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)

5th February 2013 Releases

Happy Release Day to:

Miriam Forster
City of a Thousand Dolls
HarperCollins (US & CA: 5th February 2013)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Nisha was abandoned at the gates of the City of a Thousand Dolls when she was just a little girl. Now sixteen, she lives on the grounds of the isolated estate, where orphan girls apprentice as musicians, healers, courtesans, and, if the rumours are true, assassins. She makes her way as Matron’s errand girl, her closest companions the mysterious cats that trail her shadow. Only when she begins a forbidden flirtation with the city’s handsome young courier does she let herself imagine a life outside the walls. Until one by one, girls around her start to die. Before she becomes the next victim, Nisha decides to uncover the secrets that surround the girls’ deaths. But by getting involved, Nisha jeopardises not only her own future in the City of a Thousand Dolls – but also her life.

Kate Locke
The Queen is Dead (Immortal Empire, Book 2)
Hachette Little, Brown Orbit (US & UK: 5th February 2013
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
When her brother Val gets in over his head in an investigation of Half-Blood disappearances and goes missing himself, it’s up to Xandra, newly crowned Goblin Queen, to get him back and bring the atrocities to light. Xandra must frequent the seediest parts of London, while also coping with what she is, the political factions vying for her favour, and the all too-close scrutiny of Queen Victoria, who wants her head. Add this to a being a suspect in a murder investigation, a werewolf boyfriend with demands of his own, and a mother hell bent on destroying the monarchy, and Xandra barely knows which way is up. One thing she does know is that she’s already lost one sibling, she’s not about to lose another.

Marissa Meyer
Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles, Book 2)
Macmillan Feiwel & Friends (US: 5th February 2013)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, is trying to break out of prison – even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive. Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

February 2013 Releases

Done with January 2013 Releases? Here are February 2013 Releases. For future titles, check Reading Wishlist.

Top 10 Most Popular Reviews of 2012 (according to my WordPress stats)

The most popular posts on my blog are cover reveals first and foremost. Then deal announcements. But what about reviews? WordPress’ stats show the most popular (ie. most views) posts in the past year (16th January 2012 until today). I made note of the Top 10 (correct as of circa 5PM Tuesday, ie yesterday):

Equal 9th with 55 Views: Tiffany Reisz’s The Siren. So close to giving this five stars. Marked it down because I don’t like when authors make their characters authors, too. And Nora doesn’t seem to have an agent

Equal 9th with 55 Views: Marissa Meyer’s Cinder. Another close to five stars. Marked it down because it tries too hard to stick to the fairytale, with the prince and the ball. When it’s original with the cyborg and plague, it’s more awesome.

8th with 58 Views: Tiffany Reisz’s Seven-Day Loan. It’s since been retitled The Gift. Normally I don’t bother reviewing short stories, but Tiffany Reisz makes me want to tell the world. I have her second and third novels on shelf to be read. Now I wait for more short stories to be made free.

7th with 64 Views: Gabrielle Carey & Kathy Lette’s Puberty Blues. I just love this. It doesn’t pull any punches. It’s short, to the point, and doesn’t glamourise or romanticise teen relationships. It’s brutally honest, with a voice that can’t be matched. And it’s funny.

6th with 68 Views: John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Little Star. The author’s previous novel, Harbour, just didn’t work for me, and it’d been a few years since his glorious first two novels. But Little Star is a real return to form, and could be a morbid hit with teenage girls. I really enjoyed this, and the short story collection, Let the Old Dreams Die, that follows. Gotta love Lindqvist

5th with 71 Views: Bleeding Ink Anthology. I have no idea why this rated so popular, considering it’s a self-published short story anthology edited by members of Kelley Armstrong’s forums. There are a few standouts, but overall I don’t think much of it.

4th with 98 Views: Fanny Merkin’s Fifty Shames of Earl Grey. The only book in the Top 10 that I gave five stars. I’ve never read, and don’t plan to read, E. L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey, but I love this. I normally believe there’s a special hell for parody books, but Fanny Merkin’s is a special case. If you’re going to read a parody, you may as well read the best.

3rd with 126 Views: Sylvia Day’s Reflected in You. This trilogy annoys the shit out of me on so many levels, yet I’ve read the first two books in full. I share spoilers, and that’s probably what brings in the page views – you want someone to tell you what happens so you don’t have to read it for yourself

2nd with 863 Views: Sylvia Day’s Bared to You. Surprisingly, I actually gave this three stars, but that was back when actual conflict between a couple was something new and different. Until then, romance novels basically had no conflict at all between a couple – it was all external. This novel made me feel anger and frustration, and a bloody lot of both. It’s genuinely quite an achievement for a romance novel to make me feel something other than “meh”. I REALLY dislike these characters.

1st with 1884 Views: Sophie Morgan’s The Diary of a Submissive. I don’t read memoirs. Yet I saw this on NetGalley, and decided to give it a shot. Only worth three stars, yet the most popular with my blog visitors. Not my regular readers, mind you – I’m pretty sure most of the views came via Google searches. It’s a UK book, so probably didn’t get much US blog coverage. Mind you, I’m pretty sure a lot of my Crossfire review visitors came via Google searches, too, though those books got plenty of blog coverage all over the Internet. Huh.

what to conclude from the Top 10? They say more about my visitors than they do about me 6 of the 10 heavily feature sex, so my visitors want me to review more erotica? (Though I certainly wouldn’t call Puberty Blues erotica.) I was expecting J. Kenner’s Release Me to be up there, but considering it was published only in the last month or so, it may not have had as much time to gather viewers. Plus, I cross-post all my reviews to Shelfari and Goodreads (and Amazon when they don’t ban them for using forbidden words), so chances are they’ve been read there instead of on my blog. That’s fine. I’m not one of those obnoxious self-promoters who say on Goodreads “full review at [insert blog link]“. I treat Goodreads users with more respect than that. Okay, I AM an obnoxious self-promoter, but not when it comes to reviews on Goodreads

January 2013 Releases

Done with December 2012 Releases? Here are January 2013 Releases. For future releases, check Reading Wishlist.

4 New Covers (Mahoney, Meyer, Price, Revis)

[REVIEW] Cinder – Marissa Meyer

Marissa Meyer
Cinder (Lunar Chronicles, Book 1)
Penguin Puffin (AU: 29th December 2011; UK: 5th January 2012); Macmillan Feiwel & Friends (US: 3rd January 2012)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

When looking for a pre-structured story to put one’s spin on, fairytales are the first stop. Cinderella is a working class girl with evil, demanding stepsisters and stepmother, who attends a prince’s ball.

However, Marissa Meyer hooks readers with her take of a cyborg in futuristic China. Cinder is the best mechanic in the Eastern Commonwealth, fixing her own body parts as well as portscreens…and Prince Kai’s beloved android.

But a plague is decimating the country – letumosis, often referred to as the blue death. Cinder learns how it spreads, and why she’s immune.

The stepmother, the elder stepsister, and the Lunar Queen are rather one-dimensional. More interesting, however, is Dr Dmitri Erland, in charge of creating a cure for the plague. But his secrets could change society as they know it.

I love all the science and technology: cyborgs, androids, letumosis, bioelectricity, all of it. Fingers crossed we learn about futuristic Africa next.

January 2012 Releases

Done with December 2011 Releases? Here are January 2012 Releases. To see future titles, check Reading Wishlist.

Authors, Genre Cats & Servals

Readers, I’ve forgotten to post some stuff on the blog! Let’s play catch-up.

A few months ago I started Genre Cats, a Tumblr dedicated to authors photographed with their cats. All photos are submitted by the authors, not just random stuff found on the Internet. Authors include M. J. Scott, Kate Gordon, Teri Hall, Marissa Meyer, Jeff Hirsch, Gretchen Hirsch, Laura Bickle/Alayna Williams, Merrie Destefano and Mike Mullin. Authors, would you and your cats like to be featured on Genre Cats? Here‘s how

I went to Werribee Open Range Zoo for my birthday treat. The highlight was of course the African Cat Encounter, which was $70 to meet the zoo’s servals, learn about them, and watch them train. You can see my photos of various animals on Facebook.

I saw The Hives at The Palace as a second birthday treat. They played three new songs, and some old favourites. They’re the best band to see live, with such elegant attire, quirky humour, and high-energy songs

And just this Thursday, I met author Maria V. Snyder at the Target Centre

5 New Covers (DeStefano, Etienne, Lu, Meyer & Wiggins)