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I made these water color painting because this week was Elite Week at Epic Reads.
The 1st one is The Selection by Kiera Cass
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Atop a neglected...
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Books are a refuge, a sort of cloistral refuge, from the vulgarities of the...
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I will bet anyone $100 that Hiromu Arakawa created the whole series just to make...
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Everything about...
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Review in Gifs: Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern
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do you ever come up with a story in your head and you’re like...
Boys and Girls, check out this great post from The YALSA Hub about “Love+” books…. you know, a great big genre mash-up that isn’t just about love, or maybe is about love but you don’t realize it until you’re nearly finished (I’m looking at you, The Scorpio Races…). So, here it is:
The first day of spring isn’t too long ago and with the arrival of spring comes love. Ah, love, ain’t it grand? There’s nothing better than a satisfying romance where the couple gets together and your heart grows three sizes in one day. But sometimes, don’t you want a little bit more with your love? Something a little bit … weirder than your run-of-the-mill Nicholas Sparks sob-fest? I do. I like my genres to be mixed and mashed together like a perfect equation: sure solving for xis the goal, but you can still appreciate the distinct parts along the way. So if you’re looking for some great YA romances that mix up their genres, here are some picks for you. Check out my equations:
Love + a go-getter reporter in the Nancy Drew vein + demons + a witchy best friend = Prom Dates from Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore
I am of the opinion that Clement-Moore is one of the best writers of the paranormal genre out there today. All of her books are smart, funny, and have just the right amount of spooky. In this first book of her Maggie Quinn: Girl v. Evil series, our sarcastic heroine Maggie begins to suspect that something is not all together normal. The popular clique starts getting picked off one by one, and the evil, sulfurous smell pervading the school confirms Maggie’s fears: a demonic presence. With the help of a kind and believably interested college student, Justin, Maggie uses her paranormal girl sleuth skills on the case. Two equally hilarious and gently romantic sequels follow.
Love + shadow people + star-crossed lovers + Chicago + alternative histories = The Shadow Society by Marie Rutkowski
I love alternate history stories, but it’s not often that the alternate universe is placed parallel to our known, “normal” one. This is the case inThe Shadow Societywhen Darcy Jones, an orphan bounced around to various foster families, finds out she’s really a Shade. Shades are citizens of an alternate universe that was shattered into being during the events of the Great Chicago Fire. Conn, a mysterious and handsome stranger, saves her when she is most vulnerable, but can Darcy trust him? He knows the truth about her and promptly arrests her for being a terrorist. Here is a story of star-crossed lovers that is a lot more winning and believable than others.
Love, but in an understated way + Celtic mythology + horse racing = The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
While not a strictly swooning, will-they-or-won’t-they romance, there’s still an amazing amount of love in this book. On the fictional island of Thisby, every year horses come from the sea. People capture the horses, and if the horses don’t escape and eat them or someone else, the residents of the island ride them in a big stakes race around the island. Sean Kendrick is a talented horse trainer with his mount Corr, and Puck is a girl just trying to save her family’s house with her plucky pony. The two are drawn together slowly and subtly, but the end result leaves the reader satisfied and yet wanting more.
Love + Facebook + oh my gosh the ’90s counts as “historical fiction” now = The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
In 1996, when Emma gets a new computer and a free AOL CD to connect to the Internet, she finds her own Facebook page. But Facebook (“Thefacebook” back then, remember that?) isn’t created until 2004. Emma becomes obsessed with it and finding a way to change her life and that of her friend, Josh. The book puts a contemporary spin on the age old question: what would do if you could see the future? The 1990s references may be lost on some younger readers, but those who remember constantly listening to the Dave Matthews Band and lightening our hair in the summer with Sun-In will get a kick out of it.
If those don’t strike your fancy, here are some other “Love plus …”
books you might enjoy:– Anna Tschetter, currently reading Blood Red Road by Moira Young
- Love + graphic novels + paranormal beings of all kinds =My Boyfriend is a Monster series, written by various authors, published by Graphic Universe
- Love + fairy tale retellings + actual faeries + a heartrending LGBTQ angle =Ashby Malinda Lo
- Love + space travel + the creeping totalitarian dread of1984=Across the Universeseries by Beth Revis
- Love + secret, occult libraries + Mary Shelley + raising the dead =This Dark Endeavorby Kenneth Oppel
- Love + voodoo + ghost hunters + terror + a poor cursed girl =Anna Dressed in Bloodby Kendare Blake
- Love + bounty hunters + teenage samurais + zombies + villains that rival The Walking Dead‘s Governor in evilness = the Benny Imura series by Jonathan Maberry
It’s Tuesday, and you know what that means: another book review! This week we’re talking about The Nightmare Affair, a paranormal mystery by Mindee Arnett.
Dusty Everhart is a Nightmare - literally. The halfling offspring of a mortal father and a Nightmare mother, Dusty breaks into stranger’s homes at night and enters their dreams. She attends Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind teens, where she learns to control her magic alongside fairies, sirens, mermaids, hags, and other magical creatures. One night, while she’s inside the dream of distractingly hot Eli, Dusty sees one of her Arkwell Academy classmates murdered - a dream that quickly comes true. Turns out, Dusty is a dream-seer, someone who can see the future in dreams. There’s a catch though: her psychic powers will only work inside Eli’s dreams, and he’s not too happy about being involved. Dusty doesn’t have much time to worry about that, because evil is descending on Arkwell Academy, and Dusty and Eli could be magickind’s only chance of stopping it.
This book was a lot of fun! The fact that the main character was a Nightmare was really interesting and different, and I enjoyed learning about the other magickind at Arkwell. It reminded me a little bit of Harry Potter (magical boarding school, students fighting evil), but with enough of a twist to be different. I also liked Dusty a lot - she was a funny, snarky, likeable narrator. That said, I have to admit that I was a little bit disappointed with the mystery. I figured most of it out well before the end of the book, and I didn’t feel like the author built up enough suspense for me to really care that much about the ending. The Nightmare Affair is the first book in a planned series, so I’ll probably pick up the next book when it comes out to see where the story goes.
Rating: 3/5 stars
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Want to read The Nightmare Affair? Request it here!
Click here to find it in our online catalog :)
More cover reveals!
Check out this one for Richelle Mead’s The Fiery Heart:
Check out The Young Adult Books Central blog for some great book choices. They have been posting the best of the year in different genres, see the links below for some good reads!
The categories have a winner and runner-ups, so plenty of choices for whatever your reading needs :)
Best Teen Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic
SO MUCH NEWS!
First off, Random House has a new weekly author twitter chat series. Are any of these your favorite authors?
Authors featured in the launch Twitter Author Chat series include Rebecca Stead (Liar &Spy, Wendy Lamb Books), Tessa Gratton (The Blood Keeper, Random House BFYR), N.D. Wilson (Ashtown Burials: The Drowned Vault, Random House BFYR), Daniel Marks (Velveteen, Random House BFYR), John Stephens (The Fire Chronicle: BookTwo: The Book of Beginning, Knopf), Adele Griffin (All You Never Wanted, Knopf), Alyssa Sheinmel (The Stone Girl, Knopf), Mark Frost (The Paladin Prophecy: Book 1, Random House BFYR), Anna Jarzab (The Opposite of Hallelujah, Delacorte), Margo Lanagan (The Brides of Rollrock Island, Knopf), Lauren Morrill (Meant to Be, Delacorte), and Christopher Paolini (Inheritance trade paperback and Deluxe Edition, Knopf).
If so, search the #rhkidschat hastag on Twitter for your weekly update! You can also check out the Random House Teen Book Community, Random Buzzers.
Next up, TOR also had an author chat, but don’t worry if you missed it! The women of “Girls’ Nightmare Out” are going on a real life tour! They will be in the Chicago-land area soon. ( Specifically:Monday, August 20 @ The Warren Newport Public Library Warren Lake Forest, IL and Tuesday, August 21, 7 PM @ The Skokie Library, Skokie, IL.)
Authors Lisa Desrochers, Kendare Blake, and Marta Acosta are joining. You can check out what happened on twitter by checking out the #TorChat hashtag.
Can’t make it to see them? You can still enter the Girls’ Nightmare Out mega sweepstakes! 10 lucky winners will win a copy of all three books (Last Rite, Girl of Nightmares, and Dark Companion, respectively) as well as iPhone skins to go with them! Click this link NOW!!!
If you don’t win, you can click on the titles of the books to find them in our online catalog.
Good luck!
Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible when someone there wants you back.
Seventeen-year-old Pierce Oliviera isn’t dead.
Not this time.
But she is being held against her will in the dim, twilit world between heaven and hell, where the spirits of the deceased wait before embarking upon their final journey.
Her captor, John Hayden, claims it’s for her own safety. Because not all the departed are dear. Some are so unhappy with where they ended up after leaving the Underworld, they’ve come back as Furies, intent on vengeance…on the one who sent them there and on the one whom he loves.
But while Pierce might be safe from the Furies in the Underworld, far worse dangers could be lurking for her there…and they might have more to do with its ruler than with his enemies.
And unless Pierce is careful, this time there’ll be no escape.
Don’t forget to read the first book in the series, Abandoned, which you can find in our online catalog right here.
This weekend was the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo. There were a lot of actors, artists, and writers talking with fans and signing their work. Here’s some of the interesting things I learned at C2E2:
1.) There are a lot of people out there willing to pay hundreds of dollars to stand around in line and get famous entertainers’ autographs - are you? What are your thoughts on this?
2.) Did you know that Chad Michael Murray and Shia LaBeouf have created a graphic novel and self-published comics, respectively?
3.) A lot of cool projects were announced this weekend - so much that I can’t even remember them all. For a great rundown (and what I think is the best commentary I’ve read in years), check out MTV Geek. This link takes you directly to all their C2E2 articles. Here’s a small sample:
4.) There were also a lot of authors, including some YA paranormal and dystopian writers. Here’s the awesome part - they gave away free books and signed them! Books by Rachel Caine, Mari Mancusi, Veronica Wolff, and David Macinnis Gill are going to be included in our batch of Summer Reading Program prizes this year - so make sure to sign up!!
C2E2 has only been going on for three years, but since it was so successful I’m sure it will keep going for many years. Make sure to get your tickets early and join in on the fun next year!
Check out some of these hot new YA books!
Kiki Hamilton’s debut The Faerie Ring, a fantastical mix of Oliver Twist and Cinderella set in 1871 London.
Cynthia Hand’s second book in the Unearthly series, Hallowed.
Kim Harrison’s third book in the Madison Avery series, Something Deadly This Way Comes.
Kelly Keaton’s second book in the Gods & Monsters series, A Beautiful Evil.
Chris Priestley’s horrifying and suspenseful new entry, The Dead of Winter.
And last but not least, Jessica Spotswood’s highly anticipated first book in the Cahill Witch Chronicles, Born Wicked.
Add some fantasy and suspense to your life - pick up one of these books today!
