Countdown: February 2014 (3)

You can't get much more romantic as far as destination cities, than Paris, France. While I'm hopeful that I'll be able to find a few new reads that fall into the romance department during the "romantic" months, I'm not limiting myself to only those types of reads. There are so many new titles hitting the shelve this year that I know I'll never be able to keep up. But it never hurts to try, and these countdown posts keep my list fresh and helps me narrow down my choices when I'm on the hunt for what to read next. Are there any titles you are looking forward to come February? Do you tend to find yourself reading romances during February or do you go the opposite route? Here are a few coming out next month that I'm looking forward to adding to my bookshelf.

 

Countdown Pick #1:  Three (Article 5, #3) by Kristen Simmons (02/11/2014)

 

Ember Miller and Chase Jennings are ready to stop running. After weeks spent in hiding as two of the Bureau of Reformation’s most wanted criminals, they have finally arrived at the safe house, where they hope to live a peaceful and quiet existence—but all that’s left is smoking ruins.

Devastated by the demolition of their last hope, Ember and Chase follow the one thing left to them—tracks leading away from the wreckage. The only sign that there may have been survivors.

Because of their high profiles, they know they can’t stay out in the open for long. They take shelter in the wilderness and amid the ruins of abandoned cities as they follow the tracks down the coast, eventually finding refugees from the destroyed safe house. Among them is someone from Chase’s past—someone he thought he’d never see again.

Banding together, they search for a place to hide, aiming for a settlement a few of them have heard about… a settlement that is rumored to house the nebulous organization known as Three. The very group that has provided Ember with a tiny ray of hope ever since she was first forced on the run.

Three is responsible for the huge network of underground safe houses and resistance groups across the country. And they may offer Ember her only chance to tell the world her story—and to fight back.

 

There was no way I could resist adding this title to the list. It's a series that won me over, and left me wanting more. I've got the sequel in the series to still read, so I tried to avoid reading the synopsis for this third installment so I wouldn't spoil anything for myself, but I'm sure it sounds just as exciting and thrilling as the last two.

Countdown Pick #2:  The Drowned Forest by Kristopher Reisz (02/08/2014)

 

A Southern Gothic about a drowned girl who's haunting her best friend, who has been lost without her and may be dragged down into the river with her unless she finds a way to put Holly to rest.

Most of you who follow the blog know that I tend to steer clear of all things scary and creepy, because I'm a wimp when it comes to material like that.  But when I came across this February release for some reason, I found myself adding it to my countdown list.  I'm not sure what about it struck a cord with me, but I'm curious to see how Holly's best friend will handle this haunting, on top of trying to deal with the death of her best friend.  What will happen in the end is definitely a mystery, but it's one I hope I can muster up the courage to get through.

 

Countdown Pick #3:  Red Rising by Pierce Brown (02/18/2014)

 

Darrow is a miner and a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he digs all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of the planet livable for future generations. Darrow has never seen the sky.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better future for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow and Reds like him are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow joins a resistance group in order to infiltrate the ruling class and destroy society from within. He will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

 

Get excited for another dystopian new release!  If Darrow plans on infiltrating the ruling class and going undercover to make a change, I want to be right there reading alongside him as he starts his adventure.  It's easy for readers to get behind the underdog and choose sides against an oppressive ruling body, so I have no doubt this will be a release that a lot of readers are eager to add to their collection.

 

Countdown Pick #4:  The Well's End by Seth Fishman (02/25/2014)

 

Mia Kish is afraid of the dark. And for good reason. When she was a toddler she fell deep into her backyard well only to be rescued to great fanfare and celebrity. In fact, she is small-town Fenton,Colorado’s walking claim to fame. Not like that helps her status at Westbrook Academy, the nearby uber-ritzy boarding school she attends. A townie is a townie. Being nationally ranked as a swimmer doesn’t matter a lick. But even the rarefied world of Westbrook is threated when emergency sirens start blaring and the school is put on lock down, quarantined and surrounded by soldiers who seem to shoot first and ask questions later. Only when confronted by a frightening virus that ages its victims to death in a manner of hours does Mia realize she may only just be beginning to discover what makes Fenton special.

The answer is behind the walls of the Cave, aka Fenton Electronics. Mia’s dad, the director of Fenton Electronics, has always been secretive about his work. But unless Mia is willing to let her classmates succumb to the strange illness, she and her friends have got to break quarantine, escape the school grounds, and outsmart armed soldiers to uncover the truth about where the virus comes from and what happened down that well. The answers they find just might be more impossible than the virus they are fleeing.

 

I think I've been terrified of wells ever since watching that horror movie, The Ring where the girl climbs out of the well all broken, etc...  I get chills and goosebumps just thinking about that scene.  I'm hoping that since this well accident Mia was involved in happened when she was younger, that by some miracle the author will only glance over that event and move right along to get to the rest of the story because it's one I'm curious to read more about.  If there are too many scene with a well as a backdrop, I can only imagine that I'll only be reading this story during daylight hours, and forcing myself to watch or read something cheerful before I go to bed to avoid the nightmares.

 

Countdown Pick #5:  Rise of the Arcane Fire (The Secret Order, #2) by Kristin Bailey (02/04/2014)

 

The adventure continues as Meg becomes more deeply involved with The Secret Order. A saboteur and murderer has her in his sights in this mysterious and thrilling second installment of The Secret Order trilogy.
I've been told there will be more details to come in regards to this sequel in a series that had my curiosity flowing from start to finish.  The first time around was nothing but pure excitement as Bailey took us through this strange and unusual world and secret society where the inventions garnered nothing but respect from this eager reader.