Top Ten Tuesday: Books Santa Can Bring Me

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created over at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because they're particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish (and who isn't?). They're all about creating new lists including a little bit of everything and I've been meaning to participate for so long but always seemed to get behind. So here we are and hopefully you'll head over to their page and check out what everyone else put up for this week's Top Ten.

While most of my friends and family know me well enough to know that books are ALWAYS a safe bet for them to get me for any occasion, it certainly doesn't hurt to throw a few ideas out there with the hopes that they'll continue to stock my shelves with a few titles that I've been dying to get my hands on.  Here are a few of those titles that I would love to find under the tree this year.

Santa Wishlist Pick #1:  This Wicked Game by Michelle Zink

Claire Kincaid’s family has been in business for over fifty years.

The voodoo business.

Part of the International Guild of High Priests and Priestesses, a secret society that have practiced voodoo for generations, the Kincaid’s run an underground supply house for authentic voodoo supplies. Claire plays along, filling orders for powders, oils and other bizarre ingredients in the family store, but she has a secret.

She doesn’t believe.

Struggling to reconcile her modern sensibilities with a completely unscientific craft based on suspicion, Claire can’t wait to escape New Orleans – and voodoo – when she goes to college, a desire that creates almost constant conflict in her secret affair with Xander Toussaint, son of the Guild’s powerful founding family.

But when a mysterious customer places an order for a deadly ingredient, Claire begins to realize that there’s more to voodoo – and the families that make up the Guild – than meets the eye.

Including her own.

As she bands together with the other firstborns of the Guild, she comes face to face with a deadly enemy – and the disbelief that may very well kill her.

 

Santa Wishlist Pick #2:  Engines of the Broken World by Jason Vanhee

 

Merciful Truth and her brother, Gospel, have just pulled their dead mother into the kitchen and stowed her under the table. It was a long illness, and they wanted to bury her—they did—but it’s far too cold outside, and they know they won’t be able to dig into the frozen ground. The Minister who lives with them, who preaches through his animal form, doesn’t make them feel any better about what they’ve done. Merciful calms her guilty feelings but only until, from the other room, she hears a voice she thought she’d never hear again. It’s her mother’s voice, and it’s singing a lullaby. . .

Santa Wishlist Pick #3:  Save the Enemy by Arin Greenwood

 

Everything has been downhill since Zoey Trask’s mother was murdered in a random mugging. Her younger brother, Ben, is on the autistic spectrum and needs constant supervision. It’s senior year, and she’s the new girl at a weird private school in Old Town Alexandria, VA, full of kids who seem too nice to be true—including a very cute boy named Pete. Aside from half-forgotten martial arts and survivalist skills that her widowed father insisted on teaching her (because that is excellent for her social life), Zoey has nothing to offer Pete or anyone else.

Then Dad is kidnapped. Zoey suddenly finds herself sole caretaker of a younger brother she barely understands. Worse, Ben seems to hold the key to their father’s disappearance in his Dream Diary, a bizarre journal of names and places Ben claims that their mother shares from beyond the grave. And as if Zoey doesn’t have enough on her plate, there’s Pete, who stubbornly refuses to leave her side.

Relying on the skills she never wanted to learn—Dad might have had his reasons after all—Zoey is plunged into a lethal battle to rescue her father, protect her brother, and determine the identity of her family’s true enemy.

 

Santa Wishlist Pick #4:  Ink is Thicker Than Water by Amy Spalding

 

For Kellie Brooks, family has always been a tough word to define. Combine her hippie mom and tattooist stepdad, her adopted overachieving sister, her younger half brother, and her tough-love dad, and average Kellie’s the one stuck in the middle, overlooked and impermanent. When Kellie’s sister finally meets her birth mother and her best friend starts hanging with a cooler crowd, the feeling only grows stronger.

But then she reconnects with Oliver, the sweet and sensitive college guy she had a near hookup with last year. Oliver is intense and attractive, and she’s sure he’s totally out of her league. But as she discovers that maybe intensity isn’t always a good thing, it’s yet another relationship she feels is spiraling out of her control.

It’ll take a new role on the school newspaper and a new job at her mom’s tattoo shop for Kellie to realize that defining herself both outside and within her family is what can finally allow her to feel permanent, just like a tattoo.


Santa Wishlist Pick #5:  These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1) by Amie Kauffman & Megan Spooner

It's a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone.

Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they’re worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help.

Then, against all odds, Lilac and Tarver find a strange blessing in the tragedy that has thrown them into each other’s arms. Without the hope of a future together in their own world, they begin to wonder—would they be better off staying here forever?

Everything changes when they uncover the truth behind the chilling whispers that haunt their every step. Lilac and Tarver may find a way off this planet. But they won’t be the same people who landed on it.

The first in a sweeping science fiction trilogy, These Broken Stars is a timeless love story about hope and survival in the face of unthinkable odds.

 

Santa Wishlist Pick #6:  Ashes to Ashes by Melissa C. Walker

 

If I Stay meets the movie Ghost in this first book in a teen duology about a teenage-girl-turned-ghost who must cling to the echoes of her former life to save the people she left behind.

Ashes to Ashes is author Melissa Walker's sweeping, romantic, and emotionally rich story about the things that torment and tempt us, even from the Great Beyond. This book is perfect for fans of Die for Me and Imaginary Girls, and its breathtaking ending will leave readers anxiously awaiting the series conclusion, Dust to Dust.

When Callie's life is cut short by a tragic accident, she expects to find nothingness, or maybe some version of heaven.

Instead, her spirit travels to the Prism, an ethereal plane populated by the ghosts she thought were fictional. Here she meets a striking and mysterious ghost named Thatcher, who is meant to guide her as she learns to haunt and bring peace to the loved ones she left behind.

However, Callie uncovers a dark secret about the spirit world: The angry souls who always populate ghost stories are real, dangerous, and willing to do whatever it takes to stay on Earth, threatening the existence of everyone she ever cared about.

As she fights to save them, Callie will learn that while it may no longer beat, her heart can still love-and break.

 

Santa Wishlist Pick #7:  Control (Control, #1) by Lydia Kang

 

An un-putdownable thriller for fans of Uglies

When a crash kills their father and leaves them orphaned, Zel knows she needs to protect her sister, Dyl. But before Zel has a plan, Dyl is taken by strangers using bizarre sensory weapons, and Zel finds herself in a safe house for teens who aren’t like any she’s ever seen before—teens who shouldn't even exist. Using broken-down technology, her new friends’ peculiar gifts, and her own grit, Zel must find a way to get her sister back from the kidnappers who think a powerful secret is encoded in Dyl’s DNA.

A spiraling, intense, romantic story set in 2150—in a world of automatic cars, nightclubs with auditory ecstasy drugs, and guys with four arms—this is about the human genetic “mistakes” that society wants to forget, and the way that outcasts can turn out to be heroes.

Santa Wishlist Pick #8:  The Promise of Amazing by Robin Constantine

Wren Caswell is average. Ranked in the middle of her class at Sacred Heart, she’s not popular, but not a social misfit. Wren is the quiet, “good” girl who's always done what she's supposed to—only now in her junior year, this passive strategy is backfiring. She wants to change, but doesn’t know how.

Grayson Barrett was the king of St. Gabe’s. Star of the lacrosse team, top of his class, on a fast track to a brilliant future—until he was expelled for being a “term paper pimp.” Now Gray is in a downward spiral and needs to change, but doesn’t know how.

One fateful night their paths cross when Wren, working at her family’s Arthurian-themed catering hall, performs the Heimlich on Gray as he chokes on a cocktail weenie, saving his life literally and figuratively. What follows is the complicated, awkward, hilarious, and tender tale of two teens shedding their pasts, figuring out who they are—and falling in love.

 

Santa Wishlist Pick #9:  Icon's of Men's Styles by Josh Sims

 

Behind nearly every item in the modern male wardrobe is a "first of its kind"the definitive item, often designed for specialist use, on which all subsequent versions have been based. Icons of Men's Style examines, garment by garment, the most important and famous of these productstheir provenance and history, the stories of their design, the brand/company that started it all, and how the item shaped the way men dress today.

 

Santa Wishlist Pick #10:  The Trench Book by Nick Foulkes

 

This fall, Assouline presents The Trench Book. a 350-page tribute honoring this iconic outer garment. What began as a military uniform has become a cornerstone of the contemporary wardrobe, largely as a result of its unique combination of form and function. From linen to leather, The Trench Book explores the classic style in all its fabrications and fashions. The mystique of a private investigator's coast, the sinister allure of the leather trench, the seduction of a trench worn with nothing underneath: the trench has a life of its own. In coordination's with Burberry, this richly illustrated and seriously documented volume explores the trench through history, film, fashion, and more. All in all, The Trench Book is the authoritative volume on a timeless coast.

Guest Post: Author Jason Vanhee

Merciful Truth and her brother, Gospel, have just pulled their dead mother into the kitchen and stowed her under the table. It was a long illness, and they wanted to bury her—they did—but it’s far too cold outside, and they know they won’t be able to dig into the frozen ground. The Minister who lives with them, who preaches through his animal form, doesn’t make them feel any better about what they’ve done. Merciful calms her guilty feelings but only until, from the other room, she hears a voice she thought she’d never hear again. It’s her mother’s voice, and it’s singing a lullaby. . . .

The Next One
 

When you’ve got a book coming out (especially your first book) there’s a lot of concern about what’s next. What thing are you going to write to follow up the one that’s forthcoming. It’s an important question, of course, if a little tricky. Because the publication process is so long (so very long) most often a writer is already done with another book, or at least well into one, before the first book’s editorial process is finished. And sometimes an author already has other books sitting in files on their laptop, just waiting for a chance to be freed. You’ve already got the next one ready, is what I’m saying; most of the time, an author already has decided what they want to put out there.

Here's the problem, though.  In traditional publishing, it's not really up to the author.  It turns out to be a complicated mix of the author (me, in this instance), their editor (who, if you're lucky, has great input like my editor Noa Wheeler did), their publisher (Henry Holt, like al publishers, has a very good idea of what they can sell), what the market might like, maybe an agent's input if the writer has one (Victoria Sanders, and she's doing great things for me.).  Even with the best team, though, it's just not possible to say, "Well, I really like this thing, let's get to work on it."  Or it might be, but most likely not.  Instead, you have to think about what you're putting out, and how you can follow up on it.

So you wrote--I wrote, in this case--a young adult horror novel with a sort of alternative history spin to it? Okay, do that again. Not exactly: it could be more of a dark fairy tale; it could skew older, or younger; it could be set in a completely modern, realistic setting. But it can’t probably do all of those things, and it can’t probably do none of those things, either. Which is problematic, if you’re at all like me, with ideas bouncing around your head like dodgeballs, your mind unable to avoid getting hit by them. It’s hard to knuckle down and focus on something that actually fits with your suddenly existent author profile.

I’m working now on a sort of thematic follow up: a historical ghost story that fits pretty squarely into the horror genre. It’s a lot like the book that’s about to come out (Engines of the Broken World, November 5th, in case you’re wondering) and not much like anything else I’ve written. I write a lot of different things: fantasy, historical fiction, so-called mainstream stuff, in adult and young adult varieties. No consistency. No cohesion. Which makes it very hard to build a career, apparently. What I’m trying now is to focus on that, on making the next one work well with the first one, instead of contrasting with it. That’s hard for me. I’m too scattered.

I think it’ll work, though. I’m pretty hopeful. And maybe in a couple years you’ll see The Second Child (working title only) on the shelf next to Engines. It’s going to be a good book. Creepy and sad and maybe a little hopeful. At least the version that’s only in my head is great. Time will tell if it is my actual Next One, if it makes up part of my mix of elements. All I can do, though, all any of us can do, is get to the writing.

About the Author:
 

 

Jason Vanhee was born and raised in Seattle, Washington and still calls it home. He writes in several genres and styles, including contemporary fiction, historical fiction, young adult, fantasy and horror. He once drank at every bar in the city of Seattle in a year in order to get out more often. He has worked around the world on Semester at Sea, which still amazes him. He once appeared in a movie that was never released and as a result has a filmography scattered about the Internet that is essentially imaginary. He hopes to release a book every eight weeks for all of 2011, and then see what happens.

 

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Countdown: November 2013

While the month of October is one of my favorites (your birthday month usually is) I find that November has always been an exciting and fun time of year as well.  Everyone is always running around trying (and usually failing) to get ready for the December holidays, visiting family, booking those trips and making travel plans.  Its all usually a whirlwind and sometimes I find myself feeling a bit frayed at the edges, but I love it nonetheless!  So amid all the chaos that the holidays usually bring all of us, I enjoy counting down for the books that will hit the shelves and hopefully carving out some time to take a break and lose myself in their pages.

Countdown Pick #1:  Broken by C.J. Lyons (11/05/2013)

New York Times bestselling author CJ Lyons makes her YA debut with a fast-paced thriller sure to keep readers guessing to the very last page

The only thing fifteen-year-old Scarlet Killian has ever wanted is a chance at a normal life. Diagnosed with a rare and untreatable heart condition, she has never taken the school bus. Or giggled with friends during lunch. Or spied on a crush out of the corner of her eye. So when her parents offer her three days to prove she can survive high school, Scarlet knows her time is now... or never. Scarlet can feel her heart beating out of control with every slammed locker and every sideways glance in the hallway. But this high school is far from normal. And finding out the truth might just kill Scarlet before her heart does.

I thought the premise of this one was interesting enough and that was before the mention of the non-normal school our main character is attending.  Now my curiosity is definitely piqued, and if you haven't already done so, make sure you add this title to your 2013 Debut Author Challenge lists.

 

Countdown Pick #2:  Burning Paradies by Robert Charles Wilson (11/05/2013)

 

Cassie Klyne, nineteen years old, lives in the United States in the year 2015—but it’s not our United States, and it’s not our 2015.

Cassie’s world has been at peace since the Great Armistice of 1918. There was no World War II, no Great Depression. Poverty is declining, prosperity is increasing everywhere; social instability is rare. But Cassie knows the world isn’t what it seems. Her parents were part of a group who gradually discovered the awful truth: that for decades—back to the dawn of radio communications—human progress has been interfered with, made more peaceful and benign, by an extraterrestrial entity. That by interfering with our communications, this entity has tweaked history in massive and subtle ways. That humanity is, for purposes unknown, being farmed.

Cassie’s parents were killed for this knowledge, along with most of the other members of their group. Since then, the survivors have scattered and gone into hiding. Cassie and her younger brother Thomas now live with her aunt Nerissa, who shares these dangerous secrets. Others live nearby. For eight years they have attempted to lead unexceptional lives in order to escape detection. The tactic has worked.

Until now. Because the killers are back. And they’re not human.

 

Most of you know that science fiction isn't my normal go-to when it comes to books, but there are always a few that catch my eye and this is one of them.  I can't wait to see what all goes on and what type of non-humans readers are dealing with.

 

Countdown Pick #3:  Engines of the Broken World by Jason Vanhee (11/05/2013)

 

Merciful Truth and her brother, Gospel, have just pulled their dead mother into the kitchen and stowed her under the table. It was a long illness, and they wanted to bury her—they did—but it’s far too cold outside, and they know they won’t be able to dig into the frozen ground. The Minister who lives with them, who preaches through his animal form, doesn’t make them feel any better about what they’ve done. Merciful calms her guilty feelings but only until, from the other room, she hears a voice she thought she’d never hear again. It’s her mother’s voice, and it’s singing a lullaby. . . .


There isn't one part of this book's synopsis that I really understand.  I have no idea what to expect from a book like this, and the cover alone, once you look close enough is enough to scare me away from reading it for good, but I'm going to ignore the cover for now, and hopefully satisfy my curiosity when this hits the shelves next month.

Countdown Pick #4:  Palace of Spies (Palace of Spies, #1) by Sarah Zettel (11/05/2013)

A warning to all young ladies of delicate breeding who wish to embark upon lives of adventure: Don't. 

Sixteen-year-old Peggy is a well-bred orphan who is coerced into posing as a lady in waiting at the palace of King George I. Life is grand, until Peggy starts to suspect that the girl she's impersonating might have been murdered. Unless Peggy can discover the truth, she might be doomed to the same terrible fate. But in a court of shadows and intrigue, anyone could be a spy—perhaps even the handsome young artist with whom Peggy is falling in love . . . History and mystery spark in this effervescent series debut.

Fun and light, and I'll admit that the first sentence of the synopsis alone had me laughing and wanting to read more.  I'm always on the lookout for a new series to pick up and start, and I think this is a good place to go to for the Fall.

 

Countdown Pick #5:  The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (11/05/2013)

 

Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But it’s not a skill that she’s ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they’ve begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie.

What Cassie doesn’t realize is that there’s more at risk than a few unsolved homicides— especially when she’s sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own.

Sarcastic, privileged Michael has a knack for reading emotions, which he uses to get inside Cassie’s head—and under her skin. Brooding Dean shares Cassie’s gift for profiling, but keeps her at arm’s length.

Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms closer than Cassie could ever have imagined. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive.

In My Mailbox (113)

This is a meme that I first heard about from Kristi over at The Story Siren and immediately wanted to jump on board. I'm always picking up new books, because I never tire of reading, but the other thing I like about this meme is that it gives everyone an opportunity to check out what other book fanatics, bloggers, etc... got for themselves. I've gotten great recommendations from this meme and hope that keeps up in the future.

Here's what I got, what did you guys get this week?

For Review:

 

 

 

Red Hill by Jamie McGuire (Thanks to Simon & Schuster)

 

When the world ends, can love survive?

For Scarlet, raising her two daughters alone makes fighting for tomorrow an everyday battle. Nathan has a wife, but can’t remember what it’s like to be in love; only his young daughter Zoe makes coming home worthwhile. Miranda’s biggest concern is whether her new VW Bug is big enough to carry her sister and their boyfriends on a weekend escape from college finals.

When reports of a widespread, deadly “outbreak” begin to surface, these ordinary people face extraordinary circumstances and suddenly their fates are intertwined. Recognizing they can’t outrun the danger, Scarlet, Nathan, and Miranda desperately seek shelter at the same secluded ranch, Red Hill. Emotions run high while old and new relationships are tested in the face of a terrifying enemy—an enemy who no longer remembers what it’s like to be human.

Set against the backdrop of a brilliantly realized apocalyptic world, love somehow finds a way to survive. But what happens when the one you’d die for becomes the one who could destroy you?

Made of Stars by Kelley York (Thanks to Entangled Teen)

 

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?

Engines of the Broken World by Jason Vanhee (Thanks to Henry Holt and Co.)

 

Merciful Truth and her brother, Gospel, have just pulled their dead mother into the kitchen and stowed her under the table. It was a long illness, and they wanted to bury her—they did—but it’s far too cold outside, and they know they won’t be able to dig into the frozen ground. The Minister who lives with them, who preaches through his animal form, doesn’t make them feel any better about what they’ve done. Merciful calms her guilty feelings but only until, from the other room, she hears a voice she thought she’d never hear again. It’s her mother’s voice, and it’s singing a lullaby. . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Forgotten Ones (The Danaan Trilogy, #1) by Laura Howard (Thanks to Indie Inked)

 

Allison O'Malley's plan is to go to grad school so she can get a good job and take care of her schizophrenic mother. She has carefully closed herself off from everything else, including a relationship with Ethan, who she's been in love with for as long as she can remember.

What is definitely not part of the plan is the return of her long-lost father, who claims he can bring Allison's mother back from the dark place her mind has gone. Allison doesn't trust her father, so why would she believe his stories about a long forgotten Irish people, the Tuatha de Danaan? But truths have a way of revealing themselves. Secrets will eventually surface. And Allison must learn to set aside her plan and work with her father if there is even a small chance it could restore her mother's sanity.