Waiting on Wednesday

This is a blog meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine to spotlight upcoming books. This week we're featuring picks chosen by SQT and Jim.



 Jim's can't wait to read selection is:



 The Hammer and the Blade by Paul Kemp

 Publisher: Angry Robot

 Date: June 26, 2012

 Pages: 416



  Egil and Nix, adventurers and swords for hire, are pulled into the dark schemes of a decadent family with a diabolical secret. A fast paced adventure redolent with the best of classic sword and sorcery tales. A pair of down-at-heel treasure hunters and incorrigible rogues. Egil is a priest, happy to deliver moral correction with his pair of massive hammers. Nix is a sneak-thief; there’s no lock he cannot open, no serving girl he cannot charm. Between them, they always have one eye for a chance to make money – the other eye, of course, is on the nearest exit. Only this time the treasure they’ve thieved is an important relic of a most sinister and ancient family, who will stop at nothing to get their bloody revenge. 



Paul Kemp is an author I discovered through his Star Wars novels, and he's got a style of writing that I find it very easy to settle in with. This sounds like it's meant to be an amusing, tounge-in-cheek kind of book - you know, fun.

SQT's can't wait to read selection is:



Crewel by Gennifer Albin

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Date: October 16, 2012

Pages: 368



Incapable. Awkward. Artless.



That’s what the other girls whisper behind her back. But sixteen year-old Adelice Lewys has a secret: she wants to fail.



Gifted with the ability to weave time with matter, she’s exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen as a Spinster is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to embroider the very fabric of life. But if controlling what people eat, where they live and how many children they have is the price of having it all, Adelice isn’t interested.



Not that her feelings matter, because she slipped and wove a moment at testing, and they’re coming for her—tonight.



Now she has one hour to eat her mom’s overcooked pot roast. One hour to listen to her sister’s academy gossip and laugh at her Dad’s stupid jokes. One hour to pretend everything’s okay. And one hour to escape.



Because once you become a Spinster, there’s no turning back.



I feel like I'm picking a ton of YA lately, but the titles up for publication have been so inventive. This one appeals to me because it reminds me of With a Tangled Skein by Piers Anthony- a book I loved with it came out (back in 1986! Boy do I feel old). "Crewel" seems like it has a totally different take on the mythology of the Fates, but I'm definitely interested in seeing how it turns out.