Stacking the Shelves (37)

Books mentioned (click title for Goodreads):
Blaze (or Love in the Time of Supervillians) by Laurie Boyle Crompton
Mom and Dad Glue by Kes Gray
Periwinkle Smith and the Faraway Star by John & Wendy
Little Rabbit Couldn't Sleep by Beth Shoshan
My Brave Year of Firsts: Tries, Sighs and High Fives by Jamie Lee Curtis & Laura Cornell
Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker
On Dublin Street (On Dublin Street #1) by Samantha Young
Hopeless by Colleen Hoover
If I Tell by Janet Gurtler
I'm Not Her by Janet Gurtler

A big thank you to Sourcebooks Fire this week!

So, what did YOU get this week? Link me up!

Paper Valentine Review

TITLE Paper Valentine
AUTHOR Brenna Yovanoff
PUBLICATION January 8th 2013 by Razorbill
READ December 18 to 19, 2012
SOURCE Penguin Canada for review

The city of Ludlow is gripped by the hottest July on record. The asphalt is melting, the birds are dying, petty crime is on the rise, and someone in Hannah Wagnor’s peaceful suburban community is killing girls.

For Hannah, the summer is a complicated one. Her best friend Lillian died six months ago, and Hannah just wants her life to go back to normal. But how can things be normal when Lillian’s ghost is haunting her bedroom, pushing her to investigate the mysterious string of murders? Hannah’s just trying to understand why her friend self-destructed, and where she fits now that Lillian isn’t there to save her a place among the social elite. And she must stop thinking about Finny Boone, the big, enigmatic delinquent whose main hobbies seem to include petty larceny and surprising acts of kindness.

With the entire city in a panic, Hannah soon finds herself drawn into a world of ghost girls and horrifying secrets. She realizes that only by confronting the Valentine Killer will she be able move on with her life—and it’s up to her to put together the pieces before he strikes again.

Paper Valentine is a hauntingly poetic tale of love and death by the New York Times bestselling author of The Replacement and The Space Between.

Two murder mysteries in a row? Yes, please! After finishing up Kate Brian’s, Shadowlands, I immediately delved into Brenna Yovanoff’s world of Paper Valentine. Now of course having read the two in quick succession, I was constantly comparing them and what was so great about it was that they were both so damn good. In Paper Valentine the city of Ludlow is dealing with some crazy hot weather and living in fear because someone is killing little girls.

We get this story through the eyes of Hannah, a young girl living in the city who is dealing with an overbearing mother and still coming to terms with the loss of her very best friend 6 months ago. She lives with her younger sister, Ariel, her mother and her mom’s boyfriend. Not only are these people filling up her home but Lillian, her dead best friend, is also haunting her. I loved the ghost aspect of this story. Yovanoff was a master at creating creepy visuals and every time Hannah would enter a room to find Lillian precariously perched on a shelf or her headboard I was treated to chills.

Hannah & Lillian take it upon themselves to play super sleuth and connect the dots in the string of murders ravaging the city. I liked how throughout the story it felt like we had the inside scoop because Hannah worked in the shop where the crime scene photo’s were being developed though at the same time that felt a little far fetched to me. I don’t think the police would go to a little shop in a mini mall to have gruesome crime scene photo’s developed, but who knows, this was a very small town after all. As the girls dig deeper into what is happening in Ludlow things get downright creepy and the visuals presented definitely had me wanting to leave the light on. I have to say that was the star of the novel for me just the eerie tone that Yovanoff achieved and how it didn’t let up at any point in the novel.

Of course there is some romance to be had here and it’s a pretty good play on the “good girl falls for the guy from the wrong side of the tracks” tale. I ended up liking Finny, and appreciated how, even though Hannah was falling for him, she still kept her wits about her. It also wasn’t too fast moving and felt like it had a very natural progression.

Overall, Paper Valentine is host to a lot of issues; child abuse, eating disorders, depression among others but it doesn’t feel weighted down at all. Everything ties together pretty well in the end. While the wrap up and big reveal did feel a little ho-hum to me, and very rushed, it was something that I could look past because there was just so much going on with the characters and the development of them was phenomenal. This one plays with your head and gets you attached to the characters expertly, highly recommended!

Cover Reveal: Disconnect

Disconnect

(Divided Worlds Trilogy #1)

by Imran Siddiq

to be published February 22, 2013

"In space, love has boundaries."

Dirtying fingernails in sewers is fast approaching worthlessness for Zachary, a 16-year old Underworld scavenger. When footage of an Overworld girl, Rosa, is discovered, his intrigue heightens at why she expresses sadness with a lavish lifestyle.

In meeting Rosa, Zachary is scorned by her opinion of the deprived. She pities him and provides a means for them to communicate. With time, friendship and something he’s never felt grows; love for another human. Knowing Rosa calls him when it suits her isn’t enough; he wants to meet her, but how? Relationships in Underworld are few, let alone the impossibility with those above the ceiling.

Underworld will suffer when plans to conquer Jupiter’s moon, Europa move ahead. Worse is Rosa’s father, a disgraced Overworld ambassador, approving the plan.

Zachary must defeat the prejudice of the worlds, sneak within opposing forces, lose friends and challenge Rosa’s sadness. In doing so, a twisted secret is uncovered that may devour the reason he lives; Rosa.

 I'm really liking the graphic novel feel of this cover, it's really cool.  And can I just say YAY for a guy being on the cover and not some perfect girl! Woohoo! Go Imran! What do you think?

Imran's Website | Twitter | Facebook

Imran Siddiq may have tried to leave Leicester a few times, but its become his place to wake up to two cats, freeze when the heating’s off and most of all, get down to writing. At a young age, his primary school teacher commented on his creativity and ability to tell stories. At the age of 29, during a night in the jungle, the bug inside awakened, and for the last 5 years he’s been sacrificing every second that he can to write. A veteran of writing festivals, a presence on Twitter and gobbling up all forms of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, he hopes he can bring a smile to others in the same way that he had, aged 5, reading with a torch under his duvet. Imran’s preferred genre is YA Sci Fi, and he has a tendency to throw a droid in every novel.

Shadowlands Review

TITLE Shadowlands (Shadowlands #1)
AUTHOR Kate Brian
PUBLICATION January 8th 2013 by Hyperion
READ December 17, 2012
SOURCE Hachette Canada for review

Rory Miller had one chance to fight back and she took it. Rory survived… and the serial killer who attacked her escaped. Now that the infamous Steven Nell is on the loose, Rory must enter the witness protection with her father and sister, Darcy, leaving their friends and family without so much as a goodbye.

Starting over in a new town with only each other is unimaginable for Rory and Darcy. They were inseparable as children, but now they can barely stand each other. As the sisters settle in to Juniper Landing, a picturesque vacation island, it seems like their new home may be just the fresh start they need. They fall in with a group of beautiful, carefree teens and spend their days surfing, partying on the beach, and hiking into endless sunsets. But just as they’re starting to feel safe again, one of their new friends goes missing. Is it a coincidence? Or is the nightmare beginning all over again?

I didn't really know what to expect going into Shadowlands; I had never read any of Kate Brian's work and I'm not exactly one for reading blurbs. I was sufficiently blown away as a I dove in and got a much more intense read than I could have ever expected. Rory is shocked and scared when, on her way home from school through the forest, she is attacked by one of the most beloved teachers from her school. Thankfully she escapes and finds her way home but upon reporting the incident she finds out that it wasn't just her math teacher who attacked her, it was a calculated serial killer who has managed to evade the police for years. Before she knows it, she is packing her bags and being sent to a remote island as part of the FBI's witness protection program.

Shadowlands has a bit of everything going for it, there is some great characters, a whole lot of mystery and just a touch of romance sprinkled in for good measure. I read this one in a single day because i just couldn't put it down. Once Rory, her sister and their father get to the island, Juniper Landing, there is so much weirdness surrounding the locals that I had to keep going to find out exactly what was going on. And what a pleasant surprise that when all was revealed I was completely thrown for a loop as it was a twist I had never even considered in all of my sleuthing with this one.

Rory was a great character; she was so strong and smart that I came to admire her throughout the novel. Not only did she show her strength and determination when she escaped and evaded Steven Nell, but she also showed her smarts in how she was constantly questioning life on Juniper Landing. I wasn't a big fan of her sister, but I think that was how it was supposed to be. Rory and Darcy were polar opposites, while Rory was book smart and pretty reclusive, Darcy was the centre of every party and a social butterfly. I appreciated how each of their voices felt unique and completely authentic.

Not only do we get the story from Rory's point of view but we are also treated to short chapters here and there that are from Nell's perspective and are they ever haunting! This lends to an uneasy feeling as it's always in the back of the readers head that he is never far away from Rory. The suspense was maintained so strongly though out the novel and felt like it never really let up, which was great. I loved Brian's storytelling and her cryptic chapters from the mind of a serial killer. The twist at the end has definitely left me pining for more and I can't wait to see where this series goes.

Waiting on Wednesday (46)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly feature that highlights books that I am anxiously awaiting. WoW is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Another Little Piece
by Kate Karyus Quinn
to be published June 11th 2013 by HarperTeen

A reckless wish taken from the darkest desires of the heart…

A bloody razor engraved with the names of the girls who turned to dust…

An endless cycle that feeds of loneliness and craves destruction…

Together, these pieces form a twisted puzzle that Annaliese Rose Gordon has to solve. Trapped in a body that isn’t hers—with no memory of how she got there—she must unlock the secrets of her past in order to escape the horrors of her future.

Every time a read a blurb for a book and it mentions someone being somewhere, or waking up and having no recollection of how they got there, I feel I need to take it upon myself to dig in and figure out what the hell happened. I love a good mystery, and I love the eerie feel of this cover, it has me wanting more!

What's your first WoW of 2013?

Link me up!