söndag 31 januari 2016

Annie hates running.  No
matter how far she jogs, she can’t escape the guilt that if she hadn’t
broken up with Kyle, he might still be alive.  So to honor his memory,
she starts preparing for the marathon he intended to race. 

But
the training is even more grueling than Annie could have imagined. 
Despite her coaching, she’s at war with her body, her mind—and her
heart.  With every mile that athletic Jeremiah cheers her on, she grows
more conflicted.  She wants to run into his arms…and sprint in the
opposite direction.  For Annie, opening up to love again may be even more
of a challenge than crossing the finish line. 

Everyone at Hundred
Oaks High knows that career mentoring day is a joke.  So when Maya Henry
said she wanted to be a rock star, she never imagined she’d get to
shadow *the* Jesse Scott, Nashville’s teen idol. 

But spending the
day with Jesse is far from a dream come true.  He’s as gorgeous as his
music, but seeing all that he’s accomplished is just a reminder of
everything Maya’s lost: her trust, her boyfriend, their band, and any
chance to play the music she craves.  Not to mention that Jesse’s pushy
and opinionated.  He made it on his own, and he thinks Maya’s playing
back up to other people’s dreams.  Does she have what it takes to follow
her heart—and go solo? 

fredag 29 januari 2016

Lois Lane is starting a
new life in Metropolis.  An Army brat, Lois has lived all over—and seen
all kinds of things. ( Some of them defy explanation, like the
near-disaster she witnessed in Kansas in the middle of one night.)  But
now her family is putting down roots in the big city, and Lois is
determined to fit in.  Stay quiet.  Fly straight.  As soon as she steps
into her new high school, though, she can see it won’t be that easy.  A
group known as the Warheads is making life miserable for another girl at
school.  They’re messing with her mind, somehow, via the high-tech
immersive videogame they all play.  Not cool.  Armed with her wit and her
new snazzy job as a reporter, Lois has her sights set on solving this
mystery.  But sometimes it’s all a bit much.  Thank goodness for her
maybe-more-than-a friend, a guy she knows only by his screenname,
SmallvilleGuy. 

torsdag 28 januari 2016

Eighteen-year-old Tally
is absolutely sure of everything: her genius, the love of her adoptive
family, the loyalty of her best friend, Shane, and her future career as a
Nobel prize-winning astronomer.  There's no room in her tidy world for
heartbreak or uncertainty—or the charismatic, troubled mother who
abandoned her soon after she was born.  But when a sudden discovery
upends her fiercely ordered world, Tally sets out on an unexpected quest
to seek out the reclusive musician who may hold the key to her past—and
instead finds Maddy, an enigmatic and beautiful girl who will unlock
the door to her future.  The deeper she falls in love with Maddy, the
more Tally begins to realize that the universe is bigger—and more
complicated—than she ever imagined.  Can Tally face the truth about her
family—and find her way home in time to save herself from its
consequences? 

Every story needs a hero. Every story needs a villain. Every story needs a secret. 

Wink
is the odd, mysterious neighbor girl, wild red hair and freckles.  Poppy
is the blond bully and the beautiful, manipulative high school queen
bee.  Midnight is the sweet, uncertain boy caught between them.  Wink. 
Poppy.  Midnight.  Two girls.  One boy.  Three voices that burst onto the
page in short, sharp, bewitching chapters, and spiral swiftly and
inexorably toward something terrible or tricky or tremendous. 

What really happened?Someone knows. Someone is lying. 

Comment: This is one of my most anticipated releases this year, and I'm just dying to read it.  April Genevieve Tucholke is one of my favorite authors, and I just know this will be amazing. 

tisdag 26 januari 2016

Freebie Week!  Pick a topic near and dear to your heart!  Something you wished was on our

official list! 

And since I couldn't quite come up with a bookish topic, and because I'm so addicted to The 100 right now, I've chosen to list my five favorite ongoing TV Shows right now. 

5.  The Flash

I started watching The Flash last fall (I have this thing when I almost always wait until a whole season is out, before I start watching a show.  It's a habit I picked up after falling in love with Joss Whedon's Dollhouse many years ago, only to see it cancelled way to soon), and I absolutely love it.  Barry Allen is the cutest, and I'm just so fascinated by all the Meta Humans. 

4.  Criminal Minds

I've watched this since the premiere, and it never gets tiring.  I love all the new cases, and all the serial killer stuff, and most of all, I love Dr. Spencer Reid.  Some episodes are pretty scary, but that's kind of the best part of the whole show. 

3.  The Big Bang Theory

This show is so funny, and so nerdy.  And Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper is just the best there is. 

2.  The 100

I've just recently started watching this (I have three episodes left on season 2, so, shh..no spoilers please), but it's already one of my favorites.  I love the action, and the drama, and I just cannot stop watching. 

1.  Arrow

I never expected to love this as much as I do, but I can just watch it over and over again.  I love everything about it, but especially the characters.  Oh, and the crossovers between this and The Flash are just to die for. 

måndag 25 januari 2016

A gorgeous retelling of the Persephone myth, Sarah McCarry brings us the story of Cass and Maia--the mothers from All Our Pretty Songs--and how their fates became intertwined. 

Maia
is a teenage piano prodigy and dutiful daughter, imprisoned in the
oppressive silence of her adoptive parents' house like a princess in an
ivory tower.  Cass is a street rat, witch, and runaway, scraping by with
her wits and her knack for a five-fingered discount.  When a chance
encounter brings the two girls together, an unlikely friendship blossoms
that will soon change the course of both their lives.  Cass springs Maia
from the jail of the only world she's ever known, and Maia's only too
happy to make a break for it.  But Cass didn't reckon on Jason, the
hypnotic blue-eyed rocker who'd capture Maia's heart as soon as Cass set
her free--and Cass isn't the only one who's noticed Maia's
extraordinary gifts.  Is Cass strong enough to battle the ancient evil
she's unwittingly awakened--or has she walked into a trap that will
destroy everything she cares about?  In this time, like in any time, love
is a dangerous game. 

Titel: The Shrunken HeadFörfattare: Lauren Oliver & H.C. ChesterSerie: The Curiosity House #1Sidor: 362Blessed
with extraordinary abilities, orphans Philippa, Sam, and Thomas have
grown up happily in Dumfrey’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and
Wonders.  But when a fourth child, Max, a knife-thrower, joins the
group, it sets off an unforgettable chain of events.  When the museum’s
Amazonian shrunken head is stolen, the four are determined to get it
back.  But their search leads them to a series of murders and an
explosive secret about their pasts. 

söndag 24 januari 2016

Nicolette’s awful
stepsisters call her “Mechanica” to demean her, but the nickname fits:
she learned to be an inventor at her mother’s knee.  Her mom is gone now,
though, and the Steps have turned her into a servant in her own home. 

Then
on her sixteenth birthday, Nicolette discovers a secret workshop in the
cellar and begins to dare to imagine a new life for herself.  Could the
mysterious books and tools hidden there—and the mechanical menagerie,
led by a tiny metal horse named Jules—be the key to escaping her dreary
existence?  With a technological exposition and royal ball on the
horizon, the timing might just be perfect for Nicolette to earn her
freedom at last. 

lördag 23 januari 2016

CLEO: Reeling after a bloody
showdown in Limeros ending with Amara’s abduction of the water crystal,
and a vacancy in the Mytican throne, Princess Cleo must cast aside her
feelings and look toward her kingdom with the eyes of a Queen. 

MAGNUS:
With the kingdom in chaos, Princess Lucia still missing and quite
possibly in danger, and a shocking realization about Cleo, the steely
prince is once again torn between love and duty, leaving him wondering
whether he’s strong enough to rule his people. 

LUCIA:
The young sorcercess has had her vengeance after the cruel death of her
first and only love.  Heartbroken and unable to trust anyone, she allies
with the awoken Fire god, who also seeks revenge. 

JONAS:
After escaping death by the skin of his teeth, the defeated rebel—along
with a mysterious stranger–leader reunites with Princess Cleo, only to
find himself a mere pawn in a dangerous hunt for the elusive Kindred. 

KING GAIUS:
Abandoned by Melenia and betrayed by his own children, Gaius flees
Mytica and sails to Kraeshia, where he attempts to ally with the
famously brutal emperor across the Silver Sea. 

In a pursuit that has
spanned continents, Iolanthe, Titus, and their friends have always
managed to remain one step ahead of the forces of Atlantis.  But now the
Bane, the monstrous tyrant who bestrides the entire mage world, has
issued his ultimatum: Titus must hand over Iolanthe, or watch as his
entire realm is destroyed in a deadly rampage.  Running out of time and
options, Iolanthe and Titus must act decisively to deliver a final blow
to the Bane, ending his reign of terror for good. 

However,
getting to the Bane means accomplishing the impossible—finding a way to
infiltrate his crypt in the deepest recesses of the most ferociously
guarded fortress in Atlantis.  And everything is only made more difficult
when new prophecies come to light, foretelling a doomed effort…

Iolanthe and Titus will put their love and their lives on the line.  But will it be enough? 

torsdag 21 januari 2016

Set against the lush,
magical backdrop of the Pacific Northwest, two inseparable best friends
who have grown up like sisters—the charismatic, mercurial, and beautiful
Aurora and the devoted, soulful, watchful narrator—find their bond
challenged for the first time ever when a mysterious and gifted musician
named Jack comes between them.  Suddenly, each girl must decide what
matters most: friendship, or love.  What both girls don’t know is that
the stakes are even higher than either of them could have imagined. 
They’re not the only ones who have noticed Jack’s gift; his music has
awakened an ancient evil—and a world both above and below which may not
be mythical at all.  The real and the mystical; the romantic and the
heartbreaking all begin to swirl together, carrying the two on journey
that is both enthralling and terrifying. 

And it’s up to the narrator to protect the people she loves—if she can..

“I’m a chalkboard that’s been erased over and over again until there’s
nothing left but a haze of white dust.  Before this I never understood
how long an hour could take, how many ticks of the second hand are in a
minute, how endless the space between seconds can be.” 

Los Angeles.  It’s been
five years since the events of the Mortal Instruments when Nephilim
stood poised on the brink of oblivion and Shadowhunter Emma Carstairs
lost her parents.  After the blood and violence she witnessed as a child,
Emma has dedicated her life to to discovering exactly what it was that
killed her parents and getting her revenge. 

Raised in the Los
Angeles Institute with the Blackthorn family, Emma is paired as a
parabatai with her best friend, Julian Blackthorn.  A series of murders
in the city catch her attention — they seem to have the same
characteristics as the deaths of her parents.  Could the murderer be the
same person?  And her attention isn’t the only one caught: someone has
been murdering Downworlders as well.  The Fair Folk make a deal with the
Institute: if the Blackthorns and Emma will investigate the killings,
they’ll return Mark Blackthorn to his home.  The catch: they have only
two weeks to find the killers.  Otherwise it’s open war between faeries
and Nephilim. 

The Shadowhunters of the Institute must race
against time to catch the killers, even as they begin to suspect the
involvement of those closest to them.  At the same time, Emma is falling
in love with the one person in the world she’s absolutely forbidden by
Shadowhunter Law to love.  Set against the glittering backdrop of
present-day Los Angeles, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart
as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches from the warlock-run
nightclubs of the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the
beaches of Santa Monica. 

Comment: Cassie Clare is one of my favorite authors, and I love her world of Shadowhunters.  So I simply cannot wait to read this one, and my expectations are so, so high. 

måndag 18 januari 2016

Four years ago, Judith
and her best friend disappeared from their small town of Roswell
Station.  Two years ago, only Judith returned, permanently mutilated,
reviled and ignored by those who were once her friends and family. 

Unable
to speak, Judith lives like a ghost in her own home, silently pouring
out her thoughts to the boy who’s owned her heart as long as she can
remember—even if he doesn’t know it—her childhood friend, Lucas. 

But
when Roswell Station is attacked, long-buried secrets come to light,
and Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover
her voice, even if it means changing her world, and the lives around
her, forever. 

söndag 17 januari 2016

Livia is a dreamstrider. 
She can inhabit a subject's body while they are sleeping and, for a
short time, move around in their skin.  She uses her talent to work as a
spy for the Barstadt Empire.  But her partner, Brandt, has lately become
distant, and when Marez comes to join their team from a neighborhing
kingdom, he offers Livia the option of a life she had never dared to
imagine.  Livia knows of no other dreamstriders who have survived the
pull of Nightmare.  So only she understands the stakes when a plot
against the Empire emerges that threatens to consume both the dreaming
world and the waking one with misery and rage. 

Callum Hunt’s summer
break isn’t like other kids’.  His closest companion is a Chaos-ridden
wolf, Havoc.  His father suspects him of being secretly evil.  And, of
course, most kids aren’t heading back to the magical world of the
Magisterium in the fall. 

It’s not easy for Call . . .  and it gets
even harder after he checks out his basement and discovers that his dad
might be trying to destroy both him and Havoc. 

Call escapes to
the Magisterium -- but things only intensify there.  The Alkahest -- a
copper gauntlet capable of separating certain magicians from their magic
-- has been stolen.  And in their search to discover the culprit, Call
and his friends Aaron and Tamara awaken the attention of some very
dangerous foes -- and get closer to an even more dangerous truth. 

The Iron Prince—my nephew—betrayed us all.  He killed me.  Then, I woke up. 

Waking
after a month on the brink of death, Ethan Chase is stunned to learn
that the Veil that conceals the fey from human sight was temporarily
torn away.  Although humankind's glimpse of the world of Faery lasted
just a brief moment, the human world has been cast into chaos, and the
emotion and glamour produced by fear and wonder has renewed the
tremendous power of the Forgotten Queen.  Now, she is at the forefront of
an uprising against the courts of Summer and Winter—a reckoning that
will have cataclysmic effects on the Nevernever. 

Leading the
Lady's Forgotten Army is Keirran himself: Ethan's nephew, and the
traitor son of the Iron Queen, Meghan Chase. To stop Keirran, Ethan must
disobey his sister once again as he and his girlfriend, Kenzie, search
for answers long forgotten.  In the face of unprecedented evil and
unfathomable power, Ethan's enemies must become his allies, and the
world of the fey will be changed forevermore. 

Alien queen Kora has a
problem as vast as the endless crimson deserts.  She’s the first female
ruler of her territory in generations, but her people are rioting and
call for her violent younger twin brother to take the throne.  Despite
assassination attempts, a mounting uprising of nomadic human rebels, and
pressure to find a mate to help her rule, she’s determined to protect
her people from her brother’s would-be tyrannical rule. 

Eros is a
rebel soldier hated by aliens and human alike for being a half-blood. 
Yet that doesn’t stop him from defending his people, at least until
Kora’s soldiers raze his camp and take him captive.  He’s given an
ultimatum: be an enslaved bodyguard to Kora, or be executed for his true
identity—a secret kept even from him. 

When Kora and Eros are
framed for the attempted assassination of her betrothed, they flee. 
Their only chance of survival is to turn themselves in to the high
court, where revealing Eros’s secret could mean a swift public
execution.  But when they uncover a violent plot to end the human
insurgency, they must find a way to work together to prevent genocide. 

Comment: This sounds so exciting, and I've heard some great things about this book.  I can't wait to finally read it. 

måndag 11 januari 2016

The Devil’s Engine is a
machine from the darkest parts of history.  It can make any wish come
true—as long as you are willing to put your life on the line.  When a
sixteen-year-old asthmatic kid named Marlow Green finds himself trapped
in a surreal firefight against nightmarish creatures in the middle of
his New York City neighborhood, he discovers a squad of secret soldiers
dedicated to battling the legions of the Devil himself.  Faced with
monstrous apparitions, ancient weaponry, and his own hellishly tedious
high school existence, Marlow submits to a demonic deal with the
infernal device that enables him to join the battle—if it doesn’t kill
him first. 

söndag 10 januari 2016

Mysterious doors with
lizard-head knobs.  Talking stone statues.  A crazy girl with a hatchet. 
Yes, Liv's dreams have been pretty weird lately.  Especially the one
where she's in a graveyard at night, watching four boys conduct dark
magic rituals. 

The strangest part is that Liv recognizes the boys
in her dream.  They're classmates from her new school in London, the
school where she's starting over because her mom has moved them to a new
country (again).  But what's really scaring Liv is that the dream boys
seem to know things about her in real life, things they couldn't
possibly know--unless they actually are in her dreams?  Luckily, Liv never could resist a good mystery, and all four of those boys are pretty cute...

fredag 8 januari 2016

Self-proclaimed fat
girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen
mom) has always been at home in her own skin.  Her thoughts on having the
ultimate bikini body?  Put a bikini on your body.  With her all-American
beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked…until
Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint.  There she meets
Private School Bo, a hot former jock.  Will isn’t surprised to find
herself attracted to Bo.  But she is surprised when he seems to like her
back. 

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her
relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself.  So she sets out to
take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can
imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several
other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up
there as much as any twiggy girl does.  Along the way, she’ll shock the
hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all. 

Titel: An Ember in the AshesFörfattare: Sabaa TahirSerie: An Ember in the Ashes #1Sidor: 446Under the Martial Empire,
defiance is met with death.  Those who do not vow their blood and bodies
to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the
destruction of all they hold dear. 

It is in this brutal world,
inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and
older brother.  The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s
impoverished backstreets.  They do not challenge the Empire.  They’ve seen
what happens to those who do. 

But when Laia’s brother is
arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision.  In exchange for
help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her
life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy. 

There,
Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most
unwilling.  Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained
to enforce.  He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are
intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire
itself.