We just found out about this, and we just had to share it with all of you! According to our sources, these ten books are each going for only $.99 until December 30th, for both Nook and Kindle. You can buy them individually, so if you already own some of them or they don’t all fit your fancy, you can pick and choose.
Beauty Queens
By Libba Bray
Young Adult Contemporary/Postmodernism
RATING: 5/5
I think I’m doomed this season to read only awesome books—“doomed” only because the awesomest books are always the hardest to review.
Beauty Queens is wonderfully self-aware and satirical, but it stood out for me because, despite the grim backdrop, the story itself is remarkably positive.
The premise is pretty simple. Fifty teenage beauty queens are on a plane on their way to compete in the Miss Teen Dream pageant. On their way, however, a malfunction occurs with the engines, and the plane goes down. Most people, including all the adults (the trainers, assistants, and even the pilot and co-pilot), are killed. However, a handful of beauty queens survive, and they have to work together to keep each other alive long enough to be rescued.
Before we even get to the plane, we are greeted with “a word from your sponsors.” Continue reading
“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine. It’s a chance to geek-out about the books we’re chewing our nails over. What are you waiting on this week?
Oh man, I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned this one yet! I’m a total nerdfighter and a huge John Green fan, and I can’t wait for his next book to come out. John and his brother, Hank, will be touring in January, and I already have tickets. And this book on pre-order. And the special-edition-audio-book on pre-order. And multiples of his previous books already on my bookshelf. Yeah…I may be a little obsessed. Don’t forget to be awesome!
The Fault in Our Stars
By John Green
Release: January 10, 2012
Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs… for now.
Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.
Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.
Cold Fire (The Spiritwalker Trilogy #2)
By Kate Elliott
Adult Fantasy/Steampunk
RATING: 5/5
I reviewed Cold Magic, the first book in the Spiritwalker series, about a year ago. If you haven’t read Cold Magic yet, you should hold off on reading this review as there will be spoilers for it below.
These books take place in an alternate history of our world. One in which the world had experienced a second ice age. And there were the feathered descendants of dinosaurs running around. And magic. And, well, lots of things were different.
Unlike the first book, which had a slow build in the beginning, this book launches straight into action, picking up exactly where the first one left off. And there is so much new stuff in this book. We get to learn more about the larger world of the story as Cat finds herself in the Caribbean. We get to find out about Fire Mages, who walk a dangerous line between controlling their power and torching themselves and those around them. The politics of the world become more and more important, but they don’t overshadow what I cared about, which was the character interactions and growth (not that I wasn’t interested in the politics, too).
Ladies who kick butt are always in demand. People clamor to see or read about any girl that isn’t afraid to get her hands a little dirty. With the Hunger Games movie coming out in March, a greater emphasis is being placed on the physical strength of a character; but not all girls are physically strong. Any type of girl can inspire. And while Katniss is awesome, she’s not the only strong heroine out there. I would like to take a look at some unsung heroines, and bring them in to the light.
First up is Katsa, the wonderful, intelligent, totally independent warrior woman from Kristin Cashore’s book Graceling. Katsa is every bit as tough and graceful as her more popular counterpart, Katniss, but for some reason hasn’t reached the same acclaim as our girl from District 12. Katsa is cool, confident, and never doubts her strength, even as she faces her own struggles. She is physically strong, even more so then Katniss, and her main conflict surrounds learning to control that strength. Katsa has a gift (or a “grace” as they call it in her world). She is a skilled fighter, and is able to survive under any circumstances; she is virtually un-killable. This girl is also as independent as they come. Katsa learns to trusts herself, and through the course of the book she grows into her Grace and her fierce personality. She is a powerful protector. Katsa is an unsung heroine, but a perfect role model. Continue reading
Daughter of Smoke and Bone
By Laini Taylor
Young Adult Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Romance
RATING: 5/5
Although there are a lot of really well written YA books out there, it’s rare that I come across a book that impresses me on a language level the way Daughter of Smoke and Bone did. The writing is just so lovely, so lush and descriptive without being overly poetic, that I would have read this book just for the writing alone. Fortunately, the story turned out to be equally impressive.
If someone had described the plot of Daughter of Smoke and Bone to me, I doubt I would have read it. It would have sounded like paranormal mush; not my type of thing. But, in practice, the story is so intricate, the characters so real, and the world so well developed, that it’s really unlike anything I’ve read before. There are angels, yes, but this isn’t another fallen-angels book. There is romance, yes, but this isn’t another sappy romance. Like all the best books, Daughter of Smoke and Bone has to be read before it can be understood, because it can’t really be described.
The Magicians (The Magicians #1)
By Lev Grossman
Adult Fantasy/Coming-of-Age
RATING: 5/5
The general plot of The Magicians is a purposely-conventional start to the traditional Hero’s Journey, but the book carves a unique niche through its would-be “hero,” Quentin Coldwater. Quentin isn’t the boy beneath the stairs; he’s the boy who read about the boy beneath the stairs his whole life, wishing everything about that world of magic was true. And then, one day, it is.
The funny thing is, it turns out magic removes a lot of the barriers that naturally separate wanting things and having them. The challenge and learning process of achieving a goal can be the worthwhile part, though, so the result is a lot of people end up enjoying success without truly earning it. What’s a twenty-something to do? The stage is already set for a crippling bout of ennui, and Quentin’s temperament certainly leads him in that direction. But as he’s done his whole life, Quentin finds the method of his escape in another world. In the third section of the book, he discovers that not only is magic real, but Fillory, the magical word he read about as child, is too.
The Future of Us
By Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
Young Adult Contemporary/Science Fiction
RATING: 4/5
First off, although it took me a little while to get into it, I loved this book. Even though it’s set in 1996, it feels very universal, once you get over the references and the laughably basic level of technology. What would you do if you could see fifteen years into your future, in the form of your future social media profile and status updates? That’s just what happens to Emma and Josh.
The premise: Emma gets a new computer, and Josh brings over a free AOL disk that his mother doesn’t want (she doesn’t think this Internet thing is going to take off). They load it up. Once they’re online, they find a mysterious website in Emma’s automatic favorites: Facebook.
In My Mailbox is a meme lead by Kristi at The Story Siren, and is an opportunity for bloggers to share the books and bookish things they’ve picked up over the last week or so. What’s in your mailbox this week?
Big haul this week, guys! And the best part? I didn’t have to pay for ANY of these books! The right pile is all ARCs from NCTE (thank god for friends), and the left pile is all books I borrowed from either friends or the library. My wallet is very happy today, as is my bookcase.
If you follow the YA Rebels (which you should, ’cause they’re awesome), you know that rebel Danny Marks challenged us to read YA Rebels books in December. Well, I’m never one to turn down a good reading challenge, and I’ve been meaning to read a bunch of the Rebels’ books anyway (I think the only one I’ve read so far is The DUFF, by Kody Keplinger, one of the original Rebels).
So, if you’re inclined, join me in catching up on your YA Rebels reading this December. Here’s a list of the books I’m hoping to read, and I went ahead and made a list on Goodreads of all their published books, ’cause there wasn’t one yet (at least not one I could find).
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