Waiting on Wednesday - Sleepless

"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.


Sleepless by Cyn Balog

release date: July 13, 2009
by Delacorte Press

The Sandman! That is one supernatural being I've never seen a book about before (unless I've just missed them, but this is new and exciting to me!). Plus I love the cover of this one---so simple, and peonies are my favorite flower.


description from Goodreads.com:
Eron De Marchelle isn't supposed to feel a connection. He is a Sandman, a supernatural being whose purpose is to seduce human charges to sleep. While he can communicate with his charges in their dreams, he isn't encouraged to--after all, getting too involved in one human's life would prevent him helping his other charges get their needed rest. But he can't deny that he feels something for Julia. Julia, with her fiery red hair and her sad dreams. Just weeks ago, her boyfriend died in a car accident, and Eron can tell that she feels more alone than ever. Eron was human once too, many years ago, and he remembers how it felt to lose the one he loved. Eron has always felt protective of Julia . . . but now, when she seems to need him more than ever, he can't seem to reach her . . . Sandmen are forbidden from communicating with humans outside their dreams. But will Eron be willing to risk everything for a chance to be with the person he loves?

Review: The Dust of 100 Dogs

The Dust of 100 Dogs by A. S. King
publisher: Flux

released: February 2009

paperback, 330 pages

intended audience: Young Adult
(my recommended audience: 16 and up---the content of this one is alittle too graphic for the "younger" young adult, in my opinion.)

rating:


description from goodreads.com:
In the late seventeenth century, famed teenage pirate Emer Morrisey was on the cusp of escaping the pirate life with her one true love and unfathomable riches when she was slain and cursed with the dust of one hundred dogs, dooming her to one hundred lives as a dog before returning to a human body -- with her memories intact.

Now she's a contemporary American teenager and all she needs is a shovel and a ride to Jamaica.

Review: What an amazing adventure story! The story actually starts at the end, with the death of teenage pirate, Emer Morrisey, so you get alittle glimpse of her love, her enemies, and the curse being cast. It immediately shoots off into a few chaptes of her "dog lives", and then these are thrown in throughout the story, at times when these dog facts pertain loosely to what's going on in the main thread of the story. The book is told from a few different perspectives: Emer's whole story is told from her childhood to her death. And then there is Emer as Saffron, the teenage girl she has reincarnated into. Through Saffron, we get to see what it would be like to be someone who has seen and learned of the world a hundred times over, and now has to deal with a (somewhat) normal family in the 1980s. It's absolutely hilarious to hear what is going on in her head when she gets frustrated or angry with the people around her. She talks nice enough on the outside, but in her thoughts she is slicing off their kneecaps and tearing out their eyeballs.
We also get the perspective of a disgusting middle aged jerk of a man, whom, for awhile of reading, I really had no idea why I was being subjected to the vile things going on in his head. While I have to say, these chapters were the least enjoyable and I hated this guy (as is only right to feel that way about a villian!), it all made sense in the end and pulled the story together beautifully!
The one thing I didn't like about this story, is that in the beginning I thought of Saffron as just Emer reincarnated, Emer the pirate having to deal with the challenges of modern daily teenage life. Toward the end, they were written as two seperate people, almost like Emer's soul was inhabiting the body of a teenager named Saffron, like a split personality almost. The "spirit of Emer" would even disappear sometimes. To me, this one little detail didn't flow with the way the character was written from the beginning.
Still, this story had it all---adventure, true love, international chases, torture, treasure, magic, adventure on the high seas! It's all in there. Highly recommend this one!

In My Mailbox (7)

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

All of this fun stuff is from the library--except for Firespell, which after a few weeks of picking it up off the Barnes shelf and putting it back down, I finally bought it :)

Prophecy of the Stones by Flavia Bujor
Frozen Fire by Tim Bowler
Angel by Cliff McNish
All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab
Firespell by Chloe Neill


I will stay away from Book Depository and Barnes this week.
I will stay away from Book Depository and Barnes this week.
I will stay away from Book Depository and Barnes this week.


well..maybe.
Before I Fall, Forget-Her-Nots, & Aries Rising are reeeeally calling my name.
Wish me luck in fighting the temptation :)

So what's everyone got in their mailboxes and library bags this week??

Review: Prophecy of the Sisters

Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink

publisher: Little, Brown and Company

released: August 2009

hardcover, 352 pages

intended audience: Young Adult

rating:


Description from inside flap:
An ancient prophecy divides two sisters. One good. One evil. Who will prevail?

Twin sisters, Lia and Alice Milthorpe have just become orphans. They have also become enemies. As they discover their roles in a prophecy that has turned generations of sisters against each other. the girls find themselves entangled in a mystery that involves a tattoo-like mark, their parents' deaths, a boy, a book, and a lifetime of secrets.

Lia and Alice don't know whom they can trust.

They just know they can't trust eachother.

Review: The cover of this immediately caught my eye. Two stone statues stand side by side with heads bowed with a bright red rose curled around them . So eerie. I knew I had to read this one, just based on the cover and the description on the front flap. So I crack this one open and begin---and get a nice little surprise! I had no idea from anything that I had read or seen that it would be set in the Victorian era! Love that! This was a perfect setting for this story, haunting and intriguing, and I immediately pictured them in a "Wuthering Heights"-style manor with sweeping grounds and grey skies overhead. You are introduced to the two sixteen-year-old twins and their family in the somberest setting possible, at their father's funeral, and go on to learn more about how they are intertwined in an ancient prophecy that will place the two girls against each other in a fight against good and evil. The plot is amazing and creeps out at a nice pace, with some amazing twists that suddenly turn everything you are assuming on its head! I absolutely love the characters, Lia and the friends she makes, their sweet brother Henry, Alice, who is a great puzzle in herself to figure out if she is truly bad or if she is under the control of some other evil force. The amazing story continues to unfold until the very last page and beyond...

The second book in this series, Guardian of the Gate, comes out in August 2010. It's definitely at the top of my wish list!

Waiting on Wedneday - Siren

"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.

Siren by Tricia Rayburn
release date: June 8th, 2010 by EgmontUSA

This one sounds so eerie---and the cover is fantastic--her look is so intense!

description from goodreads.com:
Seventeen-year-old Vanessa Sands is afraid of everything—the dark, heights, the ocean—but her fearless older sister, Justine, has always been there to coach her through every challenge. That is, until Justine goes cliff-diving one night near the family’s vacation house in Maine, and her lifeless body washes up on shore the next day.

Though her parents hope that they’ll be able to find closure back in Boston, Vanessa can’t help feeling that her sister’s death wasn’t an accident. After discovering that Justine was keeping a lot of secrets, Vanessa returns to Winter Harbor, hoping that Justine’s boyfriend might know more. But Caleb has been missing since Justine’s death.

Soon, it’s not just Vanessa who’s afraid. All of Winter Harbor is abuzz with anxiety when another body washes ashore, and panic sets in when the small town becomes host to a string of fatal, water-related accidents in which all the victims are found, horrifically, grinning from ear to ear.

Vanessa turns to Caleb’s brother, Simon, for help, and begins to find herself drawn to him. As the pair try to understand the sudden rash of creepy drownings, Vanessa uncovers a secret that threatens her new romance—and will change her life forever.

A seductive paranormal romance full of unexpected twists, Siren is certain to make a big summer splash.

Tuesday, Sweet Tuesday...

a.k.a. books that came out today that I am really excited to read!!

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver What if you had only one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life? Samantha Kingston has it all: the world's most crush-worthy boyfriend, three amazing best friends, and first pick of everything at Thomas Jefferson High—from the best table in the cafeteria to the choicest parking spot. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last. Then she gets a second chance. Seven chances, in fact. Reliving her last day during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death—and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

Forget-Her-Nots by Amy Brecount White Something—some power—is blooming inside Laurel. She can use flowers to do things. Like bringing back lost memories. Or helping her friends ace tests. Or making people fall in love. Laurel suspects her newfound ability has something to do with an ancient family secret, one that her mother meant to share with Laurel when the time was right. But then time ran out. Clues and signs and secret messages seem to be all around Laurel at Avondale School, where her mother had also boarded as a student. Can Laurel piece everything together quickly enough to control her power, which is growing more potent every day? Or will she set the stage for the most lovestruck, infamous prom in the history of the school?

Aries Rising by Bonnie Hearn Hill Aquarius Logan McRae is a high school sophomore in Terra Bella Beach, CA and has been working all semester to impress her teachers in order to get into the summer writing camp she desperately wants to attend. But when this ordinary girl finds an extraordinary book, Fearless Astrology, her life is changed forever. Applying what she’s learned about the zodiac, she lands her own column in the school paper and a date with the hottest guy in school! But when Logan threatens to catch the members of a secret society called The Gears, who have been vandalizing school property by reading the stars, she quickly learns that she is in over her head. Will Logan be able to catch The Gears, save her love life, keep her newspaper column, and get into the writing camp of her dreams all through the use of astrology?

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It's gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie's estranged father--an elusive European warlock--only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it's her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters. By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect. As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.

The Returners by Gemma Malley London teenager Will Hodge is miserable. His mother is dead, his father's political leanings have grown radical, and his friends barely talk to him. To top it off, he's having nightmares about things like concentration camps. Then Will notices he's being followed by a group of people who claim to know him from another time in history. It turns out they are Returners, reincarnated people who carry with them the memory of atrocities they have witnessed in the past. Will realizes that he, too, is a Returner. But something about his memories is different, and with dawning horror, Will suspects that he wasn't just a witness to the events, he was instrumental in making them happen. Set in the near future, with the world on the verge of a new wave of ethnic cleansing, Will must choose to confront the cruelty he's known in his past lives, or be doomed to repeat it…

Review: Ash by Malindo Lo

Ash by Malinda Lo

publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

released: September 2009

hardcover, 272 pages

intended audience: Young Adult

rating:



Description from bn.com:

In the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash's capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.

Review: When I had finished the last page of this book and let the whole story sink in, it instantly become one of my favorites. One of the best stories I've read in a long time. Dear Miss Lo: please write more books so I can devour them all! This was written in a beautiful style that, to me, made it feel like a classic fairy tale. In this wonderful retelling of Cinderella, the old story becomes even more literally a "fairy tale", with some very interesting twists thrown in. I love how the author took a tale that has been rehashed again and again (and again!) and made it fully original and personal to herself, and in doing so, showed her readers that love comes in so many shapes and forms, from the love of a mother, to otherworldly and sometimes completely unexpected places. I also found the character of Ash (Aislynn--I loved her name!) to be very courageous and independent, despite being forced to serve her stepmother and awful stepsister, while dealing with grief and many unexpected emotions. She was written as a girl who could really hold her own and think for herself, and I love that little twist. The copy I read was from the library, but without a doubt, I will be purchasing a copy to add to my personal collection very soon!