Countdown: January 2013

January is one of my very months out of the year.  It always feels like a fresh start.  The crazy holiday season has drawn to a close, it's possible (depending on where you live) that the weather is still holding steady and not causing too many problems for those of us a with a commute to work, and there's just something about curling up with a good book during this month that makes me very happy.  I've usually got a few titles to choose from during this month due to my wonderful friends and family gifting me with something they know I love and hold dear to my heart.  The hardest part is usually deciding what to read first and how to stop myself from trying to read them all at once!  So with all these great titles coming out in this January I think us readers will have our work cut out for us.  How we'll find the time to get through all of these amazing titles is beyond me, but I'm certainly going to do my best!

Countdown Pick #1:  Uses for Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt (01/15/2013)

Anna remembers a time before boys, when she was little and everything made sense. When she and her mom were a family, just the two of them against the world. But now her mom is gone most of the time, chasing the next marriage, bringing home the next stepfather. Anna is left on her own—until she discovers that she can make boys her family. From Desmond to Joey, Todd to Sam, Anna learns that if you give boys what they want, you can get what you need. But the price is high—the other kids make fun of her; the girls call her a slut. Anna's new friend, Toy, seems to have found a way around the loneliness, but Toy has her own secrets that even Anna can't know.

Then comes Sam. When Anna actually meets a boy who is more than just useful, whose family eats dinner together, laughs, and tells stories, the truth about love becomes clear. And she finally learns how it feels to have something to lose—and something to offer. Real, shocking, uplifting, and stunningly lyrical, Uses for Boys is a story of breaking down and growing up.

I simply cannot wait for this title to come out.  It sounds like it could be a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride but in a good way.  The kind of read that at the end you feel like the characters have cleansed themselves of their emotional baggage so to speak and truly learned something along the way.  Some lessons maybe that readers themselves can take something away from.

Countdown Pick #2:  Crash (Visions, #1) by Lisa McMann (01/08/2013)

If what you see is what you get, Jules is in serious trouble. The suspenseful first of four books from the New York Timesbestselling author of the Wake trilogy.

Jules lives with her family above their restaurant, which means she smells like pizza most of the time and drives their double-meatball-shaped food truck to school. It’s not a recipe for popularity, but she can handle that.

What she can’t handle is the vision. Over and over, Jules sees a careening truck hit a building and explode... and nine body bags in the snow.

She has no idea why this is happening to her or if she’s going crazy. It hardly matters, because the visions are everywhere--on billboards, television screens, windows--and she’s the only one who can see them.

But it’s not until the vision starts coming more frequently, and revealing more clues, that Jules knows what she has to do. Because now she can see the face in one of the body bags, and it's someone she knows. Someone she’s been in love with for as long as she can remember.

In this riveting start to a gripping series from New York Times bestselling author Lisa McMann, Jules has to act—and act fast—to keep her vision from becoming reality.

There is a reason McMann is among the New York Times bestselling authors.  Her writing speaks for itself and this series opener sounds like it has all the makings to be yet another phenomenal series that readers won't be able to get enough of.  Goodreads is hosting a giveaway right now for your chance to win one of ten ARCs that are up for grabs, so head on over and enter for your chance to win now!

Countdown Pick #3:  Broken by A.E. Rought (01/08/2013)

Imagine a modern spin on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein where a young couple's undying love and the grief of a father pushed beyond sanity could spell the destruction of them all. 

A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry's boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetery and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.

When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she's intrigued despite herself. He's an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely... familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel's.

The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there's something very wrong with Alex Franks. And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks' estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows.

The cover might have initially drawn me in, but the fact that is is a retelling of Frankenstein had me hooked.  Again this is not one of my all time favorite classics that I often reread throughout the year, but it's still one that I've always considered to be worth of it's classic status.  I'm curious to see how Rought will twist this tale and make it her own.

Countdown Pick #4:  Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum (01/08/2013)

Twenty years ago, the robots designed to fight our wars abandoned the battlefields. Then they turned their weapons on us.

Only a few escaped the robot revolution of 2071. Kevin, Nick, and Cass are lucky —they live with their parents in a secret human community in the woods. Then their village is detected and wiped out. Hopeful that other survivors have been captured by bots, the teens risk everything to save the only people they have left in the world—by infiltrating a city controlled by their greatest enemies.

Revolution 19 is a cinematic thriller unlike anything else. With a dynamic cast of characters, this surefire blockbuster has everything teen readers want—action, drama, mystery, and romance. Written by debut novelist Gregg Rosenblum, this gripping story shouldn’t be missed.

Who doesn't love checking out debut authors?  I'm always on the lookout for new reads but also new authors that I can hopefully add to my list of favorites and then follow them along in the future.  Rosenblum shows a lot of promise.  Not only does this read sound incredible but he's always working closely with Howard Gordon and writer-director James Wong on a sci-fi project titled 2084 which Harper Collins has picked up as a three tome series.  So while this title has me excited, there is much to look forward to as far as Rosenblum's writing it concerned.

Countdown Pick #5:  Shadowlands by Kate Brian (01/08/2013)

Rory Miller had one chance to fight back and she took it. Rory survived… and the serial killer who attacked her escaped. Now that the infamous Steven Nell is on the loose, Rory must enter the witness protection with her father and sister, Darcy, leaving their friends and family without so much as a goodbye. 

Starting over in a new town with only each other is unimaginable for Rory and Darcy. They were inseparable as children, but now they can barely stand each other. As the sisters settle in to Juniper Landing, a picturesque vacation island, it seems like their new home may be just the fresh start they need. They fall in with a group of beautiful, carefree teens and spend their days surfing, partying on the beach, and hiking into endless sunsets. But just as they’re starting to feel safe again, one of their new friends goes missing. Is it a coincidence? Or is the nightmare beginning all over again?

Best known for her Private series, Brian sounds to me like she's got a winner on her hands.  I've never gotten around to checking our her previous series' but I've heard good things.  Her writing seems to be the type readers flock towards and by the sounds of this book's description, I'm already on the edge of my seat.  It's got a premise that scares me, but at the same time has me wanting answers.  I'm sure to have major anxiety over this one but I'm thinking it could also be well worth it.