Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine where you can spotlight an upcoming release that you're eagerly anticipating.

My WoW pick of the week :)



Available January 3rd 2012 !

Amanda Hocking is an indie publishing sensation whose self-published novels have sold millions of copies all over the world.  Switched is the book that started the phenomenon.  Prepare to be enchanted….

When Wendy Everly was six years old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. Eleven years later, Wendy discovers her mother might have been right.  She’s not the person she’s always believed herself to be, and her whole life begins to unravel—all because of Finn Holmes.

Finn is a mysterious guy who always seems to be watching her.  Every encounter leaves her deeply shaken…though it has more to do with her fierce attraction to him than she’d ever admit.  But it isn’t long before he reveals the truth:  Wendy is a changeling who was switched at birth—and he’s come to take her home.   

Now Wendy’s about to journey to a magical world she never knew existed, one that’s both beautiful and frightening.  And where she must leave her old life behind to discover who she’s meant to become…

Does anyone else see the pumpkin face in the Swirls!? lol 

I have read one other book about Changelings ; The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff. And it was wonderfully creepy, but also had a male lead character. I am looking forward to seeing a female view on this creepy idea :)

Do you have a WoW pick ? Share in the Comments!

Debut Author Challenge!

 My first Challenge ! And I am so excited about it. 

Interested in Joining me? Check out more info at The Story Siren

 

CHALLENGE OBJECTIVE:

• To read & review a minimum of twelve young adult or middle grade debut novels between the dates of January 1, 2012 – January 31, 2013.*

*The 2013 extension is so that December Debuts can be read and count toward the challenge.

• Any advance reader copies you read from 2012 BEFORE the January 1st start date DO NOT count toward the challenge! 
• You can read twelve books in one month, or one book a month. It doesn’t matter as long as you have 12 read by the end of the year! 

RULES & GUIDELINES:

• You must have a Blog to post your reviews or be a member of Goodreads. 
• Your blog must be written in English.
• Deadline to join is May 31, 2012.

BOOK GUIDELINES:

• Must be a young adult or middle grade title.
• Must be the author’s YA or MG debut, released in 2012.
• If an author has a previous novel published for adults or children, they can still qualify for the challenge.
• If an author has a previous YA or MG title, they do not qualify for the challenge.

My list is short so far- I will pick up more as I go along depending on what else I receive from netgalley, publishers, friends. Or hear about from others and track down on my own :)

1.Under the Never Sky

  Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland—nicknamed The Death Shop—are slim. If the cannibals don’t get her, the violent, electrified energy storms eventually will. In this dystopia, even the very air she breathes could kill her.
  Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He’s wild, dangerous—a savage. He’s also her only hope.
Perry needs Aria, too. She alone holds the key to his redemption. And their unlikely alliance will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.

On Bookshelves January 3rd 2012!

  

 2.Everneath

  Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned - to her old life, her family, her friends - before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever.
  She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.
  Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back - this time as his queen.

On Bookshelves January 24th 2012!



3.Someone Else's Life

  When 17-year-old Rosie's mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington's Disease, her pain is intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty percent chance of inheriting the crippling disease herself. Only when Rosie tells her mother's best friend, "Aunt Sarah," that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie wasn't her real mother after all. Rosie was swapped at birth with a sickly baby who was destined to die.
  Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother, joining her ex-boyfriend on his gap year travels, to find her birth mother in California. But all does not go as planned. As Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonizing decision of her own, one which will be the most heart breaking and far-reaching of all.

On Bookshelves February 14th 2012! 



4.Cinder

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.

On Bookshelves January 3rd 2012! 

5.The Selection 

  For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in the palace and compete for the heart of the gorgeous Prince Maxon.
   But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks. 

  Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself- and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

On Bookshelves April 24th 2012 !

2012 Debuts I have already read and reviewed here on the blog 

                                 January 3rd 2012                                     January 17th 2012

Have any of these books caught your attention? Do you have some Debut authors in your To Be Read Piles ? Share in the Comments!

 

The Alchemy Of Forever

Hardcover, 256 pages

Expected publication: January 3rd 2012

After spending six hundred years on earth, Seraphina Ames has seen it all. Eternal life provides her with the world’s riches, but at a very high price: innocent lives. Centuries ago, her boyfriend, Cyrus, discovered a method of alchemy that allows them to swap bodies with other humans, jumping from one vessel to the next, taking the human’s life in the process. No longer able to bear the guilt of what she’s done, Sera escapes from Cyrus and vows to never kill again.

Then sixteen-year-old Kailey Morgan gets into a horrific car accident right in front of her, and Sera accidentally takes over her body. For the first time, Sera finds herself enjoying the life of the person she’s inhabiting—and falls for the human boy who lives next door. But Cyrus will stop at nothing until she’s his again, and every moment she stays, she’s putting herself and the people she’s grown to care for in great danger. Will Sera have to give up the one thing that’s eluded her for centuries: true love?

Let me just take a moment to do something.. * Swoon* 

I started off reading this book having not read the blurbs on the back, and having not heard a peep from other bloggers about it. Since it's out this January.. this made me wonder why I hadn't heard more. After finishing the book.. I have to say, I must simply be out of the loop, because this book blew me away! An unexpected Gem. 

Originally I thought this book was going to be about incarnation ( remember, I hadn't read ANYTHING about this book, I just dove in. ) It was an unexpected, and thrilling twist that instead, our characters are killing, and taking over other people's lives! Thus, the turmoil begins. 

Sera is one of those "evil" characters that feels guilt over what she is doing, only, she is one of the few to actually step up and take action... ok.. so it kinda backfires, but she tried! And now she tries to do right by the victim ( Kailey) and her family.  

While it was hard for me to imagine Seraphina - who is supposedly centuries old, being in high school and acting like a teenager.  Avery Williams weaves this story in such a wonderful way that you come to feel for Sera and it makes sense, you realize, she never really had the chance to be a true teenager, and she is taking all she can from this experience, even though in the back of her mind sticking around and caring for people could have a deadly outcome. 

The Characters in this book are wonderfu., From the background characters that add to the angst, Kailey/Sera who you will empathies with and co-swoon with over Noah, to Cyrus.. who will seriously give you the "heebie jeebies".

Basically what I am saying is.. READ THIS BOOK... * yes you, I see you reading this review.. if anything I said connects with you... read.. it. * 

Ok one more time * Swoon*******

5/5 <3

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Fracture

“I heard the crack, the ice weakening, the fracture chasing me.”

"Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine -despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it? Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find some"one who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?"

It's not too often that a book can make she literally shiver from the "creeps" but this one gave me goosebumps all over!

For a debut author to succeed they need to stand out in the crowd. They need to be different. And this Author is going to shine. 

While there is a typical YA love triangle in this story, it is not the center of attention. All eyes on Delaney. You can really connect with her struggle to simply try and be "normal", all while dealing with a mother who now thinks she is anything but. A friend/love interest who can't decide if he wants to stay or go, and a deceptively endearing newcomer who connects with Delaney on a level no one else can.

The concept of this book will grip you. Making you wonder what you would do if you KNEW someone was going to die. What if they were your friend? A neighbor? A family member? Would you fight to save them? Would you tell them? Or would you try to help them suffer no longer? 

The only hesitation I have is the aforementioned  love triangle. We need some stronger Female characters out there! No more of this " I know he is bad for me but I am going to keep letting him in."

 It's only the beginning for this debut author, she will definitely hold her own and not fall through the cracks!

“Like me, Mom understood that 'nothing' could be worse than anything real. Like the dark. 'Nothing' can be the most terrifying thing of all."

 Rating: 4/5                        

  Coming to Bookstores January 17th 2012! 
Watch the days pass on the countdown clock on the left of the blog!

Are you in the Portland Area!? Megan Miranda will Be at the Cedar Valley Powells on Jan 27th! Hope to see some of you there!

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Foreign Cover Friday : Across the Universe!

Foreign Cover Friday is a weekly meme hosted by The Reading Fever, where foreign covers of the books we know and love are spotlighted and discussed. To join, either pick your favorite foreign cover, or pick many foreign covers, and start discussing!

Last Weeks Winner was ( drumroll please )

 Paranormalcy ( Italian Edition ) !

Up for Voting This week Is: 

Across the Universe By Beth Revis

 Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone - one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship - tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

      English Hardback #1                                                  English Hardback #2                          

Text: "What does it take to survive above                                       

a spaceship fueled by lies?"  

                                                          

     English Paperback #1                                       English Paperback #2                                                                             Text: "They're so close, 

                                                                                                                   but still so far away..."

  

                                                           German Paperback

I kinda love them all this week! They all really give off a strong Sci Fi Feel, which I think can be lacking when it comes to the covers of YA sci fi books. I think if I had to choose a favorite I would say Hardback #1 because I love the beautiful background and the image not only gives off a sense of romance, But ties in well with the first part of the story when Amy wakes up early. The German paperback has ALMOST the same scene, but I like the silhouette version better, also the Green background gives off ( to me ) a more Alien vibe, which is not what the book is about. Hardback #2 and English Paperback #2 Also give off a great Sci fi feel by showing off the Ship, But I do not feel like the touch on the romance aspect of the story, and the hardback is a little too technical looking for me.

This Week I am not doing a poll for voting, I want to be able to know your feelings rather than only seeing your votes! So please, Share your opinions and vote in the comment space below :)

Happy reading!

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine where you can spotlight an upcoming release that you're eagerly anticipating.

 Hardcover, 256 pages

Expected publication: January 3rd 2012 by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers 

 

ISBN 1442443162 (ISBN13: 9781442443167)

 

edition language: English

 

series: Incarnation #1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Incarnation is a new series that introduces a fresh mythology perfect for fans of bestselling series like The Immortals by Alyson Noel and Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

 

After spending six hundred years on earth, Seraphina Ames has seen it all. Eternal life provides her with the world’s riches, but at a very high price: innocent lives. Centuries ago, her boyfriend, Cyrus, discovered a method of alchemy that allows them to swap bodies with other humans, jumping from one vessel to the next, taking the human’s life in the process. No longer able to bear the guilt of what she’s done, Sera escapes from Cyrus and vows to never kill again.

Then sixteen-year-old Kailey Morgan gets into a horrific car accident right in front of her, and Sera accidentally takes over her body. For the first time, Sera finds herself enjoying the life of the person she’s inhabiting—and falls for the human boy who lives next door. But Cyrus will stop at nothing until she’s his again, and every moment she stays, she’s putting herself and the people she’s grown to care for in great danger. Will Sera have to give up the one thing that’s eluded her for centuries: true love?

 

 I will Tell you Right now, my soon to come review? I'm going to rave. I am loving it. Seriously 

* sigh* Is book #2 out yet? lol

A little bit about me

Since I am partway through my next book I am about to review ( The Alchemy of forever, it's amazing by the way ) I thought I might set aside a blog post to share a little bit more about ME. Maybe you don't care, maybe all you want is book news. But.. if you want to know a little bit more about who is behind the scenes here it is. 

I blog, I read. But I also am a Full time student and Part time worker!

I work at Blockbuster - it falls short of working at Borders but hey, I'm around stories!

I go to school at Mount Hood Community College where I major in art- and am starting to minor in business. 

So ya. This is what I do in my school time and spare time :) 

I try to mix in inspiration from childhood stories as well as every day life. and then sometimes, it's just random lol. These are a mixture of Pencil/Charcoal drawings, Paintings, Woodblock, Screen and Copper plate prints and 1 Sculpture. 

Comments and feedback are always nice, polite Criticism welcome. However. Bashing just hurts feelings. 

Second Hand Saturday Giveaway!

Second Hand Saturday is a giveaway that started over at 

The Reading Teen 

Every couple of Saturdays I will be giving away wonderful books from my self. (These books are in Like new condition, with very few smudges, nicks or marks!)

This weeks giveaway is unfortunately NOT international ( USA ONLY ), but not to worry ! International Giveaways will come to the blog again soon :)

17 year-old Kelley Winslow doesn’t believe in Faeries. Not unless they’re the kind that you find in a theatre, spouting Shakespeare—the kind that Kelley so desperately wishes she could be: onstage, under lights, with a pair of sparkly wings strapped to her shoulders. But as the understudy in a two-bit, hopelessly off-off-Broadway production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, wishing is probably the closest she’s going to get to becoming a Faerie Queen. 

At least, that’s what she thinks... In this fun, urban fantasy, Kelley's off-stage life suddenly becomes as complicated as one of Shakespeare’s plot twists when a nighttime trip to Central Park holds more than meets the mortal eye.

To Enter the Giveaway simply fill out the Rafflecopter form below! 

As always Following the blog is not mandatory :) 

However, it does get you an extra entry AND you get to keep up on wonderful book news that I Share :)

Foreign Cover Friday : Paranormalcy

Foreign Cover Friday is a Weekly Meme hosted by The Reading Fever 

Obviously, the covers I chose are not ALL foreign.. but the idea is still there :) 

Last weeks Winner: 

Its a Tie!

 

                                     German Edition                                        French Edition

Up This week:

Paranormalcy by Kristen White!

 Weird as it is working for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, Evie’s always thought of herself as normal. Sure, her best friend is a mermaid, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she's falling for a shape-shifter, and she's the only person who can see through paranormals' glamours, but still. Normal.

Only now paranormals are dying, and Evie's dreams are filled with haunting voices and mysterious prophecies. She soon realizes that there may be a link between her abilities and the sudden rash of deaths. Not only that, but she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal.

For my review of Paranormalcy Click HERE

 English Edition

I like this edition.. I don't love it but it is eye catching. I like how she is standing Outside at night, in a sleeveless dress and she is like " ya, I'm not cold." But at the same time I don't think it portrays just how kick ass Evie is 

 Italian Edition

I adore this one, it's enchanting. Also, it feels more like there is a reason she is running around outside in a dress, she appears frantic like she is running from something. At the same time, It still doesn't portray her kick ass- ness.

German Edition

Umm... I don't get it? I mean ya, Evie is obsessed with Pink and all things girly, but the rose theme, and the new title.. doesn't seem to fit at all for me. 

 Portuguese Edition

 I'm not really a fan of this one. The model looks more like a ballerina than a hunter of paranormals.

Russian Edtion

Sorry but again, I am not a fan. The girl is obviously not Evie, and the feeling I get from this cover is more.. Adult? Seductive? Just, not the feel I get from the book. 

Chinese Edition

Finally one that hints at how she can kick ass! I would never have found this if I hadn't asked Kiersten White which was her favorite :) I love this one, though I think that the colors should have been more pink that blue. Still, it finally gets the idea across that the book is about a girl who kicks ass and takes names, not just looks great in a dress lol

I choose the Chinese Edition!

When I asked Kiersten what her favorite was she said :

@YA_BookWorm07 I love the Italian and Chinese covers! Most of the foreign editions just used the US cover.

Which edition do you vote for? Vote below! If you do not see the voting box please select " read more " 

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking The Spine , 

that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My W.O.W pick this week? :

 

Hardcover, 272 pages

 

Expected publication:

January 17th 2012 by Walker & Company 

 

ISBN : 0802723098 (ISBN13: 9780802723093)

 

edition language: English

original title: Fracture

url : http://www.meganmiranda.com/books/

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine
-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?


Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

 For fans of best-sellers like Before I Fall and If I Stay, this is a fascinating and heart-rending story about love and friendship and the fine line between life and death.

My review of Fracture will be posted  Next week! - Patiently waiting per the rules of Netgalley

( Spoiler; I LOVED IT )