Waiting on Wednesday #020: Seconds Away by Harlan Coben

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

* * *

Seconds Away (Mickey Bolitar #2) by Harlan Coben
Release Date: September 18, 2012

From Goodreads.com
Having ended the Edgar-Award-nominated Shelter with a jaw-dropping cliffhanger, Coben picks up Mickey’s story right where it left off in this suspenseful new adventure. Mickey and his loyal new friends, sharp-witted Ema and adorkably charming Spoon, once again find themselves in over their heads on the hunt for missing pieces to a puzzle they have yet to understand. As the mystery surrounding Mickey’s dad’s death unfolds, he soon learns that they may be in more danger than they could have ever imagined.

I am currently reading the first book in the series & loving it so immensely that I'm pretty sure I'm going to snag the author's adult books to read. So I cannot wait to read the next book! The mystery is seriously engrossing to the point of un-put-down-able-ness (yes, that's a word now)! If you love mysteries, definitely pick up Shelter, the first book. You'll love it. Then put this on your TBR list too!

PS: I LOVE that the synopsis calls Spoon "aDORKably charming." He so is!

21 ARC Giveaway!

Photo by Ryan Hyde

I HAVE to clear my bookshelf & because, I do NOT sell ARCs, I'm giving you, my dear readers, the opportunity to take them off my hands for the mere price of postage.

Check Out The List & Rules

Review: Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Release Date: January 26, 2010
Publisher: Dial
Pages: 416
Reading level: Young Adult

Synopsis

Incarceron is a prison so vast that it contains not only cells, but also metal forests, dilapidated cities, and vast wilderness. Finn, a seventeen-year-old prisoner, has no memory of his childhood and is sure that he came from Outside Incarceron. Very few prisoners believe that there is an Outside, however, which makes escape seems impossible.

And then Finn finds a crystal key that allows him to communicate with a girl named Claudia. She claims to live Outside- she is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, and doomed to an arranged marriage. Finn is determined to escape the prison, and Claudia believes she can help him. But they don't realize that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eye. Escape will take their greatest courage and cost more than they know.

-- from Goodreads.com

Review

Admittedly I did not finish this book. This is another one that I only read half way through & just could not read any more. Which was seriously disappointing because I had been wanting to read Incarceron for ages because the entire idea of a prison in a house that is pretty much sentient was a thrilling prospect in my opinion. I adored the setting & the way the house did, as the book went along, take on quite a life of its own. Not to mention it was vast & all-encompassing which gave the entire story a macabre, monster-always-around-the-corner, type feel to it.

That being said, I could not connect with the characters at all. We are introduced to Finn in the midst of a con that ultimately ends up in an innocent woman dying. Right away I disliked his method of survival & the people he chose to hang around, namely his "oath brother" who seemed like a personality at the height of sociopathy from the get go. There was no rhyme or reason to their relationship or any of the others Finn had within Incarceron.

Then Claudia is tossed into the mix. She is not in Incarceron but has a driving desire to find out more about it. She was apparently trained by her father from her infancy to withstand marriage to the scoundrel she has been betrothed to through some possibly secret conspiracy. She believes her mother-in-law-to-be may have killed her original intended groom & schemes & plans to find out as much as she can. Which would have been interesting if there had been some reason for me to care about what happened to her. She is a cold, bland, aloof little princess who, had she a spunky best friend to draw her out, might have been sympathetic but never came across that way. Instead I half wondered if she wasn't a robot but didn't feel like slogging through more of the story to find out.

I know that Incarceron has a huge following & I read many enthusiastic reviews of it so writing this one myself is a big disappointment. I really wanted to like this book but I just didn't. I would recommend it to those who enjoy odd dystopians with steampunk twists who can bond with characters in spite of those things I felt Finn & Claudia lacked. It's not a horrible book at all -- just not a book for me.

My Rating:

Check It Out! I'm Blogger of the Week @ Turning Pages!

Thanks to the lovely Lisa for choosing me as Blogger of the Week over at Turning Pages. I'm honored! You can read my mini interview here!

Review: Numbers by Rachel Ward

Numbers by Rachel Ward

Release Date: February 1, 2010
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic Inc.
Pages: 325
Reading level: Young Adult

Synopsis

Ever since she was child, Jem has kept a secret: Whenever she meets someone new, no matter who, as soon as she looks into their eyes, a number pops into her head. That number is a date: the date they will die. Burdened with such awful awareness, Jem avoids relationships. Until she meets Spider, another outsider, and takes a chance. The two plan a trip to the city. But while waiting to ride the Eye ferris wheel, Jem is terrified to see that all the other tourists in line flash the same number. Today's number. Today's date. Terrorists are going to attack London. Jem's world is about to explode!

-- from Goodreads.com

Review (Contains Spoilers)

I'll be honest & say up front that I did not finish this book. This review is based on the first half, almost exactly & that is as far as I got before I didn't want to read any more of it. It started off really well. I loved the entire idea of the story & the set up of the characters was pretty good. They were earthy, well-described kids from inner-city London & they felt very real to me. I could appreciate the roughness around their edges because of their backgrounds & upbringings. It all made sense to me.

The idea of the numbers, of being able to see the date someone is going to die by looking in their eyes, was pretty inventive. I hadn't seen any other book like it before & it definitely started out with some great instances of the numbers causing Jem distress as she sees them in the eyes of everyone from her drug addicted mother to her new best friend & possible love interest to everyone waiting in line to board the London Eye before a tragedy strikes.

Jem's world "explodes," as the synopsis above states, about one quarter of the way through the book. Then the two characters go on the run, afraid that they are going to be blamed for the incident they narrowly escaped thanks to Jem's gift. Which is when the plot ends, the numbers cease to be of any consequence, & we become immersed in the raw essence at the bottom of the barrel for both Jem & Spider.

Neither of the teens has any sense of how to make it on the run. Spider steals cars & picks fights with other motorists while speeding down the road, bringing far too much unwanted attention to them but he can't seem to help it. Jem whines incessantly & takes every single thing Spider says to her as a reason to start a fight. For the rest of the portion of the book that I read it was basically a non-stop exercise in pure frustration as I watched the characters who treat each other like their least favorite brother or sister somehow manage to discover they are in love & have sex. No plot. No numbers. No character development. Just hormones & fights & really bad dialogue. I had enough & put it down when it felt like it was never going to end or if it did end I wasn't going to care what happened to the characters anymore.

I can't say what happened through the rest of the book. Maybe it was fantastic in the second half but I didn't like having to slog through to get to it. I would recommend this book to people who are not averse to threadbare plots when excitement is promised. Perhaps this book was meant to only be a slice of life but the publishers needed to market it differently to get more sales, I don't know. The writing was pretty good. The story, when there was some, was good too. It just wasn't for me.

My Rating:

Review: The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda

The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda

Release Date: May 8, 2012
Publisher: St. Martins
Pages: 320
Reading level: Young Adult

Synopsis

Gene is different from everyone else around him. He can’t run with lightning speed, sunlight doesn’t hurt him and he doesn’t have an unquenchable lust for blood. Gene is a human, and he knows the rules. Keep the truth a secret. It’s the only way to stay alive in a world of night—a world where humans are considered a delicacy and hunted for their blood.

When he’s chosen for a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunt the last remaining humans, Gene’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble around him. He’s thrust into the path of a girl who makes him feel things he never thought possible—and into a ruthless pack of hunters whose suspicions about his true nature are growing. Now that Gene has finally found something worth fighting for, his need to survive is stronger than ever—but is it worth the cost of his humanity?

-- from Goodreads.com

Review

I have to say that this is probably one of the best books I've read about vampires ever. Not that I've read a lot but it takes a lot for me to like a vampire book & this one I loved. First, it's somewhat of a dystopia because society has completely become vampires & humans (or "hepers" as they're referred to in the book) are pretty nearly extinct. Drop in a human boy pretending to be a vampire to survive & the entire premise of this book was like pure candy.

The main character, Gene, whose name we don't actually find out until about half way through the book, is very believable. He grew up with a father, also a human pretending to be a vampire to survive, who drilled into his head all the rules he needed to follow to survive. He follows them so meticulously that he has almost convinced himself in some ways that he IS actually a vampire. Though that's not something he fully realizes until he meets other humans. Then he spirals through conflict between what he's all but been brainwashed to think & feel about "hepers" & remembering who he is - a human.

What absorbed me most was not Gene or even his fascinatingly enigmatic girl friend, Ashley June. No, it was the action sequences that hooked me in & kept me tuned in until the very last page at which point I went, "What? No more?!" Mr. Fukuda is a wordsmith, using words brilliantly to create timing, tempo, & terror in bright flashes like sunlight in the otherwise necessarily dark setting.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys vampire novels, dystopians, or horror in general. While it's not too blood & guts-y as you might expect from this sort of novel, it does have some grisly parts to it. As a horror movie buff they didn't bother me but they may not be for the faint of heart. Otherwise this is a fantastic read & I cannot wait for the continuation!

My Rating

Happy Friday the 13th: Creepy Reads

To celebrate the eeriness of Friday the 13^th, I have compiled a list of books that I personally love that contain all those fabulously creepy monsters for the fun of it. If you haven't read them, you definitely should!

Note: Not all of these books are YA (Schrieber & King are not) but they are still well worth the read if you're looking for something that'll keep you awake with all the lights on this Friday the 13^th!

Title: Zombies Don't Cry Author: Rusty Fischer Monster: Zombies	Title: THe Hunt Author: Andrew Fukuda Monster: Extreme Vampires	Title: Past Midnight Series Author: Mara Purnhagen Monster: Ghosts
Title: No Doors, No Windows Author: Joe Schreiber Monster: Evil House	Title: Spider Wars Author: Angela Carlie Monster: Massive spiders	Title: Sleight Author: Jennifer Sommersby Monster: Ghosts & other paranormal entities
Title: Paranormalcy Trilogy Author: Kiersten White Monster: Vampires, Werewolves, & all sorts of things	Title: The Dark & Hollow Places Author: Carrie Ryan Monster: Zombies	Title: Night World Series Author: LJ Smith Monster: Werewolves, Vampires, Shapeshifters, Witches, and more
Title: Mile 81 Author: Stephen King Monster: Evil Car	Title: Project 17 Author: Laurie Faria Stolarz Monster: Ghosts	Title: Darkest Powers Trilogy Author: Kelley Armstrong Monster: Necromancers, Werewolves, Ghosts, Sorcerers, and more

Let's Talk: Bullies Ruin It For Everyone Else

Slowly but surely it's happening. I am seriously tiring of the YA blogosphere. I am losing my desire to write anything here for you to read which you can see by the fact that this month is pretty much a red letter month for giveaways & little else.

So why my ennui? Why the loss of interest?

Waiting on Wednesday #019: Dark Horse by Angela Carlie

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

* * *

Dark Horse by Angela Carlie
Release Date: Fall 2012

From Goodreads.com
YAmethea thought she was the last of her kind, a creature from mythical stories, from light, peace, and magic. But, Amethea isn't a myth, and she doesn't hold any peace in her heart. She watched as her family was murdered for the magic of their horns. She'd give anything to avenge their deaths. She just hasn't figured out how yet.

When she meets another, Cerus, everything changes. Together, they harness more power than Amethea ever dreamed. But is it enough to take down the Lords of Shifters?

Angela Carlie is one of my most favorite indie authors & I have loved the first 2 books in this series. I can't wait to see where Angela takes this one. I don't think I've ever read a book about unicorns... but then I had never read a book about girls who can change into massive spiders either until I read the previous book & I loved it. So I definitely can't wait for Dark Horse!

Oh & Angela has a bit more about Dark Horse on her blog here. And also, PS: GORGEOUS COVER!

Giveaway: Summer Lovin Giveaway Hop

Plain & simple. Short & sweet. I'm all for everyone's freedom to read so I joined the fabulous hop hosted by the wonderful I Am A Reader, Not A Writer & Katie @ Mundie Moms. And what am I giving away?

To the lucky winner, an ARC of Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson.

Rules

1. Use the Rafflecopter form to enter.
2. You must be 13 or older.
3. Open internationally!
4. Contest deadline is 12 a.m. EST on July 17, 2012.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out the other blogs in the hop!

Book Trailer: Size 12 & Ready to Rock by Meg Cabot

I just finished watching the book trailer for Meg Cabot's Size 12 & Ready to Rock. I've been waiting for this book for what seems like forever but seriously? This is why I hate, nay ABHOR book trailers. What the heck is this? It's so bad I won't embed it. I'll leave it up to you to click the link if you want to gouge your eyes out & stick hot pokers in your ears after about 2 1/2 minutes. At least the cover isn't horrible.

Enjoy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdLjFzsn9iU.

Check out the synopsis of the book here if you're not familiar with the Heather Wells series. They are a lot of fun but definitely not for younger teens. I highly recommend them as light but intelligent reading with mystery & suspense with a large dose of snark. What's not to love? Oh yeah, the book trailer...

Happy Independence Day!

To all my fellow USA bloggers, Happy Independence Day. We are part of a great country! I hope we all enjoy the backyard barbecues, pool parties, & watching the ubiquitous after dark fireworks to celebrate the day our founding fathers risked life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness to declare us an independent nation!

Win a Blog Makeover from Inside the Kaleidoscope!

It's that time again! I'm giving away a blog makeover over at Inside the Kaleidoscope. Click here to view the rules & to enter.

Time Out: Staying Inside The Bubble!

So it's been super quiet around her for a few days, I know. I mean, except for the Freedom to Read Blog Hop which is really awesome because I didn't realize just how vast the book blogosphere reached until I discovered people everywhere from Poland to Malaysia (yep, I know where that is!) are visiting me! And the reason it's been quiet is because I have the world's worst head cold & so I am trying to stay an arm's length away from all of you so I don't contaminate your book reading with my nose blowing. But it also means I am reading a ton of books so I'll have a bunch of reviews & other stuff for you probably by the end of the week. I hope.

Also, congrats to Michelle, Beth, & Bonnie who were the winners of my Happy Birthday to Me Giveaway! I'll have your books out to you as soon as I find my hand sanitizer!