The books I didn't buy last night (but wanted to)

Have I mentioned that I'm traveling to Japan? In twenty days? Hmm. I may have... In any case, I dropped by my local Barnes & Noble last night to pick up a Japanese phrase book. (Incidentally, the one by Lonely Planet is very comprehensive and seems well indexed.) Naturally, I couldn't leave without checking out some of the fiction shelves even though I was on a spending moratorium (Japan. Twenty days.), so I drifted over to the YA section.

Two books caught my eye. The first is Julie Kagawa's THE IRON KING. I first picked it up because of the title similarity to BFF Kaz's upcoming YA, THE IRON WITCH. I was curious to see what similarities, if any, there were in the plots. There really aren't any that I can see, other than that they both fall into the giant category of Books About Girls And Fae.

But once I'd read the description on the back? I had to read this book. Check it out:

My name is Meghan Chase.

In less than twenty-four hours I'll be sixteen. Countless stories, songs, and poems have been written about this wonderful age, when a girl finds true love and the stars shine for her and the handsome prince carries her off into the sunset.

I don't think it will be that way for me.

MEGHAN CHASE HAS A SECRET DESTINY— ONE SHE COULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED…
Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan’s life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school…or at home.
When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she’s known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth—that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she’ll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

I tried to find a picture of the back of the book to post for you guys - the way the descriptions above are laid out is really cool and sort of adds to the flair, imo. You can see it if you click on the search-the-book feature in Amazon (link off of Julie's website, click her name above). Anyway, it went right! onto my ewishlist when I got home, probably to be read in Japan. (In 20 days.)

The other one was WILD ROSES by Deb Caletti:

You would have never recognized the Dino I lived with in the books that had been written about him before the “incident”. No one had a clue. No one seemed to see what was coming.
Seventeen-year-old Cassie Morgan has a secret: she’s living with a time bomb (A.K.A., her stepfather, Dino Cavalli). To the public, Dino is a world-renowned violin player and composer. To Cassie, he’s an erratic, self-centered bully. Dino has always been difficult, but as he prepares for his comeback concert, something in him begins to shift. He seems more high-strung than ever, set off by any little thing. He stops sleeping, starts chain-smoking. And he grows increasingly paranoid, saying things that Cassie is desperate to make sense of, but can’t. So she does what she thinks she must: she tries to hide his behavior from the outside world. Before, she was angry. Now, she is afraid.
Enter Ian Waters: A brilliant young violinist, and Dino’s first-ever student. The minute Cassie lays eyes on Ian she knows she’s doomed. She tries everything to keep away from him, but is drawn to him in a way she’s never felt before. It should be easy. It should be beautiful. It is not. Cassie thought she understood that love could bring pain. But this union will have consequences she could not have imagined.
As the novel crashes through two irreparable events and speeds toward its powerful end, one thing becomes clear: in the world of insanity, nothing is sacred. Not talent, not spirit, not love.
I'll admit, I was drawn to this one by the cover. I love it. Love love love it. Also, I'm knitting fingerless mitts right now. That might have something to do with it. But I digress. Once I'd stared at the lovely cover for a while, I turned it over and was drawn in by the description above. It sounds like an interesting premise and I've also added this to my wishlist.


Can you believe it? I went to B&N for one book...and left with only that one book. What the hell is the world coming to?