Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill from Breaking the Spine, and specifically spotlights upcoming novels we can't wait to read. As always, there are some amazing upcoming books, but this week I'm particularly excited for...

Title: Love Letters to the Dead

Author: Ava Dellaira (Twitter)

Publisher: FSG BYR

Publish Date: April 1, 2014

Genre: YA, Contemporary

Pages: 336

It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because she thought he’d understand since he died young just like her sister, May, did. Soon Laurel is writing letters to lots of dead people—Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more—although she never gives a single one of them to her teacher.

She writes about what it’s like going to a new school, meeting new friends, falling in love for the first time, how her family splinters apart after May dies. She even writes about the abuse she suffered—while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May, and to see her as the person she was: lovely and amazing and deeply flawed.

Remember how I said I love my contemporary books to be all dark and twisty and hauntingly real? Well, from that premise, it sure sounds like Love Letters to the Dead fits the bill exactly. I also have to say that I love the fact that the author is trained as a poet. This sort of promises us a sort of lyricism that makes reality real - but all more tangible and soulful. I have to be honest. I want this one. Really. Really. Bad. What do you think, and what are you waiting on this week?

Title: When the Sea is Rising Red
Author: Cat Hellisen
Publisher: FSG
Publish Date: Februrary 28, 2012
Genre: YA, Paranormal Fantsy
Pages: 296
Source: Publisher

After seventeen-year-old Felicita’s dearest friend, Ilven, kills herself to escape an arranged marriage, Felicita chooses freedom over privilege. She fakes her own death and leaves her sheltered life as one of Pelimburg’s magical elite behind. Living in the slums, scrubbing dishes for a living, she falls for charismatic Dash while also becoming fascinated with vampire Jannik.

Then something shocking washes up on the beach: Ilven's death has called out of the sea a dangerous, wild magic. Felicita must decide whether her loyalties lie with the family she abandoned . . . or with those who would twist this dark power to destroy Pelimburg's caste system, and the whole city along with it.

Felicita was born into a life of luxury and privilege in a magical family. However, because she is a girl, her life is destined to be one of choices made by others and a severe lack of control. She's to have an arranged marriage, and once she settles in with a new husband, she'll have somewhat of a new puppet master. When Felicita's best friend kills herself to escape this fate, Felicita chooses to do the same, in a sense. She fakes her death and escapes to the slums, finding freedom for the first time in her seventeen years. But peace doesn't last long. Ilven's rash decision called up an old dark magic, and Felicita must decide whether she belongs in her old life or her new one before it's too late.

I've read a lot of YA books in my time on this blog. And, frankly, there are times when I think I've seen and read it all. paranormal books have been tested, tried and true, and it's a very crowded genre, so when a novel dares to be paranormal fantasy, toe the line between adult and young adult, but reads just as well for all ages, I'm floored. Cat Hellisen took her imagination to the next level with When the Sea is Rising Red, creating a world that's every bit an illusion yet, at the same time tangible. Intricate and detailed, vivid and pronounced, the world of Pelimburg is dark and twisted, with a creative and fascinating world with an underbelly teeming with unanswered questions. It's a world in which you will become utterly absorbed.

Felicita was a brilliant character. She was rich and emote, rife with internal struggles. Yet, throughout it all, you could sense the desire to be free and happy. She truly wanted a place for herself in a world where she was controlled every day. Likewise, Dash was the epitome of charisma. Charming and intriguing, Dash was a well-rounded character that brought Felicita's strengths to the surface, allowing them to sing through every moment of tension in When the Sea is Rising Red. As much as the characters epitomized excellence, it must be said that the novel is very much an enigma. In once sense, the world of Pelimburg is entirely foreign and confusing. In another sense, it's brilliant, exciting and quaint. The two make for an immensely satisfying backdrop for a maze of an adventure. I think the beauty of When the Sea is Rising Red lies within the unanswered questions within the novel though. Rather than serving you a cut and dried plot that simply connects the dots, this story almost leaves those answers for you to decide, which is a power not often given to the readers.

In many ways, When the Sea is Rising Red soars. Rich and powerful, it's slow-burning, and it has me thinking days later. It's definitely one I'll be re-reading. I give it a very strong 4.5 out of 5, and I highly recommend it to both YA and adult audiences who enjoy paranormal fantasies.

I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This, in no way, affected my opinion or review of this book.

Title: Without Tess
Author: Marcella Pixley
Publisher: FSG
Publish Date: October 11, 2011
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Pages: 224
Source: Publisher

Tess and Lizzie are sisters, sisters as close as can be, who share a secret world filled with selkies, flying horses, and a girl who can transform into a wolf in the middle of the night. But when Lizzie is ready to grow up, Tess clings to their fantasies. As Tess sinks deeper and deeper into her delusions, she decides that she can’t live in the real world any longer and leaves Lizzie and her family forever.

Now, years later, Lizzie is in high school and struggling to understand what happened to her sister. With the help of a school psychologist and Tess’s battered journal, Lizzie searches for a way to finally let Tess go.

Tess and Lizzie lived a charmed childhood full of magic, wonder and impossible things becoming possible. It's a world of escapism that they share and love together but, eventually, they must grow up. Lizzie recognizes this. Tess, however, cannot live in a world without magic. Her world of magic becomes darker and more terrifying as it begins to consume her from the inside out and she loses her grip on reality. Now a teenager, Liz is learning to live without Tess, and must delve into her sister's innermost thoughts to understand and come to terms with the fact that the Tess she knew and loved is, and was, gone a very long time ago.

Without Tess, in a word, is daring. Not too many young adult authors will broach the topic of mental illness, and those who do tend to sugarcoat and dance around the dark nature of many of them. Marcella Pixley, however, is not one of those authors, and Without Tess is not one of those books. Rich and alluring, Without Tess invites you into a world where magic is real for two little girls, then shows how the inevitable reality embraces one girl into the fold and cuts another to the bone. Haunting and painful, the book tackles tedious subject matter with a steady gait and lyrical prose to make the reader both aware and understanding of the depth of mental illness.

I don't think I was fully prepared for Without Tess when I read it. I had an image of a previous book on mental illness in my mind, and I was expecting it to be a bit surface-heavy. Rather, Without Tess wastes no time in throwing you into the all-consuming darkness of Tess's delusions as they consume her from the inside out. We literally watch her wither away into oblivion, all the while causing possibly irreparable damage to her sister. Tess was a complex character. I despised her for the wrongs she did to Liz, and for the bone-crushing pain she inflicted on others. At the same time though, I pitied her and wanted mercy for her. Liz was also a multi-faceted character. I enjoyed reading about her in her younger self, while I felt her teenage self in the present was rather unlikable. The bitterness and anger that oozed from her character was understandable, of course, but it made me dread seeing things through her eyes because it was so bleak. Without Tess does more than show mental illness though. The author tackles the topic of religion and one's belief systems which, at times, felt true and fitting. At other times though, I felt like it overburdened the plot. I will say that Without Tess also featured dialogue for the younger version of Lizzie and Tess's poetry that felt a bit too mature and forced. Dark and mesmerizing, yes, but not true to their age.

Overall though, Without Tess was a powerful read portraying the depth of mental illness while giving us a rich and developed plot. I give it a 3.5 out of 5, and I'd recommend it to upper YA audiences and adults, especially those who like issue books and contemporary fiction.

I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review. This, in no way, affected my opinion or review of this book.

As we all know, the book market (and the YA market in particular) is fast-becoming dominated by killer covers that rival the content of the books. I'm a self-professed cover slut, and I'm completely okay with that, but I think it's time we pay a little tribute to the fantastic covers on the market today. So, welcome to a brand new Friday feature at i swim for oceans!

Each week, I will feature a book with a cover that just blew my mind with its amazingness, and I invite you to join in. Simply post the cover, the author/publisher, the release date, why you love it and any other pertinent details you'd love to share with other cover-lovers out there. Want to join in? Simply link up and join the fun!

Title: When the Sea is Rising Red
Author: Cat Hellisen (Twitter)
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Publish Date: February 28, 2012
Genre: YA, Fantasy

Why I Have Cover Love: There's something so dark and twisted about this cover that just screams "READ ME" to me. We all know how I like the dark books, so this one sounds right up my alley. I think I like the idea that hidden between a haunting cover could be pages of hidden, beautiful magic.

What do you think? Are you dying of cover love over a certain book? Link up and share the love with the rest of us!

In My Mailbox is an amazing weekly meme hosted by Kristi from The Story Siren that features the books we have received during the week. It's so much fun because we get to see what our fellow bloggers stumbled upon this week and add even more to our piles of books! Without further ado, this week I received the following books:

FOR REVIEW

Witchlanders by Lena Coakley

(eARC) - Thank you, Galley Grab

High in their mountain covens, red witches pray to the Goddess, protecting the Witchlands by throwing the bones and foretelling the future. It’s all a fake.

At least, that’s what Ryder thinks. But when a terrifying new magic threatens both his village and the coven, Ryder must confront the beautiful and silent witch who holds all the secrets. Everything he’s ever believed about witches, the Baen, magic and about himself will change, when he discovers that the prophecies he’s always scorned — Are about him.

FOR REVIEW

Drink, Slay, Love by Sarah Beth Durst

(eARC) - Thank you, Galley Grab

Pearl is a sixteen-year-old vampire... fond of blood, allergic to sunlight, and mostly evil... until the night a sparkly unicorn stabs her through the heart with his horn. Oops.

Her family thinks she was attacked by a vampire hunter (because, obviously, unicorns don't exist), and they're shocked she survived. They're even more shocked when Pearl discovers she can now withstand the sun. But they quickly find a way to make use of her new talent. The Vampire King of New England has chosen Pearl's family to host his feast. 

FOR REVIEW

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

(ARC) - Thank you, BYR

 Dead End in Norvelt is the story of an incredible two months for a boy named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation adventure are suddenly ruined when he is grounded by his feuding parents for what seems like forever.

But escape comes where Jack least expects it, once he begins helping an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore—a chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, obituaries, Hells Angels, and countless bloody noses.