Countdown: January 2013 (4)

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:  Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook (01/29/2013)

Bonnie and Clyde meets IF I STAY in this addictively heart-wrenching story of two desperate teenagers on the run from their pasts.

They’re young. They’re in love. They’re on the run.

Zoe wants to save Will as much as Will wants to save Zoe. When Will turns eighteen, they decide to run away together. But they never expected their escape to be so fraught with danger....

When the whole world is after you, sometimes it seems like you can’t run fast enough.

Nobody But Us, told in alternating perspectives from Will and Zoe, is an unflinching novel, in turns heartbreaking and hopeful, about survival, choices, and love...and how having love doesn’t always mean that you get a happy ending. Described as “beautiful, heartbreaking, and exhilarating” by Kody Keplinger, author of The DUFF, Nobody But Us will prove irresistible to fans of Nina Lacour, Jenny Han, and Sara Zarr.

Who didn't love Bonnie and Clyde?  It was nearly impossible not to root for them and I have a feeling that this book's main characters will be very much the same.  I for one cannot wait!  There's a giveaway going on over at goodreads for this one right now if anyone's interested in taking the chance to win their very own copy!

Countdown Pick #2:  Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters by Suzanne Weyn (01/2013)

A new generation is creating a monster.... 

Doctor Victor Frankenstein's previously unacknowledged beautiful, intelligent twin daughters (from an early marriage when he was a student) have come to Frankenstein's Castle to claim it as their inheritance. 

Shortly thereafter they learn that a serial killer is on the loose. They try to ignore this -- Gretchen takes up her father's work, while Ingrid throws lavish parties. Gretchen and Ingrid form a love triangle with a young naval officer with a debilitating disease. Though he loves Ingrid, he agrees to work with Gretchen on a series of body transplants that improve his condition. Before long he is even walking without his cane. He does not know that the science that is helping him is the science of death itself . . . 

A twisted, macabre journey of romance and horror.

As a big fan of a lot of the classics, I can't help but be curious with any type of retelling or twist on an oldie but goodie.  So for Weyn to come out with something that takes this tale and and flips it on it's head I'm all about picking myself up a copy and checking it out!

Countdown Pick #3:  A Shimmer of Angels (Angel Sight, #1) by Lisa M. Basso (01/29/2013)

Sixteen-year-old Rayna sees angels, and has the medication and weekly therapy sessions to prove it. Now, in remission, Rayna starts fresh at a new school, lands a new job, and desperately tries for normalcy. She ignores signs that she may be slipping into the world she has tried so hard to climb out of. But these days, it’s more than just hallucinations that keep Rayna up at night. Students are dying, and she may be the only one who can stop it. Can she keep her job, her sanity, and her friends from dying at the hands of angels she can't admit to seeing?

I've always been a fan of angels and can never really resist passing up the chance to read something where they take center stage.  But this title seems to be veering towards a slightly different angle when it comes to the angels I tend to be used to seeing among YA titles.  Am I reading this description right???  Are we dealing with bad angels?  Who are possibly responsible for the deaths of students?  Interesting to say the least.

Countdown Pick #4:  The Last Burning of New London by Danielle Meyers (01/2013)

London Ruins is the head of a post-apocalyptic empire that spans across all the inhabitable land of Western Europe, and survives under the rule of Donovan, a reclusive, self-serving monarch. Donovan’s Royal Task Force carries out the assignment of eliminating all who oppose him by burning them alive within their houses. One group stands up against him, a legendary group of rebels called The Flames whose members are never seen, never heard, their actions only known after they have vanished.

How awesome does this one sound?  I think the whole idea is pretty rad and I'm super excited to see what these rebels can do and how they'll go about overthrowing or at least attempting to overthrow this terrible regime.  It should prove to be very interesting.  I'm always curious how these dystopian novels will paint the picture of how the world came to be in the ruins they're in and with every author comes a new imagination and a new twist on a genre that I've come to be a huge fan of and will continue to be I'm sure with each new title I add to my shelf.

Countdown Pick #5:  The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LeBan (01/08/2013)

Tim Macbeth is a 17-year-old albino and a recent transfer to the prestigious Irving School, where the motto is, “Enter here to be and find a friend.” Tim does not expect to find a friend; all he really wants to do is escape his senior year unnoticed. Despite his efforts to blend into the background, he finds himself falling for the quintessential “it” girl, Vanessa Sheller, girlfriend of Irving’s most popular boy. To Tim’s surprise, Vanessa is into him, too, and she can kiss her social status goodbye if anyone finds out. Tim and Vanessa enter into a clandestine relationship, but looming over them is the Tragedy Paper, Irving’s version of a senior year thesis, assigned by the school’s least forgiving teacher.

The story unfolds from two alternating viewpoints: Tim, the tragic, love-struck figure, and Duncan, a current senior, who uncovers the truth behind Tim and Vanessa’s story and will consequently produce the greatest Tragedy Paper in Irving’s history.

While I think this one will be difficult to read at times, I still feel like it has the potential to leave a very potent mark on it's readers.  It's hard to admit that we might not have all been the nicest at certain points in our lives to everyone we've come across, but this type of "tragedy" they speak of being written about might just be a little out of most of our comfort zones.  Only time will tell.