YA Book Review: Everbound by Brodi Ashton

Release Date: 22 January 2013
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Format: eBook
Source: Own

Goodreads description:

Nikki Beckett could only watch as her boyfriend, Jack, sacrificed himself to save her, taking her place in the Tunnels of the Everneath for eternity — a debt that should’ve been hers. She’s living a borrowed life, and she doesn’t know what to do with the guilt. And every night Jack appears in her dreams, lost and confused and wasting away.

Desperate for answers, Nikki turns to Cole, the immortal bad boy who wants to make her his queen — and the one person least likely to help. But his heart has been touched by everything about Nikki, and he agrees to assist her in the only way he can: by taking her to the Everneath himself.

Nikki and Cole descend into the Everneath, only to discover that their journey will be more difficult than they’d anticipated — and more deadly. But Nikki vows to stop at nothing to save Jack — even if it means making an incredible sacrifice of her own.

My Thoughts...

Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley

Release Date: 19 March 2013

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss

Get a copy! Amazon

Goodreads description:

Angie Chapman was thirteen years old when she ventured into the woods alone on a Girl Scouts camping trip. Now she's returned home…only to find that it's three years later and she's sixteen-or at least that's what everyone tells her.

What happened to the past three years of her life?

Angie doesn't know.

But there are people who do — people who could tell Angie every detail of her forgotten time, if only they weren't locked inside her mind. With a tremendous amount of courage, Angie embarks on a journey to discover the fragments of her personality, otherwise known as her "alters." As she unearths more and more about her past, she discovers a terrifying secret and must decide: When you remember things you wish you could forget, do you destroy the parts of yourself that are responsible?

My Thoughts...

(ARC) YA Book Review: Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

Release Date: 24 April 2012

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Format: eARC

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss

Get a copy! Amazon | B&N

Goodreads description:

Everything is in ruins.

A devastating plague has decimated the population. And those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles to pieces around them.

So what does Araby Worth have to live for?

Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery make-up . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all. But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her own despair—Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club. And Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither boy is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does.

And Araby may find something not just to live for, but to fight for—no matter what it costs her.

My Thoughts...

(ARC) YA Book Review: Slide by Jill Hathaway

Release Date: 27 March 2012

Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Get a copy! Amazon | B&N

Goodreads description:

Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth—her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered.

Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body.

Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.

My Thoughts...

YA Book Review: Pretty Crooked by Elisa Ludwig

Release Date: 13 March 2012

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Goodreads description:

Willa’s secret plan seems all too simple: take from the rich kids at Valley Prep and give to the poor ones.

Yet Willa’s turn as Robin Hood at her ultra-exclusive high school is anything but. Bilking her “friends”-known to everyone as the Glitterati-without them suspecting a thing, is far from easy. Learning how to pick pockets and break into lockers is as difficult as she’d thought it’d be. Delivering care packages to the scholarship girls, who are ostracized just for being from the “wrong” side of town, is way more fun than she’d expected.

The complication Willa didn’t expect, though, is Aidan Murphy, Valley Prep’s most notorious (and gorgeous) ace-degenerate. His mere existence is distracting Willa from what matters most to her-evening the social playing field between the have and have-nots. There’s no time for crushes and flirting with boys, especially conceited and obnoxious trust-funders like Aidan.

But when the cops start investigating the string of burglaries at Valley Prep and the Glitterati begin to seek revenge, could he wind up being the person that Willa trusts most

My Thoughts...

(ARC) YA Book Review: Wings of the Wicked by Courtney Allison Moulton

Release Date: 1 February 2012
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Format: ARC
Source: Around the World ARC Tours


Pre-Order It! Amazon | B&N

Goodreads description:

Life as the Preliator is harder than Ellie ever imagined.
Balancing real life with the responsibility of being Heaven’s warrior is a challenge for Ellie. Her relationship with Will has become all business, though they both long for each other. And now that the secret of who she really is has come out, so have Hell’s strongest reapers. Grown bold and more vicious, the demonic threaten her in the light of day and stalk her in the night.

She’s been warned.
Cadan, a demonic reaper, comes to her with information about Bastian’s new plan to destroy Ellie’s soul and use an ancient relic to wake all the souls of the damned and unleash them upon humanity. As she fights to stay ahead of Bastian’s schemes , the revelations about those closest to her awaken a dark power within Ellie that threatens to destroy everything—including herself.

She’ll be betrayed.
Treachery comes even from those whom she loves, and Ellie is broken by the deaths of those who stood beside her in this Heavenly war. Still, she must find a way to save the world, herself, and her love for Will. If she fails, there will be hell to pay.

My Thoughts...

I was going to wait until closer to the release date but I couldn't wait to share this one with you! I enjoyed Angelfire but if you read my review, then you know that it took me a good chunk of the book to really warm up to Ellie.  She bothered me for reasons I won't rehash, but Courtney Allison Moulton left me with a lot of hope for her character at the end of Angelfire, so of course I was excited when I got the chance to read this early!  Let me tell you--Ms. Moulton didn't disappoint me with Wings of the Wicked--not for one moment!

From page one, Ellie is kicking butt and taking names. Her personal growth from book one to book two is perfect.  She's totally coming into her power and it's awesome to watch.  She's a lot tougher than I think I gave her credit for in Angelfire.  She's still pining are Will, which is to be expected, but I liked that at the beginning we weren't bombarded with angsty teenager junk from her.  She was dealing the best she could with what she had learned about herself and trying to accept Will's reasons for staying away romantically, even though they are clearly into each other.

This book was also way more emotional for me than the previous.  On top of the forbidden love, Ellie is dealing even more with the struggle between being the Preliator and having a "normal" life with friends and family.  Things really hit home (um...literally) in this novel and the emotional and physical blow that's dealt Ellie is intense.  She has a lot to deal with and her grieving and pain is something that's relateable and real.  She is finally realizing just how much she really needs the support of her friends and family but how much danger she puts them in on a regular basis.  I can't imagine how torn she feels between her duty and her wants and desires.

Will is still the swoon-worth gentleman and kick-butt fighter that we experienced in Angelfire, but I felt like I learned a lot more about him and his history with Ellie in this book.  And when he finally got up the cajones to disobey Michael and follow this heart, well, I cheered. :)  There's too much violence and death and uncertainty in their world not to let yourself love.  (What's the saying? "It's better to have loved and lost then to have never loved at all"? Yeah, that describes it pretty much perfectly.)

If you're not into this for the romance, then pick it up for the action! When I said that Ellie is kicking but and taking names...well, I mean that pretty darn literally.  Ms. Moulton has provided her readers with intense action scenes that the adreneline junkie in all of us will most definitely appreciate.  Between the action scenes, the emotional scenes, and the sexy scenes, Wings of the Wicked will keep you turning the pages up until the very end--and then it will leave you breathless and absolutely begging for more.

In My Mailbox (16)

"In My Mailbox" is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi of The Story Siren where we can show some love to all the books that we got in the mail or otherwise!

Hello, my lovelies!!! So, it's been 3 4 weeks since I last had the time to post an IMM blog! That being the case, I honestly thought that it would take WAY too long for me to get all of the books into a video and I can't find my camera!

Gifts/Prizes:

I got City of Bones from the fabulous Jenny at Into the Morning Reads.  If you follow her on Twitter, PAY ATTENTION because sometimes she likes to give away books. :-)

I got Between Sea and Sky from Natalie Parker's #TakeMyBooks giveaway, also on Twitter!

I also got The Faerie Ring, which you know I LOVED if you read my review, from Kristen at The Book Monsters as part of Ruby's Fall Book Exchange (which was AWESOME, btw).

 I won ARCs of Chime and Falling Under from Jenny at Into the Morning Reads as well as part of her One Year Blogoversary! (Jenny is awesome, just FYI, and you should ALL check out her blog!)

I won Under the Never Sky from a HarperTeen Twitter contest!

For Review:

Fracture by Megan Miranda (from Walker Books & NetGalley)

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (from Big Honcho Media)

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel(from Random House & NetGalley)

On a Dark by Jordan Dane (from Harlequin & NetGalley)

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George (from Bloomsbury & NetGalley)

The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges (from Random House & NetGalley)

Bought (Wow, so many! I'm not going to do pictures for these, simply because this post is already too long! ...and I'm not including eBooks...):

• Blood Red Road by Moira Young
• Momento Nora by Angie Smibert
• Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
• Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
• The Liar Society by Laura & Lisa Roecker
• Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan
• Epic Fail by Claire LaZebnick
• Want to Go Private? by Sara Darer Littman
• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
• The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
• Five Flavors of Dumb (SIGNED!) by Antony John
• Hate List (SIGNED!) by Jennifer Brown
• Star Crossed (SIGNED!) by Elizabeth Bunce
• The Pout, Pout Fish (SIGNED!) by Deborah Diesen
• Fortune Cookies (SIGNED!) by Albert Bitterman
• Wonderstruck (SIGNED!) by Brian Selznick
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret (SIGNED!) by Brian Selznick
• All of the signed books were from authors that were at the 2011 Missouri Library Association Conference that I attended a little over a week ago! Small conference but lots of fun. :-)

What's in YOUR mailbox?!

:-D

2012 (P)Review: Lovetorn by Kavita Daswani

Release Date: 17 January 2012
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Around the World Tours

Goodreads description:

When Shalini’s father gets a new job in L.A., she is torn away from her life in India and the boy to whom she’s been betrothed since she was three. L.A. is so different, and Shalini dresses and talks all wrong. She isn’t sure she’ll survive high school in America without her fiancé, Vikram, and now she has to cope with her mom’s homesickness and depression. A new friend, chill and confident Renuka, helps Shalini find her way and get up the courage to join the Food4Life club at school. But she gets more than just a friend when she meets Toby—she gets a major crush. Shalini thinks she loves Vikram, but he never made her feel like this. In Lovetorn, Shalini discovers that your heart ultimately makes its own choices, even when it seems as if your destiny has already been chosen.

My Thoughts...


Life is about choices. And they aren't always your choices--sometimes it's the choices of others and how they can change your life.  Take Shalini for example.  She's perfectly happy living in India with her extended family and her fiance since she was 3, Vikram.  She's sure that she loves Vikram and looks forward to a happy future with him and the rest of her family in India.  Then, in what seems like a chance decision, her father moves the family to the United States and they are all forced to embrace a life-changing move.

Shalini's voice in this novel is authentic and relateable.  She's a teenage girl who was perfectly content with her life in India and then it was all pulled out from under her.  I think that any teen who ever felt like an outcast in high school can relate to her story.  She's forced into a world where people don't accept her exactly the way she is and she has to learn to adapt to find happiness.  At times it is difficult to watch Shalini struggle through school and I was SO happy when she decided to join the Food4Life club because you finally felt like she was really making an attempt to "fit in" (or at least to find happiness). 

Shalini's new American friends and her first real crush are a fun and realistic addition to the story.  While you don't see much of her Food4Life friends, you do get the sense that's what they are--friends, the first ones Shalini has found since coming to America.  Also, watching Shalini develop her first crush on Toby, the orchestra's flutist, was so cute.  Ms. Daswani truly captured the enraptured feeling that comes with that first crush when you're young, even though Shalini is a bit older than most girls experiencing that feeling.  It was something that really pulled me closer to the MC.

Shalini's family is a great mixture of success and frustration, portraying the range of emotions that can come with moving to a foreign place.  Shalini's sister fits right in and seems to immediately find her place in this new world, while Shalini's mom holes herself up in her room and refuses to even truly attempt to adjust. It's a very realistic situation and your heart really goes out to her mom, although by the end I have to admit that there were moments when I was so frustrated that she wouldn't even TRY for the sake of her daughters.

Overall, this was a very engaging read that I highly recommend to contemporary YA fans.  It is a story of love, loss, and the challenges of being a teenager, something we can all relate to, packaged in a world that many of us can't quite imagine.