This week has fewer releases, for which I am quite thankful because I'm sure most of us need a breather! I've already read Avalon, and really enjoyed it, and I'm very intrigued by The Rule of Three. Give it to me!
20 January 2014
17 January 2014
White Cat by Holly Black
Curse Workers #1
Release Date: May 4th 2010
Publisher: Indigo
Source: Bought
Star Rating: ★★★★
Cassel comes from a family of Curse Workers - people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all criminals. Many become mobsters and con artists. But not Cassel. He hasn't got magic, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail - he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.
Cassel has carefully built up a facade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his facade starts to crumble when he finds himself sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he must unravel his past and his memories. To find out the truth, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.
Okay, so I bought this book on a whim one day; I have vague memories of Amber telling me it was good so I was reasonably sure I'd enjoy it. Plus, criminals! Not everyone knows this about me but um, I love stories about villains. Immoral people, people with broken moral compasses (actually my favourite part of TVD was Damon and Elena constantly being terrible people, it was so great), people who don't care about crossing lines or just plain ruthless mercenary types. I love 'em all. I am that girl who used to watch all the Mafia documentaries on the History Channel, so, like, an entire YA series about criminals(!!!!) with powers(!!!!!) was obviously something I had to check out. I was so not disappointed, either.
16 January 2014
And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard
Release Date: January 28th, 2014
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: Publisher (NetGalley)
Rating: ★★★★
When high school senior Paul Wagoner walks into his school library with a stolen gun, he threatens his girlfriend Emily Beam, then takes his own life. In the wake of the tragedy, an angry and guilt-ridden Emily is shipped off to boarding school in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she encounters a ghostly presence who shares her name. The spirit of Emily Dickinson and two quirky girls offer helping hands, but it is up to Emily to heal her own damaged self.
This inventive story, told in verse and in prose, paints the aftermath of tragedy as a landscape where there is good behind the bad, hope inside the despair, and springtime under the snow.
And We Stay was my first official read of 2014 and was kind of an impulse request on my part; I wasn't expecting much but guys, I really, really liked this book. It tells the story of a teenage girl left to pick up the pieces when her boyfriend kills himself in a school shooting he is the perpetrator of. Sent away to a boarding school hundreds of miles away, Emily begins to express her grief and the secrets that burden through poetry, which is interspersed through the novel.
15 January 2014
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Release Date: February 28, 2013 (UK)
Publisher: Orion
Source: Princess Judith
Star Rating: ★★★★
Rating: Essential
TWO MISFITS. ONE EXTRAORDINARY LOVE. It's 1986 and two star-crossed teens are smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you'll remember your own first love--and just how hard it pulled you under. A cross between the iconic '80s movie Sixteen Candles and the classic coming-of-age novel Looking for Alaska, Eleanor & Park is a brilliantly written young adult novel.
XTC was no good for drowning out the morons at the back of the bus.
---
Judith recommended Eleanor & Park to me for our Epic Recs back in November, and she even went as far as buying it for me for my birthday because she thought it was truly epic. I was very, very hesitant to pick this book up, because there is so much hype surrounding it and sometimes I really dislike the books that the community raves about.
Thankfully, I ended up really enjoying Eleanor & Park, and it gave me a lot of feelings. So Judith can put the knife away now.
14 January 2014
Top Ten 2014 Debuts I'm Excited For
hosted by The Broke and the Bookish
Top Ten 2014 Debuts I'm Excited For
Debuts are one of my favourite parts of the new year. I recently relaunched my Debut Showcase feature which I started last year, which talks about the debuts that I'm excited for each month. I love discovering new authors, especially when they shoot up to my Must Buy list, like Jennifer Rush and Kasie West!
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