In My Mailbox (21)

April 1, 2012

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren. It’s awesome. Every week, we all get a chance to tell everyone what new books we’ve gotten so that we can tell you guys and we can all drool and squee together! Huzzah for squees!

BIG week for the fantasy, friends, which makes me EXTRA DOUBLE happy because IT’S GAME OF THRONES DAY!!!!!! WOO HOO!!! Ahem. So, right. BOOKS. 

FROM NETGALLEY/EDELWEISS

Velveteen: Velveteen, #1 by Daniel Marks (October 9, 2012 from Random House Children’s). This one sounds kind of like a YA THE LOVELY BONES, except darker and with a main character who is all REVENGEY and wants to haunt her killer until he can’t take it anymore. Obviously, her plans go awry and the stakes are HIGH for both the living and the dead, so yeah. I’m in.

Shadowfell: Shadowfell, #1 by Juliet Marillier (September 11, 2012 from Knopf BFYR). Guys, I haven’t read much Juliet Marillier, but what I HAVE read was so legit, and I have so many of her other books on my TBR that I can’t wait to read. SHADOWFELL sounds absolutely awesome, plus it’s a fantasy, and we know I love those! Can’t wait to dive into this one!

Kissing Shakespeare by Pamela Mingle (August 14, 2012 from Random House Children’s). So, I think this cover is GORGEOUS. But what REALLY gets me excited to read KISSING SHAKESPEARE is the whole, “theater geeks time traveling back to 16th-century England” business. Because the kissing Shakespeare in the title is REAL. I think. It SOUNDS like it’s going to be real, and that is AWESOME. I love it when the line between sci-fi (time travel) blurs with historical fiction. 

Flirting in Italian by Lauren Henderson (June 12, 2012 from Delacorte BFYR). Is it just me, or are books set in other countries THE BOMB? I just love them, especially when they are contemporaries, although I love them in any time period. This one sounds just plain fun: flirting, Italian boys, mysteries (ooooh!), and “long hot nights of dancing under the stars.” You don’t have to ask me to read this book twice. 

The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom: The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, #1 by Christopher Healy (May 1, 2012 from Walden Pond Press). I can’t believe I forgot this one earlier! Because seriously? A MG of the famous fairy tales–Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Sleeping Beauty–told from the points of view of the PRINCES?!? Mind = BLOWN. I was CRAZY excited when I got this one from Edelweiss.

(Random House was OFF THE CHAIN on NetGalley this week, and Walden Pond Press totally made my day! MWAH to you, Random House and Walden! BIG BIG kiss!)

BOUGHT

Guys, I went a little bananas this week with the buying. *moment of silence for Amy’s wallet, which got HIT this week* BUT! Look at these books! YAY for all the fantasy! And some great contemps, too! (Too bad Pepsi doesn’t give me a cut for the little plug in my picture there.)

Croak: Croak, #1 by Gina Damico. This one is from the DAC ARC Tour, and I forgot to shout it out in last week’s mailbox. So, THANKS LISA AND THE DAC ARC TOUR LADIES! I loved CROAK. This one is OUT NOW, and my review is going up soon! 

The False Prince: The Ascendence Trilogy, #1 by Jennifer A. Nielsen. GUYS. This one sounds LEGIT. It’s about a young boy who gets chosen to compete against other boys to PRETEND to be a kingdom’s lost prince returned to prevent a civil war. It sounds TWISTY with lots of scheming and intrigue and TREASONOUS GOINGS-ON. YES.

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley. I read this one already and loved it like I love cinnamon buns with cream cheese frosting. (That’s A LOT.) Needed to have a copy to have and hold forever, and now I do. 

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. Same as above, except maybe MORE. I’ve already petted this book and hugged it lots. I don’t want to peer pressure you guys to read it if you haven’t yet, but…PEER PRESSURE. READ IT!

The Exiled Queen: Seven Realms, #2 by Cinda Williams Chima. I just finished reading the first book in this series, THE DEMON KING, and I NEEDED this next book ASAP. I’m so glad that I started this series, guys. It’s legit fantasy.

Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler. I’ve been meaning to read some of Sarah Ockler’s books for a long time, but my library doesn’t have any! *sad face* So when I saw that this book had a cookie on the cover because it’s got baked goods in it, and that there are hockey players, too, I KNEW that this would be my first book of hers. I LOVE baking and hockey players!

A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel, Vol. I by George R.R. Martin, Daniel Abraham (Writer), and Tommy Patterson (Illustrator). YO. I think I need to make a separate fangirl post about this because, HONESTLY. Game of Thrones day on TV, Game of Thrones day in my mailbox. I really can’t handle it. BUT!! Here’s a preview of the EFFING AWESOME in this book:

(HIIIII, GHOST!!)

Whew! I was pretty excited this week, guys!! I hope you were too!!!

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Guest Post + Giveaway: Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson

 Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Visit Julianne: Twitter | Website

Guys!! It’s my first guest post! I’m thrilled to have Julianne Donaldson, the author of EDENBROOKE, as my first guest poster! I loved her book, and I LOVE historical romances, but most importantly for THIS post, I LOVED LOVED LOVED Philip! He got me wondering: Who was Julianne’s favorite historical romance hero? She was awesome enough to answer!

I have loved many heroes, but I have a special weakness for a real gentleman. With an English accent, please! It’s hard to choose a favorite heroic gentleman from literature, because there are so many good ones. Jane Austen alone supplied us with several fine specimens to choose from. Of course Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice is a given (especially when played by Colin Firth).  I love Mr. Darcy’s line, “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” He has all of this restrained passion going on, at battle with his better judgment, and his passion wins. As powerful and influential as he is, he cannot resist Elizabeth’s charms and his growing love for her. Emma is probably next in line, featuring the stalwart Mr. Knightley, who never wavers from doing the right thing. He offers that great “boy next door” charm. His proposal is so sweet, especially when he tells Emma, “if I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.” But let’s not forget Captain Wentworth from Persuasion, who writes the BEST love letter. “You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope….I have loved none but you…” (sigh) So many passionate, strong, and good men to choose from! I can’t pick a favorite–I’ll just have to claim all three.

Thanks so much, Julianne!! EDENBROOKE really was super enjoyable and a fantastic romance. Because the people at Shadow Mountain OBVIOUSLY love this book as much as I did, they’ve sent me an ARC to give away to one of you guys!

 Win an ARC of Edenbrooke!

• Be at least 13 years old.
• Live in the US–sorry rest of the world! 😦
• Respond to my, “HEY! You won Edenbrooke! Do a happy dance!” email within 48 hours or someone else will be happy dancing instead.
• Tweet about this giveaway. Anything you like, just @ me in your tweet and link to this page and we’re good. 🙂

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The giveaway closes at 11:59 PM on FRIDAY, APRIL 13!! Winner will be selected at random and emailed. Of course, NONE of the information you submit to me will be shared with anyone EVER.

Blog Tour Review: Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson

Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Visit Julianne: Twitter | Website

Rewind and Review (4): The Demon King

The Demon King (Seven Realms #1)

by Cinda Williams Chima

(First published November 19, 2009 by Disney-Hyperion)

Yo, the fact that I hadn’t yet read Cinda Williams Chima’s THE DEMON KING until now is egregious, guys. A serious misstep on my part. Why this happened is beyond me. I knew about the Seven Realms series; I knew it was high fantasy with magic, politics, and intrigue; I knew that lots of people thought it was excellent. I’d even checked it out of my library once before and somehow got distracted by other things. Sometimes, I think I just need to be in the right mood to read certain books, and that includes my beloved high fantasies. THANKFULLY, I was finally in the mood to read THE DEMON KING because guys? IT’S LEGIT, and I can’t wait to read further in this series. 

So, THE DEMONG KING by Cinda Williams Chima has lots of things going for it: it’s got magic, a repressed princess, a thief trying to reform, a queen not acting like herself, and a 1,000-year-old truce between wizards and the clans–a Native American-esque race who control and disseminate magic–borne out of the actions of an ancient queen named Hanalea, and the most powerful wizard ever to live, the Demon King. This truce is really the center of the story because it’s losing its footing among the wizard elite, and their efforts to subvert the peace that helps contain their magic loom HUGELY over the whole story.

Of course, the politics of THE DEMON KING wouldn’t mean much if we didn’t have such AWESOME characters flesh out the rest of the story. Cinda Williams Chima gives us well-rounded, complex, funny, bright characters in Princess Raisa and Han Alister. Raisa is confident, strong, opinionated, and feeling a little rebellious. There are times when she might come off as entitled and spoiled, but she has so many redeeming qualities. Raisa is KICK-ASS, friends, and she’s really coming into her own by the end of this book. She’s got BIG THINGS coming, I can feel it! 

Han Alister is, to me, almost instantly lovable. He’s got rough edges and a sketchy past, but his motives are sweet and understandable and his struggles with a life of crime on the streets lend to his complexity. But YO, Han seriously CHARMED the pants off of me (and, I feel like, LOTS of girls in Fellsmarch, too. Honestly? I couldn’t blame a single one of them) and I LOVED his story. He’s smart and sneaky and he’s got that unassuming confidence about him that’s really magnetic. 

Both Han and Raisa have spent lots of time with the clans and it’s clear that they both prefer the more carefree, natural environment there. Of course, they’ve never encountered each other there. In fact, although I’m assuming that Han and Raisa are the OTP of this series, their interactions are limited in THE DEMON KING, and Cinda Williams Chima throws a further wrench in their interactions by giving Raisa an alias at certain times so that Han winds up having no idea who she really is. They’re definitely feeling the little electric shocks of each other, though, if you know what I mean. MOAR OF THEM, PLEASE. 

Don’t worry, though, there’s some kissy face. It just happens to be between the two leads and other people, which I appreciate. Han  has clearly gotten some before, and he has a nice little relationship with a girl from one of the clans. And I appreciate very much that Raisa enjoys kissing boys and is looking forward to doing it more often. She’s unashamed of her burgeoning desire for making out and being intimate. (Unfortunately, she mostly kisses the douchebag, Micah Bayar, son of the High Wizard, who is the resident BAD GUY.) She does get some nice relationship complexity with her old friend Amon Byrne, though, who is a member of the Queen’s Guard and is absolutely being set up as the “nice guy” to Han’s “trouble maker” in le triangle. 

All in all, the action and the plotting and ALL THE LIES in THE DEMON KING by Cinda Williams Chima make for one gripping tale. There’s all kinds of juicy stuff going, y’all! Back-stabbing, SEKRETS, death, mystery, sneaky political machinations, confusing relationships, magical shenanigans, and a big reveal at the end, which I did kind of puzzle out early, to be honest. But that did NOTHING to dampen my LOVE of this story or the people in it, nor did it make me any LESS eager to get my grabby hands on the rest of the series. Huzzah for great fantasy!! HUZZAH!

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Rewind & Review is an AMAZING new meme hosted jointly by two fabulous ladies, Ginger from Greads! and Lisa from Lisa Is Busy Nerding. This meme is all about mining your TBR piles and finding some long-lost gems (from 2010 or earlier) that you meant to read and somehow passed over. I KNOW, but it happens. Each month, each participant picks a few oldies but hopefully goodies to read, reviews ’em, and spreads the word. Huzzah!

Waiting on Wednesday (20): Through To You by Emily Hainsworth

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. I love it because it is basically a squee-fest where book lovers can choose one book that they are DYING to get their hands on. Check it out!

Through To You

by Emily Hainsworth

Camden Pike has been grief-stricken since his girlfriend, Viv, died. Viv was the last good thing in his life: helping him rebuild his identity after a career-ending football injury, picking up the pieces when his home life shattered, and healing his pain long after the meds wore off. And now, he’d give anything for one more glimpse of her. But when Cam makes a visit to the site of Viv’s deadly car accident, he sees some kind of apparition. And it isn’t Viv.

The apparition’s name is Nina, and she’s not a ghost. She’s a girl from a parallel world, and in this world, Viv is still alive. Cam can’t believe his wildest dreams have come true. All he can focus on is getting his girlfriend back, no matter the cost. But things are different in this other world: Viv and Cam have both made very different choices, things between them have changed in unexpected ways, and Viv isn’t the same girl he remembers. Nina is keeping some dangerous secrets, too, and the window between the worlds is shrinking every day.

As Cam comes to terms with who this Viv has become and the part Nina played in his parallel story, he’s forced to choose—stay with Viv or let her go—before the window closes between them once and for all.

Whew. WHOA, guys. This summary kind of blows my mind. Dead girlfriend IS ACTUALLY ALIVE in a PARALLEL UNIVERSE, except things over there are very different. So many juicy things are alluded to in this summary, I can’t even handle it. My mind is literally scrambling to wrap itself around all of this potential AWESOME. I love the idea of the parallel world being different from the current one. I’m imagining that maybe Cam and Viv aren’t together in the alternate reality, and that maybe Cam and Nina had something going on. But seriously, I know NOTHING. (Woop! Unintentional Jon Snow reference for all you Thronies!) But I can’t wait to read this book and FIND OUT. Just this synopsis had my pulse going a little bit. THROUGH TO YOU sounds majorly gripping and dramatic. I have this feeling that I’m going to read it and it’s going to leave me breathless from all of the things. Huzzah!

THROUGH TO YOU is coming out October 9, 2012 from Balzer + Bray.