To cast your vote, just leave a comment indicating your chosen titles (up to 3) – and may the best book win!
It’s that time again for us to pick our next book!
Voting starts today (April 22, 2013) and you’ll have all the way until Sunday the 28th to choose your favorites (Remember: YOU CAN VOTE FOR MORE THAN 1).
For those of you new to the book club, Your Pick for Nik! is a monthly feature where I turn over control of my reading list to you!
Here’s how it works: I will nominate titles from my TBR list and YOU will choose which one gets featured. It can be one you’ve already read and want to discuss, one you want to read but wish to see my feedback on first, or – and this is my favorite part – you can read it along with me!
Depicted below are my 10 nominees for April. Simply vote for your favorites, and let the best book win! At 10:00 am (MST) on Monday the 29th I will announce the winner. Come the end of May, I will post a thorough review of the chosen title – and hopefully find out what you thought of it as well!
This month, I included a few popular selections from last month per request.
April’s Nominations:
Title: Orphans of Chaos
Author: John C. Wright
Series: Orphans of Chaos #1
Genre: Fantasy
Overview: What if your teachers taught you everything-except who you really are?
For Amelia and her friends, the strict English boarding school she lives in is all she has ever known. The sprawling estate, bordered by unknown territory on all four sides, is both orphanage, academy, and prison. The school has a large staff, but only five students, none of whom know what their real names are, or even how old they are.
Precocious and rebellious, all five teenagers are more than just prodigies. Amelia can see in four dimensions. Victor can control the molecular arrangement of matter. Vanity can find secret passageways where none existed before. Colin is a psychic. Quentin is a warlock.
And, as time goes by, they’re starting to suspect that none of them are entirely human . . .
Title: Midshipwizard Halcyon Blithe
Author: James M. Ward
Series: Halcyon Blithe #1
Genre: Fantasy
Overview: Halcyon Blithe, being a young man of good breeding and lineage as well as endowed with those qualities and abilities of a sorcerous nature and wishing to fulfill his full potential, is ready to assume his proper place in the world. He aims to seek his fortune among those who tend and sail the awesome nautical juggernauts-the dragonships. With this is mind, Blithe gladly accepts his rank as Midshipwizard and becomes a member of the crew who man the dragonships-vessels which harness the bodies and strength of living dragons with seafaring technology.
Combining elements of Hornblower with Harry Potter, and Robert Louis Stevenson with Robin Hobb, Midshipwizard Halcyon Blithe is a nautical tale rich in magic and intrigue. A tale set against a panorama of fantastic naval battle as we follow the career of a young midshipwizard as he moves up through the ranks of His Majesty’s Navy.
Title: The Darkest Minds
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Series: Darkest Minds #1
Genre: Teen Fantasy
Overview: When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that’s killed most of America’s children, but she and the others have emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control.
Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.
When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now she’s on the run, desperate to find the one safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents.
Title: Dualed
Author: Elsie Chapman
Genre: Teen Fantasy
Overview: The Hunger Games meets Matched in this thrilling high-concept YA where citizens must prove their worth by defeating the other version of themselves—their twin.
Two of you exist. Only one will survive. The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life.
Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her.
Title: Pure
Author: Julianna Baggot
Series: Pure #1
Genre: Fantasy
Overview: We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . .
Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.
Beyonders by Brandon Mull
Title: Beyonders: A World Without Heroes
Author: Brandon Mull
Series: Beyonders #1
Genre: Young Reader
Overview: Jason Walker has often wished his life could be a bit less predictable—until a routine day at the zoo ends with Jason suddenly transporting from the hippo tank to a place unlike anything he’s ever seen. In the past, the people of Lyrian welcomed visitors from the Beyond, but attitudes have changed since the wizard emperor Maldor rose to power. The brave resistors who opposed the emperor have been bought off or broken, leaving a realm where fear and suspicion prevail.
In his search for a way home, Jason meets Rachel, who was also mysteriously drawn to Lyrian from our world. With the help of a few scattered rebels, Jason and Rachel become entangled in a quest to piece together the word of power that can destroy the emperor and learn that their best hope to find a way home will be to save this world without heroes.
Title: Alien Taste
Author: Wen Spen
Series: Ukiah Oregon #1
Genre: Scifi/Urban
Overview: Abandoned as a child, Ukiah Oregon was found running with a wolf pack. Now considered one of the greatest trackers in the country, this private investigator puts his nose to the ground to track down missing fugitives. When he crosses paths with a criminal gang called the Pack, Ukiah discovers just how much he has in common with the Pack.
Title: Hex Hall
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Series: Hex Hall #1
Genre: Teen Paranormal Romance
Overview: 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.
Title: Legend
Author: Marie Lu
Series: Legend #1
Genre: Teen Fantasy
Overview: What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic’s wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic’s highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country’s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem. From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths—until the day June’s brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family’s survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias’s death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.
Glaswright’s Apprentice by Mindy L. Klasky
Title: The Glasswrights’ Apprentice
Author: Mindy L. Klasky
Series: Glasswright #1
Genre: Fantasy
Overview: A mere glasswrights’ apprentice must uncover an elusive brotherhood whose deadly venom reaches out to stain the heart of her guild, the heart of her family — and the heart of her king….
This week’s feature, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is supposed to feature travel in some way. Because travel is just not that exciting to me unless it’s in the form of some grand adventure, so I have tweaked to the category a bit:
The Obsessive Bookseller 