisex? But I kept this 'un.] ~~~

3. The Steep and Thorny Way, by Cat Winters
Release Date: March 8, 2016

Synopsis:

A thrilling reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, The Steep and Thorny Way tells the story of a murder most foul and the mighty power of love and acceptance in a state gone terribly rotten.

1920s Oregon is not a welcoming place for Hanalee Denney, the daughter of a white woman and an African-American man. She has almost no rights by law, and the Ku Klux Klan breeds fear and hatred in even Hanalee’s oldest friendships. Plus, her father, Hank Denney, died a year ago, hit by a drunk-driving teenager. Now her father’s killer is out of jail and back in town, and he claims that Hanalee’s father wasn’t killed by the accident at all but, instead, was poisoned by the doctor who looked after him—who happens to be Hanalee’s new stepfather.

The only way for Hanalee to get the answers she needs is to ask Hank himself, a “haint” wandering the roads at night. 

~~~ Yet another re-telling! Definitely a trend lately, but I like that it's not a fairy tale, and Shakespeare is pretty timeless. I don't have HUGE cover-love for this one, but I LURVE Cat Winters, so I'll get over it! ~~~

4. The Untimely Deaths of Alex Wayfare, by M. G. Buehrlen
Release Date: April 26, 2016

Synopsis:

As Alex's sister loses the fight against cancer, a race for a cure sends Alex traveling back and forth through time, dodging enemy Descenders who seem to know Alex's every move before she does. Realizing her enemies have privileged information, Alex fears there is a traitor hiding within the small band of allies she's grown to trust.
A traitor who might bring Gesh straight to Alex's front door.
While Gesh closes the gap in Base Life, and Blue's true identity surfaces, Alex stumbles upon a secret about her reincarnations that will change her life, or her lives, forever.

~~~ I LOVED The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare, and this one sounds just as promising. Early reviews, and my Magic 8 Ball, tell me "outlook looks good!" ~~~~~

5. The Rose and the Dagger, by Renee Ahdieh
Release Date: April 26, 2016

Synopsis:

I am surrounded on all sides by a desert. A guest, in a prison of sand and sun. My family is here. And I do not know whom I can trust.
In a land on the brink of war, Shahrzad has been torn from the love of her husband Khalid, the Caliph of Khorasan. She once believed him a monster, but his secrets revealed a man tormented by guilt and a powerful curse—one that might keep them apart forever. Reunited with her family, who have taken refuge with enemies of Khalid, and Tariq, her childhood sweetheart, she should be happy. But Tariq now commands forces set on destroying Khalid's empire. Shahrzad is almost a prisoner caught between loyalties to people she loves. But she refuses to be a pawn and devises a plan.

While her father, Jahandar, continues to play with magical forces he doesn't yet understand, Shahrzad tries to uncover powers that may lie dormant within her. With the help of a tattered old carpet and a tempestuous but sage young man, Shahrzad will attempt to break the curse and reunite with her one true love.

~~~ I don't normally pine after a sequel when I haven't read the first one, but I'm TOO EXCITED to read The Wrath and the Dawn [inspired by A Thousand and One Nights] and all the cool kids promise this one to be just as spectacular. Also a re-telling, but off the beaten path of fairy tales. ~~~~

6. Down with the Shine, by Kate Karyus Quinn
Release Date: April 26, 1016 

Synopsis:

There's a reason they say "be careful what you wish for." Just ask the girl who wished to be thinner and ended up smaller than Thumbelina, or the boy who asked for "balls of steel" and got them-literally. And never wish for your party to go on forever. Not unless you want your guests to be struck down by debilitating pain if they try to leave.

These are things Lennie only learns when it's too late-after she brings some of her uncles' moonshine to a party and toasts to dozens of wishes, including a big wish of her own: to bring back her best friend, Dylan, who was abducted and murdered six months ago.

Lennie didn't mean to cause so much chaos. She always thought her uncles' moonshine toast was just a tradition. And when they talked about carrying on their "important family legacy," she thought they meant good old-fashioned bootlegging.

As it turns out, they meant granting wishes. And Lennie has just granted more in one night than her uncles would grant in a year.

Now she has to find a way to undo the damage. But once granted, a wish can't be unmade... 

~~~ I think my head might explode on April 26th! And it's my birthday eve, so maybe I'll find one of these picks under my birthday tree! (It's a Canadian thing...) 

I recently featured this one on my WoW pick last week, as I initially found out about Kate Karyus Quinn (and other new-ish writers) during the fall YA Scavenger Hunt (which was super addictive, btw). I just thought this was such a unique premise, especially amongst the latest YA trends, and felt it needed some extra hype. ~~~

7. The City of Mirrors, by Justin Cronin
Release Date: May 24, 2016

Synopsis:

In "The Passage "and" The Twelve, "Justin Cronin brilliantly imagined the fall of civilization and humanity s desperate fight to survive. Now all is quiet on the horizon but does silence promise the nightmare s end or the second coming of unspeakable darkness? At last, this bestselling epic races to its breathtaking finale.

"The world we knew is gone. What world will rise in its place?"

The Twelve have been destroyed and the hundred-year reign of darkness that descended upon the world has ended. The survivors are stepping outside their walls, determined to build society anew and daring to dream of a hopeful future.

But far from them, in a dead metropolis, he waits: Zero. The First. Father of the Twelve. The anguish that shattered his human life haunts him, and the hatred spawned by his transformation burns bright. His fury will be quenched only when he destroys Amy humanity s only hope, the Girl from Nowhere who grew up to rise against him.

One last time light and dark will clash, and at last Amy and her friends will know their fate.

~~~~ For those of you not familiar with this series, having the final instalment FINALLY released is akin to the next George R. R. Martin book being released. Yes, it's that exciting and simultaneously frustrating. FRUSTRATING because those of us with awful memories (see my whining in my re-reading review of The Passage here) have pseudo-homework with re-reading everything that happened in #1 & #2. And they are BIG books! In other words, when I saw that there was an ACTUAL release date for the finale in the series, I was so excited I may or may not have pee'd a little. Since then I've re-read The Passage, which is still good, but loooong, and knowing I have to re-read The Twelve is frustrating. George and Justin have taught me a VITAL bookworm lesson: never start a series when you don't know if the author might die before they finish their ingenious ingeniuities... ~~~

Okay! That finishes my list for the spring! My husband doesn't even KNOW how proud he is of me for only keeping my TBR list at a mere 370 books. Everyone knows once you hit 400 you have a problem. I, friends, am the PICTURE OF RESTRAINT.

Wait... there are more books for reading and enjoyment?!

So, TTT friends! Do any of our books overlap? Leave your link below and we can gush together about books we're not sure we'll even like when we read them!! (But we're pretty sure...)

Thanks for reading, Spinning Jenners!!

~ Spinning Jenny