Books to Mark Your Calendar for: What the Beginning of 2013 Brings for YA

So, I like to make these posts twice a year. My only problem this time is there is no way I can bring my list down to the 10 books I’m most excited for at the beginning of 2013. There are a total of nine books I’m excited for that are just coming out in January…So, I think I’m going to change things up a bit for this post, and list the books I have already marked in my calendar, by month! If a book I’m waiting on comes out after June of 2013, I will include it my next Books to Mark Your Calendar for post.

Note that I most likely am missing some books, and I might come back later to add them. There might be a little overlap with books I’ve already mentioned in my Waiting on Wednesday posts. My big plan: I will list books, authors, and publication dates, and I will attach links to their summaries on GoodReads. If there is a cover already, I will show that too! Also, note that sometimes dates change. I will try to update any changes I come across.

Here we go:

January:

The Essence by Kimberly Derting, 1/1/13, Summary
Crash by Lisa McMann, 1/8/13, Summary
Through the Evernight by Veronica Rossi, 1/8/13, Summary
Shades of Earth by Beth Revis, 1/15/13, Summary
Gates of Paradise by Melissa De La Cruz, 1/15/13, Summary
Linked by Imogen Howson, 1/11/13, Summary
Everbound by Brodi Ashton, 1/22/13, Summary
Asunder by Jodi Meadows, 1/29/13, Summary
Prodigy by Marie Lu, 1/29/13, Summary

February:

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, 2/5/13, Summary
Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi, 2/5/13, Summary
Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter, 2/5/13, Summary
Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger, 2/5/13, Summary
The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead, 2/12/13, Summary
Sever by Lauren DeStefano, 2/12/13, Summary
Mind Games by Kiersten White, 2/19/13, Summary
Fragments by Dan Wells, 2/26/13, Summary

March:

Requiem by Lauren Oliver, 3/5/13, Summary
Frozen by Mellissa De La Cruz, 3/12/13, Summary (no cover yet)
Loki’s Wolves by Kelley Armstrong and Melissa Marr, 3/7/13, Summary
Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare, 3/19/13, Summary

April:

Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers, 4/2/13, Summary
This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith, 4/2/13, Summary
Dead Silence by Kimberly Derting, 4/16/13, Summary
The Rising by Kellley Armstrong, 4/19/13, Summary
The Elite by Kiera Cass, 4/23/13, Summary
Dance of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin, 4/23/13, Summary
Chosen at Nightfall by C.C.Hunter, 4/30/13, Summary

May:

Icons by Margaret Stohl, 5/7/13, Summary
Invisibility by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan, 5/7/13, Summary
Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephenie Perkins, 5/7/13, Summary (no cover yet)
Dare you to by Katie McGarry, 5/28/13, Summary

June:

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen, 6/4/13, Summary
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo, 6/4/13, Summary (cover not final)
Spies and Prejudice by Talia Vance, 6/11/13, Summary

Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

This was one of those books I read a summary for, months before its release, and I knew I absolutely must get my hands on it. I was an English major in college, and I love Edgar Allen Poe! So, when I read about a YA/dystopian retelling of Poe’s, I was all for it! I also apparently met this author, because I have it signed to me…is it weird that is has gotten to the point where I don’t remember where/when I meet authors, but am just really thankful that I have?

Any way, I was not disappointed with this one. It had all the creepy, vague mysteriousness of Poe, and all the terrifying, depressing ingredients of a great dystopia. Araby is not the most up-beat main character. There are a lot of things she wishes she had never experienced, never witnessed, and never survived. But, losing her twin brother to the plague is not something that really makes her stand out in her society. Everyone has lost someone, everyone has seen the bodies, heard the shots of the chaos, and if you’re alive, you’ve witnessed burning buildings, starving children, and a hopeless society.

Araby and her best friend, April choose to forget as much of their world as possible by going to the night club, the Debauchery Club, and drinking their memories away. The drugs they take at the club even allow Araby some nights of rest (with no nightmares). Going in, the girls are always tested for the plague, and part of the reason Araby likes to go so much is because she likes the guy who does the testing.

And while there seems to be very little Araby is afraid of, she never gets involved with any guys because of a vow she made to herself about not letting herself experience things her twin brother would never get the chance to.  Everything seems to change though when Araby meets April’s brother, Elliott.  With him, comes ideas of hope and revolution. He’s the cocky nephew of Prince Prospero, the terrible dictator who has prevented the poor from attaining masks that can prevent the spread of the plague. Only the wealthy have the masks that Araby’s scientist father created.

With a messed up childhood that puts Araby’s to shame, (with the physical scars to prove it) Elliott gets Araby to make some serious risks. She steals invention plans, goes against the wishes of her surviving family, and risks her life to help save April’s. Her best friend disappears one night after they go to the club. And when it seems obvious that Prince Prospero has April, Araby risks everything to go with Elliott to save her. She also makes friends with Will, the plague-tester from the club, after he saves her from having the same fate as April. Though, it gets harder and harder to remain friends both with Elliott and Will, and also hold on to her depressing vow, Araby holds strong to her beliefs.

It also becomes clear early on that there is more to her twin brother’s death than Araby lets on. She definitely blames herself for it. And all of the main characters in this book end up saving each other at some point. Araby and April first became friends when Araby was considering jumping off the roof of her apartment building. Between all the escapes and rescue missions, the pages overflow with grief, depression, and above all, survival.

There’s a love triangle, tough decisions (like who should I rescue: my siblings or my girl friend?), disease, separation of the classes, bombings, riots, dungeons, scientific experiments, life-saving masks, children who only know darkness (literally), night clubs, revolutions, religious zealots, and lots of murder in this one! This is definitely a dark read. Araby lives in a place where not even the rich have it well off. If you’re wealthy enough to have a mask, chances are you are mentally ill enough from all that you have been through to need drugs to survive.

I don’t actually think Poe would mind having this book written in his homage. I mean, it is seriously dark, mysterious, and just as depressing as Poe’s words were. I love how Araby never became as stuck up as the rest of her class. She bought apples for children living on the street and went to old bookstores with her father. She read poetry and genuinely seemed to care a lot more for disease-ridden strangers than her best friend did. It probably helped that she new what living in the dark was like. Griffin seriously surprised me with her characters. I was expecting to hate April and all of her selfishness, but I ended up loving her and being shocked by some of her brave decisions. Both of the guys surprised me. I literally put the book down in shock in one moment. And I loved that this happened! The boys will surprise you.

The scene where the prince decided to flood the river and Araby and April had to escape from underground was so good! I loved everything with the hot air balloon too. And all the scenes that took place at the prince’s castle were so terrifying that I know I wouldn’t be able to read this book at nighttime. The book felt like it was part Poe, part dystopia, part steam punk, and part zombie movie (minus the zombies…).

There were two little things that bothered me though. One, was not being able to decide the time period. The women wore corsets, but they used working elevators. There were no cars even before the plague, but there are nightclubs with crazy sounding drugs. Is it supposed to be in a fantasy world? Or is it supposed to be a certain time period, but with a twist? I love when authors combine elements like this, but I don’t like when I am given nothing about these elements. It got me a little lost and frustrated at times; I just needed a tiny one-sentence explanation somewhere and I would have been less frustrated.

Also, Araby’s vow was kind of stupid. Obviously, her brother never would have gone to a night club, drunk himself unconscious, drugged up enough to wake up in a stranger’s home, stolen important documents from his father, contemplated suicide, or many more of the other things Araby did. So why, was it so important not to find true love? I feel like this was a weak explanation for something that could have made the story much stronger. I think her vow could have been about so much more (and maybe it was), and I wish other explanations could have been given for it.

Regardless of these two missing explanations, I was still way beyond impressed with this book. It was dark, depressing, romantic, and un-put-downable. I give it a 10/10, if anything for its uniqueness, its retelling of a classic in such a wonderful way, and its darkness. I will definitely be looking forward to book 2.

A Good Week in Books (34)

 

I had a fantastic book week! My black Friday treat for myself just came in. My wonderful friend Heather (at Coffee-Stained Pages) has recently brought my attention to a fantastic bargain book website that is having a massive sale…For just under forty dollars, I purchased ten books! I may or may not have gone back to the website already and purchased more discounted books…I have a problem. I received one new title on Net Galley. I also picked out five freebies from my volunteer library!

My extremely discounted present to myself:

Always a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough (I loved the first one!)
The Edumacation of Jay Baker by Jay Clark
Die for Me by Amy Plum
Until I Die by Amy Plum (why have I not read these yet?)
The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan (I didn’t even know this existed)
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (I read/borrowed it from a friend before, but seriously I loved it too much not to own it myself)
The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan (I need to own all of her books)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (I’ve read and loved it since I was in middle school, and now I most definitely think it’s time I owned it)
Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce (first book I’ll read by this author who I hear so many good things about!)
Hunt by Andrew Fukuda

From Net Galley (Thank you, BenBella Books, Inc.):

 
Shadowhunters and Downworlders edited by Cassanrda Clare (1/29/13) –This book already has so much discussion following it online and I know I need to just dive in!

Free books from my library:

Wrapped by Jennifer Bradbury
The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg
Deadly by Julie Chibbaro
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
Bloodrose by Andrea Cremer ( I haven’t read these yet, but I already own the first two!)

How was your book week?

The Agency: The Body at the Tower by Y.S. Lee

This is part of one of those YA series that has nowhere near as much hype as it deserves! I discovered the first book over a year ago and actually purchased it having never read a single review. That is crazy for me. I am obsessed with book reviews. The premise though was beyond amazing and I was afraid I wouldn’t come across the book again because I had never seen it. I am so glad I made that impulse book-shopping move! This is book two in the series. And I already own book 3, which I will mostly likely need to get to soon (before book 4 comes out).

For those of you who don’t know anything about these books, they are about Mary Quin. She used to be a thief and actually got caught red-handed and sentenced for it, but at the last possible minute she is rescued by the Agency. The Agency is a group of women that rescues women across Victorian England and brings them to their school where they train women in self-defense and various other subjects, including subterfuge. These women are trained to go around England and partake in investigations, and help solve crimes that are particularly more difficult for men to solve. Housemaids, lady companions, etc. can glean a lot of information.

In the first book, Mary was a lady’s companion who helped solve a case involving illegal smuggling. This book makes everything a little bit harder for Mary. In this one, she needs to dress as an errand boy and work at a construction site (the construction site for Big Ben!). Her job is to determine who murdered a bricklayer by pushing him off the top of the tower. Unlike in the first book, where Mary had fun dressing as boy to do some of the more athletic bits of her missions, this book requires Mary to be a boy for the whole case. She has to sleep in a boarding house and share a bed with a stinky, snoring man. She has to do physical labor. And she has to act as though she has only as much money as an errand boy, eating rarely and drinking at pubs with the rest of her crew.

No one can know about the Agency and no one can know she is a woman. Otherwise, she’d never learn everything she can by blending in. This all becomes slightly more difficult when a certain romantic interest returns from India to do an inquest of the building site. There’s murder, blackmail, fight scenes, funerals, romance, hanging from clock towers, stubborn journalists, and most of all further disgusting insight into the horrors of lower class Victorian England. One of my favorite things about the first book was sort of this juxtaposition between the reality of the lowest caste of England and the fantasy of this agency that saves lower caste women.

And on top of solving murders, hiding her identity, and hiding her agency’s identity, Mary is hiding her own ethnic identity. Her father was Chinese, making her place in Victorian English society the lowest of the low. Mary has become accustomed to lying, pretending, and acting. And this case is particularly hard for her because it brings her back to her miserable roots. She’s poor again, making little to no money, and dressing as a boy. She used to dress as a boy before the Agency found her to avoid being taking advantage of in her line of work.

The first book was all about how bad the working class of a giant household had it. And this one is all about how bad those working elsewhere for small wages have it. And while boys and men don’t ever really seem to have as much to loose as women, they didn’t have it easy either. Between public beatings, little to no food, the physical aspect to their jobs, and the complete lack of education, life seemed pretty awful.

First, I must say that I love books where women pretend to be men, and prove themselves to be just as capable as them! Mary is not only just as capable as any man, she is more than capable than most men! She is so intelligent and quick to figure things out. She’s better at observing scenes then the experienced journalist was! And most of all I love that while she stands by her Agency sense of morality, she still remembers what causes people to slowly loose their morals. She understands the poor because she used to be the poor. She’s brave and stands up for herself as a woman, as an errand boy, as a student, and as a reporter! She is one amazing character!

I’m glad that the romance was able to pick up again because it ended so badly in the first book! Though, it’s hard to see it ever ending anything but badly. I have hope though. It is always so much fun to watch Mary adjust to her surroundings. I loved the scene where she got drunk at the pub with her work crew! There still remains to be things she needs to learn, and this makes her even more endearing. She wants to learn everything (sometimes the hard way…).

The books remind me a lot of Philip Pullman’s Sally Lockhart series, which was amazing! And I know I must have said this in my review of book 1, but my only real scruple with this book is the lack of knowledge I have of the Agency. I am secretly hoping that the author will write a prequel. I am dying to see how the school is run, how other girls are rescued, and even hear how it started…This background is not necessarily relevant to Mary’s story, or at least it hasn’t been yet. And I love that each story so far has revolved around a very interesting investigation. I just, personally, find the Agency fascinating, and want to know everything!

Overall, this book was suspenseful, mysterious, and addicting! This is a series I hope will continue for a long time. If you like the Victorian time period, mysteries, spy novels, and feminism, then this is so a book for you! It gets a 9/10 from me.

Waiting on Wednesday (23)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that allows bloggers to share which books we are most anticipating.

This week, I am waiting on Hidden by Marianne Curley (6/25/13):

Description on GoodReads:

Ebony has always known that she is different. Her violet eyes mark her out, and her protective parents have kept her in a gorgeous valley, home-schooled, safe from everything—almost as if she’s being hidden. But she’s changing: glowing, getting more and more beautiful, and stronger than anyone knows. Ebony can’t stay hidden forever, and when she meets complicated, intense Jordan, something explodes inside her—something that can be seen from the heavens; something that changes everything. Ebony is a stolen angel, concealed on Earth. Now the heavens have found her, they want her back.

Fans of Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush, Hush Saga and L.A. Weatherly’s Angel series will adore Hidden. Full of irresistible romance and breath-taking suspense, this is a sensational start to a brilliant new series. Get ready to be swept away by this spellbinding story of eternal love.

So, this cover intrigues me! I love the feathers, and not being able to see the girl’s eyes makes me want to see the eyes so much more! I sort of have this deep-rooted love of all of Marianne Curley’s books. I fell in love with her Guardians of Time trilogy when I was a teenager and I have been anxiously waiting for her to write something new! She also has a wonderful YA romance called, Old Magic. It has been years since her last series ended and I am so excited for a new series from her! I know this author can write suspense, romance, magic, and great characters, so I am so ready for this new book! What are you waiting on this week?

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

So, the first book in this series (Daughter of Smoke and Bone) was one of my favorite books of 2011 (my third favorite to be exact). To say I was excited for this book’s release is a definite understatement. Were my expectations too high? I don’t think so. I loved it. My only qualm is that it took me about a week to read…It’s massive, but that’s not it. I tend to love massive books (particularly in sequels). It was just a little hard to read because of how hard Karou had it, I think.

To the story: it takes place after a little time has gone by from the first book. And the book actually follows a whole new set of other characters. I loved that it follows Zuzana along with her adorable boyfriend. It follows the angels (Akiva, in particular). And it follows different chimera. The book was actually several chapters in before readers were allowed to see what happened with Karou. And the suspense was killing me! It didn’t help that Akiva wasn’t sure if she was alive or that Karou couldn’t even email her best friend to let her know where she was.

And when we finally get to see Karou, it isn’t very good. She’s holed up in a Kasbah in Morocco, aiding the chimera who don’t trust her. The wolf is in charge. The same wolf who had Madrigal beheaded years ago. All of Karou’s family is dead. And despite the fact that Karou is working her hardest at redemption with her people, no one trusts her or even really goes near her. She spends her days resurrecting chimera, taking over Brimstone’s old job –a job that involves a lot of physical pain and teeth collecting.

While Karous is resurrecting monsters to send back into battle against the angles, the angels are ruthlessly attacking chimera. Akiva, along with his misbegotten angel brother and sister are doing their best to actually save chimera (or at least as many chimera civilians as they can), one kid at a time. And not all is copasetic in the land of the angels. There’s creepy politics on both sides of the war.

It was hard reading about so much brutality and pain. All the innocent chimera who were murdered was intense! So was Karou’s guilt. She won’t have a thing to do with Akiva (how could she after what he did to her family?). And she knows her situation at the Kasbah is not the best. She never feels safe from the hungry eyes of the Wolf. And all she gives up and all the pain she inflicts on herself to resurrect soldiers will never equate to forgiveness. She also comes to realize that the soldiers she brings back to life are being sent to massacre angels and not to save innocent chimera. But, she is so mad at herself for her past that she keeps doing what she’s doing.

The book really picks up when Zuzana comes to Morocco! Karou gets a lot of her courage back with the need to protect her bestie. Also, watching Zuzana and her boyfriend play music for a room full of monsters was so awesome! When more and more signs are indicating an angel rebellion and a change of direction for Karou, a tiny bit of hope finally shines through. This book is about pain and suffering. It’s about needing to forgive yourself enough to do what is right. And it’s about knowing what is right versus what is easiest.

It has an epic ending that makes book 3 seem so much further away. There’s more monsters, more fighting, more war, more hilarity with friends, more Akiva, and just more everything! It reminded me of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy at points (which is a huge compliment coming from me).

I think part of the reason it took me so long to finish was that I know how brave Laini Taylor is. She is not afraid to kill a character (or a whole family) off. She is not afraid to let a great person be tortured. This book has so much pain (physical and mental), and I can see this taking anyone a little bit longer to get through. There was actually a point though, when I put the book down and was afraid to continue. I did not want something to happen that seemed very likely would. But, if I didn’t continue, I would not have then read one of the best YA twists ever! Seriously, I was surprised before the epic end even started.

I was surprised, I was terrified, I was sad, I was laughing out loud, and I finally at the end was just a little bit hopeful. This book did everything I wanted it to and I was not disappointed. One of my favorite things about it is Karou. Her guilt, her loyalty, her strength, and her friendship just make her out to be one of the best YA main characters I have yet to meet. And this book really took it out on her and tested her to her capacity. And while for a while she did seem to give up hope or at least give up her sense of morality; I knew that she would eventually get it back. I feel like I know her, like she’s a real person. And aren’t those the best characters, the ones you just feel like you know?

Was it as good as the first book? Probably not. But was it still a fantastic sequel? Definitely. I have high hopes for book 3, in more ways than one. I give it a 9/10. It was a little hard at times, but hard can be really good.

A Good Week in Books (33)

So I did a little online shopping for Black Friday. Mostly I bought myself some drastically marked down DVD’s (Veronica Mars, Firefly, Serenity). But, I also purchased some books. I only ordered two books from Amazon. I ordered a lot more books from a book close-out site, but I won’t be getting them for some time because I think they are coming from Canada. This means I am checking my mailbox like a crazy person until then. However, I won’t really talk about those books till I own them. So this week, I purchased two books from Amazon. And I received 3 galleys to review from Net Galley.

Purchased:

Project 17 by Laurie Faria Stolarz (What a discount on this one! I love this author’s other books, but haven’t read this one yet)
What’s Left of Me by Kat Zhang (This one just sounds so awesome!)

From Net Galley (Thank you Albert, Whitman and Company, Centrinian Publishing, and Harlequin Teen):

Being Henry David by Carl Armstead (3/1/13)
Talisman of El by Alecia Stone (5/20/12)
Indigo Awakening by Jordan Dane (12/25/12)

How was your week in books?