Waiting on Wednesday: Burning Glass by Kathryn Purdie

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

This week’s pre-publication “can’t-wait-to-read” selection is:

Burning Glass

by Kathryn Purdie

 

Publisher:  Katherine Tegen Books

Release date: March 1, 2016

From Goodreads:

Sonya was born with the rare gift to feel what those around her feel—both physically and emotionally—a gift she’s kept hidden from the empire for seventeen long years. After a reckless mistake wipes out all the other girls with similar abilities, Sonya is hauled off to the palace and forced to serve the emperor as his sovereign Auraseer.

Tasked with sensing the intentions of would-be assassins, Sonya is under constant pressure to protect the emperor. One mistake, one small failure, will cost her own life and the lives of the few people left in the world who still trust her.

But Sonya’s power is untamed and reckless, her feelings easily usurped, and she sometimes can’t decipher when other people’s impulses end and her own begin. In a palace full of warring emotions and looming darkness, Sonya fears that the biggest danger to the empire may be herself.

As she struggles to wrangle her abilities, Sonya seeks refuge in her tenuous alliances with the volatile Emperor Valko and his idealistic younger brother, Anton, the crown prince. But when threats of revolution pit the two brothers against each other, Sonya must choose which brother to trust—and which to betray.

BURNING GLASS is debut author Kathryn Purdie’s stunning tale of dangerous magic, heart-rending romance, and the hard-won courage it takes to let go.

My Thoughts:

The pitch for this book is Red Queen meets Shadow and Bone and that alone is enough to grab my attention. Burning Glass promises to be an epic fantasy debut and an intriguing start to a trilogy. Based on early reviews it would appear that this book has it all: mystery, betrayal, magic, romance, and action.

The premise of this book sounds incredibly interesting; Sonya has a rare gift of sensing other people’s feeling and I am very curious to see how that affects how she feels. The story seems to have a lot of Russian influences and that is a high selling point for me as well.

The cover for Burning Glass is also visually striking and captured my attention. All in all, I am super excited to read Kathryn Purdie’s debut, and I have a feeling I won’t be disappointed.