Waiting on Wednesday #34

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

Jocelyn's Waiting On: 

True Letters from a Fictional Life: Kenneth Logan
Publication Date: June 7th, 2016

Synopsis: 

If you asked anyone in his small Vermont town, they’d tell you the facts: James Liddell, star athlete, decent student, and sort-of boyfriend to cute, peppy Theresa is a happy, funny, carefree guy.

But whenever James sits down at his desk to write, he tells a different story. As he fills his drawers with letters to the people in his world—letters he never intends to send—he spills the truth: he’s trying hard but just isn’t into Theresa. It’s his friend, a boy, who lingers in his thoughts.

James’s secret letters are his safe space—until someone leaks them, and words he never meant to share are being broadcast all over school. Will he come clean to his parents, his teammates, and himself or is he destined to live a life of fiction?

I'm so happy that more LGBT YA novels are popping up. From the ones I've read so far, every character was always so complex. I'm *not so* patiently anticipating how True Letters from a Fictional Life will portray James Liddell. Also can I just say how adorable that cover is? 

Cassie's Waiting On: 

The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter
Publication Date: March 15, 2016

Synopsis:

Cassie O’Malley has spent her whole life trying to keep her head above water—literally and metaphorically. It’s been two-and-a-half years since her mother dumped Cassie in a mental institution against her will for something Cassie claims she didn't do. Now, at eighteen, Cassie enrolls in college, ready to reclaim her life and enter the world on her own terms.

But as she struggles to find her way forward, the startling truths she uncovers about her own family narrative make it impossible to cut the tethers of a tumultuous past. And when the unhealthy mother-daughter relationship that defined Cassie's childhood and adolescence threatens to pull her under once again, Cassie must decide: whose version of history is the truth? And more important, whose life must she save?

While this is a little out of my comfort zone and not the typical book I read, I'm willing to give it a shot because I love that more books are putting the spotlight on mental health/mental illness.  I also am intrigued by the mother-daughter dynamic that Cassie and her mom will have.  This sounds like a good book with a good message, and it comes recommended from one of the authors that wrote a fave novel of mine in 2015.