Friday, January 3, 2014

Fluent Fridays 3 - Promising Books of January 2014

/ No comments:
With a new year comes lots and lots of new literature! It seems that every year, there are more and more Young Adult books published. So many, in fact, that when I look at a list that features as many of those releases as possible, my mind screams in delight as my wallet weeps. Boy this genre is sure popular.

Instead of putting a list of ALL the YA novels that are coming out this year, I'm just going to mention a few that I think look *promising*. Get your 'To Be Read' lists ready, people!

January 2014



Title - Cruel Beauty
Series - Cruel Beauty Series #1
Release Date - January 28th, 2014
Author - Rosamund Hodge

Based on the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been training to kill him.

With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle, a shifting maze of magical rooms, enthralls her.

As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.







Title - Into the Still Blue
Series - Under the Never Sky #3 (FINALLY)
Release Date - January 28th, 2014
Author - Veronica Rossi

Their love and their leadership have been tested. Now it's time for Perry and Aria to unite the Dwellers and the outsiders in one last desperate attempt to bring balance to their world.

The race to the Still Blue has reached a stalemate. Aria and Perry are determined to find this last safe-haven from the aether storms before Sable and Hess do-and they are just as determined to stay together.

Meanwhile, time is running out to rescue Cinder, who was abducted by Hess and Sable for his unique abilities. And when Roar returns to camp, he is so furious with Perry that he won't even look at him, and Perry begins to feel like they have already lost.

Out of options, Perry and Aria assemble a team to mount an impossible rescue mission-because Cinder isn't just the key to unlocking the Still Blue and their only hope for survival, he's also their friend. And in a dying world, the bonds between people are what matter most.

In this final book in her stunning
Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi raises the stakes to their absolute limit and brings her epic love story to an unforgettable close.





Title - Her Dark Curiosity
Series - The Madman's Daughter #2
Release Date - January 28th, 2014
Author - Megan Shepherd


Months have passed since Juliet Moreau returned to civilization after escaping her father's island-and the secrets she left behind. Now back in London once more, she is rebuilding the life she once knew and trying to forget Dr. Moreau's horrific legacy-though someone, or something, hasn't forgotten her.

As people close to Juliet fall victim one by one to a murderer who leaves a macabre calling card of three claw-like slashes, Juliet fears one of her father's creations may have also escaped the island. She is determined to find the killer before Scotland Yard does, though it means awakening sides of herself she had thought long banished, and facing loves from her past she never expected to see again.

As Juliet strives to stop a killer while searching for a serum to cure her own worsening illness, she finds herself once more in the midst of a world of scandal and danger. Her heart torn in two, past bubbling to the surface life threatened by an obsessive killer-Juliet will be lucky to escape alive.

With inspiration from Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, this is a tantalizing mystery about the hidden natures of those we love and how far we'll go to save the, from themselves.


 


Title - Minders
Series - None
Release Date - January 30th, 2013
Author - Michelle Jaffe


Q: If the boy you love commits a crime, would you turn him in?
Sadie Ames is a type-A teenager from the wealthy suburbs. She's been accepted to the prestigious Mind Corps Fellowship program, where she'll spend six weeks as an observer inside the head of Ford, a troubled boy with a passion for the crumbling architecture of the inner city. There's just one problem: Sadie's fallen in love with him.

Q: What if the crime is murder?
For Winter is haunted by the murder of his older brother, James. As Sadie falls deeper into his world, dazzled by the shimmering pinpricks of color that forms images in his mind she begins to think she knows him. Then Ford does something unthinkable.

Q: What if you saw it happen from the inside of his mind?
Back in her own body, Sadie is faced with the ultimate dilemma. With Ford's life in her hands, she must decide what is right and what is wrong. And how well can she really ever know someone, even someone she loves?


 


Title - The Rule of Three
Series - None
Release Date - January 21st, 2014
Author - Eric Walters


One shocking afternoon, computers around the globe shut down in a viral catastrophe. At sixteen-year-old Adam Daley's high school, the problem first seems to be a typical electrical outage, until students discover that cell phones are down, municipal utilities are failing, and a few computer-free cars like Adam's are the only vehicles that function.

Driving home, Adam encounters a storm tide of anger and fear as the region becomes paralyzed. Soon- as resource dwindle, crises mount, and chaos descends-he will see his suburban neighborhood band together for protection. And Adam will understand that having a police captain for a mother and a retired government spy living next door are not just facts of his life but the keys to his survival in, The Rule of Three by Eric Walters.



Other Upcoming 2014 Releases

And now for other releases that I simply cannot wait for!!
*All images lead to Goodreads.

  
  


This was part of:




Friday, November 8, 2013

Fluent Fridays 2 - Picking Favorites

/ No comments:

"What's your favorite book/series/author/etc?"

One of the hardest things about being a reader, I think, is having to pick favorites. Favorite books, favorite authors, covers, characters, etc.

I chose to briefly discuss the cruel concept of having to pick favorites because of the currently running Goodreads Choice Awards 2013.


What makes it hard to pick who or what I love most about books? I think it's because there are so many options out there; we are surrounded by literature, and when we think we've fallen in love with one, a new book comes out and blows us all away!

For the longest time, I didn't have any novels that I would do anything to get my hands on. I mean, I (really really) liked a lot of them, re-read some of them a couple of times, but nothing ever err stirred my blood? o.o' That is, until I read a certain title called The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. And then I read and re-read and re-read and re-read Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes in one sitting. Immediately after, I discovered The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. All in the timeframe of a couple of months.

  

When it comes to series, I've fallen for so many this year. I'm obsessed, addicted, and consumed by the series and, by default, their authors:

The Raven Cycle
by Maggie Stiefvater

1 - The Raven Boys
2 - The Dream Thieves

I've lost count of how many times I've read The Raven Boys while I was waiting for The Dream Thieves to come out. And now I own the second Raven Cycle title which is signed and doodled on by Stiefvater herself!

Book 3 comes out sometime in 2014. Book 4? 2015. Which is not OK at all.
INEEDMOREGANSEYANDRONANANDBLUEINMYLIFE!!!


Throne of Glass

2 - Crown of Midnight (THE TWISTS)

Sarah J. Maas is a tremendously wonderful writer. And if you have never heard of or read this series yet, WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR LIFE? BUY THEM BOTH NAO!!

Books 3-6 come out from 2014-2017. TT.TT


The Selection

2 - The Elite (Be prepared...)
3 - The One (May 6th, 2014)

Kiera Cass puts an interesting twist on the classic story of Cinderella. She is also a funny author who likes to connect (a lot) with her readers.


The Chronicles of Elantra

10 - Cast in Flame (2014)

There's already 9 books out (with one expected to be published in 2014) and yet the story has JUST BEGUN. I own title 8, Cast in Peril ^^ but still haven't read title 9, Cast in Sorrow. Not by choice!


The Undead


Vanpires and werewolves and all things that go bump in the night... This series is hilarious, bloody, and dirty. But mostly, it's hilarious and I love it all!



So would I say that these are my favorite books/series of all time? Yes but no. I feel like the term "favorite" is too limited. I am infatuated with the titles listed, but there are so many others that I will never forget and will never 'get over' because it's hard. And most of all, I don't want to have to pick this over that.

Why can't other people get that? Why do they expect me to have one that I prefer above all others? e.e 

Stop asking me that question.


Friday, October 25, 2013

Fluent Fridays 1 - Why Will I Read Thee? I

/ No comments:


        Judging.
It's the thing of which most of us don't like to admit we're guilty. Why? We've always been told that it's "bad" for us, that we'll end up burning in the pits of hell or something if we do it. There are signs everywhere screaming "DON'T JUDGE!!!" I mean, we do it anyway and we know that every body else does it but we always act like we don't which is ridiculous. Well today, I have a confession to make...


The truth is, I judge a lot. Like, a lot; the amount of judging that demands the underlining of the words 'a lot'. If I didn't, there are a lot of books that I probably would have never read. Which brings me to ask the question - What motivates us to pick up certain books but not others?

For me, it's most often the cover of a book that's luring. It took me a while to realize that I judged books by their covers, though; It was such a shocking revelation! "What? I do this?!?!?" After contemplating whether or not to change this "bad" habit, I decided to pay more attention to it instead. What I found out was this:

I'm particularly fond of hardcover books with girls wearing flowing dresses featured on the cover. Which I find kind of weird... because it's so random? I don't know, it's just weird to me. What's weirder is the fact that more than half of every book I pick up was the same thing: girl, in flowing dress, flowing hair, dark atmosphere.

   


Furthermore, if there's a girl on the cover (or any body parts that suggests it's a girl), I will read it. No flowing anything required.
    

Seriously, my read list has been invaded by girls! Or more specifically, kick-ass chicks who don't know when to give up. And why am I so attracted to such covers? It's more than just "Oooh! It's so pretty!" (Although there is that, too). It's the power of femininity. I'm intrigued by it. I want to read about it and experience it every chance I get. We live on a world that's too crowded with males here and males there (I feel). We don't hear enough about women who did something that meant something even though they exist. And that, my friends, 'erks' me to the point where I have to go find such stories elsewhere.

Maybe it's a really unusual reason for deciding to read a book? But for me, this is how it starts: with the promise of the importance of a female role. And dresses. Lots and lots of dresses.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...