5 New Covers (Bick, Falls, Hoover, Reisz, Roux)

Now Available for US Pre-Order

Jessica Brody: UNREMEMBERED (paperback): 28th January 2014: Buy (US)
Rachel Caine: PRINCE OF SHADOWS: 4th February 2014: Buy (US)
Carolyn Crane: AGAINST THE DARK: 17th April 2013: Buy (US)
Lauren DeStefano: PERFECT RUIN has been moved up (yay!) to 1st October 2013: Buy (US)
Kat Falls: INHUMAN has been moved up (yay!) to 24th September 2013: Buy (US)
Jeff Hirsch: MAGISTERIUM (paperback) has been moved up (yay!) to 27th August 2013: Buy (US)
Jeff Hirsch: THE DARKEST PATH has been moved up (yay!) to 24th September 2013: Buy (US)
Katie McGarry: DARE YOU TO (paperback): 29th October 2013: Buy (US)
Katie McGarry: CRASH INTO YOU: 26th November 2013: Buy (US)
Marissa Meyer: CRESS: 4th February 2014: Buy (US)
Saundra Mitchell: MISTWALKER: 4th February 2014: Buy (US)
Tara Moss: THE COBRA QUEEN:27th December 2013: Buy (AU)
Angie Smibert: THE MEME PLAGUE: 13th August 2013: Buy (US)
Lila Veen: BURNING FOR YOU: 3rd April 2013: Buy (US)

8 New Covers (DeStefano, Falls, Johnson, Kade, Mead, Moss, Rush, Yovanoff)

Common First Names of YA Authors

Rachel Vincent mentioned on her blog how numerous some first names of YA authors are. Sometimes they’re spelled differently, but I’ve made a little list. Most popular: Amanda, Amy, Jennifer, Jessica, Kate, Megan, Rachel, and Sara.

AMANDA – Amanda Grace, Amanda Marrone, Amanda Sun
AMY – Amy Garvey, Amy Christine Parker, Amy Kathleen Ryan
CARRIE – Carrie Jones, Carrie Ryan
HEATHER – Heather Brewer, Heather Davis
JENNIFER – Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Jennifer Bosworth, Jennifer Rush
JESSICA – Jessica Brody, Jessica Spotswood, Jessica Verday
JUSTINE – Justine Larbalestier, Justine Musk
KAREN – Karen Kincy, Karen Mahoney
KAT – Kat Falls, Kat Zhang
KATE – Kate Ellison, Kate Gordon, Kate Karyus Quinn
KELLY – Kelley Armstrong, Kelly Keaton
LAURA – Laura Bickle, Laura Riken
MEGAN – Megan Crewe, Megan McCafferty, Megan Shepherd
MELISSA – Melissa Landers, Melissa Marr
RACHEL – Rachel Caine, Rachel Cohn, Rachel Vincent
SARA – Sarah Crossan, Sara Wilson Etienne, Sara Grant
SOPHIE – Sophie Littlefield, Sophie McKenzie
TARA – Tara Hudson, Tara Moss
VERONICA – Veronica Rossi, Veronica Roth

[REVIEW] Rip Tide – Kat Falls

Kat Falls
Rip Tide (Dark Life, Book 2)
Scholastic (US: 1st August 2011); Simon & Schuster (UK: 4th August 2011; AU: 1st October 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

Usually young adult novels don’t scare me, but Kat Falls’ Dark Life series does. The subsea location freaks me out – the creatures, the gangs, the politicians…not to mention that if they run out of crops and Liquigen, the people will die. The stakes are always high, and the scenes with the saltwater crocodile and the Drift rescue are bloody frightening. There’s more than enough gore to satisfy horror and crime fans, and the first-person male narrative is realistic.

If you haven’t checked out Book 1, Dark Life, get on it, then track down Rip Tide. These YA dystopian thrillers are dynamic!

October 2011 Releases

Finished with September 2011 Releases? Here are October 2011 Releases. To see future dates, check Reading Wishlist.

August 2011 Releases

Done with July 2011 Releases? Here are August 2011 Releases. To see future releases, check Reading Wishlist.

January Through June 2011 Reads – Star Ratings

Books I read in January through June this year. Separated into star ratings, then listed by order in which I read them. All up at GoodReads. Some reviews here on my WordPress. Does not include books that I didn’t finish, because I’ve deleted them from my catalogue, and likely my memory.

Let me know if you decide to read or not to read them, based on my ratings. Because yes, I am that egocentric

5 STARS: Rage (Jackie Morse Kessler), American Vampire (Jennifer Armintrout), Project 17 (Laurie Faria Stolarz), The Gathering (Kelley Armstrong), The Repossession Mambo/Repo Men (Eric Garcia), Moongazer (Marianne Mancusi), Wither (Lauren DeStefano), Girl Hero (Carrie Jones)

4 STARS: Outside In (Maria V. Snyder), Stocking Full of Coal (Amanda Feral), The Walled Garden (Michele Lang), The Shadow Runners (Liz Maverick), The Vespertine (Saundra Mitchell), Linger (Maggie Stiefvater), Dark Life (Kat Falls), Demonized (Naomi Clark), The Reckoning (Kelley Armstrong), Midnight Alley (Rachel Caine), Feast of Fools (Rachel Caine), Lord of Misrule (Rachel Caine), Carpe Corpus (Rachel Caine), Fade Out (Rachel Caine), Coming Home (P. D. Martin), Kiss of Death (Rachel Caine), XVI (Julia Karr), Ghost Town (Rachel Caine), The Girl in the Steel Corset (Kady Cross), Matched (Ally Condie), Uninvited (Amanda Marrone), The Bradbury Report (Steven Polansky), Uninvited (Justine Musk), Exile (Rebecca Lim), Helper12 (Jack Blaine), Darkness Becomes Her (Kelly Keaton)

3 STARS: Jealousy (Lili St. Crow), Among the Betrayed (Margaret Peterson Haddix), Among the Barons (Margaret Peterson Haddix), Becoming (Kelley Armstrong), Shadow Days (Andrea Cremer), Day of Fire (Kathleen Nance), Dreaming Anastasia (Joy Preble), Things Bogans Like, Beyond Heaving Bosoms (Sarah Wendell & Candy Tan), Fugitives (Alexander Gordon Smith), The Power of Two (Patti O’Shea), Coming Undone (Lauren Dane), In the Arms of Stone Angels (Jordan Dane), The Iron Witch (Karen Mahoney), Damaged (Yolanda Sfetsos), Falling Freestyle (Vivian Arend), Jeweled (Anya Bast), Thyla (Kate Gordon), It Takes a Village Idiot and I Married One (Alex Borstein & Cherry Chevapravatdumrong), Burn Bright (Marianne de Pierres), A Touch Mortal (Leah Clifford), Night and Chaos (Naomi Clark), Savage Transformation (Lexxie Couper), The Official Illustrated Guide (Stephenie Meyer), Exit Strategy (Kelley Armstrong), Made to Be Broken (Kelley Armstrong), You Are So Undead to Me (Stacey Jay), Hereafter (Tara Hudson), Relentless (Lauren Dane), The Scarlet Empress (Susan Grant), Close Encounters (Katherine Allred), Perfect Cover (Jennifer Lynn Barnes), Killer Spirit (Jennifer Lynn Barnes), West End (Laura Van Wormer), Moon Sworn (Keri Arthur)

2 STARS: Defiance (Lili St. Crow)

[REVIEW] Dark Life – Kat Falls

Kat Falls
Dark Life (Dark Life, Book 1)
Scholastic (US & CA: 1st February 2011); Simon & Schuster (UK: 5th August 2010; AU: 1st October 2010)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

Ty Townson knows all about life underwater; Benthic Territory is his home turf. But for Gemma Straid, it’s entirely new ground she’s had to venture to find her brother. Meanwhile, outlaws are deflating homes, the Territory is running out of Liquigen, and the sheriff wants nothing more than to return Topside.

This futuristic Western YA comes with a great male narrator, shifty characters, claustrophobic setting, some genuinely creepy moments, and the first steps of a realistic romance. Towards the end it gets more paranormal, which doesn’t work for me (I’ve read enough teens-with-strange-abilities books), but I’ll stick with this trilogy for the futuristic elements.

2 Events, 1 News & 11 New Deals

On Thursday 24th February, Keri Arthur will be the star of Library Lovers’ Lunch at Belgrave Library in VIC. Starts at 12:30PM and costs $10, which includes lunch. You can book your place by phone on 9754 7266, or online. Hope to see you there!

Rachel Caine will come to Australia for the worldwide release of Bite Club (Morganville Vampires, Book 10) in May 2011. Stay tuned for more details.

Sara Creasy‘s sci-fi romance Song of Scarabaeus has been nominated for the 2010 Philip K. Dick Award. The sequel, Children of Scarabaeus, will be published 29th March 2011.

Rachel Cohn‘s 4-book sci-fi/fantasy series to Disney-Hyperion (World English). The first book, Beta, will be published in 2012, the rest following in 1-year intervals. Set in the bioengineered tropical paradise of Annex, which is staffed by soul-less clones. In Beta, 2 teenage girls – 1 human & the other her clone – are both stranded in the Annex & fall in love with the same guy.

Film rights for Jack El-Hai‘s The Lobotomist sold to Realm Pictures producer Brad Fischer, working with Leonardo DiCaprio’s production shingle, Appian Way. A biography of Walkter J. Freeman, the brilliant doctor who found infamy instead of medical glory after he introduced the lobotomy as a treatment for mental illness.

Kat Falls’s dystopian YA romance trilogy, The Fetch, to Scholastic Press (world rights, exc. UK/Aus/NZ). 1st book scheduled for 2012. Set in a near future in which American has been literally separated – a wall has been erected – into East & West after a disease ravages the eastern half of the country. When a 16-year-old girls is forced to travel east into the “savage zone” on a dangerous mission, she winds up meeting a mysterious boy.

Kathy Hepinstall‘s The Blue Asylum to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (NA). Madness, slavery & war are the backdrop to a love story set during the Civil War, at an insane asylum on remote Sanibel Island, as a plantation wife who has been committed by her husband falls in love with a fellow inmate & plots their escape.

Nancy Holzner‘s next 2 Deadtown novels will be released in 2011 & 2012 respectively.

UK rights for Tara Hudson‘s debut YA ghost romance Hereafter sold to HarperCollins Children’s for publication in July 2011.

Jay Kristoff‘s Stormdancer in a 3-book World English deal to Thomas Dunne Books, in association with Tor UK. A dystopian fantasy set in steampunk feudal Japan.

Screen rights for Marie Lu‘s futuristic Legend to CBS Films/Temple Hill. Takes place in a North America split into 2 warring nations, following a young Robin Hood & a teen prodigy hired to hunt him down who uncover an impossible truth about their totalitarian leaders. Lu has planned the series as a trilogy & will be involved in the scripting phase as an exec producer.

Gena Showalter has sold Alice in Zombieland, the 1st in a series. A teenage girl loses her family in a crash, only to wake up to a world of zombies & zombie-slaying, as well as a bad boy who could save or destroy her.

Cecily von Ziegesar’s Gossip Girl, Psycho Killer to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (NA), scheduled for October 2011. Will riff on the original title that launched the popular YA line about a group of wealthy Upper East Side teenagers who attend a posh Manhattan private school. The book, which will be a mashup in the style of Pride, Prejudice & Zombies, is a serial killer version of the original Gossip Girl novel…or “Gossip Girl: Slasher Edition”. Blair Waldorf & Serena van der Woodsen become the “most fabulous, trendsetting serial killers” around.

Jill Williamson‘s YA novel Jason Farms to Zonderkids for publication in June 2012. A girl discovers an underground lab of clones – all of whom look suspiciously like a boy from school.