Release Date: February 3, 2015 (a.k.a. way too far away)
The Overview:The romantic sequel to Alienated takes long-distance relationships to a new level as Cara and Aelyx long for each other from opposite ends of the universe…until a threat to both their worlds reunites them. Cara always knew life on planet L’eihr would be an adjustment. With Aelyx, her L’eihr boyfriend, back on Earth, working to mend the broken alliance between their two planets, Cara is left to fend for herself at a new school, surrounded by hostile alien clones. Even the weird dorm pet hates her. Things look up when Cara is appointed as human representative to a panel preparing for a human colony on L’eihr. A society melding their two cultures is a place where Cara and Aelyx could one day make a life together. But with L’eihr leaders balking at granting even the most basic freedoms, Cara begins to wonder if she could ever be happy on this planet, even with Aelyx by her side.
Meanwhile, on Earth, Aelyx, finds himself thrown into a full-scale PR campaign to improve human-L’eihr relations. Humans don’t know that their very survival depends on this alliance: only Aelyx’s people have the technology to fix the deadly contamination in the global water supply that human governments are hiding. Yet despite their upper hand, the leaders of his world suddenly seem desperate to get humans on their side, and hardly bat an eye at extremists’ multiple attempts on Aelyx’s life. The Way clearly needs humans’ help . . . but with what? And what will they ask for in return?
I am so eager to pick up this second book, I can hardly stand it. Alienated was easily one of my best reads of 2013 and just might be among my all-time favorites. I loved the concept, the characters, the writing, the story, the everything! Just imagine if Rory Gilmore (I am a huge Gilmore Girls fan) was selected to host an alien exchange student… What’s not to love about that? Anyway, I think I’m most excited because I love where the story is headed and am eager to learn more about Aelyx’s people. If you haven’t read Alienated yet, you are missing out!
This week was supposed to be a “top ten popular authors I’ve never read” post. The trouble is, that list would’ve looked really similar to the upcoming “top ten books on my summer 2014 reading list” feature, and I really hate it when I’m redundant… or repetitive… or redundant. Anyway, here is my topic for the week with a slight twist:
Top Ten Series I’ve Been Meaning to Start!
Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
The Elvenbane by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey
Halfway to the Grave by Jeanine Frost
Spider’s Bite by Jennifer Estep
Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham
Vampirates by Justin Somper
Stardoc by S.L. Viehl
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Magician’s Apprentice by Trudi Canavan
The Demon Awakens by R. A. Salvatore
Most of these books I have owned and wanted to read for 5+ years now, but have never quite gotten around to them. That’s mostly because at any given point I’m in the middle of like a thousand other series. Now that I’m finally catching up with most of them, I can start looking towards some of these awesome titles!
I would like to note that while most of these series are new to me, the authors are not.… I have read and loved most of them already.
Hello everybody! Welcome to the third month of our Escape Reality Book Club! Anybody who loves YA books as much as we do is invited to join.
Want more details?
click hereto be redirected to the book club’s official launch post!
Here are the new set of Nominations for March (chosen by yours truly):
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
The Hundred by Kass Morgan
Title: Shadow and Bone
The Overview: The Shadow Fold, a swathe of impenetrable darkness, crawling with monsters that feast on human flesh, is slowly destroying the once-great nation of Ravka. Alina, a pale, lonely orphan, discovers a unique power that thrusts her into the lavish world of the kingdom’s magical elite—the Grisha. Could she be the key to unravelling the dark fabric of the Shadow Fold and setting Ravka free? The Darkling, a creature of seductive charm and terrifying power, leader of the Grisha. If Alina is to fulfill her destiny, she must discover how to unlock her gift and face up to her dangerous attraction to him. But what of Mal, Alina’s childhood best friend? As Alina contemplates her dazzling new future, why can’t she ever quite forget him?
Title: The 100
In the future, humans live in city-like spaceships orbiting far above Earth’s toxic atmosphere. No one knows when, or even if, the long-abandoned planet will be habitable again. But faced with dwindling resources and a growing populace, government leaders know they must reclaim their homeland… before it’s too late. Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents are being sent on a high-stakes mission to recolonize Earth. After a brutal crash landing, the teens arrive on a savagely beautiful planet they’ve only seen from space. Confronting the dangers of this rugged new world, they struggle to form a tentative community. But they’re haunted by their past and uncertain about the future. To survive, they must learn to trust – and even love – again.
Title: Seraphina
The Overview: Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty’s anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high. Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen’s Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.
Title: Cinder
The Overview: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.
Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.
Title: Unraveling
The Overview: Sixteen-year-old Janelle Tenner is used to having a lot of responsibility. She balances working as a lifeguard in San Diego with an intense academic schedule. Janelle’s mother is bipolar, and her dad is a workaholic FBI agent, which means Janelle also has to look out for her younger brother, Jared.
And that was before she died… and is brought back to life by Ben Michaels, a mysterious, alluring loner from her high school. When she discovers a strange clock that seems to be counting down to the earth’s destruction, Janelle learns she has twenty-four days to figure out how to stop the clock and save the planet.
Title: Scarlet
The Overview: Posing as one of Robin Hood’s thieves to avoid the wrath of the evil Thief Taker Lord Gisbourne, Scarlet has kept her identity secret from all of Nottinghamshire. Only the Hood and his band know the truth: the agile thief posing as a whip of a boy is actually a fearless young woman with a secret past. Helping the people of Nottingham outwit the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham could cost Scarlet her life as Gisbourne closes in.
It’s only her fierce loyalty to Robin—whose quick smiles and sharp temper have the rare power to unsettle her—that keeps Scarlet going and makes this fight worth dying for.
Voting will take place from March 2 through March 10, then we will all be reading the winning title throughout the following week.
February has been an excellent month in book collecting. I added a bunch of hardcover editions to my shelve, replacing the paperbacks of some of my favorite series. My personal Read 4, Buy 1 challenge is going fairly well – not only is it allowing me to focus on the awesome books I’ve already owned for years, but it’s also making me incredibly selective of the new books I bring home. When you are only able to pick out a few new titles every month, it really forces you to be picky.
Hardcopies:
Of course the book I am most excited about this month is a signed first edition of Undead Pool by Kim Harrison! I am also really tickled to have acquired hardcover copies of Sara Douglass’ Wayfarer series. The Cabot books were freebies from work and my best friend assures me that I will love them.
ARCs:
The Lascar’s Dagger by Glenda Larke
Spirit Animals: Blood Ties by Garth Nix
Under Nameless Stars by Christian Schoon
Divided by Elsie Chapman
The Inventor’s Secret by Andrea Cremer
Mila 2.0: Renegade by Debra Driza
Push by Eve Silver
Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins
Storm by D.J. MacHale
Thank you Netgally and Edelweiss!
Of course I am ecstatic at the opportunity to read the new Richelle Mead, but the book I am most excited about is The Lascar’s Dagger by Glenda Larke. I feel so privileged to have gotten hold of an early copy – I was already planning on reading it the day it came out. She’s one of my all time favorite fantasy authors and I have read and loved everything she’s ever published (including a series I had to have shipped over from Australia).
I have been having so much fun reading lately that I’m having a difficult time doing anything else. Currently, my reading has been split pretty evenly between awesome books I already own and the endless pile of ARCs I can’t seem to stop requesting. It’s okay though, because I finally have a good way to keep track of which books need to be read by when, and it is taken away a lot of the obligation I used to feel regarding them (It also helps that I’ve somehow managed to restrain my request to just the have-to-have titles). In any case, here my:
My favorite book reviewed this month is probably Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey… although I am an uber fan of Kim Harrison.
Hopefully in March I will be posting a couple more reviews than I did this month. My plan to read more than I review has backfired, as I find myself a full ten books behind (meaning you are getting reviews for books I read as far back as December. Fail.). As I mentioned before, my time spent reading lately has been just ridiculous.
Waiting on Wednesday Features:
August 26, 2014
Killer Instinct by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
April 8, 2014
Other exciting news: Charlotte over at Apathy and Rhetoric and I started a monthly YA book club! It has been really fun to participate in so far, and we are welcoming anybody who wants to join. For more info, click on the button below:
The Overview: Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do. Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought. Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn’t know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for. For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.
The Review:
Panic was such a cool book. While outside of my normal genre (all things make-believe) it had the one element that will make me read practically anything:
Competition.
I’m serious. Someone could write a narrative about weeds encroaching on their front lawn and I probably pick it up because I want to see who wins. Luckily, the competition in Panic was a lot more interesting. Every year, high school graduates of this small town have the option to compete in a series of dangerous challenges in the hopes of earning a life-changing pot of money. For some of the graduates, the money is their ticket out of some pretty deplorable circumstances. I loved digging into the lives of a couple of the contestants to find out what motivated them to compete in this somewhat deadly game.
The competition ended up being a lot more personal to these characters than I would’ve guessed. The character development throughout the story, specifically that of Heather, one of the main POVs, was actually my favorite element of the story. The types of situation she finds herself in, and the inner strength she pulls from to get through them was inspiring. The other characters were great, too, but Heather is the one that will stick with me the longest.
This is the second book I’ve read by Lauren Oliver, and I can confidently say I’m a fan of her writing. Not only does she know how to create great atmosphere, but her writing style and voice are both lovely and evoking. I always get drawn into her books from the first page and have a difficult time finding good stopping places. In Panic, Oliver managed to portray exactly how it felt to be an angsty teen (of the non-annoying variety), reminding me of all the sweet, awkward, embarrassing, uncomfortable, and stupid things we go through at that age. It was nostalgic to say the least, and I kind of wish I’d been able to read this book when I was a teen because it offered a sort of reassurance that I wasn’t alone.
Overall, this was a fantastic novel from an author I am becoming quite fond of. I am certain I will be picking up anything she decides to write in the future (as soon as I devour all the books she’s already written). If you haven’t read her before, Panic is a great place to start.
Recommended Reading: this is going to be an easy book to recommend because it has love, adventure, drama and just a touch of mystery all wrapped into a nifty little package. I am glad to have something to recommend to readers who aren’t in the mood for fantasy or paranormal.
Other books you might like:
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
Title: Invaded
Title: Shadow and Bone
Title: The 100
Title: Seraphina
Title: Cinder
Title: Unraveling
Title: Scarlet
Title: Panic
The Obsessive Bookseller 