Countdown: 2012 Releases (3)

You guys know the drill by now...I'm always on the lookout for new finds and exciting new reads and below are just a few that I've come across lately. With how busy everyone gets if I don't write the titles down immediately I'll never be able to remember them later when I'm ready to download a new book to my kindle, or in the store wondering which shelf to look through first. So by posting these countdowns I give myself one more place to look when I need to be reminded of the titles I'm looking forward to.

And as always if you guys hear of any that you haven't seen me post let me know. Like I said, I only have so much time to search for future reads on my own, and to be honest, the majority of my favorite titles I owe to friends/bloggers/author recommendations. So leave a comment, shoot me an email, etc... if there are any books or authors you think I should have on my radar.

Countdown Pick #1: Tempest (Tempest, #1) by Julie Cross (01/17/2012)

The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.

That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.

Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.

But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler. Recruit… or kill him.

Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.

This one instantly made my TBR list. While some early reviews have described the beginning to be a little slow and difficult to get through, those same reviewers have said that when the action did finally take off, they couldn't put the book down. Cross' main character sounds like a modern day white knight in shining armor trying to protect his true love. How romantic and swoon worthy is that?

Countdown Pick #2: Where It Began by Ann Redisch Stampler (03/06/2012)

Gabby Gardiner wakes up in a hospital bed looking like a cautionary ad for drunk driving and lacking a single memory of the accident that landed her there. What she can remember, in frank and sardonic detail, is the year leading up to the accident.
As she takes us through her transformation from invisible girl to on-trend Girl Who Dates Billy Nash (aka Most Desirable Boy Ever), she is left wondering: Why is Billy suddenly distancing himself from her? What do her classmates know that Gabby herself does not? Who exactly was in the car that night? And why is Gabby left alone to take the fall?
Putting the pieces together will take every ounce of Gabby's strength. As she peels back the layers of her life, she begins to realize that her climb up the status ladder has been as intoxicating as it has been morally complex...and that nothing about her life is what she has imagined it to be.
I'm having some deja vu moments with this one because it sounds similar to Simone Ekeles' Leaving Paradise, but yet different at the same time. Sounds weird and makes no sense, but deja vu normally doesn't right? Regardless, Stampler has me really wanting to solve this puzzle as soon as possible. I want answers and I haven't even cracked the book yet, not a good sign with there still being several months until it's release.

Countdown Pick #3: Try Not to Breathe by Jennifer Hubbard (01/19/2012)

A dark and provocative novel from the author of The Secret Year

Ryan spends most of his time alone at the local waterfall because it’s the only thing that makes him feel alive. He’s sixteen, post-suicidal, and trying to figure out what to do with himself after a stint in a mental hospital. Then Nicki barges into his world, brimming with life and energy, and asking questions about Ryan’s depression that no one else has ever been brave enough—or cared enough—to ask. Ryan isn’t sure why he trusts Nicki with his darkest secrets, but that trust turns out to be the catalyst that he desperately needs to start living again.

Jennifer R. Hubbard has created a riveting story about a difficult but important subject.

With such a serious and emotional topic being the focus of this novel, I'm not imagining this release to be a fun and easy going read. But it does sound like it's got the potential to be a great story nonetheless. While I'm sure it will be difficult at times to get through, Hubbard is a wonderful writer and surely will work her magic again this time around. I can only imagine how moving a story like this in her words will turn out to be.

Countdown Pick #4: Honalee (Witches of Honalee, #1) by Amanda Hocking (2012)

In the small Midwestern town of Honalee, Hazel Panning and her best friend Molly Novak are determined to get through her sophomore year in one piece, despite the vicious cheerleaders and Hazel's ridiculous crush on Landon Hooper.

Life gets more complicated when Hazel realizes that she has a penchant for sorcery, like her aunt. Her plans to stay under the radar take a detour when she and Molly stand up for themselves, and Hazel gets the courage to act on her feelings for Landon.

Hazel discovers that the sleepy town of Honalee isn't so sleepy, and magic doesn't make high school easier.

As a big fan of Hocking's My Blood Approves series, I'm crossing my fingers this series opener lives up to her hype. I couldn't get into her other series, the Trylle Trilogy, so I'm figuring that I've got a 50/50 shot here of loving this one as well. I'm not sure how she did it, but she has this ability to pull her readers in and have them invested in her characters before they even realize its happened. So here's hoping that witches are just as much second nature for her to write about as vampires were in her previous series.

Countdown Pick #5: Cursed by Jennifer L. Armentrout (09/18/2012)

Dying sucks--and high school senior Ember McWilliams knows firsthand. After a fatal car accident, her gifted little sister brought her back. Now anything Ember touches dies. And that, well, really blows.

Ember operates on a no-touch policy with all living things--including boys. When Hayden Cromwell shows up, quoting Oscar Wilde and claiming her curse is a gift, she thinks he’s a crazed cutie. But when he tells her he can help control it, she’s more than interested. There’s just one catch: Ember has to trust Hayden's adopted father, a man she's sure has sinister reasons for collecting children whose abilities even weird her out. However, she’s willing to do anything to hold her sister's hand again. And hell, she'd also like to be able to kiss Hayden. Who wouldn't?

But when Ember learns the accident that turned her into a freak may not have been an accident at all, she’s not sure who to trust. Someone wanted her dead, and the closer she gets to the truth, the closer she is to losing not only her heart, but her life. For real this time.

Now this sounds like a reason to look a gift horse in the mouth if you ask me. While Ember sounds like she's got a second chance, she certainly has paid the price for just it, as I'm sure most of you would agree. But with this boy's help maybe she has a chance at a remedy of sorts? This seems like one giant mystery and it's one I'm eager to start trying my hand at solving. Who's with me?