“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine.  Every Wednesday we get to highlight a book that we’re really looking forward to.  My book this week is : Faithful by Alice Hoffman.  I love Alice Hoffman, she’s one of those authors that I just have to read her next book – and this is her next book!  Due out November this year so not too long to wait:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage of Opposites and The Dovekeepers comes a soul-searching story about a young woman struggling to redefine herself and the power of love, family, and fate.

Growing up on Long Island, Shelby Richmond is an ordinary girl until one night an extraordinary tragedy changes her fate. Her best friend’s future is destroyed in an accident, while Shelby walks away with the burden of guilt.

What happens when a life is turned inside out? When love is something so distant it may as well be a star in the sky? Faithfulis the story of a survivor, filled with emotion—from dark suffering to true happiness—a moving portrait of a young woman finding her way in the modern world. A fan of Chinese food, dogs, bookstores, and men she should stay away from, Shelby has to fight her way back to her own future. In New York City she finds a circle of lost and found souls—including an angel who’s been watching over her ever since that fateful icy night.

Here is a character you will fall in love with, so believable and real and endearing, that she captures both the ache of loneliness and the joy of finding yourself at last. For anyone who’s ever been a hurt teenager, for every mother of a daughter who has lost her way, Faithful is a roadmap.

Alice Hoffman’s “trademark alchemy” (USA TODAY) and her ability to write about the “delicate balance between the everyday world and the extraordinary” (WBUR) make this an unforgettable story. With beautifully crafted prose, Alice Hoffman spins hope from heartbreak in this profoundly moving novel. (less)

Every Tuesday over at the  The Broke and Bookish we all get to look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) examples to demonstrate that particular topic.  The topic this week is:

Top Ten Books With ‘X’ Setting

My choice is ‘books set in London’ and they are as follows:

1. The Harry Potter series!  This being my Harry Potter month I felt compelled to get this one into the mix.
2. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman – I love this story and the underground stations that dwell below are just brilliant!
3. Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle.  I’ve read lots of the Sherlock Holmes stories so won’t particularly recommend any one.  They’re all great – although perhaps I could nudge you gently towards Hound of the Baskervilles.
4. Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye – I can’t recommend this book enough!  It was just fantastic and I loved it.
5. Fated, an Alex Verus novel by Benedict Jacka – I’m not fully uptodate with this series but I will eventually catch up!
6. The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger (Soulless, etc).  Highly entertaining steam punk and tea time shenanigans.
7. Mayhem and Murder by by Sarah Pinborough – gothic horror on the streets of London – what’s not to love!
8. A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan – a little bit of a cheat this one in more ways than one.  Lady Trent originates from a place that is like an alternate London and – to be honest the majority of the stories are based elsewhere.  But I do love this series so thought it was worth mentioning.
9. Vampire Empire by Clay and Susan Griffith – not set purely in London but a good deal of the action takes place there – a world overrun with vampires!
10. Delia’s Shadow by Jamie Lee Moyer