"Waiting On" Wednesday: Pantomime & Broken

"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 book that I am eagerly anticipating is...

Since I missed last week's WoW, I am going to pick two for today. 

Both novels are from Strange Chemistry Books.

Pantomime

by Laura Lam
Expected Publication Date: February 5, 2013
Published by Strange Chemistry
Paperback, 320 pages
Cover Art by  Tom Bagshaw

R.H. Ragona's Circus of Magic is the greatest circus of Ellada. Nestled among the glowing blue Penglass -- remnants of a mysterious civilisation long gone -- are wonders beyond the wildest imagination. It's a place where anything seems possible, where if you close your eyes you can believe that the magic and knowledge of the vanished Chimaera is still there. It's a place where anyone can hide.

Iphigenia Laurus, or Gene, the daughter of a noble family, is uncomfortable in corsets and crinoline, and prefers climbing trees to debutante balls. Micah Grey, a runaway living on the streets, joins the circus as an aerialist's apprentice and soon becomes the circus’s rising star.

But Gene and Micah have balancing acts of their own to perform, and a secret in their blood that could unlock the mysteries of Ellada.

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Broken

by A.E. Rought

Expected Publication Date: January 8, 2013

Published by Strange Chemistry

Paperback, 416 pages

Cover Art by Steven Wood

Imagine a modern spin on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where a young couple’s undying love and the grief of a father pushed beyond sanity could spell the destruction of them all.

A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry's boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetery and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.

When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she's intrigued despite herself. He's an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely... familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel's.

The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there's something very wrong with Alex Franks. And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks' estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows.

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Pantomime looks like a cross between The Night Circus and Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and since I loved both of those books, this should be awesome! Also, I love the cover - anything with masquerade masks catches my eye. Fantasy, magic and secrets - I can't wait!

Broken is a modern spin on Frankenstein. Retelling of classics can be good or can be really bad. I think Broken will be a interesting spin because it is not the exact tale modernized, but something else with a tinge of Mary Shelly's original. I have an ARC from NetGalley for this one and can't wait to get to it!

What do you think? Do one or both of these books look interesting to you?