“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted over at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that are being eagerly anticipated.

The Fortune of Carmen Navarro by Jen Bryant
November 9th 2010 by Knopf Books for Young Readers

Carmen Navarro rings up customers at the Quikmart, bored to tears. It’s a job, and she needs it. But Carmen’s true love is music: she dropped out of high school to sing with the Gypsy Lovers and land a recording contract, someday.

Just a few miles away, Ryan Sweeney hunches over his books, a studious cadet with his eye on West Point. There’s not a single girl at the Valley Forge Military Academy, and that’s fine by him.

But when Ryan, on a day pass from campus, spots Carmen, with her shining black hair and snake tattoo, his pulse quickens. Carmen, who normally rolls her eyes at the stiff Academy soldados, can tell this one is different. She slips him a note: “Come hear my band.” A romance begins, unlikely, passionate . . . and quickly imbalanced. In an enthralling narrative of obsessive love, the novel builds to a stunning close.

Inspired by the novella and opera Carmen, Jen Bryant creates a strong-minded and alluring heroine in this contemporary tale of tragic love.

Okay.
1 – Books about/based on operas = FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC.
2 – Books that play on cross-culture relationships = brilliant.
3 – Summaries that mention “tragic love” = make me want to hide under the duvet and cry.

Eep, I have mixed, dark and twisty feelings about this book already! Let’s all stare at the gorgeous cover instead.

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