Waiting On Wednesday: Penguin Summer 2013 Catalog

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill of Breaking The Spine in which upcoming, eagerly anticipated releases are highlighted on the blog.

This week, I've chosen to feature a few picks from the Penguin Summer 2013 Catalog:

Ashes on the Waves by Mary Lindsey
Date: June 27, 2013

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Liam MacGregor is cursed. Haunted by the wails of fantastical Bean Sidhes and labeled a demon by the villagers of Dòchas, Liam has accepted that things will never get better for him—until a wealthy heiress named Annabel Leighton arrives on the island and Liam’s fate is changed forever.
With Anna, Liam finally finds the happiness he has always been denied; but, the violent, mythical Otherworlders, who inhabit the island and the sea around it, have other plans. They make awager on the couple’s love, testing its strength through a series of cruel obstacles. But the tragedies draw Liam and Anna even closer. Frustrated, the creatures put the couple through one last trial—and this time it’s not only their love that’s in danger of being destroyed.

I love that Ashes on the Waves is based on the Edgar Allan Poe poem, Annabel Lee. I think Edgar Allan Poe's writing is a good base for a haunting gothic novel like this one promises to be!

The Theory of Everything by Kari Luna
Date: July 11, 2013

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Sophie Sophia is obsessed with music from the late eighties. She also has an eccentric physicist father who sometimes vanishes for days and sees things other people don’t see. But when he disappears for good and Sophie’s mom moves them from Brooklyn, New York, to Havencrest, Illinois, for a fresh start, things take a turn for the weird. Sophie starts seeing things, like marching band pandas, just like her dad.
Guided by Walt, her shaman panda, and her new (human) friend named Finny, Sophie is determined to find her father and figure out her visions, once and for all. So she travels back to where it began—New York City and NYU’s physics department. As she discovers more about her dad’s research on M-theory and her father himself, Sophie opens her eyes to the world’s infinite possibilities—and her heart to love.

The words "shaman panda" stand out to me. I love whimsicality and eccentricity in my novels and The Theory of Everything, with its marching band pandas, seems to have those elements in abundance!

Earthbound by Aprilynne Pike
Date: July 30, 2013

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Love, fate, and power collide in this new series by #1 New York Timesbestselling author Aprilynne Pike!
Tavia Michaels is the sole survivor of the plane crash that killed her parents. When she starts to see strange visions of a boy she’s never spoken with in real life, she begins to suspect that there’s much about her past that she isn’t being told. Tavia will soon to discover that she’s an Earthbound—someone with the ability to create matter out of nothing—and that she alone holds the key to stopping the Reduciata, an evil society that manipulates global events for its own shadowy purposes. Tavia will ultimately have to make a choice: to come into her powers and save the world from the evil Reduciata or to choose free will and a love of her own.

I love LOVE the concept of Earthbound - that the protagonist is able to create matter out of nothing is beyond cool to me. That premise has a ton of potential and I hope it is used to its full capacity!

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea 
by April Genevieve Tucholke
Date: August 15, 2013

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You stop fearing the devil when you’re holding his hand…
Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town…until River West comes along. River rents the guesthouse behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more? Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery...who makes you want to kiss back. Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t see straight. And that’s just how River likes it.
Blending faded decadence and the thrilling dread of gothic horror, April Genevieve Tucholke weaves a dreamy, twisting contemporary romance, as gorgeously told as it is terrifying—a debut to watch.

Admittedly, it used to be only ever the breathtaking cover that I would see when I saw this book featured. Now, I've finally taken the time to look past the cover and read that intriguing blurb - and now I am even more stoked to read Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea!


How about you? Are you waiting on any of these Penguin Summer 2013 reads? Are there any upcoming books from the Penguin Summer 2013 Catalog that I didn't include here that you feel I should add to my list?