On My Wishlist #4

On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where we list all the books we desperately want but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming. 

  


The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

 
Greece in the age of Heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia. Here he is nobody, just another unwanted boy living in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles.

Achilles, ‘best of all the Greeks’, is everything Patroclus is not – strong, beautiful, the child of a goddess – and by all rights their paths should never cross. Yet one day, Achilles takes the shamed prince under his wing and soon their tentative companionship gives way to a steadfast friendship. As they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something far deeper – despite the displeasure of Achilles’s mother Thetis, a cruel and deathly pale sea goddess with a hatred of mortals.

Fate is never far from the heels of Achilles. When word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, the men of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows Achilles into war, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they have learned, everything they hold dear. And that, before he is ready, he will be forced to surrender his friend to the hands of Fate.

Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart.

I'm such a Classics geek and this has been garnering great reviews. It tells the story of the m/m romance between Achilles and Patroclus and has been marked as a must-read for me.

On My Wishlist #3

On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where we list all the books we desperately want but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming. 

  

The Faerie Path series by Frewin Jones

Anita was living an ordinary life. Until an elegant stranger pulled her into another world.

Swept away into a court of magic and beauty, she discovers she is Tania, the lost princess of Faerie: the youngest daughter of Oberon and Titania. Since Tania’s mysterious disappearance on the eve of her wedding five hundred years before, Faerie has been sunk into darkness and gloom. The courtly Lord Gabriel Drake, who Tania was once to marry, has found her and brought her back.

With Tania’s return, Faerie comes alive again as a land of winged children, glittering balls, and fantastic delights. But Tania can’t forget Anita’s world, or the boy she loved there.

Has anybody read this series? It sounds dreamy and divine. I recently read a short story by Frewin Jones and enjoyed his writing style. I found out he has several series already published and browsing his website has been like been wandering through Willa Wonka's Chocolate Factory: So many delicious-looking goodies to pick from.

On My Wishlist #2

On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where we list all the books we desperately want but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming. 

  

I've been looking around for a YA mystery series recently and 2 have come to my attention:

The Agency series by Y. S. Lee

Orphan Mary Quinn lives on the edge. Sentenced as a thief at the age of twelve, she’s rescued from the gallows by a woman posing as a prison warden. In her new home, Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls, Mary acquires a singular education, fine manners, and surprising opportunity. The school is a cover for the Agency – an elite, top-secret corps of female investigators with a reputation for results – and at seventeen, Mary’s about to join their ranks.

The Langdon Prep series by Kimberly Reid

Straight outta the Mile High City, Chanti Evans is an undercover cop's daughter and an exclusive private school's newest student. But Chanti is learning fast that when it comes to con games, the streets have nothing on Langdon Prep.

Both series are about teen detectives, albeit hundreds of years apart. Y. S. Lee's books are historical fiction, set in Victorian London, while My Own Worst Frenemy suggests a modern, urban story, which hopefully, considering the rich/not rich divide the blurb speaks of and the multiracial cast of characters, will remind me of my much-missed Veronica Mars.

On My Wishlist #1

On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where we list all the books we desperately want but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming. 

  

This meme is a great fit for me, as often the books I'm pining for are those that are already out, but I've only just heard about. On my wishlist this week is just such a book:

 Queen of Kings by Maria Dahvana Headley

In 30 BC, as Octavian Caesar and his legions marched into Alexandria, Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, learned that her beloved Mark Antony had taken his own life. Desperate to save her kingdom, her husband and all she held dear, Cleopatra turned to the gods for help. She summoned Sekhmet, goddess of death and destruction, and struck a mortal bargain. And not even the wisest scholar could have foretold what would follow …

For, in saving Antony’s soul Sekhmet demands something in return: Cleopatra herself. Transformed into a shape-shifting, not-quite-human manifestation of a deity who seeks to destroy the world, Cleopatra follows Octavian back to Rome. She desires revenge, she yearns for her children … and she craves human blood.

In Queen of Kings, meticulously researched historical fiction and the darkest of fantasy collide in this spectacular reimagining of a story we thought we knew so well.

I know what you're gonna say and I thought I was over vampires, too. But Cleopatra as a vampire? In what universe is that not cool? I'm a historical fiction nerd, anyway, and I love the story of Antony and Cleopatra and their ill-fated attempt to conquer Rome. Any book that covers Cleopatra's life and feelings at that time is one I'd be interested in reading. But making her a vengeful supernatural out for Octavian's blood? That sounds like so much fun that I want this book right now.