Waiting on Wednesday: Dualed, City of a Thousand Dolls, and A Brighter Fear

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we just can't wait to get our hands on!

This week's picks:

Dualed by Elsie Chapman

Goodreads' description:

"Would you live through the ultimate test of survival?

The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life.

Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her."

Love the idea of one genetic Alternate having to kill the other before they turn 20. Sounds like it's gonna be full of some major action! The use of the shadow in the cover is clever, as is the title itself (I'm assuming there's supposed to be a play on words there — dualed/dueled?)

City of a Thousand Dolls by Miriam Forster

Goodreads' description:

"The girl with no past, and no future, may be the only one who can save their lives.

Nisha was abandoned at the gates of the City of a Thousand Dolls when she was just a child. Now sixteen, she lives on the grounds of the isolated estate, where orphan girls apprentice as musicians, healers, courtesans, and, if the rumors are true, assassins. Nisha makes her way as Matron’s assistant, her closest companions the mysterious cats that trail her shadow. Only when she begins a forbidden flirtation with the city’s handsome young courier does she let herself imagine a life outside the walls. Until one by one, girls around her start to die.

Before she becomes the next victim, Nisha decides to uncover the secrets that surround the girls’ deaths. But by getting involved, Nisha jeopardizes not only her own future in the City of a Thousand Dolls—but her own life."

Yes, assassins are definitely becoming a trend! This one sounds really creepy with the girls dying around her. The cover gives off a cool Egyptian vibe (those look kind of like sphinxes, right?)


A Brighter Fear by Kerry Drewery

Goodreads' description:


"An impossible love story set against the backdrop of the Iraq war, A Brighter Fear will appeal to everyone who loved a gathering light.

This debut novel is the story of Lina, a teenage girl from Baghdad, and it starts as the bombs fall in 2003. It is a love story: for a country, and for a person too. There is an object that is lost, but may yet be found again.

We can’t say much more without giving away what happens in this beautiful, contemporary fairytale. Suffice it to say that it will break your heart... but then will put it back together again.

A beautiful novel from a new literary star."

This one is extremely topical, and sounds like it's heartfelt and personal as well. I'm interested, too, by the fact it's called a "contemporary fairytale". And it fits in one of my gaps in YA — yay for books set outside the U.S.!

What books are you waiting for?