2B Tuesday #72

Where I highlight a book from my endless to-be-read list. Those books need love too!

Velveteen by Daniel Marks

Release Date: October 9th 2012
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 464
Genre: Young Adult – Fantasy, Paranormal
Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository
Add it: Goodreads

Velveteen Monroe is dead. At 16, she was kidnapped and murdered by a madman named Bonesaw. But that’s not the problem.

The problem is she landed in purgatory. And while it’s not a fiery inferno, it’s certainly no heaven. It’s gray, ashen, and crumbling more and more by the day, and everyone has a job to do. Which doesn’t leave Velveteen much time to do anything about what’s really on her mind.

Bonesaw.

Velveteen aches to deliver the bloody punishment her killer deserves. And she’s figured out just how to do it. She’ll haunt him for the rest of his days.

It’ll be brutal... and awesome.

But crossing the divide between the living and the dead has devastating consequences. Velveteen’s obsessive haunting cracks the foundations of purgatory and jeopardizes her very soul. A risk she’s willing to take—except fate has just given her reason to stick around: an unreasonably hot and completely off-limits coworker.

Velveteen can’t help herself when it comes to breaking rules... or getting revenge. And she just might be angry enough to take everyone down with her.

I wanted this book since I saw it making its rounds in ARC form and I finally got it long after it had come out. I think the reason I haven’t read it yet is because it is over 400 pages. That is a weakness of mine. They scare me haha. Then I have also heard some mixed reviews on it, even though it has a decent rating on Goodreads. The synopsis makes it sound so awesome though!   

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?

2B Tuesday #71

Where I highlight a book from my endless to-be-read list. Those books need love too!

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S.King

Release Date: October 12th 2010
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf for Young Readers
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 336
Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository
Add it: Goodreads

Vera’s spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she’s kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything.

So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to?

Edgy and gripping, Please Ignore Vera Dietz is an unforgettable novel: smart, funny, dramatic, and always surprising.

I actually own three A.S. King books that I need to read. This book sounds exactly like something I would like. It’s also not too often that I read a funny book and this is described as funny in the synopsis.  Finally, the fact that it has a decent rating on Goodreads and quite a few of my friends on Goodreads have read it and really enjoyed it.

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?

2B Tuesday #70

Where I highlight a book from my endless to-be-read list. Those books need love too!

A Midsummer’s Nightmare by Kody Keplinger

Release Date: June 5th 2012
Publisher: Poppy
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository
Add it: Goodreads

Whitley Johnson's dream summer with her divorcé dad has turned into a nightmare. She's just met his new fiancée and her kids. The fiancée's son? Whitley's one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin' great.

Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother...at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.

Filled with authenticity and raw emotion, Whitley is Kody Keplinger's most compelling character to date: a cynical Holden Caulfield-esque girl you will wholly care about.

This book was on my wish list forever, then one day I saw it on Bookoutlet and knew that I had to get it. Naturally, as with all my other most wanted books, it arrived at my house and has sat on my shelf ever since. I read, and loved, The Duff by Keplinger quite a while ago and I knew I wanted to read her other books. It has a decent rating on Goodreads and some of the people that I follow have rated it a 4 or 5 star book. It will get read eventually.  

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?

2B Tuesday #69

Where I highlight a book from my endless to-be-read list. Those books need love too!

Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Series: White Rabbit Chronicles, #1
Release Date: September 25th 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 404
Genre: Young Adult – Horror
Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository
Add it: Goodreads

She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….

I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently.

I'd tell my sister no.

I'd never beg my mother to talk to my dad.

I'd zip my lips and swallow those hateful words.

Or, barring all of that, I'd hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time.

I'd tell them I love them.

I wish... Yeah, I wish.

I have no excuse for not reading this yet. I love all things Alice in Wonderland related. I own 3 different copies of the book or collection of stories by Lewis Carroll. I have a tattoo drawn up and ready to go that is Alice in Wonderland inspired. I have no excuse. The second book in the series is already out also. I really just need to get on this.  

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?

2B Tuesday #68

Where I highlight a book from my endless to-be-read list. Those books need love too!

What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy by Gregory Maguire

Release Date: September 11th 2007
Publisher:Candlewick Press
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Genre: Young Adult/Children’s - Fantasy
Author: Website | Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository
Add it: Goodreads

From the author of the best-selling WICKED, a transporting tale-within-a-tale about the strange world of skibbereen — aka tooth fairies — and the universal need to believe.

A terrible storm is raging, and ten-year-old Dinah is huddled by candlelight with her brother, sister, and Cousin Gage, who is telling a very unusual tale. It’s the story of What-the-Dickens, a newly hatched orphan creature who finds he has an attraction to teeth, a crush on a cat named McCavity, and a penchant for getting into trouble. One day he happens upon a feisty girl skibberee who is working as an Agent of Change — trading coins for teeth — and learns that there is a dutiful tribe of skibbereen (call them tooth fairies) to which he hopes to belong. As his tale of discovery unfolds, however, both What-the-Dickens and Dinah come to see that the world is both richer and less sure than they ever imagined.

I found this book on the clearance shelf at Half Price Books. I only paid $1 for it. How can I pass up a $1 hardcover about a rogue tooth fairy?! Not gonna happen. I don’t know anything about this book except for what the synopsis says. I haven’t heard anyone talk about it but I will definitely read this eventually.  

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?

2B Tuesday #67

Where I highlight a book from my endless to-be-read list. Those books need love too!

Possess by Gretchen McNeil

Release Date: August 23rd 2011
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 379
Genre: Young Adult - Paranormal
Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository
Add it: Goodreads

Rule #1: Do not show fear.

Rule #2: Do not show pity.

Rule #3: Do not engage.

Rule #4: Do not let your guard down.

Rule #5: They lie.

Fifteen-year-old Bridget Liu just wants to be left alone: by her mom, by the cute son of a local police sergeant, and by the eerie voices she can suddenly and inexplicably hear. Unfortunately for Bridget, it turns out the voices are demons – and Bridget has the rare ability to banish them back to whatever hell they came from.

Terrified to tell people about her new power, Bridget confides in a local priest who enlists her help in increasingly dangerous cases of demonic possession. But just as she is starting to come to terms with her new power, Bridget receives a startling message from one of the demons. Now Bridget must unlock the secret to the demons' plan before someone close to her winds up dead – or worse, the human vessel of a demon king.

I have a thing for books that start out with a list of rules as the synopsis. This has been on my wishlist forever but I actually owned McNeil’s novel Ten first. I loved it and decided that I had to get my hands on this book too. The cover makes it look creepy and I really enjoy a creepy book. It seems to have a good rating on Goodreads too. Hopefully I can get to this book this year. (It’s sad that I have to say ‘this year’).  

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?

2B Tuesday #66

Where I highlight a book from my endless to-be-read list. Those books need love too!

By These Ten Bones by Claire B. Dunkle

Release Date: February 15th 2011
Publisher: Square Fish
Format: Paperback
Pages: 229
Genre: Young Adult - Paranormal, Fantasy
Author: Website | Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository
Add it: Goodreads

There’s hidden places all over this land-old, old places. Places with a chain for them to chain up the wolf when it’s time.

A mysterious young man has come to a small Highland town. His talent for wood carving soon wins the admiration of the weaver’s daughter, Maddie. Fascinated by the silent carver, she sets out to gain his trust, only to find herself drawn into a terrifying secret that threatens everything she loves.

     There is an evil presence in the carver’s life that cannot be controlled, and Maddie watches her town fall under a shadow. One by one, people begin to die. Caught in the middle, Maddie must decide what matters most to her-and what price she is willing to pay to keep it.

I picked up this book based Solely on Misty’s, over at The Book Rat, recommendation. I also bought The House of Dead Maids by the same author which I ended up really enjoying so I hope this one is just as good. Not usually a big fan of historical books but because this is just over 200 pages I’m not too worried about it. There seems to be some horror involved too which just sounds fantastic.

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?

2B Tuesday #65

Where I highlight a book from my endless to-be-read list. Those books need love too!

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

Series: Hex Hall, #1
Release Date: February 1st 2011
Publisher: Hyperion Books
Format: Paperback
Pages: 323
Genre: Young Adult - Fantasy, Paranormal

Author: Website  Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository
Add it: Goodreads

Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It's gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie's estranged father-an elusive European warlock-only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it's her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.

By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect.

As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all: an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.

I found this book on discount at Half Price Books so I decided to pick it up. I know it is a pretty popular book and I believe there is a spin off series out now. I don’t think I have ever read a book about witches so this will be something new for me. It has a solid 4 star rating on Goodreads which is pretty impressive. Hopefully I can get to this one next year.

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?

2B Tuesday #64

Where I highlight a book from my endless to-be-read list. Those books need love too!

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Release Date: October 5th 2010
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Format: Paperback
Pages: 405
Genre: Young Adult - Contemporary
Author: Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository
Add it: Goodreads

Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets.

Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

I was really excited when I found this cover of this book. I am a big fan of realistic fiction books. When I read a contemporary book I was some sort of drama or whatever you want to call it. This book definitely sounds like it would fall into that category. This is going to be on my TBR for 2014.

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?

oh and a side note.. this is my 500th post!! 

2B Tuesday #63

Where I highlight a book from my endless to-be-read list. Those books need love too!

The Whatnot by Stefan Bachmann

Series: The Peculiar #2
Release Date: September 24th 2013

Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 432
Author: Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository
Add it: Goodreads

The sequel to Stefan Bachmann's riveting and acclaimed debut novel, The Peculiar, which Publishers Weekly called "An absolute treat for readers of any age" and the Los Angeles Times compared to "Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities and more recent classics, such as J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events."

Twelve-year-old Pikey Thomas is missing an eye, a family, and friends of any sort. Named for the box he was found in-Thomas Ltd. Crackers and Biscuits. Premium Quality-Pikey lives under the chemist's shop and does odd jobs for him. One day, running from bigger boys set on bullying him, Pikey finds himself in front of a grand, beautiful house. There he meets a black-winged faery who begs for his help. The faery's wing is damaged-cricked and hanging at an uncomfortable angle-and Pikey clicks it back into place. It's a small gesture of kindness and bravery in steam-powered Victorian London, where faeries, now banned, are on the run or imprisoned, where the human armies are preparing for war, and where the changeling Bartholomew Kettle, aided by Arthur Jelliby, still searches for his missing sister, Hettie. This is the epic, imaginative, unforgettable, and ultimately hopeful sequel to Stefan Bachmann's acclaimed debut novel, The Peculiar.

Ok so this book just came out at the end of September, so it hasn’t been on my shelf for that long. However, I ordered it as my birthday gift (my bday is September 28th), so that I could continue the series. I am trying really hard to keep up with the series that I start. So having not read this yet is not a very good start. I really enjoyed the first book and this one looks just as great. It seems that this is a companion novel, which is good because I have forgotten some of the details of the first book. I will get to this next year for my series challenge though!

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?

2B Tuesday #62

Where I highlight a book from my endless to-be-read list. Those books need love too!

Adaptation by Malinda Lo

 

Series: Adaptation, #1
Release Date: September 18th 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 400
Genre: Young Adult, Sci-fi
Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository
Add it: Goodreads

Reese can’t remember anything from the time between the accident and the day she woke up almost a month later. She only knows one thing: She’s different now.

 

Across North America, flocks of birds hurl themselves into airplanes, causing at least a dozen to crash. Thousands of people die. Fearing terrorism, the United States government grounds all flights, and millions of travelers are stranded.

 

Reese and her debate team partner and longtime crush David are in Arizona when it happens. Everyone knows the world will never be the same. On their drive home to San Francisco, along a stretch of empty highway at night in the middle of Nevada, a bird flies into their headlights. The car flips over. When they wake up in a military hospital, the doctor won’t tell them what happened, where they are—or how they’ve been miraculously healed.

 

Things become even stranger when Reese returns home. San Francisco feels like a different place with police enforcing curfew, hazmat teams collecting dead birds, and a strange presence that seems to be following her. When Reese unexpectedly collides with the beautiful Amber Gray, her search for the truth is forced in an entirely new direction—and threatens to expose a vast global conspiracy that the government has worked for decades to keep secret.

 

Inheritance by Malinda Lo

Series: Adaptation, #2
Release Date: September 24th 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 480
Genre: Young Adult, Sci-fi
Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository
Add it: Goodreads

The triangular spaceship hovered motionless in the sky above Reese Holloway’s house, as inscrutable as a black hole. It had seemed like a good idea when they were inside: to tell the truth about what happened to them at Area 51. It didn’t seem like such a good idea now.

Reese and David are not normal teens—not since they were adapted with alien DNA by the Imria, an extraterrestrial race that has been secretly visiting Earth for decades. Now everyone is trying to get to them: the government, the Imria, and a mysterious corporation that would do anything for the upper hand against the aliens.

Beyond the web of conspiracies, Reese can’t reconcile her love for David with her feelings for her ex-girlfriend Amber, an Imrian. But her choice between two worlds will play a critical role in determining the future of humanity, the Imria’s place in it, and the inheritance she and David will bring to the universe.

In this gripping sequel to Adaptation, Malinda Lo brings a thoughtful exploration of adolescence, sexuality, and “the other” to a science fiction thriller that is impossible to put down.

I am not sure if this is just a two book series or if there are more books coming but I found both of these at HPB (on different occasions.) These are just another set of books that are being added to my series challenge for next year!

Have you read these books? What are your thoughts?