Waiting On Wednesday (17): Raincoast Books Spring 2012 Catalogue

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

Is anyone else tired of winter and excited for spring to finally get here? I know I am - not just for the weather to change, but also for the great books that will be released in the springtime. This week, I've chosen a few picks from the Raincoast Books Spring 2012 Catalogue. Raincoast Books is a Canadian company that distributes books from various US publishers, mainly Macmillan Imprints. They are also the company that gave Canadians Harry Potter - and on 100% Ancient-Forest friendly paper, no less - which I obviously appreciate.

The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Date: May 8, 2012

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Don’t Sweat. Don’t Laugh. Don’t draw attention to yourself. And most of all, whatever you do, do not fall in love with one of them.
Gene is different from everyone else around him. He can’t run with lightning speed, sunlight doesn’t hurt him and he doesn’t have an unquenchable lust for blood. Gene is a human, and he knows the rules. Keep the truth a secret. It’s the only way to stay alive in a world of night—a world where humans are considered a delicacy and hunted for their blood.
When he’s chosen for a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunt the last remaining humans, Gene’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble around him. He’s thrust into the path of a girl who makes him feel things he never thought possible—and into a ruthless pack of hunters whose suspicions about his true nature are growing. Now that Gene has finally found something worth fighting for, his need to survive is stronger than ever—but is it worth the cost of his humanity?

I'm finally starting to get back into vampires again- after taking a long, much needed break - and The Hunt's post-apocalyptic vampire story sounds intense and awesome.

Monument 14 by Emily Laybourne
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Date: June 5, 2012

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Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong.
A huge store isn’t the worst place to be stranded. There’s food and water, bedding and books. But what if it’s not safe to leave? Emmy Laybourne had us from the get-go with her utterly fresh and fast-paced debut.
Six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids are trapped together in a chain superstore. Together they build a refuge for themselves inside, while outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapon spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.

If I was living in a post-apocalyptic world, you want to bet I would be holing up in a superstore with every luxury on hand. I'll be interested to see if the kids of Monument 14 spend the entire book in the superstore or not!

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Date: June 5, 2012

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Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near-impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one unlikely refugee.
Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life– a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.
Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha… and the secrets of her heart.

I adore high fantasy but in reality, I don't actually read all that much of it - I would like to change that. I am endlessly fascinated by just the blurb of Shadow and Bone alone, so I can't imagine how awesome the actually story is going to be.

This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Date: June 19, 2012

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It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually wantto live. But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. When everything is gone, what doyou hold on to?

I am quite ashamed to admit that I have never read any of Courtney Summers' raved-about contemporaries. But I am very much willing to make This Is Not A Test, a zombie thriller, my first read of hers.


How about you? Are you waiting on any of these Raincoast Books Spring 2012 reads? Are there any upcoming books from the Raincoast Books Spring 2012 Catalogue that I didn't include here that you feel I should add to my list?