August 2016 Releases

Done with July 2016 Releases? Here are August 2016 Releases. For future releases, check Reading Wishlist.

April 2016 Reads

Took me 11 days into May, but I managed to review every book bar one, of which I only wrote a paragraph (see below).

Francesca Haig: The Map of Bones: 4 stars: Review
Cyn Balog: Dead River: 3 stars
Kelley Armstrong: Forsaken: 3 stars: Review
Meg Cabot: Proposal: 3 stars: Review
Cassie Alexander: Bloodshifted: 4 stars: Review
Sara Zarr: Story of a Girl: 3 stars: Review
Lisa Tucker: The Promised World: 3 stars: Review
Sylvia Day: One with You: 2 stars: Review

DEAD RIVER
CONTENT WARNING: Suicide and suicidal attempts. Grief. Drowning. Murder. I’d forgot this was paranormal, and went in expecting a contemporary thriller. A teen girl hates camping and the outdoors, yet still agrees to on a white water rafting weekend with her boyfriend, her best friend, and a tag-along. It does not go well. She falls out, drowns, but is rescued by a guy who’s…a ghost or something. And there’s this other ghost, and it’s all very confusing and nonsensical. But the only way the girl can access the ghostworld – namely the ghost of her dead mother – is by drowning. Yes, it gets a bit suicidal. The rafting is interesting, and the grief regarding her mother is relatable, but the paranormal element is a fail, and that epilogue is ugh.

[REVIEW] Proposal – Meg Cabot

Meg Cabot
Proposal (Mediator, Novella)
HarperCollins Avon Impulse (AU: 19th January 2016; US & CA: 1st March 2016)
Buy (US Kindle Edition) Buy (US Paperback) Buy (UK Kindle Edition) Buy (UK Paperback) Buy (CA Kindle Edition) Buy (CA Paperback) Buy (Worldwide)

CONTENT WARNING: Contains the (possible) racial slur, “chola.” It’s spelled out, though the N-word later is only implied. Different people use these words, both of them antagonists. Still, two racist characters in one novella – I didn’t expect that.

I read the Mediator series back in my teens, and am almost 30 now. Needless to say, in regards to this series my recall is even worse than usual. How did Jesse go from a ghost to a “living” person?

Anyhoo, Suze now lives with quirky housemates, whilst trying to convince Jesse to shag her before marriage. She keeps looking at and talking about his crotch. Other readers may brush this off as “sexy banter”, but…no.

So the personal stuff is kind of faff, but the case Suze tries to solve is interesting. An interracial couple’s car goes off a cliff. The driver is blamed…but is it really his fault?

1st March 2016 Releases

Oops, it’s technically Wednesday now. Um, Belated Happy Release Day to:

Steve Bein
Disciple of the Wind (Fated Blades, Book 2)
Penguin Roc (US & CA: 1st March 2016)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
After a deadly terrorist attack in Tokyo, Detective Sergeant Mariko Oshiro urges her commanding officers to arrest an insane zealot who was just released from police custody. When her pleas fall on deaf ears, she loses her temper and then her badge. Armed with only her cunning and her famed Inazuma blade, Mariko must work outside the system to stop the terrorist. But going rogue draws the attention of the Wind – an underground syndicate that has controlled Japanese politics for centuries, using mystical relics to achieve their nefarious ends. Now, Mariko is left with a perilous choice: join an illicit insurgency to thwart a deadly villain, or remain true to the law. Either way, she cannot escape her sword’s curse. As sure as the blade will bring her to victory, it also promises to destroy her…

Meg Cabot
Proposal (Mediator, Novella)
HarperCollins Avon Impulse (US & CA: 1st March 2016)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
The last place Suze Simon expects to find herself during Valentine’s Day is a cemetery. But that’s what happens when you’re a mediator – cursed with the “gift” of communicating with the dead. That’s how Suze has ended up at the graves of a pair of tragic young lovers. They’re NCDPs – Non-Compliant Deceased Persons – whose drama didn’t end with death. It’s Suze’s job to make sure they move on – for good. But the NCDPs aren’t the only ones with problems. The reason Suze is spending her Valentine’s Day with the undead instead of her boyfriend, Jesse, is because he’s having so much trouble adjusting to life after death…not surprising, considering the fact that he used to be an NCDP himself, and now his girlfriend busts his former kind for a living. Can Suze use her mediating skills to propose a mutual resolution, and bring all these young lovers together, especially on the night Saint Valentine declared sacred to romance? Or will she end up alone – and possibly undead – herself?

Rachel Caine
Midnight Bites (Morganville Vampires, Anthology)
Penguin NAL (US & CA: 1st March 2016)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
By day, Morganville, Texas, is just a typical college town. By night, the vampires emerge and take control… In a town where it’s not safe to be out after dark, student Claire Danvers and her friends have had their fair share of thrills. But Morganville still has a few secrets left to tell. Now, in this collection, you can venture down the town’s strange streets, revisit all the tales, and experience six new stories featuring Morganville residents – both human and vampire…

Lydia Kang
Catalyst (Control, Book 1)
Penguin Speak (US & CA: 1st March 2016)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
In the past year Zel lost her father, the boy she loves, her safety, and any future she might have imagined for herself. Now she, her sister, and the band of genetic outcasts they’ve come to call their family are forced on the run when their safe house is attacked by men with neural guns. But on the way to a rumoured haven in Chicago, Zel hears something – a whisper from Cy, the boy who traded himself for her sister’s safety. And when she veers off plan in order to search for him, what she finds is not what she expected. There’s more to their genetic mutations than they ever imagined…aspects that make them wonder if they might be accepted by the outside world after all.

Seanan McGuire
Chaos Choreography (InCryptid, Book 5)
Penguin DAW (US & CA: 1st March 2016)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Verity Price is back on the West Coast and getting back into the swing of the family business: cryptozoology. She’s rescuing cryptids from bad situations, protecting them from monster-hunters, and generally risking life and limb for the greater good, with her ex-Covenant partner/husband, Dominic, by her side. Her ballroom dance career is behind her…or so she thinks. When Verity gets the call from the producers of Dance or Die, the reality show she almost won several years before, she finds the lure of a comeback impossible to resist, and she and Dominic are off to L.A. for one last shot at the big time. Of course, nothing is that simple. When two of her fellow contestants turn up dead, Verity will need every ally she can find – and a couple she wasn’t looking for – in order to navigate the complicated steps of both the tango and a murder investigation without blowing her cover. It doesn’t help that her official family backup is her grandmother, Alice Price-Healy, who thinks “subtle” is something that happens to other people. Winning this competition may have just become a matter of life and death.

March 2016 Releases

Done with February 2016 Releases? Here are March 2016 Releases. For future releases, check Reading Wishlist.

2nd February 2016 Releases

Happy Release Day to:

Meg Cabot
Remembrance (Mediator, Book 7)
HarperCollins William Morrow (US & CA: 2nd February 2016)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
All Susannah Simon wants is to make a good impression at her first job since graduating from college (and since becoming engaged to Dr. Jesse de Silva). But when she’s hired as a guidance counsellor at her alma mater, she stumbles across a decade-old murder, and soon ancient history isn’t all that’s coming back to haunt her. Old ghosts as well as new ones are coming out of the woodwork, some to test her, some to vex her, and it isn’t only because she’s a mediator, gifted with second sight. From a sophomore haunted by the murderous spectre of a child to ghosts of a very different kind – including Paul Slater, Suze’s ex, who shows up to make a bargain Suze is certain must have come from the Devil himself – Suze isn’t sure she’ll make it through the semester, let alone to her wedding night. Suze is used to striking first and asking questions later. But what happens when ghosts from her past – including one she found nearly impossible to resist – strike first?

Megan Hart
Little Secrets
Samhain (US: 2nd February 2016)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
With a baby on the way and a brand new house, it seems Ginny and her husband, Sean, are on their way to a fresh start. But strange occurrences and financial strain seem determined to keep Ginny and Sean stuck in the past. Ginny begins to believe the house may be haunted…or that her husband might be trying to trick her into thinking so. As Ginny researches the house’s former owner and the tragedy that happened there, it becomes clearer than ever that something is in the house with them. The question is, who…or what…is it?

Melissa Landers
Invaded (Alienated, Book 2)
Disney-Hyperion (US: 2nd February 2016)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Cara always knew life on planet L’eihr would be an adjustment. With Aelyx, her L’eihr boyfriend, back on Earth, working to mend the broken alliance between their two planets, Cara is left to fend for herself at a new school, surrounded by hostile alien clones. Even the weird dorm pet hates her. Things look up when Cara is appointed as human representative to a panel preparing for a human colony on L’eihr. A society melding their two cultures is a place where Cara and Aelyx could one day make a life together. But with L’eihr leaders balking at granting even the most basic freedoms, Cara begins to wonder if she could ever be happy on this planet, even with Aelyx by her side. Meanwhile, on Earth, Aelyx finds himself thrown into a full-scale PR campaign to improve human-L’eihr relations. Humans don’t know that their very survival depends on this alliance: only Aelyx’s people have the technology to fix the deadly contamination in the global water supply that human governments are hiding. Yet despite their upper hand, the leaders of his world suddenly seem desperate to get humans on their side, and hardly bat an eye at extremists’ multiple attempts on Aelyx’s life. The Way clearly needs humans’ help…but with what? And what will they ask for in return?

Melissa Landers
Starflight
Disney-Hyperion (US: 2nd February 2016)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Solara Brooks needs a fresh start, someplace where nobody cares about the engine grease beneath her fingernails or the felony tattoos across her knuckles. The outer realm may be lawless, but it’s not like the law has ever been on her side. Still, off-world travel doesn’t come cheap; Solara is left with no choice but to indenture herself in exchange for passage to the outer realm. She just wishes it could have been to anyone besides Doran Spaulding, the rich, pretty-boy quarterback who made her life miserable in school. The tables suddenly turn when Doran is framed for conspiracy on Earth, and Solara cons him into playing the role of her servant on board the Banshee, a ship manned by an eccentric crew with their own secrets. Given the price on both Doran and Solara’s heads, it may just be the safest place in the universe. It’s been a long time since Solara has believed in anyone, and Doran is the last person she expected to trust. But when the Banshee’s dangerous enemies catch up with them, Solara and Doran must come together to protect the ship that has become their home – and the eccentric crew that feels like family.

Marissa Meyer
Fairest (Lunar Chronicles, Book 3.5)
Macmillan Square Fish (US: 2nd February 2016)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Pure evil has a name, hides behind a mask of deceit, and uses her “glamour” to gain power. But who is Queen Levana? Long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story – a story that has never been told…until now.

Marissa Meyer
Stars Above (Lunar Chronicles, Anthology)
Macmillan Feiwel & Friends (US: 2nd February 2016)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
How did Cinder first arrive in New Beijing? How did the brooding soldier Wolf transform from young man to killer? When did Princess Winter and the palace guard Jacin realize their destinies? Nine stories – five of which have never before been published.

Madeleine Roux
The Asylum Novellas (Asylum, Anthology)
HarperCollins (US & CA: 2nd February 2016)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
In The Scarlets, Cal is drawn into New Hampshire College’s twisted secret society – one with a deadly initiation. In The Bone Artists, Oliver tries to make a little extra money for college by working for a seedy organization that traffics in human bones. In The Warden, a young nurse starts a new job at the Brookline asylum but soon becomes suspicious of its unorthodox procedures…

February 2016 Releases

Done with January 2016 Releases? Here are February 2016 Releases. For future releases, check Reading Wishlist.

Now Available for US Pre-Order

Allie Brosh: SOLUTIONS AND OTHER PROBLEMS: 25th October 2016: Buy (US)
Meg Cabot: PROPOSAL (paperback): 1st March 2016: Buy (US)
Kylie Chan: BLACK JADE: 27th September 2016: Buy (US)
Cat Clarke: THE LOST AND THE FOUND: 6th September 2016: Buy (US)
Katelyn Detweiler: TRANSCENDENT: 4th October 2016: Buy (US)
Alexandra Duncan: SOUND (paperback): 27th September 2016: Buy (US)
Mira Grant: FEEDBACK: 27th September 2016: Buy (US)
Emiko Jean: WE’LL NEVER BE APART (paperback): 25th October 2016: Buy (US)
Kate Kessler: IT TAKES ONE: 26th April 2016: Buy (US)
Lauren Oliver: REPLICA: 27th September 2016: Buy (US)

19th January 2016 Releases

Happy Release Day to:

Meg Cabot
Proposal (Novella)
HarperCollins Avon Impulse (US & CA: 19th January 2016)
Buy (US) Buy (CA)
The last place Suze Simon expects to find herself during Valentine’s Day is a cemetery. But that’s what happens when you’re a mediator – cursed with the “gift” of communicating with the dead. That’s how Suze has ended up at the graves of a pair of tragic young lovers. They’re NCDPs – Non-Compliant Deceased Persons – whose drama didn’t end with death. It’s Suze’s job to make sure they move on – for good. But the NCDPs aren’t the only ones with problems. The reason Suze is spending her Valentine’s Day with the undead instead of her boyfriend, Jesse, is because he’s having so much trouble adjusting to life after death…not surprising, considering the fact that he used to be an NCDP himself, and now his girlfriend busts his former kind for a living. Can Suze use her mediating skills to propose a mutual resolution, and bring all these young lovers together, especially on the night Saint Valentine declared sacred to romance? Or will she end up alone – and possibly undead – herself?

Jordana Frankel
The Ward (The Ward, Book 1)
HarperCollins Katherine Tegen (US & CA: 19th January 2016)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
A catastrophic flood has washed out Manhattan, leaving the rivers polluted and entire neighborhoods underwater. Some areas are quarantined because of an outbreak of a deadly disease. The illness, known as the Blight, is killing sixteen-year-old Ren’s sister. Desperate to save her sister’s life, Ren agrees to lead a secret mission from the government to search for a cure. But her quest leads to a confounding mystery beneath the water and an unlikely friendship with a passionate scientist.

Jordana Frankel
The Isle (The Ward, Book 2)
HarperCollins Katherine Tegen (US & CA: 19th January 2016)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
With the help of a scientist and a racing buddy, drag racer Ren has found a cure for the disease, and her sister, Aven, is on the mend. But Aven’s unexpected recovery has caught the eye of the evil Governor Voss. And when it comes to light that the cure, miraculous healing water, is the only freshwater source in the area, Governor Voss isn’t the only one after the sisters and their invaluable knowledge. Can they save themselves and their city?

Jennifer Longo
Up to This Pointe
Random House (US & CA: 19th January 2016)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Harper is a dancer. She and her best friend, Kate, have one goal: becoming professional ballerinas. And Harper won’t let anything – or anyone – get in the way of The Plan, not even the boy she and Kate are both drawn to. Harper is a Scott. She’s related to Robert Falcon Scott, the explorer who died racing Amundsen and Shackleton to the South Pole. So when Harper’s life takes an unexpected turn, she finagles (read: lies) her way to the icy dark of McMurdo Station…in Antarctica. Extreme, but somehow fitting – apparently she has always been in the dark, dancing on ice this whole time. And no one warned her. Not her family, not her best friend, not even the boy who has somehow found a way into her heart. It will take a visit from Shackleton’s ghost – the explorer who didn’t make it to the South Pole, but who got all of his men out alive – to teach Harper that success isn’t always what’s important, sometimes it’s more important to learn how to fail successfully.

Veronica Roth
Four (Anthology)
HarperCollins Katherine Tegen (US & CA: 19th January 2016)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Includes four pre-Divergent stories plus three additional scenes from Divergent, all told from Tobias’s point of view. The first three pieces in this volume – “The Transfer,” “The Initiate,” and “The Son” – follow Tobias’s transfer from Abnegation to Dauntless, his Dauntless initiation, and the first clues that a foul plan is brewing in the leadership of two factions. The fourth story, “The Traitor,” runs parallel with the events of Divergent, giving readers a glimpse into the decisions of loyalty – and love – that Tobias makes in the weeks after he meets Tris Prior.

January 2016 Releases

Done with December 2015 Releases? Here are January 2016 Releases. For future releases, check Reading Wishlist.