Continuing On (4)

Sometimes I find myself getting so caught up counting down to new releases that I forget about some of the books and series that I'm looking forward to continuing on.  So recently I went back through and checked in with some of my favorites to see what was going on.  I'll admit I was surprised (in a good way) to find that new installments had come out within a series I'd enjoyed.  So rather than counting down in these posts, I decided to list some titles that have come out that I need to back track and read in order to catch up.  Here are just a few...

Catch Up #1:  The Calling (Darkness Rising, #2) by Kelley Armstrong

Maya Delaney's paw-print birthmark is the mark of what she truly is -a skin-walker. She can run faster, climb higher, and see better than nearly everyone else. Experiencing intense connections with the animals that roam the woods outside her home, Maya knows it's only a matter of time before she's able to Shift and become one of them. And she believes there may be others in her small town with surprising talents.

Now Maya and her friends have been forced to flee from their homes during a forest fire they suspect was deliberately set. Then they're kidnapped, and after a chilling helicopter crash, they find themselves in the Vancouver Island wilderness with nothing but their extraordinary abilities to help them get back home.

In THE CALLING, the sizzling second book in the Darkness Rising trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong pumps up the romance, danger, and suspense that left readers of THE GATHERING clamoring for more.

I shouldn't have let myself fall behind on this one!  With the third installment having come out last month I've got to get in the game so I don't miss out.  Armstrong had me on the edge of my seat with her cliffhanger in the series opener, The Gathering, and I want to dig in and see where she'll take us next.

Catch Up #2:   Override (Glitch, #2) by Heather Anastasiu

Zoe is free. She has escaped the enslavement of the Community, disconnected from the hardware that had controlled her every thought and emotion, and evaded capture by the Chancellor intent on killing her. She is finally free, but she is far from safe.

Zoe and Adrien hide themselves from detection at the Foundation, an academy that trains teen glitchers to fight in the Resistance movement. Together, Zoe and her new team of superhuman fighters must risk their lives to rescue other glitchers and humans from the Chancellor's control. Challenges abound at every turn, and Adrien, who has become silent, distant, and tormented by his visions of the future, only adds to the growing certainty of defeat. But worst of all, as Zoe's team fights against impossible odds, distrust and betrayal leads to the terrible discovery that their greatest threat could already be lurking behind the safe walls of the Foundation.

Full of high-adrenaline action and shocking twists, Heather Anastasiu's Override is an exciting continuation of this popular young adult trilogy.

This is the book that started these posts.  I went to check online for a release date for this title only to find that it's already on the shelves!  The third in the series, Shutdown will be following close on its heels in July and I'm not going to let it slip away.  I want to see if the gang can get their revolution together and bring down the bad guys!

Catch Up #3:  Accused (Ganzfield, #4) by Kate Kaynak

"We have ways of making you talk."

Who now has Isaiah's files?
Someone in the government knows about Ganzfield... and he has special reasons to target Maddie.

So its not that I forgot about this series.  I just came into discovering the Ganzfield series a little late and I'm doing my best now to get caught up as quickly as I can.  I did manage to get myself a copy of this book and have already started it and will posting a review soon.  Kaynak is a machine and has popped out Operative and Soul Mate already, with Solitary releasing this year as well.  Its a lot to get through but I'm loving this series so its no hard feat.  I'm not sure how Kaynak has managed to keep everything going, keep the material constantly exciting and interesting, not to mention coming up with all these crazy ideas for how to further the plot and keep things moving forward, but somehow she's done it and I'm hoping has no plans to stop any time soon.

Catch Up #4:  Hallowed (Unearthly, #2) by Cynthia Hand

For months Clara Gardner trained to face the fire from her visions, but she wasn't prepared for the choice she had to make that day. And in the aftermath, she discovered that nothing about being part angel is as straightforward as she thought.

Now, torn between her love for Tucker and her complicated feelings about the roles she and Christian seem destined to play in a world that is both dangerous and beautiful, Clara struggles with a shocking revelation: Someone she loves will die in a matter of months. With her future uncertain, the only thing Clara knows for sure is that the fire was just the beginning.

In this compelling sequel to Unearthly, Cynthia Hand captures the joy of first love, the anguish of loss, and the confusion of becoming who you are.

I don't want this series to end!  I've got this sequel on my Kindle already but was waiting for Boundless, the third and final installment in the series to come out so I could bang them out all at once.  But of course I'm slacking and now have to catch up.  From what I've heard the series ending was great but bittersweet...I'm looking forward to seeing for myself if this is true.

In My Mailbox (85)

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:

Where She Went (If I Stay, #2) by Gayle Forman

It's been three years since the devastating accident . . . three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life forever.

Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Juilliard's rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia's home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future-and each other.

Told from Adam's point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.

Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg

A hilarious new novel from Elizabeth Eulberg about taking the wall out of the wallflower so she can bloom.

Don't mess with a girl with a great personality!

Everybody loves Lexi. She's popular, smart, funny...but she's never been one of those girls, the pretty ones who get all the attention from guys. And on top of that, her seven-year-old sister, Mackenzie, is a terror in a tiara, and part of a pageant scene where she gets praised for her beauty (with the help of fake hair and tons of makeup).

Lexi's sick of it. She's sick of being the girl who hears about kisses instead of getting them. She's sick of being ignored by her longtime crush, Logan. She's sick of being taken for granted by her pageant-obsessed mom. And she's sick of having all her family's money wasted on a phony pursuit of perfection.

The time has come for Lexi to step out from the sidelines. Girls without great personalities aren't going to know what hit them. Because Lexi's going to play the beauty game - and she's in it to win it.

Thin Space by Jody Casella (Thanks to Simon Pulse)

Ever since the car accident that killed his twin brother, Marshall Windsor has been consumed with guilt and crippled by secrets of that fateful night. He has only one chance to make amends, to right his wrongs and set things right. He must find a Thin Space—a mythical point where the barrier between this world and the next is thin enough for a person to step through to the other side. 

But, when a new girl moves into the house next door, the same house Marsh is sure holds a thin space, she may be the key—or the unraveling of all his secrets.

As they get closer to finding a thin space—and closer to each other—Marsh must decide once and for all how far he’s willing to go to right the wrongs of the living…and the dead.

Accused (Ganzfield, #4) by Kate Kaynak

"We have ways of making you talk."

Who now has Isaiah's files?
Someone in the government knows about Ganzfield... and he has special reasons to target Maddie.

Review: Adversary (Ganzfield, #2) by Kate Kaynak

Things are more dangerous than they seem at Ganzfield, and not everyone will survive.  Does Maddie have what it takes? See what happens next in the sequel to Minder.

After all the excitement in the series opener I wasn't sure what to expect with the sequel.  Kaynak really knows how to pack a punch for her readers, and that transferred over into this second installment.  Maddie and the rest of Ganzfield is back with force, but now that they're more familiar with their enemy the stakes were of course raised.

While they might have thought by knowing the identity behind the latest bad guy that things would start to fall into place and perhaps a plan of action would formulate quickly, they were a little too hopeful.  I knew Kaynak wouldn't take it easy on her readers this time around and I was right.  Lots of action going on this time around as well and it was hard to read some of it.  Kaynak had a way with creating her characters in the opener that had me and I'm sure many other readers instantly feeling like they were close friends and family.  So when readers start to see that things aren't going to go smoothly for these characters, at times it was hard to just sit back and watch.

There were surprises, lots of action like I said, of course some more romance, and twists and turns thrown in that at times made me dizzy with all the suspense thrown my way.  Her writing and pacing never gets old or slows down.  With a few new faces on the scene and with even more danger on the horizon, I was glued to this book and wasn't satisfied until I read the very last page.  Even then I was instantly wanting to reach for the third installment.

I'm coming into this series a little late in the game, but for those of you out there in the same boat as me, do yourself a favor and dive into this series so that you can make up for lost time.

I gave Adversary (Ganzfield, #2) 3 shamrocks!!!

Review: Minder (Ganzfield, #1) by Kate Kaynak

Sixteen-year-old Maddie Dunn is special, but she needs to figure out how to use her new abilities before somebody else gets hurt. Ganzfield is a secret training facility full of people like her, but it's not exactly a nurturing place. 

Every social interaction carries the threat of mind-control. 

A stray thought can burn a building to the ground. 

And people's nightmares don't always stay in their own heads. But it's still better than New Jersey. Especially once she meets the man of her dreams...

Love, Love, Love!  Kate Kaynak has now been added to my list of favorite authors.  I can't help it, she's got me hooked on this series with no chance of resisting.  I hate that I waited so long to start this series, but I'm excited that there are already several installments in the series available so that I can power right on through the series without having to wait for new installments to hit the shelves, which I love!  No countdowns in my future for this series at the moment which is always a welcome outcome.

I'll admit that I've always been a fan of X-Men, whether it was the comics, movies, etc...it didn't matter, I was an avid fan.  I'm not saying that this series lines up with that exactly, but there is a good amount of similarities that I've found between the two and it's very different from a lot of the other YA titles that I've been reading which I think helped boost my excitement levels as well.

Maddie, Trevor, Cecilia, Drew, you name it and I became a quick cheerleader for Kaynak's characters in this series.  Her writing is fresh and fun, as well as capable of throwing me into anxiety with her tension inducing action sequences where to be honest I wasn't sure what to expect with each turn of the page.  I was kept on my toes and had fun throughout the entire read.  Like I said I have already decided that I want to continue to read the rest of this series as quickly as possible and I'm so thankful that not only are there plenty of other installments out on the shelves now, but that I already have the next two on my bookshelves at home to start right away!

I gave Minder (Ganzfield, #1) 4 shamrocks!!!!