Countdown: 2012 Releases (4)

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: Touched (Touched, #1) by Corrine Jackson (December 2012)

Remy O'Malley has the power to heal people with her touch, but her ability comes at a steep cost because every illness or injury she heals becomes her own.

How far would you be willing to go to help or save the lives of others with those kinds of consequences? I'd like to think that if I was given such an amazing and life changing gift that I'd help whomever I could but I'm not sure if I'm that much of a saint. We all have survival instincts and knowing the consequences of a healing action like the one that Jackson's future release describes...how do you decide who's life is worth saving? Jackson's got my wheels turning and December 2012 is a long way off. But I'm looking forward to it's release and I'm counting down to when it finds a place on the bookshelves.

Countdown Pick #2: Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale (02/02/2012)

When seventeen-year-old Rosie’s mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington’s Disease, her pain is intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty-per-cent chance of inheriting the crippling disease herself. Only when she tells her mum’s best friend, ‘Aunt Sarah’ that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie was not her biological mother after all... Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother, hitching along on her ex-boyfriend’s GAP year to follow her to Los Angeles. But all does not go to plan, and as Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply-buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonising decision of her own - one which will be the most heart-breaking and far-reaching of all...

Talk about your bombshells! Not only does her mother pass away and she's left to deal with that heartbreak, but then Rosie finds out that she wasn't really her biological mother after all! Wow and yikes is about all I've got. Not sure what other deeply buried secrets Rosie's running the risk of uncovering, but I do know I'd do exactly the same thing. I would have to know. The not knowing would drive me absolutely crazy. In fact, this is a fictional book and I'm stressing out as if it was my own life we're talking about here.

Countdown Pick #3: For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund (06/12/2012)

Generations ago, a genetic experiment gone wrong—the Reduction—decimated humanity, giving rise to a Luddite nobility who outlawed most technology.

Eighteen-year-old Luddite Elliot North has always known her place in this caste system. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing duty to her family’s estate over love. But now the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jumpstarting the wheel of progress and threatening Luddite control; Elliot’s estate is floundering; and she’s forced to rent land to the mysterious Cloud Fleet, a group of shipbuilders that includes renowned explorer Captain Malakai Wentforth—an almost unrecognizable Kai. And while Elliott wonders if this could be their second chance, Kai seems determined to show Elliot exactly what she gave up when she abandoned him.

But Elliot soon discovers her childhood friend carries a secret—-one that could change the society in which they live…or bring it to its knees. And again, she’s faced with a choice: cling to what she’s been raised to believe, or cast her lot with the only boy she’s ever loved, even if she has lost him forever.

Inspired by Jane Austen’s PERSUASION, FOR DARKNESS SHOWS THE STARS is a breathtaking romance about opening your mind to the future and your heart to the one person you know can break it.

Anything involving Jane Austen is going to draw my attention and even before I realized the relation, Peterfreund's future release had me marking this release date down. Every part of this description has me drooling and wishing it was already out on the shelves. But to then find out that it's based loosely on Austen's Persuasion...and I was sold without a doubt and floating on cloud nine. I'm half tempted to already predict a four or five shamrock rating! That's how excited I am for this release.

Countdown Pick #4: The Alchemy of Forever (Incarnation, #1) by Avery Williams (01/03/2012)

Seraphina’s first love made her immortal…her second might get her killed.

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?


What a synopsis! Whoever was in charge of that write up gets a gold star. I'm not sure who could resist that compelling teaser, I had no chance. True love, lives lost, infinite possibilities, and an evil and nefarious villain hunting down the main character is sure to keep readers on the edges of their seats and burning the so-called midnight oil in order to see what happens next. Thank goodness we don't have to wait too long, this sounds like a great start to the new year, don't you think?

Countdown Pick #5: The Story of Us by Deb Caletti (04/24/2012)

Cricket’s on a self-imposed break from her longtime boyfriend—but she’s picked a bad week to sort out her love life. For one thing, her mother’s romance is taking center stage: After jilting two previous fiancés, her mom is finally marrying Dan Jax, whom Cricket loves. But as wedding attendees arrive for a week of festivities at a guesthouse whose hippie owners have a sweet, sexy son—Ash—complications arise:


Cricket’s future stepsisters make it clear they’re not happy about the marriage. An old friend decides this is the week to declare his love for Cricket. Grandpa chooses to reveal a big secret at a family gathering. Dan’s ex-wife shows up. And even the dogs—Cricket’s old, ill Jupiter and Dan’s young, lively Cruiser—seem to be declaring war.


While Cricket fears that Dan is in danger of becoming ditched husband-to-be number three, she’s also alarmed by her own desires. Because even though her boyfriend looms large in her mind, Ash is right in front of her....


I haven't had the chance to read any of Caletti's works, but I've heard good things. So along with some great sounding reviews of her previous books, this book's write up had me marking this one down on the countdown and adding it to my very long and ever increasing TBR pile. I'm liking the idea of everyone being at odds. Sounds terrible I know but also strangely entertaining, I mean even the main characters' dogs don't like each other. So while it sounds like this book might have a lot going on and possibly at times too much going on, I want to give it a shot. I'm curious to see what Cricket will do with this new boy Ash being in the picture. I will however have to come to terms with the fact that her name is Cricket...not sure how I feel about that quite yet. We'll see if it grows on me once I crack open the book's cover and get to know her a little better.