"What's New" June YA Releases & Giveaway

Well, it's a bit late, but luckily nothing came out this month until the 4th anyhow! ;)  I'm not officially back from hiatus yet, but I did want to get this month's post up so you can all see what amazing titles there are in June!

So if you're new to Stories & Sweeties, here's a little run-down of this feature: at the start of each month, I do a little thing called the "What's New List & Giveaway" where you'll find a full list of the new releases in YA for the month, and entry to the giveaway. At the end of each month, one lucky winner will get to choose any new release as their prize!

First things first! The winner of May's giveaway was: Cheryl!  Congratulations! :D

  June 2013 Releases:
Just like previous months, I've put a little l♥ve by those books that I am really anticipating---whether I can't wait to read them or I just can't wait to have my own finished copy!

{4}
The Academy: Game On by Monica Seles
Breathe by Abbie Glines
Catch Rider by Jennifer H. Lyne
Confederates Don’t Wear Couture by Stephanie Kate Strohm
Elegy by Tara Hudson
The Elementals by Saundra Mitchell ♥
The Fallen Prince by Shea Berkley
Impossibility of Tomorrow by Avery Williams
The Keep by Veronica Wolf
Letting Ana Go by Anonymous
The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen
Over You by Amy Reed
Phoenix by Elizabeth Richards
PODS by Michelle Pickett
Crushed by Sara Shepard
Rules of Summer by Joanna Philbin
Shadow Train by J. Gabriel Gates and Charlene Keel
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
Stormbringers by Philippa Gregory
The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau
Tidal by Amanda Hocking
Tides by Betsy Cornwell ♥
When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney
You Look Different in Real Life by Jennifer Castle

{8}
Insomnia by J.R. Johansson

{11}
Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn ♥
Belle Epoque by Elizabeth Ross ♥
Born of Illusion by Teri Brown ♥
Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff ♥
Burning by Elana K. Arnold
Charm and Strange by Stephanie Kuehn
Dance of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin ♥
Deviant by Helen Fitzgerald
Far Far Away by Tom McNeal ♥
Ghost Time by Courtney Eldridge
The Girl Who Was Suppose to Die by April Henry
Infamous by Lauren Conrad
Linked by Imogen Howson ♥
A Matter of Day by Amber Kizer
Mortal Fire by Elizabeth Knox ♥
My Chemical Mountain by Corina Vacco
Plague in the Mirror by Deborah Noyes ♥
Rush by Eve Silver
The Sacrifice by Charlie Higson
The Secret Ingredient by Stewart Lewis
Spies and Prejudice by Talia Vance ♥

{13}
How (Not) to Find a Boyfriend by Allyson Valentine
Ship Out of Luck by Neal Shusterman
The Wells Bequest by Polly Shulman ♥

{18}
Defy the Dark (anthology) ♥
Intuition by C.J. Omololu
Praefatio by Georgia McBride
Proxy by Alex London ♥
Solstice by P.J. Hoover
Star Cursed by Jessica Spotswood ♥
Tarnish by Katherine Longshore
Triangles by Kimberly Ann Miller
A Trick of the Light by Lois Metzger
The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Witch Fire by Laura Powell

{25}
After Daybreak by J.A. London
Confessions of an Almost-Girlfriend by Louise Rozett
FML by Shaun David Hutchinson
Forevermore by Cindy Miles
Golden Girl by Sarah Zettel ♥
Hidden by Marianne Curley
In the After by Demitria Lunetta
Ink by Amanda Sun  ♥
Invisible by Marni Bates
The Lost Sun by Tessa Gratton
A Moment Comes by Jennifer Bradbury
Neptune’s Tears by Susan Waggoner ♥
Paradox by A. J. Paquette
Samarai Summer by Ake Edwardson and Per Carlsson
Since You Asked by Maurene Goo
Weather Witch by Shannon Delaney ♥
Winterveil by Jenna Burtenshaw

{27}
Ashes on the Waves by Mary Lindsey ♥
The Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Robin Palmer
The Feros by Wesley King
Golden Boy by Tara Sullivan


(All links go to Goodreads)
Please feel free to email me if you notice any YA titles missing! :)

Giveaway Details:
One winner will win a YA June release of their choice! *see note below
• Contest ends June 30th, 2013 at 11:59 PM
• Must be 13 or older.
• Open internationally. *International winners will be required to choose a book that is available through BookDepository.com.  a Rafflecopter giveaway

A little hiatus...and a very storybook senior photoshoot!

So if the silence this week wasn't already obvious, I'm making it official.  I'm going to have to take a very brief hiatus, just a few weeks.  In the coming weeks, I have some house remodeling to finish, massive clean-up from said remodeling, and three parties to plan (two birthdays and a graduation).  Hoping to be back happily blogging and much less stressed out by the second week in June.  :D
I am going to try to have the "What's New" monthly post together and posted on time---and the June list? Brace yourself, because its a whopper of bookish goodness. ;)

So I'll leave you with a little photo sharing...my daughter, who's a book-lover just like her mama, and a few of her more bookish senior photos.  These were taken by my wonderfully talented bestie and frequent guest reviewer, Amy.  I'm telling you, if you're in the California bay area and want some awesome, creative photos done, she's the best around.  You can see more of her stuff and contact her at www.shuttercouture.com.

...and well, in this last one she doesn't have her books, but in YA we do love our bow-and-arrow wielding heroines, don't we?  She's been taking archery for about a year now and absolutely loving it, so we decided to work it into her photo shoot.

So, please pardon my blogging break.  I'll be back soon!

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It lets us all gush about what soon-to-be released books we are jumping-up-and-down excited for.

Conjured 
by Sarah Beth Durst

hitting shelves August 27th, 2013 from Walker Children's Books

description: Eve has a new home, a new face, and a new name—but no memories of her past. She’s been told that she's in a witness protection program. That she escaped a dangerous magic-wielding serial killer who still hunts her. The only thing she knows for sure is that there is something horrifying in her memories the people hiding her want to access—and there is nothing they won’t say—or do—to her to get her to remember.

At night she dreams of a tattered carnival tent and buttons being sewn into her skin. But during the day, she shelves books at the local library, trying to not let anyone know that she can do things—things like change the color of her eyes or walk through walls. When she does use her strange powers, she blacks out and is drawn into terrifying visions, returning to find that days or weeks have passed—and she’s lost all short-term memories. Eve must find out who and what she really is before the killer finds her—but the truth may be more dangerous than anyone could have ever imagined.

My thoughts: Lots of reasons to pine for this one---fantastic author, mysterious dreams and carnival tents,  a uniquely gorgeous cover...just to mention a few!

New Shelf Goodies & The Weekly Nutshell {48}

For New Shelf Goodies, I'll be showing you what lovely books I acquired this week, whether from publishers, or the library, or from whatever half-crazed book-buying binge I happened to go on. :D (Inspired by Tynga's Stacking the Shelves) The Weekly Nutshell will be just that...my week here at Stories & Sweeties, in a nutshell. (inspired by Ginger @ GReads and her recaps at the end of the TGIF posts)

Here's what I got this week:

Borrowed: 

Teardrop by Lauren Kate

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! That is all.
 Thank you, my dear! (you know who you are! lol)

Gifted:

A Darkness Strange & Lovely by Susan Dennard

These Broken Stars by Meagan Spooner & Amie Kaufman

For both of these: I die! I faint! I...happy dance!! 

For review: 

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales

 This looks good--fun quirky characters.

Some Quiet Place by Kelsey Sutton

OH I've been anticipating this one forever!

For Review (cont)

The Beautiful and the Cursed by Page Morgan

Lovely velvety finished copy :) I'm a sucker for those.

The Wicked Game by Michelle Zink

SO excited...love this author. 

Man Made Boy by Jon Skovron

Irresistable Frankie cover! Love!

Blythewood by Carol Goodman

This looks awesome, but holy cow--I was not expecting it to be almost 500 pages!

All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry

Eerie cover, eerie synopsis. Looks good!

For review (cont)

Just Like Fate by Cat Patrick and Suzanne Young

YES. I will read anything by Cat Patrick. 

Bang by Lisa McMann

Likewise for Lisa McMann...have loved all of her books! 

Windchaser by Krissi Dallas

Windfall by Krissi Dallas

Watercrossing by Krissi Dallas

I came across this series in someone's recap post for TXLA and looked it up. Read the first few chapters and was immediately hooked!

Huge grateful bowing-down thanks to these publishers for sending these!! Macmillan, Flux Books, Random House/Delacorte, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, and Tate Publishing.

The Weekly Nutshell: 

{Tuesday} Waiting on Wednesday: Goodbye, Rebel Blue

{Thursday} Truth of Dare Giveaway! Tell me your best Truth or Dare stories!

{Friday} Becky's View: Absent by Katie Williams

{Saturday} Becky's View: Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins

Hope everyone had a great book week! I just have to say that I started Invisibility today by Levithan and Cremer---I was in love with both main characters within the first 20 pages.  Unless this goes terribly wrong somewhere in the end, I think I can safely predict this one is going to be a new favorite! :)

What are you reading this week?

 

Becky's View: Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins

Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins
♦publisher: Balzer & Bray
♦release date: April 30th, 2013
♦paperback, 371 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult (recommend 15+)
♦series: The Sweet Trilogy, book 2
  review of book 1, Sweet Evil
♦source: from publisher for honest review

Anna Whitt, the daughter of a guardian angel and a demon, promised herself she’d never do the work of her father—polluting souls. She’d been naive to make such a vow. She’d been naive about a lot of things.

Haunted by demon whisperers, Anna does whatever she can to survive, even if it means embracing her dark side and earning an unwanted reputation as her school’s party girl. Her life has never looked more bleak. And all the while there’s Kaidan Rowe, son of the Duke of Lust, plaguing her heart and mind.

When an unexpected lost message from the angels surfaces, Anna finds herself traveling the globe with Kopano, son of Wrath, in an attempt to gain support of fellow Nephilim and give them hope for the first time. It soon becomes clear that whatever freedoms Anna and the rest of the Neph are hoping to win will not be gained without a fight. Until then, Anna and Kaidan must put aside the issues between them, overcome the steamiest of temptations yet, and face the ultimate question: is loving someone worth risking their life?

Review: Can I just get my one little bit of negativity about this series out of the way right now, people?  Before the real review even starts?  The story inside is cool and dark and super sexy...but the covers are just so cheesy they make me cringe!  Especially this one.  I think it's the "I'm too sexy" glare on the character's faces or the fact that they look like they should be strutting down a cat walk.  Plus, this is not how I picture Kai and Anna at all while I'm reading.  I keep thinking, please let this be one of those series that gets a compete cover redo sometime soon.  Still, I'd rather it have a cheesy cover and be as awesome of a story as it is than the other way around! :)

OKAY, enough of that. I just had to get that off my chest. That's really the only bad thing I can ever say about this series because the actual story continues to be fantastic! In the year that we waited to get our mitts on more Kai and Anna, I'd forgotten exactly how dark and sultry this story is. A perfect blend of YA angel/demon lore and a romance to get your blood running hot.  Fans of this series have nothing to fear, as this one very nearly surpasses book one in excitement, danger, and a huge dose of steamy scenes.  Throw in a prophecy that could change the lives of every one of the Nephilim and a desperate race around the world to find allies in the coming war on the demons and you get one amazing sequel!

Anna, while she has spent some time learning to fight and toughen up, is still as sweet as ever, and I absolutely love that in this second book, her purity has become an integral part of the plot.   You really hurt for her knowing she is being forced to "work" under the evil eye of the whisperers, and that means drinking and partying and putting other kids in danger.  She hates it and has so much guilt about it, but as the daughter of a demon, she has to work if she wants to stay alive.

Once again, the characters are what make this book really shine.  Kaidan made me angry for about 90% of this book.  His jealous behavior was maddening and childish and he takes it all out on the wrong people.  But a character is only as good as the intense feelings they make you have, right? :) Loved Kopano again, I really felt for him as he gets caught up in the middle of the mess that is Anna and Kai's relationship.  Hope so much that he finds the love he deserves with a certain new character when book 3 rolls around!  And Blake---I just love that kid.  Such an entertaining character to read, loyal to a fault to both Anna and Kai, a good friend, and definitely knows how to lighten the mood in any situation!  You just feel for every single one of them, because no matter how good any of their lives might seem to the outsider, each of them lives as a slave to their cruel demon fathers.  Well, except Anna's, of course.  Her dad is an outstanding character again, perfectly flawed and bumbling when he's trying to play "Dad", and then protective and smart as he helps them orchestrate the coming revolt.

Sweet Peril was a stunning follow up to Sweet Evil and I can only imagine how amazing and intense Sweet Reckoning will be!

Find Wendy Higgins online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Sweet Peril:  Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

Becky's View: Absent by Katie Williams

Absent by Katie Williams
♦publisher: Chronicle Books
♦release date: May 21st, 2013
♦hardcover, 184 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: from publisher for honest review

Forever is a long time to be stuck in high school.
Seventeen-year-old Paige is dead, the victim of a freak fall from
the roof during Physics class. Now she’s a ghost, permanently
bound to the grounds of her high school. It isn’t all bad, she can
find out everyone’s secrets, which can be amusing—for a while.
But then Paige hears something that isn’t amusing at all: the
rumor spread by the most popular girl at school that her death
wasn’t an accident—that she supposedly jumped on purpose.
Paige is desperate to stop the gossip, but what can a ghost do?
Then Paige discovers something amazing. She can possess
living people when they think of her, and she can make them do
almost anything. Maybe, just maybe, she can get inside the girl
who’s responsible for the stories. . . and have a little fun turning the tables while she’s at it.

Review:  Absent is a story chock full of interesting concepts, great realistic characters, a bit of fun, a smidge of revenge, and the big mysterious question of “Did she? Or didn’t she?”  We meet Paige, a normal high school teen who is just acclimating to her afterlife.  Her life has ended way too early after a freak accident sends her falling from the roof during a class science experiment.  Turns out, when you die in school, you stay in school…forever.  But she’s not alone.  She is there with two others who died on school grounds---Brooke, who was recent enough that Paige knew her, and Evan;  the girls don’t know how long ago he died and he refuses to say.  But they make an interesting crew.

What bothers Paige most about her death is that she knows she didn't jump, but the rumors that she did are running rampant and she worries what people will think and that it will get back to her parents, hurting them even more. She's even more disturbed by it when her best friend starts to believe she jumped.  So she takes it in to her own hands to stop the gossip and in the bizarre way she goes about doing it, she learns a few lessons---some harsh and some welcome---and she gets to experience a few things she missed out on in her short life.

One of my favorite ideas in this story is that whenever a living person thinks of someone who has died, it is something that the dead can physically feel and hear.  It doesn't matter if you were friends or lovers, enemies or strangers---if a person thinks of you, you can feel it in your afterlife as a palpable thing.  Paige makes an incredible discovery about just how strong a connection those thoughts can be, and it gives her an ability she never thought possible---and that's where the story really gets interesting.  It turns into not only a story about Paige setting the record straight and getting a little revenge in the process, but also about the way she strives to touch a few people's lives that she should have while she was still alive.

The ending wraps up with excitement and quite a surprising twist!  This whole story was really beautifully done: a little light-hearted humor, a look at the different ways people grieve, a bit of romantic drama, and a unique take on the afterlife.  Absent is a heartfelt story of a girl whose coming of age comes, sadly, after she's already dead.

 

 Find Katie Williams online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Absent:  Amazon  •  BookDepository  •  Indiebound

TRUTH or DARE?? Giveaway!

In honor of debut author Jacqueline Green's YA thriller TRUTH OR DARE's release this week, the awesome folks at Little Brown are letting me give away a copy to one lucky reader! 

I know many of you are already excited about this one, but here's the details just in case:

The Book:

 

When a simple round of truth or dare spins out of control, three girls find it’s no longer a party game. It’s do or die.

It all started on a whim: the game was a way for Tenley Reed to reclaim her popularity, a chance for perfect Caitlin “Angel” Thomas to prove she’s more than her Harvard application. Loner Sydney Morgan wasn’t even there; she was hiding behind her camera like usual. But when all three start receiving mysterious dares long after the party has ended, they’re forced to play along—or risk exposing their darkest secrets.

How far will Tenley, Caitlin and Sydney go to keep the truth from surfacing? And who’s behind this twisted game?

Set against the backdrop of Echo Bay, an isolated beach town haunted by misfortune, Truth or Dare is a highly charged debut that will keep readers in suspense from beginning to end.

 The Author:

 Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

And now...The Giveaway!!

Want a copy of Truth of Dare?

Fill out the rafflecopter.

REALLY want to win a copy of Truth or Dare??

Earn 5 extra entries by sharing your most memorable game of Truth or Dare with us in the comments of this post!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

GOOD LUCK! 
*UPDATE*  I couldn't get the rafflecopter to announce the winner, so I thought I'd do it here!
The winner is:
Angeline!