My Selection for Waiting on Wednesday: Exit the Actress by fellow blogger, Priya Parmar!!

Happy New Year everyone. Welcome back to my favorite meme! Waiting on Wednesday is the great idea of Jill over at Breaking the Spine. Each week we list what book we're anxious to sink our teeth into. This week, I'm going for something different. Exit the Actress is a historical novel. It's written by a fellow blogger: Priya Parmar! This is her first novel and she's being published by the Simon and Schuster imprint, Touchstone.

Priya is an absolutely delightful girl. She was a great help to me when I took my trip to England this summer and indeed, she's in London right now doing research on her next novel. I don't usually gravitate toward books like this, but beyond my curiosity about checking out Priya's writing, I was intrigued by the lush cover. Who is this woman and what's her story?

Priya had her publicist sent me a copy. I know Ellen "Nell" Gwyn, the protagonist, narrowly escapes becoming a child prostitute, developes a romance with a King and has to negotiate bitter gossip and vicious politics. That's good enough for me. Exit the Actress received an enthusiastic thumbs up from another author by the name of Phillipa Gregory. You may be familiar with her work: The Other Boleyn Girl.

I'm looking forward to delving into this one. It's a definite change from my usual YA sensibilities. Anyone else willing to stretch themselves and try something different?

Exit the Actress releases February 1, 2011

Toodles!