In My Mailbox (18)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren, where we all share what we got during the week!

I missed the IMM posts last week and am just barely getting it in this week! Needless to say, the last week of May is always a busy one for me---my kids get out of school, and my daughter and son both have birthdays, so we hold our first huge BBQ of the year! We also went to see Wicked this week---my fourth time and still just as awesome as the first time I saw it!

So this is what I got this week! So excited to finally get my hands on copies of Brightly Woven, Guardian of the Dead, and Forget-Her-Nots! All of them are library check-outs this week. I did just put in a Barnes order but they are not here yet, so you'll see what goodies I got next week!
Forget-Her-Nots by Amy Brecount-White
Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken
Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey
Bird by Rita Murphy
Emily the Strange: Stranger and Stranger by Rob Reger, Jessica Gruner, and Buzz Parker

Last week I also got these through ARC tours!


Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus (YA Addict Tours)
see review here!

Forget You by Jennifer Echols (Traveling Arc Tours)
review coming soon!

That's all for me! Hope everyone had a good week. Have a safe and fun Memorial Day!

Waiting on Wednesday - Crescendo

"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.

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

release date: October 19th 2010

description from goodreads:
Nora should have known her life was far from perfect. Despite starting a relationship with her guardian angel, Patch (who, title aside, can be described anything but angelic), and surviving an attempt on her life, things are not looking up. Patch is starting to pull away and Nora can't figure out if it's for her best interest or if his interest has shifted to her arch-enemy Marcie Millar. Not to mention that Nora is haunted by images of her father and she becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to him that night he left for Portland and never came home.

The farther Nora delves into the mystery of her father's death, the more she comes to question if her Nephilim blood line has something to do with it as well as why she seems to be in danger more than the average girl. Since Patch isn't answering her questions and seems to be standing in her way, she has to start finding the answers on her own. Relying too heavily on the fact that she has a guardian angel puts Nora at risk again and again. But can she really count on Patch or is he hiding secrets darker than she can even imagine?

Ok, so not a very WoW original pick, I know! But with the release of the sneak peek this past week, it just reminds me how much I am anticipating this book!! Hush, Hush was definitely one of my favorites of last year and I can't wait to read the second installment! Check out the sneak peek HERE!

Review: Shadow Hills

Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus

publisher: Egmont USA

release date: July 13th, 2010

edition: ARC from YA Addict ARC Tours

intended audience: Young adult

rating:


description from goodreads:
His love captivated her... his secrets might kill her. Since her sister’s mysterious death, Persephone “Phe” Archer has been plagued by a series of disturbing dreams. Determined to find out what happened to her sister, Phe enrolls at Devenish Prep in Shadow Hills, Massachusetts—the subject of her sister’s final diary entry. After stepping on campus, Phe immediately realizes that there’s something different about this place—an unexplained epidemic that decimated the town in the 1700s, an ancient and creepy cemetery, and gorgeous boy Zach—and somehow she’s connected to it all. But the more questions she asks and the deeper she digs, the more entangled Phe becomes in the haunting past of Shadow Hills. Finding what links her to this town…might cost her her life.

Review: This was such an outstanding debut---thrilling and romantic, with a little who-done-it mystery thrown in! I had read the first chapter on Anastasia Hopcus' website and was already hooked before I even had the actual book in hand. So many great elements: dealing with loss, friendship, romance, feuding families, murder, and lots of spookiness! So intriguing from beginning to end!

I loved that the paranormal aspect of this book was completely unconventional. There were no vampires or werewolves (not that those are bad..not by any means!) but what the author created was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Something so out there that the idea bordered on Ray Bradbury-style science fiction. I don't want to give it away, but it really sets this story apart from all the others.

Phe (Persephone) and Zach were the main characters. Phe came across as a very real teenage girl, who has made some very real mistakes and had quite an emotional blow with the mysterious death of her older sister, but she is strong and independent, ready to pick up the pieces, move on, and find out the truth. I loved her no-backing-down attitude and she had a good sense of adventure. I like that Zach, while having tons of smokiness and mystery about him, he was not characterized as a "bad boy" that you see so much of in the YA these day. Again, not that I have anything against a good bad boy hottie---Zach's character was just so refreshing.
The whole cast of characters was so well written. I couldn't help feeling that each of the supporting characters, while not the main focus, had their moment to shine, and I loved that. My favorite was Toy, the computer savvy, tiny-statured friend (hmm, tiny,...maybe that was why I related to her!)

I really enjoyed how big a part of the story music was. It led to my discovery of Gogol Bordello! I had no idea if all of the bands mentioned in the book were real bands so I looked this one up. In hindsight, I wish I had written down all the songs and bands mentioned so I could look them all up while I had the book...now I will have wait for the release, but I plan to buy each song and make a read-along sounds track for when I read Shadow Hills again!


Favorite Quote: My face, so similar to Athena's, was just another reminder of what my parents had lost. Like the wisp of smoke hanging in the air after a candle is snuffed out.

Review: A Blue So Dark

A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler

publisher: Flux

release date: May 1st, 2010

edition: paperback, 288

intended audience: Young adult

source: Traveling Arc Tours

rating:


description from goodreads:
Terrified that her mother, a schizophrenic and an artist, is a mirror that reflects her own future, sixteen-year-old Aura struggles with her overwhelming desires to both chase artistic pursuits and keep madness at bay.

As her mother sinks deeper into the darkness of mental illness, the hunger for a creative outlet keeps drawing Aura toward the depths of her own imagination—the shadows of make-believe that she finds frighteningly similar to her mother’s hallucinations.

Convinced that creative equals crazy, Aura shuns her art, and her life unravels in the process.

Review: This was an incredible story, but so hard to read. I don't mean that in a bad way at all. I mean that reading Aura's story and taking this journey with her was painful and heart-breaking. Everytime I put it down, it lingered with me for awhile after, left me exhausted trying to imagine being fifteen and having to deal with a situation that felt so completely hopeless and uncontrollable as being the soul care-taker of a parent with schizophrenia; to be so creative that your art makes you whole and on the other hand, having to be so terrified that that creativity will turn you into what you fear the most in the world. Her anger and her frustration at what life had dealt her were apparent in her rough attitude and her harsh outlook on all aspects of her life. To those out there that are sensative to foul language, I will warn that the "f-bomb" is dropped quite a few times throughout this one. (It doesn't bother me, but I know I've seen discussions about swearing in YA fiction, so its worth a mention.) She has no one to turn to, as her best friend also has some really tough things to deal with, and her father has completely abandoned the family. It's quite an experience to see how the mother-daughter conventional roles are completely turned topsy-turvy. Schindler's writing was spot on, and really brought this emotional story across beautifully.

Favorite quote:
I really don't know what to do---I guess I'm alittle like a bird who's railed against her cage her whole life, only to cock her head to the side in confusion when somebody finally opens the door.

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.

Heartless by Anne Elizabeth Stengl

release date: July 1st, 2010

description from goodreads:
Princess Una of Parumvir has come of age and will soon be married. She dreams of a handsome and charming prince, but when the first suitor arrives, she finds him stodgy and boring. Prince Aethelbald from the mysterious land of Farthestshore has traveled far to prove his love--and also to bring hushed warnings of danger. A dragon is rumored to be approaching Parumvir.

Una, smitten instead with a more dashing prince, refuses Aethelbald's offer--and ignores his warnings. Soon the Dragon King himself is in Parumvir, and Una, in giving her heart away unwisely, finds herself in grave danger. Only those courageous enough to risk everything have a hope of fighting off this advancing evil.

This one has been on my wishlist for a while now. Gorgeous cover, princesses, and dragons---yup, I want it.

The Mieradome by Kate Hegarty

published by Kate Hegarty Publishing

release date: July 16th, 2010

description from goodreads:
Mieradome, revolves around a young girl named Amavia, who believes she is a human girl, but slowly comes to find she is a faery in the world of Mieradome. Amavia's mother, Anastasica, had taken her out of the faery realm and hidden her away here in our human realm, so that she may be protected from her parents' past mistakes. But that was not enough, the forces that be found Amavia, and brought her back into the cosmos of the Grandmother Tree. There she meets other faeries, goblins, Telkar dragons, and Utopisols. Slowly who Amavia really was began to unravel to show the truth. The truth, that she just may be the evil they need to destroy. This is where the story begins.

This one sounds like an amazing debut, and I do love a good fairy story!! :) Check out the website for this book---its so pretty! http://www.mieradome.com/

Winner of Knight Angels!!

Congrats to the winner of Knight Angels by Abra Ebner!!
Yan of Books By Their Cover!!

I'll be emailing you, but if you see this first, please email me your address!! :)

Reminder and alittle randomness!

A quick note to say that the contest to win a copy of Knight Angels:Book of Love by Abra Ebner is now closed! I'll be announcing the lucky winner in the next few days!

I came across a really cool contest today!! Over at the Bibliophilic Book Blog, you can enter to win an e-reader! What is really cool is the blog's writer, Monica, has been raising funds and donations to buy e-readers for friends of hers that are deployed overseas. How cool is that!? She raised enough to buy 10 of them! Wow! So head on over and enter to win! I know I will be! :)