WWW Wednesday: What Am I Reading? #amreading

On By Teri PolenIn WWW Wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a meme from Sam at Taking On A World Of Words

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next

I’m currently reading The Dead Queens Club by Hannah Capin.  I’ve always been fascinated by The Tudors, so when I came across this YA contemporary re-telling, I had to read it.  I’m only about 10% in, and love the snark.

Mean Girls meets The Tudors in Hannah Capin’s The Dead Queens Club, a clever contemporary YA retelling of Henry VIII and his wives (or, in this case, his high school girlfriends). Told from the perspective of Annie Marck (“Cleves”), a 17-year-old aspiring journalist from Cleveland who meets Henry at summer camp, The Dead Queens Club is a fun, snarky read that provides great historical detail in an accessible way for teens while giving the infamous tale of Henry VIII its own unique spin.

What do a future ambassador, an overly ambitious Francophile, a hospital-volunteering Girl Scout, the new girl from Cleveland, the junior cheer captain, and the vice president of the debate club have in common? It sounds like the ridiculously long lead-up to an astoundingly absurd punchline, right? Except it’s not. Well, unless my life is the joke, which is kind of starting to look like a possibility given how beyond soap opera it’s been since I moved to Lancaster. But anyway, here’s your answer: we’ve all had the questionable privilege of going out with Lancaster High School’s de facto king. Otherwise known as my best friend. Otherwise known as the reason I’ve already helped steal a car, a jet ski, and one hundred spray-painted water bottles when it’s not even Christmas break yet. Otherwise known as Henry. Jersey number 8.

Meet Cleves. Girlfriend number four and the narrator of The Dead Queens Club, a young adult retelling of Henry VIII and his six wives. Cleves is the only girlfriend to come out of her relationship with Henry unscathed—but most breakups are messy, right? And sometimes tragic accidents happen…twice…

I recently finished The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi, and it’s everything I’d hoped it would be.  Unique, intricate world-building, superb characterization, and heart-stopping action – this is by far one of my best reads this year.

Set in a darkly glamorous world, The Gilded Wolves is full of mystery, decadence, and dangerous but thrilling adventure.

Paris, 1889: The world is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. In this city, no one keeps tabs on secrets better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. But when the all-powerful society, the Order of Babel, seeks him out for help, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.

To find the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin will need help from a band of experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian who can’t yet go home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in all but blood, who might care too much.

Together, they’ll have to use their wits and knowledge to hunt the artifact through the dark and glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the world, but only if they can stay alive.

Next, I’ll probably finish Vengeful (Villains #2) by V.E. Schwab.  I started this one at the beach last weekend, but need to finish an ARC before I can get back to it.  Schwab is one of my favorite authors, and I’m sure this book will be just as compelling as her others.

The sequel to VICIOUS, V.E. Schwab’s first adult novel.

Sydney once had Serena—beloved sister, betrayed enemy, powerful ally. But now she is alone, except for her thrice-dead dog, Dol, and then there’s Victor, who thinks Sydney doesn’t know about his most recent act of vengeance.

Victor himself is under the radar these days—being buried and re-animated can strike concern even if one has superhuman powers. But despite his own worries, his anger remains. And Eli Ever still has yet to pay for the evil he has done.

34 thoughts on “WWW Wednesday: What Am I Reading? #amreading”

  1. It’s always fun to see your reading list, Teri. I can’t help being a little envious that you can read so quickly. 😉
    Snarky? I’m so in! Interesting about the 2nd one. I’m not sure why, but I would likely have bypassed it. You make it sound great. Hugs.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I feel like I’m a slow reader, Teagan – I’d love to read a couple of books per week, but with real life, and especially this time of year, it’s not possible. And snark? One of the quickest ways to hook me in a book. Didn’t know this until after I’d read it, but The Gilded Wolves is being billed as Indiana Jones meets National Treasure. Not sure if that’s an adequate description, but it has some elements of each. Hugs!

      Like

      Reply

  14. Pingback: Bookish Naughty or Nice Tag (Blogmas #14) – Lili's Blissful Pages

  16. Cherrie Croyle

    I took the Holidays off from reading, with travel and then family in town I just didn’t find time enough to myself to sit and read. I was given what has started out to be an amazing book by PB Lawson called Dark Inheritance. I love a good thriller and this one is pretty awesome so far. pblawson.com is his site, it’s a good intro to the book there, I recommend it for those that like thrillers and psych thrillers.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.