1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
3. Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs
4. Anne of Green Gables series
5. My Fair Godmother by Janette Rallison
6. Timeless by Alexandra Monir
7. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
8. Cheating at Solitaire by Ally Carter
9. The Season by Sarah MacLean
10. Revenge of the Cheerleaders by Janette Rallison
Three teenage descendants of Medusa, the once-beautiful gorgon maligned by myth, must reunite and embrace their fates in a world where monsters lurk in plain sight.
I’m already tingling with excitement: snake-like hair, the “true story” of a beautiful Medusa, and some kick-butt monster slaying action. For more information on Tera Lynn Child’s website, click the link. To add Sweet Venom to your goodreads shelf, click on the cover.
What do you think?
This will be my weekly post, similar to Waiting on Wednesdays done Jill at Breaking the Spine. I will be showcasing a book that I am wildly anticipating, and have most-likely already pre-ordered on Amazon.com. I’ll try to post “I Can’t Hardly Wait” posts on Fridays. Thanks, and feel free to tell me what you’re excited about :)
Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting
I loved The Body Finder, and can’t wait to see if Desires of the Dead lives up to it.
Anything you’re looking forward to?
Released: January 21, 2011
Paperback, 329 pages
Interest: Debut author, upcoming movie release
Summary
The body of a young girl is discovered in a field of wheat. Her flesh mutilated by telltale claw marks. The Wolf has broken the peace.
When Valerie learns that her sister has been killed by the legendary creature, she finds herself at the center of a dark mystery, one that has plagued her village for generations. It is revealed that the werewolf lives among them, and everyone in the village immediately becomes a suspect. Could her secret love Peter be behind the attacks on her town? Is it her betrothed, Henry? Or someone even closer to her?
As the men in the village hunt for the beast, Valerie turns to her grandmother for help. She gives Valerie a handmade red riding cloak, and guides her through the web of lies and deception that has held her town together for so long. Will Valerie discover the werewolf's identity before the town is ripped apart?
This is a dangerous new vision of a classic fairy tale, the happy ending could be hard to find.
Summary from Goodreads.com
Review
I'm a little upset at this book, in more ways than one:
1. We don't actually find out who the werewolf is! There's a website listed at the end that we can read at, but the ending won't be posted until March 10th or so. I don't know about you, but I like having my endings printed in the book, not hanging around online. I also appreciate that they're trying to save it for the movie, but why release the book in January if you don't want to end it till March. Those of us who bought the book paid just as much as we would for a movie ticket, I think we deserved an ending.
2. The romance was not there. Valerie meets Peter, who used to be her best friend when she was seven. He and his father were kicked out of the village ten years ago, we're not completely sure why. Now, when he's returned, they're in love: they were apparently in love as children.
Now, really?! She was in love with him as a seven year old?! Go, get married on the playground then!
So, they see each other, they're in love, Valerie asks 'Do you remember me?' Peter says 'How could I forget you?' and she agrees to run away with him. So really, she's agreeing to run off with someone who she hasn't talked to in ten years, and has spoken less than 10 words with now? Smart...
The rest of their "romance" is heavy on the lust, non-existent on the love.
That being said, the wolf elements of the story, and the psychology of their village life was very intriguing to me. A werewolf hunter, Father Solomon, comes to the village and tells the villagers that the werewolf lives among them. Between their paranoia, the actual werewolf killing spree, and the hunt for it, there is some serious evil going on.
My final recommendation would be to just see the movie if you're already interested. If you're still interested then borrow or buy the book.
Rating
Cover 8/10 I love the wolf shadow across the bottom, and the red contrasts really well with the black/white scheme
Plot 8/10
Characters 7/10 We didn’t truly get to know them
Ending 6/10 As mentioned above
Overall enjoyment 7/10
72% C-
PG-13 Some violence, and a heavy make-out scene
In My Mailbox is a weekly meme started by The Story Siren. It gives people a chance to share what they got in the mail, in a shopping bag, from the library, or from a friend. You can get more information, or share your posts here.
This week I got a lot of the books I’d ordered for my birthday. I loved all of my Amazon gift cards :)
This will be my weekly post, similar to Waiting on Wednesdays done Jill at Breaking the Spine. I will be showcasing a book that I am wildly anticipating, and have most-likely already pre-ordered on Amazon.com. I’ll try to post “I Can’t Hardly Wait” posts on Fridays. Thanks, and feel free to tell me what you’re excited about :)
Cloaked by Alex Flinn
A retelling of The Frog Prince, the Elves and the Shoemaker, and several other fairytales. I do love how Alex Flinn blends her fairytales with a modern setting and characters. I can’t wait to read this.
Anything you’re looking forward to?
Interest: Debut Author Challenge, storyline: people frozen on a spaceship
Released: January 11, 2011
398 Pages, hardcover
Summary:A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.
Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.
Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.
Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.
Summary from Goodreads.com
Alright, I held off on reviewing Across the Universe for a few weeks because I did not know what to think. It was hyped to be one of the best books out this year, the storyline was really intriguing, but I found myself disappointed by the story. Time has helped me sort out why. For me, it was the romance. I love good YA romances. In Across the Universe, I am sorry to say, there was not a romance. Normally, I would not be too upset about this, but the blurb led me to believe there would be: “A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.” I felt misled, and let down when there was not a love story.
Now, if I take those emotions out of the equation, AtU was a great story! It was science fiction meets dystopian literature. The world that Revis created (right down to a ship map inside the dust cover) was impressive. That is one thing I love about dystopian books: the new world, presumably created based on our actions and/or mistakes. The world on Godspeed is one that will make you cringe. People are docile and vacant. Those who are not are considered crazy. Children aren’t born out of love, but because it is “the season”, and people mate like animals in the middle of the sidewalk.
It’s a strange new world. It grows even stranger when cryogenically frozen people are being taken out early: to awaken or die. Amy wakes up. Elder (the teenaged future leader of Godspeed) is immediately drawn to her. As he watches her reactions to his society he starts to actually question how and why things are done on the ship. He also works with Amy in a race to protect the other “frozens” and discover who is trying to kill them.
Overall, Across the Universe was very well done. Just think don’t think of it as a romance, and you should be satisfied :)
Cover: 10/10 Love the colors, the contrast, the faces, the stars. It fits for the book too.
Plot: 9/10
Characters: 8/10
Ending: 9/10
Overall Enjoyment: 7/10
Score: 84% B
PG-13 Not much language as the characters use future curses, sexuality described in terms of human “mating” on the ship, and a near rape
