Waiting on Wednesday #63: Curses and Smoke by Vicky Alvear Schecter

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature created by Jill at Breaking the Spine. This is where you showcase an upcoming release you're anxiously awaiting!

This week, I'm waiting on:

Curses and Smoke by Vicky Alvear Schecter.

Expected Publication: May 27, 2014.
by: Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic).

Goodreads Synopsis:
When your world blows apart, what will you hold onto?

TAG is a medical slave, doomed to spend his life healing his master's injured gladiators. But his warrior's heart yearns to fight in the gladiator ring himself and earn enough money to win his freedom.

LUCIA is the daughter of Tag's owner, doomed by her father's greed to marry a much older Roman man. But she loves studying the natural world around her home in Pompeii, and lately she's been noticing some odd occurrences in the landscape: small lakes disappearing; a sulfurous smell in the air. . . .

When the two childhood friends reconnect, each with their own longings, they fall passionately in love. But as they plot their escape from the city, a patrician fighter reveals his own plans for them -- to Lucia's father, who imprisons Tag as punishment. Then an earthquake shakes Pompeii, in the first sign of the chaos to come. Will they be able to find each other again before the volcano destroys their whole world?

Why I'm excited:
ANCIENT ROME!!! I am always looking for more YA that focuses on ancient societies and Rome is one that has so many potential stories in it. Pompeii is certainly great conflict fodder so I'm very excited to see how this plays out, especially with a seemingly meant-to-be (but possibly doomed) love story at its heart.

What are you waiting on this week?