Waiting on Wednesday: In the Age of Love and Chocolate

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.

In the Age of Love and Chocolate (Birthright #3)

by Gabrielle Zevin

Coming October 29, 2013

Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Summary:

All These Things I’ve Done, the first novel in the Birthright series, introduced us to timeless heroine Anya Balanchine, a plucky sixteen year old with the heart of a girl and the responsibilities of a grown woman. Now eighteen, life has been more bitter than sweet for Anya. She has lost her parents and her grandmother, and has spent the better part of her high school years in trouble with the law. Perhaps hardest of all, her decision to open a nightclub with her old nemesis Charles Delacroix has cost Anya her relationship with Win.

Still, it is Anya’s nature to soldier on. She puts the loss of Win behind her and focuses on her work. Against the odds, the nightclub becomes an enormous success, and Anya feels like she is on her way and that nothing will ever go wrong for her again. But after a terrible misjudgment leaves Anya fighting for her life, she is forced to reckon with her choices and to let people help her for the first time in her life. 

In the Age of Love and Chocolate is the story of growing up and learning what love really is. It showcases the best of Gabrielle Zevin’s writing for young adults: the intricate characterization of Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac and the big-heartedness of Elsewhere. It will make you remember why you loved her writing in the first place.

Why I want it:

I originally picked up All These Things I've Done because I was doing a reading challenge and required a book with a mostly white cover. I love it when little happenstances introduce me to amazing books! The Birthright series describes this really cool-but-also-incredibly-dangerous, somewhat-dystopian future where things like coffee and chocolate are illegal. Oh, man. I know so many writers who would rather go to jail than have to give up their caffeine fixes! This series is original and thrilling as it details Anya's determination to first keep her immediate family together and then she expands to attempt to keep her father's empire together. This is the ultimate game of who-can-you-trust because seeming allies turn out to be enemies and antagonists prove to be helpful. Plus, there is a boy, and he is awesome and quirky and charming and kind, but everything and everyone is dead-set against Anya and Win being together. Will it finally happen in the finale? Gosh, I hope so!

Why I think you should want it:

-Horrific imagining of a future without chocolate and coffee? Food for thought.
-Really awesome protagonist who feels like she can't do anything, but does it all anyway.
-Family loyalty....by just about everybody. Good luck finding who isn't. :D
-Mobs, spies, thieves, would-be-assasinations = super thrilling read.
-Cute boys. 'Nuff said.

So if you haven't checked out All These Things I've Done and Because It Is My Blood, I highly encourage you to do so. You've basically got two months so hop to it!