Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews and is all about sharing the books you are adding to your bookshelf, be it the physical one or your digital one!
Well this week was busy. I am fairly certain I got more books than last week and I just can't believe how much actually came in! Anyways here it all is!
1st Set Of Mail: 3 Books
Title: Dark Inside
Author: Jeyn Roberts
Format: Hardback
Release Date: November 1st, 2011
Since the beginning of mankind, civilizations have fallen: the Romans, the Greeks, the Aztecs… and now us. Huge earthquakes rock the world. Cities are destroyed. But something even more awful is happening: An ancient evil has been unleashed, and it’s turning everyday people into hunters, killers, and crazies.
This is the world Mason, Aries, Clementine, and Michael are living in—or rather, trying to survive. Each is fleeing unspeakable horror, from murderous chaos to brutal natural disasters, and each is traveling the same road in a world gone mad.
Amid the throes of the apocalypse and clinging to love and meaning wherever it can be found, these four teens are on a journey into the heart of darkness—and to find each other and a place of safety.
Dark Inside has always been on my wishlist, collecting dust. To be honest I had forgotten it was there, and when I went reviewing the ever growing list of books I plan on getting around to, I found this and just had to get around to it. This book for some reasons interests me and it's not the hunters or the zombies or whatever human related thing that's got me all hyped up. It's the natural disasters. I am hoping those will be more frightening and gruesome than the actual other things.
Author: Gayle Forman
Format: Hardback
Release Date: April 6th, 2010
In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck...I found this a while ago, and frankly after Before I Fall and how great it was, there was no choice here. If I Stay has this emotional roller coaster, and from what I've read from others has this in depth attraction to nearly everyone, that you'll keep the pages turning while crying your eyes out. I am hoping, I want a book like Before I Fall; okay not exactly like it, but similar in that it's got the same emotional attachment, involvement as Before I Fall.
A sophisticated, layered, and heart-achingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make, and the ultimate choice Mia commands
Author: Cynthia Hand
Format: Hardback
Release Date: January 4th, 2011
In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .
Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.
Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.
As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?
Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.
Unearthly, from the synopsis caught my eye. I have always debated between Love vs Duty and actually wondered which one would win out in the end. In circumstances my opinion changes, and I believe that's the case for most people. Unearthly appeals to that side of me, one that wants to hear a debate, or read someone else's idea and try to understand in this story which one would win out. As well, the romance sounds interesting, sorta... The pop-up of a Love Triangle in the synopsis has me uneasy.
2nd Set Of Mail: 4 Books
Author: Meagan Spooner
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: August 1st, 2012
Sixteen year-old Lark Ainsley has never seen the sky.
Her world ends at the edge of the vast domed barrier of energy enclosing all that’s left of humanity. For two hundred years the city has sustained this barrier by harvesting its children's innate magical energy when they reach adolescence. When it’s Lark’s turn to be harvested, she finds herself trapped in a nightmarish web of experiments and learns she is something out of legend itself: a Renewable, able to regenerate her own power after it’s been stripped.
Forced to flee the only home she knows to avoid life as a human battery, Lark must fight her way through the terrible wilderness beyond the edge of the world. With the city’s clockwork creations close on her heels and a strange wild boy stalking her in the countryside, she must move quickly if she is to have any hope of survival. She’s heard the stories that somewhere to the west are others like her, hidden in secret – but can she stay alive long enough to find them?
Skylark is one of those books where the cover actually caught my eye. I know that's bad to admit and some people will laugh and make fun of me, but afterwards reading the synopsis only made me that much more interested in the book. There is something about how a city or civilization lives off the energy or "power" of their own children to sustain themselves. However, when Lark finds out she's a never ending "battery" that could help keep everyone alive, what do you do? I am curious to find out what happens to Lark, if she has any friends, and maybe a relationship? I am very curious and interested in this book with such a fantastic cover.
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: May 1st, 2010
In America's Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota--and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it's worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life...
In this powerful novel, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers a thrilling, fast-paced adventure set in a vivid and raw, uncertain future.
Ship Breaker was one of those books when I first got into reading, seriously into reading, that I found in a section "Similar to The Hunger Games." From the start of the synopsis and well pretty much everything in my gut told me it has the potential to end up as inspiring and move people like The Hunger Games did, but it's different in every other aspect. I didn't see the similarity between the two at all.
Now, when I first read the synopsis, I wasn't sure if I was even interested in it and put it off. I figured I would revamp and go through my wishlists and review it again when the time came. However, I actually found myself looking at this book every so often, and pondering about it wondering just how I felt about it and very unsure of the book. So when I found a copy of this and a signed copy of Drowned Cities I just couldn't pass it up any longer, even if I was unsure of how I felt about the series.
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: October 6th, 2009
Prince Aleksander, would-be heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, is on the run. His own people have turned on him. His title is worthless. All he has is a battletorn war machine and a loyal crew of men.
Deryn Sharp is a commoner, disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She's a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered.
With World War I brewing, Alek and Deryn's paths cross in the most unexpected way…taking them on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure that will change both their lives forever.
Scott Westerfeld has been hyped up pretty good and for that I've pretty much stayed away from his books for a while, until things could calm down and I could do a good read and review of it. Leviathan has been on my list for a while and like Ship Breaker I wasn't at all sure how I felt about it. There was something that nagged at me to pick it up and read it, but I'm not a big history buff or fan. That part has me turned off about the book, and I'm hoping that I can get past that when I read this book. Either way I am sure this will be a grand adventure!
Author: L.A. Weatherly
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: May 1st, 2010
They're out for your soul.
And they don't have heaven in mind...
Willow knows she's different from other girls, and not just because she loves tinkering with cars. Willow has a gift. She can look into the future and know people's dreams and hopes, their sorrows and regrets, just by touching them. she has no idea where this power comes from. But the assassin, Alex, does. Gorgeous, mysterious Alex knows more about Willow than Willow herself does. He knows that her powers link to dark and dangerous forces and that he's one of the few humans left who can fight them. When Alex finds himself falling in love with his sworn enemy, he discovers that nothing is as it seems, least of all good and evil.
Well I will be completely frank on this, I went out on this book on a whim. I saw the cover and fell in love. The synopsis doesn't sound too bad, but I am a bit confused at the current moment if it has anything to do with Angels or not. I mean the title suggests it, but the synopsis doesn't mention anything of the sort. Either way, the relationship seems interesting between Willow and Alex, and I enjoy the names (some of my favorite actually). I am interested in the series, to a point at the current time.
Books Bought This Week -
Author: Alyson Noel
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: May 22nd, 2012
Until now, he's existed only in her dreams -
but fate is about to bring them together.
I shove through the crowd, knocking into girls and bouncing off boys, until one in particular catches me, steadies me.
I feel so secure, so at home in his arms.
I melt against his chest-lift my gaze to meet his. Gasping when I stare into a pair of icy blue eyes banded by brilliant flecks of gold that shine like kaleidoscopes, reflecting my image thousands of times.
The boy from my dream.
The one who died in my arms.
Strange things are happening to Daire Santos. Crows mock her, glowing people stalk her, time stops without warning, and a beautiful boy with unearthly blue eyes haunts all her dreams. Fearing for her daughter’s sanity, Daire’s mother sends her to live with the grandmother she’s never met. A woman who recognizes the visions for what they truly are—the call to her destiny as a Soul Seeker—one who can navigate the worlds between the living and dead.
There on the dusty plains of Enchantment, New Mexico, Daire sets out to harness her mystical powers. But it’s when she meets Dace, the boy from her dreams, that her whole world is shaken to its core. Now Daire is forced to discover if Dace is the one guy she's meant to be with...or if he’s allied with the enemy she's destined to destroy.
Author: Richelle Mead
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: August 3rd, 2011
I wasn't free of my past, not yet.
Sydney's blood is special. That's because she's an alchemist - one of a group of himans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worls of humans and vampire. They protect vampire secrets - and human lives. But the last encounter Sydney had with vampires got her in deep trouble with the other alchemists. And now with her allegiances in question, her future is on the line.
When Sydney torn from her bed in the middle of the night, at first she thinks she's still being punished for her complicated alliance with dhampir Rose Hathaway. But what unfolds is far orse. Jill Dragomir - the sister of Moroi Queen Lissa Dragomir - is in mortal danger, and the Moroi must send her into hiding. To avoid a civil war, Sydney is called upon to act as Jill's guardian and protector, posing as her roommate in the unlikeliest of places: a human boarding school in Palm Springs, California. The last thing Sydney wants is to be accused of sympathizing with vampires. And now she has to live with one.
The Moroi court believe Jill and Sydney will be safe at Amberwood Prep, but threats, distractions, and forbidden romance lurk both outside - and within - the school grounds. Now that they're hiding, the drama is only just beginning.
Bloodlines was one of those books, I did buy on a whim. I don't normally go for Vampire romance or anything too cheesy or cliche like this, but I wanted to give this book a chance to possibly prove me wrong. So we'll see. However, this main character is an alchemist in a Vampire world. I find this book somewhat intriguing but there is something about it that has me on edge. I am not sure I'm sold on it completely.
Author: Richelle Mead
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: June 12th, 2012
The second thrilling installment in Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy spinoff series
Tough, brainy alchemist Sydney Sage and doe-eyed Moroi princess Jill Dragomir are in hiding at a human boarding school in the sunny, glamorous world of Palm Springs, California. The students--children of the wealthy and powerful--carry on with their lives in blissful ignorance, while Sydney, Jill, Eddie, and Adrian must do everything in their power to keep their secret safe. But with forbidden romances, unexpected spirit bonds, and the threat of Strigoi moving ever closer, hiding the truth is harder than anyone thought.
Populated with new faces as well as familiar ones, Richelle Mead's breathtaking Bloodlines series explores all the friendship, romance, battles, and betrayals that made the #1 New York Times bestselling Vampire Academy series so addictive. In this second book, the drama is hotter, the romances are steamier, and the stakes are even higher.
Well this is pretty much the same as Bloodlines, I did manage to acquire this book at a local Meijer. Since I had Bloodlines I figured it was worth a shit in the dark to get the second one. Plus I am a part completionist. I prefer to have the series and at least if I start the series I will finish it. Even if it means I am going to give it the lowest rank, I will finish it.
Author: L.A. Weatherly
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: January 24th, 2012
In Book Two of L. A. Weatherly’s wildly romantic, action-packed trilogy, the angels are back with a vengeance . . . and they don’t have heaven in mind.
In the wake of the Second Wave, the angel menace has exploded, and Alex and Willow are on the lam. Willow’s prophetic dream points them to Mexico City, where they connect with a fledgling group of angel killers led by the exotically beautiful Kara, an Angel Killer from Alex’s past. But the team remains suspicious of Willow, even after the more-experienced Alex takes over as leader, training them hard for a rush attack on the Seraphic Council, or “The Twelve." This elite group of all-powerful angels is also under the scrutiny of Willow’s angel-father, Raziel, who has his own sinister plan to defeat them.
What Willow hasn’t told Alex is that there was also a mysterious boy in her dream, one she felt overpoweringly attracted to. When brooding, gorgeous Seb shows up in the flesh, he turns out to be another—possibly the world’s only other—half angel. He’s been searching for Willow all his life, and when Alex enlists this rival to help keep Willow safe, he can’t predict what chemistry will pass between them . . . or how far Willow might go to keep Alex safe. Will their love endure or spell doomsday for the human race?
Such a beautiful cover, and the second in the Angel series by L.A. Weatherly. I was very interested in the first so when the second book was presented in front of me, there wasn't even an option. The completionist part of me just couldn't keep my hands off, and having not read the first book yet, I am staying away from the synopsis for now, just that I'm looking forward to getting into these lengthy books and start in on their world and characters!
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: May 1st, 2012
Soldier boys emerged from the darkness. Guns gleamed dully. Bullet bandoliers and scars draped their bare chests. Ugly brands scored their faces. She knew why these soldier boys had come. She knew what they sought, and she knew, too, that if they found it, her best friend would surely die.
In a dark future America where violence, terror, and grief touch everyone, young refugees Mahlia and Mouse have managed to leave behind the war-torn lands of the Drowned Cities by escaping into the jungle outskirts. But when they discover a wounded half-man--a bioengineered war beast named Tool--who is being hunted by a vengeful band of soldiers, their fragile existence quickly collapses. One is taken prisoner by merciless soldier boys, and the other is faced with an impossible decision: Risk everything to save a friend, or flee to a place where freedom might finally be possible.
This thrilling companion to Paolo Bacigalupi's highly acclaimed Ship Breaker is a haunting and powerful story of loyalty, survival, and heart-pounding adventure.
I got a Signed Copy of this book! I was browsing the shelves at a Barnes and Noble at a nearby town, and I noticed the author, just didn't recognize the book. When I found out it was the sequel to Ship Breaker, it just took over. I was already so interested and even if I was somewhat unsure of how I would feel about Ship Breaker; I was already sold on the series and was going to get into it no matter what. I have this book sitting on the shelf at the moment, waiting to be read and shown off.
Author: Laini Taylor
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: September 27th, 2011
Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.
Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.
When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?
Daughter of Smoke and Bone was one of those books, I've seen everywhere. I know a lot of people who have read it, just like Fifty Shades of Gray. However with this book, it actually appeals to me more, than the later. I am curious on who this Karou is, what she is, and this Akiva person. There is so many questions and things that pull me into this story. I am hoping it leaves out Vampires though, and takes a more original paranormal approach, like another form or creature that is human-like but not a vampire/werewolf.
Author: Robin LaFevers
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: April 3rd, 2012
Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?
Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.
Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?
I loved the slogan or phrase on this book, "Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?" I was drawn in by that, I mean if there was a choice Sheep or Wolf, which would you pick? To me that sounds like a loaded question, but at the same time many people would answer right away and not think of the consequences. I am curious though in this book, Ismae seems to be more of a sheep in a wolves body. If you think about it, in the synopsis she's bowing to this Death or whatever it is, but is almost afraid to stand up for what she believes in or wants to do. There is so much to think about with that phrase and how this synopsis leaves me questioning Ismae's actions.
Author: S.J. Kincaid
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: July 10th 2012
More than anything, Tom Raines wants to be important, though his shadowy life is anything but that. For years, Tom’s drifted from casino to casino with his unlucky gambler of a dad, gaming for their survival. Keeping a roof over their heads depends on a careful combination of skill, luck, con artistry, and staying invisible.
Then one day, Tom stops being invisible. Someone’s been watching his virtual-reality prowess, and he’s offered the incredible—a place at the Pentagonal Spire, an elite military academy. There, Tom’s instincts for combat will be put to the test, and if he passes, he’ll become a member of the Intrasolar Forces, helping to lead his country to victory in World War Three. Finally, he’ll be someone important: a superhuman war machine with the tech skills that every virtual-reality warrior dreams of. Life at the Spire holds everything that Tom’s always wanted—friends, the possibility of a girlfriend, and a life where his every action matters—but what will it cost him?
Gripping and provocative, S. J. Kincaid’s futuristic thrill ride of a debut crackles with memorable characters, tremendous wit, and a vision of the future that asks startling, timely questions about the melding of humanity and technology.
I thought of BZRK when I first saw this book. And I'm a Huge Veronica Roth fan, so seeing her praise on this book was a nail in the coffin. I take people recommendations pretty lightly, I mean, I am sometimes more intrigued to find out why someone disliked a book, more than trying to find out why they loved a book. I am weird I know, but I like to keep an open mind. And if someone hates a book, it doesn't necessarily mean that I will hate it either. So doing that introducing me to quite a few books.
Now here though, this book and the both is true. I have seen a bunch of raving reviews that people love it and blah blah blah. However, the synopsis has this whole other dimension to it. The next world war being fought in Virtual Reality? That sound very very interesting and promising.
