Countdown: October 2013

I've been excited to feature this month for countdowns for some time now.  October is my birthday month, so I always look forward to seeing what books are going to be hitting the shelves throughout the thirty-one days that make up this calendar month.  It's never a bad idea to have my birthday wish list ready for friends and family to draw from right?  I've also always been a big fan of Halloween and getting dressed up and celebrating and marking the day with all the good fun that comes with it...and don't even get me started on pumpkin carving.  The competition is pretty steep in my family and I've yet to come out on top, but it is a whole new year, and I'll have plenty of time to try and create a very impressive looking jack-o-lantern that will hopefully put my dad's to shame.

Countdown Pick #1:  The Beautiful and the Damned by Jessica Verday (10/01/2013)

Cyn’s blackouts have deadly consequences in this sexy, suspenseful spinoff to the New York Times bestselling Hollow series.Cyn and Avian are far from a perfect match. She’s a witch who casts spells on men so she can steal their cars. He spends his time being judge, jury, and executioner to the truly evil in the supernatural realm.

When the blackouts Cyn’s been having ever since her time in Sleepy Hollow start escalating, she finds herself unable to remember where she’s been or what she’s been doing. Frightened, she seeks guidance at a local church, and it’s there she meets Avian.

The unlikely pair soon discovers that her blackouts are a side effect of what she truly is—an Echo—a conduit for souls of the dead. The only way to prevent Cyn from losing complete control is to return to Sleepy Hollow and vanquish the source of her power—but she may not survive the process. And if she does? She won’t ever be the same…

I haven't read Verday's Hollow series, but if I enjoy this spin off, than I'm sure I'll be excited to backtrack and check it all out from the beginning.

Countdown Pick #2:  Blackout (Blackout, #1) by Robison Wells (10/01/2013)

Laura and Alec are trained terrorists.

Jack and Aubrey are high school students.

There was no reason for them to ever meet.

But now, a mysterious virus is spreading throughout America, infecting teenagers with impossible powers. And these four are about to find their lives intertwined in a complex web of deception, loyalty, and catastrophic danger—where one wrong choice could trigger an explosion that ends it all.
Goodreads has a giveaway going on right now that doesn't end until the 9th of this month for your chance to win one of 15 copies that they've got up for grabs.  This is a title that I couldn't resist adding to my countdown and if you're in the same boat as me than it can't hurt to sign up for the contest and cross your fingers you'll turn out to be one of the lucky winners!

Countdown Pick #3:  Endless Knight (The Arcana Chronicles, #2) by Kresley Cole (10/01/2013)


In the second book of the Arcana Chronicles Evie has now fully come into her powers as the tarot Empress. And Jackson was there to see it all. In the aftermath of killing Arthur, the tarot Alchemist, Evie realizes that a war is brewing between the other teens that, following the apocalypse, have been given powers and its kill or be killed.

Things get even more complicated when Evie meets Death, the mysterious, sexy Endless Knight. Somehow the Empress and Death share a romantic history - one that Evie can't remember, but Death can't forget. She is drawn to the Endless Knight, but is in love with Jack. Determined to discover why she's been granted these powers, Evie struggles to accept her place in a prophecy that will either save the world, or completely destroy it.

As a big fan of Cole's adult series, I was so excited to hear she'd be making her way into the YA scene, and after reading her series opener, Poison Princess I was convinced that she made the right move.  The opener left me wanting more and I am on the edge of my seat to read this future release so that I can see what happens next for Evie and the rest of the crew.

Countdown Pick #4:  Entangled by Amy Rose Cappetta (10/01/2013)

Alone was the note Cade knew best. It was the root of all her chords.

Seventeen-year-old Cade is a fierce survivor, solo in the universe with her cherry-red guitar. Or so she thought. Her world shakes apart when a hologram named Mr. Niven tells her she was created in a lab in the year 3112, then entangled at a subatomic level with a boy named Xan.
Cade’s quest to locate Xan joins her with an array of outlaws—her first friends—on a galaxy-spanning adventure. And once Cade discovers the wild joy of real connection, there’s no turning back.

I'm all about outer space and a potential futuristic scenario every once in a while, and this future release sounds like it will promise just that.  Plus who doesn't love to read an action packed adventure every so often, right?  Cade's quest is one I have complete confidence I'll enjoy and I look forward to discovering a new author in the process.

Countdown Pick #5:  Made of Stars by Kelley York (10/01/2013)

When eighteen-year-old Hunter Jackson and his half sister, Ashlin, return to their dad’s for the first winter in years, they expect everything to be just like the warmer months they’d spent there as kids. And it is—at first. But Chance, the charismatic and adventurous boy who made their summers epic, is harboring deep secrets. Secrets that are quickly spiraling into something else entirely.

The reason they've never met Chance’s parents or seen his home is becoming clearer. And what the siblings used to think of as Chance's quirks—the outrageous stories, his clinginess, his dangerous impulsiveness—are now warning signs that something is seriously off.

Then Chance's mom turns up with a bullet to the head, and all eyes shift to Chance and his dad. Hunter and Ashlin know Chance is innocent...they just have to prove it. But how can they protect the boy they both love when they can’t trust a word Chance says?

We've got a mystery on our hands!  I tend to read mysteries few and far between, because they usually go hand in hand with scary scenarios, and I don't do well with getting scared.  But every once in a while a title like this comes along and it strikes me as more of a problem solving mystery, than the other kind and I can't help but add it to my list and change things up a bit in the process.