In My Mailbox 13th November 2011

In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren where book bloggers can talk about the books they've gotten the past week- whether bought, borrowed, swapped or given for review. This feature was started to increase interaction between bloggers and increase our awareness of all the new books coming out.

Bought:

• The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. I have already read this fabulous series borrowed from the library but The Works bookshop had an offer on the complete set, and I like to own copies of my my favourite series to re-read them. I may try to skim-read these books again before the film comes out.

• Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon. I'm not too sure what this book is about, but I've seen it on so many blogs recently, with some reviews praising it, and some completely trashing it. It was a complete bargain on FishPond World though, so I got it to make my own mind up!

• Here Lies Bridget by Paige Harbison. I love the sound of this one about a mean cheerleader who dies in a car crash and is forced to see what people really think of her, and who has to make amends to all those she had bullied or wronged in the past to find redemption. This was my charity shop bargain find for the week.

From the Library:

• Working Stiff. This is Rachel Caine's latest urban fantasy series featuring zombies.

For Review:

• Borrowing Abby Grace and Girl Steals Guy by Kelly Green. These books are described as a supernatural Nancy Drew, and feature a girl who can jump into the bodies of others to fix the problems in their life.

Received direct from the author with thanks.


Those were the books I got this week- what did you get?
Happy reading!

Review: The Missing by Lisa McMann

The Missing by Lisa McMann


My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Synopsis from Goodreads:
The community of Cryer’s Cross, Montana (population 212) is distraught when high school freshman Tiffany disappears without a trace. Already off-balance due to her OCD, 16-year-old Kendall is freaked out seeing Tiffany’s empty desk in the one-room school house, but somehow life goes on... until Kendall's boyfriend Nico also disappears, and also without a trace. Now the town is in a panic. Alone in her depression and with her OCD at an all-time high, Kendall notices something that connects Nico and Tiffany: they both sat at the same desk. She knows it's crazy, but Kendall finds herself drawn to the desk, dreaming of Nico and wondering if maybe she, too, will disappear...and whether that would be so bad. Then she begins receiving graffiti messages on the desk from someone who can only be Nico. Can he possibly be alive somewhere? Where is he? And how can Kendall help him? The only person who believes her is Jacian, the new guy she finds irritating...and attractive. As Kendall and Jacian grow closer, Kendall digs deeper into Nico's mysterious disappearance only to stumble upon some ugly—and deadly—local history. Kendall is about to find out just how far the townspeople will go to keep their secrets buried.

First off- It's a stand alone book and not part of a series *Hooray!*, and also, for being quite a short novel (only 230 pages) it crams a lot in and is compulsively addictive. Part slow-building romance, part haunting mystery story, it quickly becomes spookily eerie and full of tension and suspense. All the way through this I had absolutely no clue what to expect and zero theories and suspicions as to what could have happened to the missing students- which made me even more desperate to find out and keep reading to the nerve-shredding finale!


Like Lisa McMann's other series the writing in this is a very detached style, with very stilted sentences- but again it works because it suits Kendall's personality. Kendall suffers with OCD, which makes her obsessive about order, routine and counting. The ordered, detached style seems to mirror Kendall's sense of isolation as she struggles to cope with everyday situations and her mind can't switch off focusing on the little details- but this also means that she notices things that other people don't.


The characters in this book is one of the best things about it. The story is set in a very small and close-knit town and there are actually very few characters, but despite this they are all relatable and believable. Kendall herself is a fascinating character- sweet and intelligent but also feisty- she is on the school soccer team and easily fits into her school group despite being the only girl in their year at the tiny local school she attends. The little anecdotes really give the sense that her class have all grown up together and know each other so well. The new guy Jacian (pronounced "Hass-ee-an") is understandably moody and miserable after being uprooted away from his friends into this tiny farming town with no prospects for the sports teams, but he develops into a really caring and understanding person as he are Kendall are increasingly thrown together.


I also really felt for Kendall and her despair when her best friend becomes one of the missing. She takes it so hard and I couldn't help but feel really emotional over the hole in her life. It was also that sense of his loss hanging over her- the not knowing what had happened and if he was ever coming back, making her feel unable to move on and make any plans for the future and college. She clings on to his memory and the hope that he is going to come back again. It is when Kendall thinks that Nico is trying to send her a message that things really start to get strange, making Kendall wonder if she is starting to lose her mind.


I really enjoyed this book, which was emotional and eerie, planting a mystery that left me desperate to know the answers to- and had a creepy building tension mixed with a slow-building new romance, which was very sweet and heartfelt.

• This was published under the title Cryer's Cross in the US and other parts of the world.

The Time Will Come #38

The Time Will Come is a weekly meme hosted by Jodie at Books For Company, where we can spotlight those books that we've had sitting on our shelves for too long. Books that we really want to read but never seem to get around to.
To join in write your own TWC post, drop by Jodie's blog to add your post to the linky, and visit the other blogs.

I won Spellbound by Cara Lynn Shultz from Amber over at Down The Rabbit Hole a few months ago, and I still really want to read it, but I have so many books lined up to read in front of it, I don't know when I'll get the chance. I still think this sounds like a great book though and I'm sure I'll get round to it... one day!

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Life hasn't been easy on sixteen-year-old Emma Connor, so a new start in New York may be just the change she needs. But her new posh Upper East Side prep school? Not so much. Friendly faces are few and far between, except for one that she's irresistibly drawn to — Brendan Salinger, the guy with the rock-star good looks, who is also the richest kid in school.

Even when Brendan inexplicably turns cold, Emma can't stop staring. Ever since she laid eyes on him, strange things have been happening. Streetlamps shatter whenever she walks by, and Emma's been having the oddest dreams. Visions of herself in past lives — visions that warn her to stay away from Brendan. Or else…





Also, I love this cover! It feels very dream-like. You can't see it in the picture but the broken glass shards are all shiny!

Review: Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick

Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick


My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Synopsis from Goodreads:
Alex has run away and is hiking through the wilderness with her dead parents' ashes, about to say goodbye to the life she no longer wants to live. But then the world suddenly changes. An electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky zapping every electronic device and killing the vast majority of adults. For those spared, it's a question of who can be trusted and who has changed... Everyone still alive has turned - some for the better (those who acquired a superhuman sense) while others for the worse (those who acquired a taste for human flesh). Desperate to find out what happened and to avoid the zombies that are on the hunt, Alex meets up with Tom - an Army veteran who escaped one war only to find something worse at home - and Ellie, a young girl whose grandfather was killed by the electromagnetic pulse. This improvised family will have to use every ounce of courage they have just to find food, shelter, while fighting off the 'Changed' and those desperate to stay alive. A tense and involving adventure with shocks and sudden plot twists that will keep teen and adult readers gripped.

I really loved this story- which was at times dark and disturbing, but also a powerful and positive portrayal of humanity banding together to survive against bad odds. What I love about dystopian novels is their ability to throw all societal conventions and laws out the window, to make anything possible, and to show us the real gritty side of the way people behave when the world as we know it is changed beyond recognition. Everything becomes a real struggle just to survive, and we see people behaving at their worst and most selfish, but also those people who will band together and work together to stay alive- sharing limited food and risking their lives for people who had been strangers days before. This book has all of this and more in spades.


The story centres on 17-year-old Alex and the people she meets and loses along the way. At the start of the book she is a desperate teenager dying of a brain tumour and too depressed to be around people. She has decided to hike up her favourite mountain with her parent's ashes, as a final attempt to reclaim the freedom that she has lost in her life and say goodbye to her parents. Out in the wilderness out of nowhere the sky suddenly turns purple, there is an ear-splitting sound and the birds start falling from the sky. The sudden and unexplained Electromagnetic pulse destroys all the technology, kills most of the population outright, and, as Alex soon discovers changes most of the younger members of the population unrecognisably into savage creatures. Those that have survived will do anything to stay alive and keep the new threat in the woods at bay.


The plot is original and well-paced and takes us from an isolated mountain wilderness back to the mean streets of a society battling to survive, and finally to a new guarded village where a few residents have taken complete control and think that they have the answer to the way to survive. Alex herself is tough and resourceful, but also tender and patient when she is saddled with an angry and stubborn 8 year old with issues. She is fiercely loyal to the new friends she makes on her journey back down the mountain. I love the way that despite her stubborn independence she is also very vulnerable, and when she and Ellie find ex-army guy Tom, she is happy to have some of the responsibility off her shoulders. Tom was another of my favourite characters- just someone who is completely kind and selfless. I loved the way this little makeshift family banded together.


This book is very clever and really moving- turning from a story of loss and wilderness survival into a struggle against both zombies and the darker side of human nature. It is at times horrific and gory but still brilliant in it's portrayal of the main characters, who like the focal survivors in a disaster movie you can't help but identify with and root for. Alex was a wonderful lead character who was the right mix of feisty and vulnerable, and has to learn to trust the people she is thrown together with. The second half of the story changes in tone from a desperate escape into trying to accept a new way of life in the village and Alex must use her own resourcefulness to do what she feels is the right thing. The whole book is full of dramatic twists and turns, action and drama. The story left my nerves on edge and the explosive cliff-hanger ending has left me desperate for the next installment of this series.


Thanks to Egmont Publishers and Netgalley.com for the advance e-copy of this book.



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Book 2 in the series Shadows is due to be published late 2012. I already can't wait!

In My Mailbox 6th November 2011

In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren where book bloggers can talk about the books they've gotten the past week- whether bought, borrowed, swapped or given for review. This feature was started to increase interaction between bloggers and increase our awareness of all the new books coming out.


It also gives me a chance to be nosy and see what everyone else has got to read, and so gives me plenty of new books to pine after!

Seriously AMAZING book haul this week- check it out!
 
Bought:
 

 
 
 

I told you!
This week I spent the rest of my Amazon vouchers from my birthday, then I made use of the 10% off discount at The Book Depository, then I discovered an incredible site called FishpondWorld, (an Australian booksite with free worldwide shipping) where I found a lot of the American hardbacks that I had been pining for on Amazon (but which were too expensive) were only about half the price on there. I think I did a little happy dance for nearly all of these when they dropped through the door!
Ones that I am most excited to read are Sweet Venom Tera Lynn Childs, and Tiger's Voyage by Colleen Houck, which is book 3 in the fantastic Tiger series. Reckoning is the 5th and FINAL book in the Strange Angels series which I love so much and can't wait to see how it ends (Team Graves!). So Silver Bright Lisa Matchev is book 3 in the Theatre Illuminata series- I loved book 1, which was so original and fun, but I still haven't read book 2 yet. Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu is a retelling of the fairytale The Snow Queen. Steel by Carrie Vaughn sounds like a fantastic read with action, adventure, pirates and time travel, and then Faerie Ring and Watched- I'm not too sure what they're about but look at how pretty the covers are!
Descended By Blood- fantastic review by Ashley at The Bookish Brunette.
Deadly Cool- this looks like such a funny book- check out this review by Lesley at My Keeper Shelf.
Drink, Slay, Love- It was this review and then the book-boyfriend post by Missie at The Unread Reader that sold this book to me. Vampires and unicorns in a unique supernatural romance story.

From the Library:

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson. I'm really looking forward to reading this book- I've heard so many great things about it. It is a historical book set in London about (or featuring) Jack the Ripper (I think).
 
 
 
 
For Review:
 

 

Saving June  by Hannah Harrington. I didn't originally take any notice of this book, but then the reviews started coming in- all 5 stars! The reviews that I read (that I now can't find grrr!) made it sound so much better than the blurb on the actual book. I don't read a lot of contemporary books but this one looks cool, funny, and heartbreaking all in one- so excited to read this now!
Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder. I love Maria Snyder's books, so even though I'm not entirely sure what this book is about (something magical) I still can't wait to read this book.


Thanks to Harlequin publishers and Netgalley for the advance e-copies of these books.




So, those were the books that came into my house this past week... yikes, I had better get reading...!
What did you get in your mailbox?
Happy reading!