Book Crushes - Anticipating Sequels

There's a certain incomparable joy in anticipating the release date of a novel, particularly a sequel. It's a feeling that my generation - whom I call the "Harry Potter generation" - is well acquainted with. It's a little like being in love, or at least like having an overwhelming crush. Unexpectedly throughout the day the thought will occur to you that this book which you are looking forward to will some day exist in the world and you will get to read it - in much the same way one might thrill at the thought of seeing that dark-haired nail-biting snorts-when-he-laughs boy in geometry again.

The great thing about book crushes is that they end in much less heartbreak. Here are some of my current book crushes:

Rip Tide, the sequel to Kat Falls' Dark Life, is scheduled to be released this August. I picked up Dark Life thinking it would be a fun, easy read, and while it is that, it is also a fantastic work about a dystopian future and the mysterious consequences of our desperation for survival.

Patricia C Wrede's Across the Great Barrier is also coming out this August. It is the sequel to the absolutely fantastic alternate history, fantasy novel The Thirteenth Child. Wrede has always been one of my favorite authors, ever since I read her Enchanted Forest series years ago. It's always awesome to see a new book out by her, and this new series is mind blowing. It has all her usual amazing fantasy elements and superb writing, but with the fresh twist of being set in the American old west.

Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan is also an alternate history story, this time of the steampunk variety, and the final book in the trilogy, Goliath, will be released this September. I cannot praise this series enough, and would recommend it to anyone who geeks out over giant robots and/or has a soft spot for huge genetically-engineered abominations of nature. My anticipation of this book is actually mixed with a fair amount of sorrow to see this series end. So while I'm thrilled by the thought of reading it, I'm also saddened to think that the stories of these characters whom I have become so invested in is drawing to a close.