It will most likely be a busy week with last minute preparations for going to Book Expo America next week, but there will at least be a review of The Fear Principle by B. A. Chepaitis this week. I’m hoping to review Eona by Alison Goodman (or maybe Embassytown by China Mieville if I can finish it on time) before leaving as well, but we’ll have to see how it goes – there doesn’t seem to have been as much spare time as usual this month.
This week 3 review copies showed up at my front door.
This is the first book in a young adult dystopian trilogy by a debut author, and it was just released the beginning of this month. The next book doesn’t have a title yet, but the books should be coming out about a year apart with book two in spring/summer 2012 and book three in spring/summer 2013, according to the author’s FAQ page. An excerpt is available on the Harper Collins website.
The premise seems pretty interesting:
In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves… or it might destroy her.
Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.
This is the first book in Darkness Rising series, a new young adult trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong. I’ve been wanting to try a book by Kelley Armstrong, but I’ve only received/been offered books that are several books into her other series so I’m thrilled to get to start with the first book in one of her series. This book came out in April, and the next book in the trilogy, The Calling, will most likely be released in April 2012. An excerpt from The Gathering is available on the publisher’s website.
Strange things are happening in Maya’s tiny Vancouver Island town. First, her friend Serena, the captain of the swim team, drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. Then, one year later, mountain lions are spotted rather frequently around Maya’s home—and her reactions to them are somewhat . . . unexpected. Her best friend, Daniel, has also been experiencing unexplainable premonitions about certain people and situations.
It doesn’t help that the new bad boy in town, Rafe, has a dangerous secret, and he’s interested in one special part of Maya’s anatomy—her paw-print birthmark.
The latest novel by A. Lee Martinez will be released on May 25 (in hardcover and as an ebook). I haven’t read of his books yet, but they’re supposed to be humorous.
Diana’s life was in a rut – she hated her job, she was perpetually single, and she needed a place to live. But then the perfect apartment came along. It seemed too good to be true – because it was.
As it turns out, the apartment was already inhabited – by monsters. Vom the Hungering was the first to greet Diana and to warn her that his sole purpose in life was to eat everything in his path. This poses a problem for Diana since she’s in his path…and is forbidden from ever leaving the apartment.
It turns out though that there are older and more ancient monstrous entities afoot – ones who want to devour the moon and destroy the world as we know it. Can Diana, Vom, and the other horrors stop this from happening? Maybe if they can get Vom to stop eating everything…and everyone.
