Waiting on Wednesday (109): The Testing + Ketchup Clouds

While I'm literally jumping up and down in my PJs because of the slew of awesome books we got this week, I present to you our picks. One's a contemp and one is a heart stopping YA sci-fi. They're different, I know, but both caught my attention today and I'd like to know your thoughts about these picks of ours ;)

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

Title: The Testing (Book of Eva #1) by Heather Terrell
Release Date: October 8th 2013
Published by: Soho Teen

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Summary (from Goodreads):

It begins with a murder that everyone assumes was a tragic accident. Eva's twin brother, Eamon, falls to his death just before he is due to participate in "The Testing": a rite of passage where select teens seek out artifacts in the wilderness, all of which reinforce the New North's austere anti-tech beliefs. When Eva offers to take Eamon's place in the Testing, the sexist power structure must reluctantly allow her to go: It's been 150 years since a girl participated, but unfortunately that's enough of a precedent.

Out in the Boundary Lands, Eva relies on the training she received from Lukas—her servant and secret friend—to help Jasper, another Testor and the boy she's being groomed to marry. Lukas's and Jasper's competing motives (known and unknown) threaten her life when she finds an artifact that magically tells of a girl much like herself, an artifact that overturns almost everything she was raised to believe...

Why I'm waiting for The Testing:

It somehow reminds me of Divergent and Under the Never Sky and I like the anti-technology angle, somehow makes me think of Ann Aguirre's Endurance. How do people living during this time? And what is this artifact they're talking about? I'm already so curious especially with the murder part, it adds a whole lot of mystery in it! I love how the cover matches the tone of the book, it's so simple.

Title: Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher
Release Date: November 12th 2013
Published by: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Want? Add to your Goodreads shelf!

Summary (from Goodreads):

Dear Mr. S. Harris,

Ignore the blob of red in the top left corner. It's jam, not blood, though I don't think I need to tell you the difference. It wasn't your wife's jam the police found on your shoe. . . .

Zoe has an unconventional pen pal-Mr. Stuart Harris, a Texas Death Row inmate and convicted murderer. But then again, Zoe has an unconventional story to tell. A story about how she fell for two brothers, betrayed one of them, and killed the other.

Hidden away in her backyard shed in the middle of the night with a jam sandwich in one hand and a pen in the other, Zoe gives a voice to her heart and her fears after months of silence. Mr. Harris may never respond to Zoe's letters, but at least somebody will know her story-somebody who knows what it's like to kill a person you love. Only through her unusual confession can Zoe hope to atone for her mistakes that have torn lives apart, and work to put her own life back together again.

Why I'm waiting for Ketchup Clouds:

I might have the tendency to be attracted to books with such complicated, sad storylines like this one. Ketchup Clouds' Zoe sounds like not your ordinary teenage female lead, but the things she says and confess in this novel sounds so heart breaking, I know I just want to read it. You don't get to read a story about a girl who says she murdered a boy and telling her story to a death row inmate. I want this book, I really just want to read it.

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So what are your WoW picks this week?