Backlist Blast #24: The Glass Spare by Lauren DeStefano

Happy Friday Junior, and Backlist Blast day, everyone! Today I’ll be sharing a book that I’ve had a copy of since before it was published last year. Facepalm. It’s The Glass Spare and I’ve kept meaning to read it (like so many other books in my backlist TBR), but it just hasn’t happened yet. This week, I especially want to pick it up because the sequel in the series The Cursed Sea came out on Tuesday … and the story takes the characters out to sea! I’m always up for a good sea + ships + possibly pirates, so I’m excited.

Backlist Blast is a meme created by Milana from A Couple Reads and myself, and is meant to encourage book bloggers to feature and talk about backlist books (meaning books that were published 6 months ago, or earlier). We all get excited about all of the newest books coming out, but many of us also have a looming TBR of books published 6 months ago or earlier that we still need to read!

The main purpose of this meme is to talk about those books, and remember why we wanted to read them in the first place. Another purpose is for readers to find out about awesome backlist books that they might have never heard of before! For more information on the meme, and for optional themes, please see the info page here.

Title: The Glass Spare
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Type: Fiction
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Publisher: Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins)
Published: October 24, 2017

A banished princess.
A deadly curse.
A kingdom at war.

Wil Heidle, the only daughter of the king of the world’s wealthiest nation, has grown up in the shadows. Kept hidden from the world in order to serve as a spy for her father—whose obsession with building his empire is causing a war—Wil wants nothing more than to explore the world beyond her kingdom, if only her father would give her the chance.

Until one night Wil is attacked, and she discovers a dangerous secret. Her touch turns people into gemstone. At first Wil is horrified—but as she tests its limits, she’s drawn more and more to the strange and volatile ability. When it leads to tragedy, Wil is forced to face the destructive power within her and finally leave her home to seek the truth and a cure.

But finding the key to her redemption puts her in the path of a cursed prince who has his own ideas for what to do with her power.

With a world on the brink of war and a power of ultimate destruction, can Wil find a way to help the kingdom that’s turned its back on her, or will she betray her past and her family forever?

Lauren DeStefano was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and has an English degree from Albertus Magnus College. Her first book, Wither, a dystopian young adult novel, was published in 2011 by Simon & Schuster. Wither is the first book in The Chemical Garden Trilogy, and the second novel, Fever, debuted at No. 6 on the New York Times bestseller list in March 2012.[2] The third and final book, Sever, was released on February 12, 2013. The trilogy achieved No. 10 on the New York Times bestseller list for children’s series in March 2013. DeStefano is currently working on a new series. She has a three-book deal with Simon & Schuster for a “utopian” young adult series called The Internment Chronicles. The first book is titled Perfect Ruin. It was released October 1, 2013, and focuses on the “perfect, orderly society” of a city floating in the sky. The second book in the series, Burning Kingdoms, was released on March 10, 2015. DeStefano also wrote a middle-grade book, A Curious Tale of the In-Between, which is scheduled for release in September 2015.