Waiting on Wednesday (118): A Wounded Name + Black Spring

It's a chaotic week of sorts for me! Exercised my right to vote, catching up (successfully) with my TBR pile and I think I'm gonna be sick. Ackt! Anyway here's my picks this week!

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

Title: A Wounded Name by Dot Hutchison
Release Date: September 1st 2013
Published by: Carolrhoda Books

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Summary (from Goodreads):

There's a girl who could throw herself head first into life and forge an unbreakable name, an identity that stands on its own without fathers or brothers or lovers who devour and shatter.

I'VE NEVER BEEN THAT GIRL.

Sixteen-year-old Ophelia Castellan will never be just another girl at Elsinore Academy. Seeing ghosts is not a skill prized in future society wives. Even when she takes her pills, the bean sidhe beckon, reminding her of a promise to her dead mother.

Now, in the wake of the Headmaster's sudden death, the whole academy is in turmoil, and Ophelia can no longer ignore the fae. Especially once she starts seeing the Headmaster's ghosts- two of them- on the school grounds.

At the center of her crumbling world is Dane, the Headmaster's grieving son. He, too, understands the power of a promise to a parent- even a dead one. To him, Ophelia is the only person not tainted by deceit and hypocrisy, a mirror of his own broken soul. And to Ophelia, Dane quickly becomes everything. Yet even as she gives more of herself to him, Dane slips away. Consumed by suspicion, rage, and madness, he spirals towards his tragic fate- dragging Ophelia, and the rest of Elsinore, with him.

YOU KNOW HOW THIS STORY ENDS.

Yet even in the face of certain death, Ophelia has a choice to make- and a promise to keep. She is not the girl others want her to be. But in Dot Hutchison's dark and sensuous debut novel, the name "Ophelia" is as deeply, painfully, tragically real as "Hamlet".

Why I'm waiting for A Wounded Name:

I am so so in love with the cover! It looks perfect. I've only read one other retelling for Hamlet, but this one sounds like a totally different story compared to that other book. It sounds so good, so sad and so tragic at the same time, and definitely intriguing.

Title: Black Spring by Alison Croggon
Release Date: August 27th 2013
Published by: Candlewick

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Summary (from Goodreads):

In a savage land sustained by wizardry and ruled by vendetta, Lina is the enchanting but willful daughter of a village lord. She and her childhood companion, Damek, have grown up privileged and spoiled, and they’re devoted to each other to the point of obsession. But Lina’s violet eyes betray her for a witch, and witches are not tolerated in a brutally patriarchal society. Her rank protects her from persecution, but it cannot protect her from tragedy and heartbreak. An innocent visitor stands witness to the devastation that ensues as destructive longing unleashes Lina’s wrath, and with it her forbidden power. Whether drawn by the romantic, the magical, or the gothic, readers will be irresistibly compelled by the passion of this tragic tale.

Why I'm waiting for Black Spring:

One: it's a Wuthering Heights retelling definitely with a different kind of twist! It's not my intention to pick two tragic sounding stories, but there's something about this one that makes it so much more interesting. Magic, a patriarchal society, two people obsessed with each other. I'm curious to know how it's all going to be a factor in the story.

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So what are you waiting for this week? Share your WoW picks!