8 New Covers (Aguirre, Armstrong, Bodeen, Grant, Hart, Keaton, Leicht & Neal, Showalter)

Now Available for US Pre-Order

Julianna Baggott: Fuse (paperback): 10th September 2013: Here
Holly Black: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown: 17th September 2013: Here
Sarah Crossan: Resist: 8th October 2013: Here
Kim Harrison: Ever After (paperback): 24th September 2013: Here
Colleen Hoover: Hopeless (papberack): 7th May 2013: Here
Kelly Keaton: untiled 3rd Gods & Monsters novel: 17th September 2013: Here
Martin Leicht & Isla Neal: Mothership (paperback): 12th November 2013: Here
Martin Leicht & Isla Neal: A Stranger Thing: 12th November 2013: Here
Kate Locke: Long Live the Quen: 29th October 2013: Here
Kathleen Peacock: Thornhill: 9th September 2013: Here
Jackson Pearce: Cold Spell: 5th November 2013: Here
Diana Peterfreund: Across a Star-Swept Sea: 15th October 2013: Here
J. A. Souders: Renegade (paperback): 8th October 2013: Here
J. A. Souders: Revelations: 5th November 2013: Here
Jessica Verday: untitled novel: 1st October 2013: Here
Kat Zhang: Once We Were: 17th September 2013: Here

8 New Covers (Armstrong, Marr, Keaton, Norris, Quinn, Silver, Woolston)

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

February 2012 Releases

Finished with January 2012 Releases? Here are February 2012 Release. To see future releases, check Reading Wishlist.

8 New Covers (Aguirre, Arthur, Crewe, Kane, Keaton, Mahoney, McGuire, Roth)

4 New Covers (Keaton, Lang, Rossi & Winnacker)

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] Darkness Becomes Her – Kelly Keaton

Kelly Keaton
Darkness Becomes Her (Gods & Monsters, Book 1)
Simon & Schuster (US & CA: 22nd February 2011; AU: 31st May 2011; UK: 9th June 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

Circa 2012, a massive storm turned New Orleans into a “natural” disaster zone, and the US government ordered an evacuation. Nine wealthy families banded together to form the Novem, and bought the land. People live in New 2 at their own risk, and the area is said to host supernatural beings.

Ari Selkirk is a foster teen in 2027, with naturally teal eyes and waist-length white hair that cannot be changed. (In other words, she’s a “special snowflake”.) The women in her family are cursed to give birth and commit suicide all before aged twenty-one, and Ari is close to eighteen. She’s in New 2 to investigate the origins of the curse and how to remove it. She joins a band of misfit kids, gets involved with the Novem, and battles a Greek god.

With mental illness, genuinely spooky kids, and Mardi Gras, Darkness Becomes Her should easily find a place on any reader’s wish-list. The particular kinds of creatures in the prison cells are genuinely surprising. Less so are the vampires, shape-shifters, and witches elsewhere in the novel. Young girl Violet is rather uniquely creepy, while Athena is the designated big baddie with no shades of grey. And Ari is more powerful than anyone expects, adding to the “special snowflake” vibe. New 2 seems somewhat cliché or stereotypical, so doesn’t feel fresh or exciting.

I rather like this novel, yet I feel disappointed. And I’m not even PMSing.

June 2011 Releases

Done with May 2011 Releases? Here are June 2011 Releases. To see further dates, check Reading Wishlist.