In My Mailbox (105)

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:

 

Shadows of Glass (Ashes Trilogy, #2) by Kassy Tayler (Thanks to St. Martin's Griffing)

 

Wren's world has changed. The thing that she fought for, escaping the dome has come to fruition, but it's not the paradise she thought it would be. Most of the shiners have died, and according to James, she is to blame for many of the deaths, a burden which sits heavy on her shoulders. Still some have survived and Wren is determined to keep them safe as they fight to establish a home outside while hiding from the rovers who have weapons that can kill from far away. But as long as she has Pace she knows everything will be fine. Still Wren wonders, as she sees the smoke that continually pours forth from the dome, how did her friends inside fare? Will they ever find out if Lucy, David, Jill and Harry, along with Pace's mother survive the explosions?

Meanwhile, someone else has also seen the smoke. A band of explorers from across the sea arrive in an airship, curious about the dome, and offering help to those who survive. When Wren meets the handsome Levi Addison, she suddenly questions her love for Pace as Levi offers to show her the world from his airship. Does she really love Pace? Or was it just the circumstances that made her think she did? Meanwhile, word arrives from inside via Pip, and Wren is forced to go back inside the dome, a thing that terrifies her more than anything else, to save her friends. Once she's back inside will she be able to escape again?

A whirlwind of adventure, romance, conspiracy and the struggle to stay alive in a dystopian world where nothing is as it seems.

 

All Our Pretty Songs by Sarah McCarry (Thanks to St. Martin's Griffin)

 

The first book in an exciting YA trilogy, this is the story of two best friends on the verge of a terrifying divide when they begin to encounter a cast of strange and mythical characters.

Set against the lush, magical backdrop of the Pacific Northwest, two inseparable best friends who have grown up like sisters—the charismatic, mercurial, and beautiful Aurora and the devoted, soulful, watchful narrator—find their bond challenged for the first time ever when a mysterious and gifted musician named Jack comes between them. Suddenly, each girl must decide what matters most: friendship, or love. What both girls don’t know is that the stakes are even higher than either of them could have imagined. They’re not the only ones who have noticed Jack’s gift; his music has awakened an ancient evil—and a world both above and below which may not be mythical at all. The real and the mystical; the romantic and the heartbreaking all begin to swirl together, carrying the two on journey that is both enthralling and terrifying.

And it’s up to the narrator to protect the people she loves—if she can.

 

The Uprising (The Forsaken, #2) by Lisa M. Stasse (Thanks to Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

 

In this dystopian sequel to The Forsaken, Alenna has survived the brutality of life on the wheel—and now she’s going back for more.

Alenna escaped. It was expected that she would die on the wheel, the island where would-be criminals are sent as directed by the UNA—the totalitarian supercountry that was once the United States, Mexico, and Canada. But Alenna and her boyfriend, Liam, made it to safety. Except safety, they will soon learn, is relative.

In order to bring down the UNA, they must first gain control of the wheel. If the mission succeeds, the wheel will become a base of revolution. But between betrayals, a new Monk leading a more organized army of Drones, and the discovery of a previously unknown contingent, Alenna, Liam, and their allies might be in over their heads. One thing Alenna knows for sure: There will be a reckoning. And not everyone she loves will make it out alive.

Poison Princess (The Arcana Chronicles, #1) by Kresley Cole

Evangeline “Evie” Greene, 16, leads a charmed life until her horrifying hallucinations predict a disaster that decimates her Louisiana hometown. She joins classmate Jack - with his mile-long rap sheet, wicked grin, bad attitude - and 22 other teens, as an ancient prophesy re-enacts the ultimate battle between good and evil. But who is on which side?








Countdown: July 2013 (3)

So July has always marked that middle point for me in the Summer where we're in the thick of it, I'm usually complaining about the heat and seeking shelter anywhere air conditioning can be found at full blast, and hopefully a vacation is in the works to give me a break from reality.  If a vacation hasn't been planned or is still a ways off, I always look to my books to get me through the high temperatures and regret that I no longer get my summers off, all part of being an adult and all that.  Not really what it's cracked up to be....this being responsible and productive bit.  So I'm always on the lookout for reads that I consider mini vacations, breaks from the bump and grind of every day life.  We've got fireworks, good BBQ foods, usually a few parties thrown and good reads all around!

Countdown Pick #1:  Breaking Glass by Lisa Amowitz (07/09/2013)

On the night seventeen-year-old Jeremy Glass winds up in the hospital with a broken leg and a blood alcohol level well above the legal limit, his secret crush, Susannah, disappears. When he begins receiving messages from her from beyond the grave, hes not sure whether they're real or if he's losing his grip on reality. Clue by clue, he gets closer to unraveling the mystery, and soon realizes he must discover the truth or become the next victim himself.

I kind of like that there isn't too much to go on with this book's description because my mind is going all sorts of crazy trying to think of all the possibilities of where this book will take it's readers.  It sounds like it has the potential to be loaded with suspense and action as well as a good bit of mystery and I'm always looking for something to add to my list that might break it up from what I'm normally finding myself reading.  It's always nice to change things up once in a while.

Countdown Pick #2:  All Our Pretty Songs by Sarah McCarry (07/30/2013)

The first book in an exciting YA trilogy, this is the story of two best friends on the verge of a terrifying divide when they begin to encounter a cast of strange and mythical characters.

Set against the lush, magical backdrop of the Pacific Northwest, two inseparable best friends who have grown up like sisters—the charismatic, mercurial, and beautiful Aurora and the devoted, soulful, watchful narrator—find their bond challenged for the first time ever when a mysterious and gifted musician named Jack comes between them. Suddenly, each girl must decide what matters most: friendship, or love. What both girls don’t know is that the stakes are even higher than either of them could have imagined. They’re not the only ones who have noticed Jack’s gift; his music has awakened an ancient evil—and a world both above and below which may not be mythical at all. The real and the mystical; the romantic and the heartbreaking all begin to swirl together, carrying the two on journey that is both enthralling and terrifying.

And it’s up to the narrator to protect the people she loves—if she can.

How good does this one sound?  And the first installment in a trilogy at that?  I'm excited and curious to find out more about this narrator that we're not given the name of, and the triangle that seems to develop between her best friend and this boy named Jack.  Can't wait to see what kinds of dark and twisted stuff these characters find themselves in the middle of and how they're going to get themselves out.

Countdown Pick #3:  45 Pounds (More or Less) by K.A. Barson (07/11/2013)

Here are the numbers of Ann Galardi’s life:

She is 16.
And a size 17.
Her perfect mother is a size 6.
Her Aunt Jackie is getting married in 10 weeks, and wants Ann to be her bridesmaid.
So Ann makes up her mind: Time to lose 45 pounds (more or less) in 2 1/2 months.

Welcome to the world of infomercial diet plans, wedding dance lessons, embarrassing run-ins with the cutest guy Ann’s ever seen—-and some surprises about her NOT-so-perfect mother. 

And there’s one more thing. It’s all about feeling comfortable in your own skin-—no matter how you add it up!

Early reviews have had nothing but positive and downright glowing things to say in regards to this future release and I'm totally on board!  Since I've recently in the past year or so have had several friends walking down the aisle I've become intimately acquainted with all things related to being a bridesmaids or maid of honor.  I'd love the chance to commiserate with these characters and maybe get a laugh or two out of the experience as well.

Countdown Pick #4:  The Forgotten (The Lux Guardians, #1) by Saruuh Kelsey (07/30/2013)

Good and goodness will prevail.

Honour and Horatia Frie are twins living in a world of wreck and ruin. 

Forgotten London is a dismal place of containment, rationing, and a four-family-per-house regulation. Twenty five years ago the world was set ablaze when solar flares obliterated three quarters of the Earth’s population and wiped out whole continents in one blow. The flares brought with them The Sixteen Strains: agonizing and fatal diseases that plague each of the forty one zones of Forgotten London and the rest of the world. The only places that escaped fatal damage were two countries now known as The Cities – States and Bharat. The rest of the world – The Forgotten Lands – is contained within borders for the people’s protection against even deadlier Strains outside the barrier. But fifteen year old Honour thinks differently. He thinks that they’re kept inside the fence for other, more menacing reasons. He thinks that States are planning to kill them. 

Branwell and Bennet Ravel are twins living in a world of danger and secrecy.

In Victorian London, years before the solar flares hit, the Ravels’ world has just been turned upside down. Their father, poisoned by something even genius Branwell can’t determine, has passed away. His dying words were unnerving orders to keep each other safe no matter the cost, and to hide everything he has ever invented. When one of his creations goes missing – a device named The Lux that can generate unlimited energy – the twins are shocked to discover that their very own government has stolen it and, according to their father’s journals, are planning to use it to create unfathomable explosions to destroy their world.

The Ravel twins will have to find and reclaim The Lux if they are to stop their world’s planned destruction, but when they’re transported to an unfamiliar, derelict world, the search for the device will become harder than ever. Honour and Horatia, against all odds, will have to find a way to stop States before the remainder of Earth is eradicated and their world is lost for good, or somehow get every single citizen of Forgotten London outside of the fence.

Looks like we've got another dystopian release on our hands you guys!  I'm always up for another book to add to my library in what's quickly becoming one of my favorite genres and this one sounds like a good place to start.

Countdown Pick #5:  Indelible (The Twixt, #1) by Dawn Metcalf (07/30/2013)

Some things are permanent.

Indelible.

And they cannot be changed back.

Joy Malone learns this the night she sees a stranger with all-black eyes across a crowded room—right before the mystery boy tries to cut out her eye. Instead, the wound accidentally marks her as property of Indelible Ink, and this dangerous mistake thrusts Joy into an incomprehensible world—a world of monsters at the window, glowing girls on the doorstep, and a life that will never be the same.

Now, Joy must pretend to be Ink’s chosen one—his helper, his love, his something for the foreseeable future...and failure to be convincing means a painful death for them both. Swept into a world of monsters, illusion, immortal honor and revenge, Joy discovers that sometimes, there are no mistakes.

Somewhere between reality and myth lies…

THE TWIXT

This one doesn't require me to say much, other than the fact that these countdowns can sometimes turn out to be not so much fun!  I keep coming across these great future releases and realize that they won't be hitting the shelf for what feels like a very long time....definitely a bummer!