Sunday, May 22, 2011

IMM 29

In my mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi of The Story Siren in which bloggers share with their readers the books that have arrived in their homes over the past week. I really look forward to seeing other people's books and really have a lot of fun with my IMM posts, so thank you Kristi.


Passion by Lauren Kate - Before Luce and Daniel met at Sword & Cross and fought immortals at Shoreline, they lived many lives. . . .

Since THAT ending of Torment, I've been absolutely dying to read the next part in Daniel and Luce's story. I know that this is more of a prequel and we have another whole YEAR to get to the next part, I am still happy to at least have Passion to keep me company.

I'm really looking forward to reading this one and it shall my next on my reading pile, I should think.


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The Truth About Celia Frost by Paula Rawsthorne - Celia Frost is a freak. At least that is what everyone thinks. Her life is ruled by a rare disorder that means she could bleed to death from the slightest cut, confining her to a gloomy bubble of safety. No friends. No fun. No life. But when a knife attack on Celia has unexpected consequences, her mum reacts strangely. Suddenly they are on the run. Why is her mum so scared? Someone out there knows and when they find Celia, she is going to wish the truth was a lie... A buried secret; a gripping manhunt; a dangerous deceit: what is the truth about Celia Frost? A page-turning thriller that s impossible to put down.

I have heard really excellent things about this book. One of my favourite bloggers lists this amongst her favourite books all year, so pretty high praise! It sounds pretty good and again I did a little dance when it turned up in the post :)

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Defiance by Lili St Crow - The heart-stopping fourth novel in New York Times bestselling author Lili St. Crow's Strange Angels series.

Now that sixteen-year-old Dru's worst fears have come true and Sergej has kidnapped her best friend Graves, she'll have to go on a suicidal rescue mission to bring him back in one piece.
That is, if she can put all of Christophe's training to good use, defeat her mother's traitor, Anna, once and for all, and manage to survive another day . . .


This book has been bounced around for a little while until finally showing up! A huge thank you to Kirsty of The Overflowing Library for sending it to me via Lyndsey from Heaven, Hell and Purgatory Book Reviews! It got here in the end :)

I do really love the Strange Angels series and Dru Anderson. I can't wait to get started on this book.

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Pretty Twisted by Gina Blaxhill - Ros has a secret crush on Jonathan. Jonathan is massively hung up on Freya (even after she dumps him). And Freya? Well, Freya is a beautiful enigma. Even more so when she goes missing without a trace..."Pretty Twisted" is narrated in alternating chapters by Jonathan (16) and Ros (14) who meet online at a time when things are going sour for Jonathan. His stunning girlfriend, Freya, is away at college and they are growing apart - consequently, he is struggling with his own sense of identity. Ros is also experiencing some problems - one of her friends is dating an older man whose strange behaviour gives Ros cause for concern. Meanwhile, the local news has been reporting some kidnappings of teenage girls. So when Freya dumps Jonathan, then seems to disappear off the face of the earth, he enlists Ros' (somewhat reluctant) help in tracking down the girl he still loves. With danger lurking around every corner, their stories become inextricably linked in a way nobody could have predicted...

This book wasn't expected at all, it just showed up. Sounds like it'd be a kind of disturbing (twisted?) read. Not entirely convinced yet, but I'm sure I'll end up giving it a go.

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An Act of Love by Alan Gibbons - Childhood friends Chris and Imran celebrate the Millenium as inseparable blood brothers, they are both seven years old. But by 2011 their lives have taken very different paths. One has joined the Army and served in Afghanistan, the other is a potential jihad recruit. They are no longer friends, and there are bitter wounds between them which remain unhealed. Will their childhood bond be strong enough to overcome an extremist plot? In a highly-charged, honest and life affirming story, told in flashback from both Chris and Imran's viewpoint, Alan Gibbon's cleverly explores the very real issue of terrorism that affects everyone today.

This sounds like it'd be quite fascinating and emotional to read. Thank you to Nina from Orion for sending it to me!

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Hidden by Miriam Halahmy
- "Hidden" is the first in a cycle of three novels set on Hayling Island, off the South Coast of England, near the Isle of Wight. Each novel is stand alone but a minor character in the previous novel becomes the major character in the next. "Hidden" is a brave novel, tackling the issues surrounding Middle-Eastern immigration into the UK through the eyes of a British teenager. "Hidden" is a literary, coming-of-age novel dealing with judgement, courage, preconceptions and the difficulty of sorting right from wrong. "Hidden" is humorous, yet hard-hitting and speaks with a voice which teenagers will connect with. Fourteen year old Alix lives at the bottom of Hayling Island near the beach. It is a quiet backwater, far removed from world events such as war, terror and refugees. Alix has never even given a thought to asylum seekers, she has enough problems of her own: Dad has a new life that doesn't include her, Grandpa is dead and Mum is helpless and needy. But when Alix sees the local gang shouting racist abuse at Samir, the foreign boy in her class, she finds herself sticks up for him and they become friends. Alix begins to learn about the life Samir has left behind in Iraq, which isn't all about suicide bombers but centred on playing football in the street with friends, going to school and helping his Mum with the shopping. Then one day on the beach Alix and Samir pull a drowning man out of the incoming tide: Mohammed, an illegal immigrant and a student. Mohammed has been tortured by the militia in Iraq for helping the allied forces and has spent all his money to escape. Alone, helpless, and desperate not to be deported, Mohammed's destiny lies in Alix and Samir's hands. Samir knows that life as an immigrant can be cruel, but he begs Alix to help him hide Mohammed. However, hiding an injured refugee is fraught with difficulties and Lindy Bellows, the bad girl at school is already sniffing around. Lindy's brother, Terrence, is in the racist gang. How long before Lindy gives them away? Faced with the biggest moral dilemma of her life, what will Alix do, and who can she trust? As Alix weighs up her own commitments versus those of a helpless stranger; human rights issues versus the law; and finally what you can see versus what is hidden, the reader is taken on an extraordinarily gripping journey through a moral minefield of decisions to discover, with Alix, that knowing right from wrong isn't always easy.

I won Hidden in a Twitter giveaway from the lovely Savita Kalhan, author of The Long Weekend. I'd had my eye on Hidden for a little while and am thrilled and excited to have won :) Thank you Savita!

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Alanna by Tamora Pierce - Alan of Trebond, the best warrior in the palace, is harboring a big secret: he is really a she - Alanna. But when her prince is felled by an illness, Alanna has no choice but to use her healing magic - even if it means ruining her career.

Tamora Pierce is one of those authors that I've always heard good things about. I now feel like I've missed out somehow by having never read any of her books, so I thought I really must do something to rectify the situation. I chose Alanna as my first Tamora Pierce read, because Alanna sounds very much like an awesome female fictional character! :)


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Mad Love by Suzanne Selfors - When you're the daughter of the bestselling Queen of Romance, life should be pretty good. But 16-year-old Alice Amorous has been living a lie ever since her mother was secretly hospitalized for mental illness. After putting on a brave front for months, time is running out. The next book is overdue, and the Queen can't write it. Alice needs a story for her mother—and she needs one fast.

That's when she meets Errol, a strange boy who claims to be Cupid, who insists that Alice write about the greatest love story in history: his tragic relationship with Psyche. As Alice begins to hear Errol's voice in her head and see things she can't explain, she must face the truth—that she's either inherited her mother's madness, or Errol is for real.

Mad Love was not a book that I was expecting, but it really sounds quite good. As you all may know (?) I do love a story with an element of mental illness, so I'm really looking forward to getting started with this one.

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Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck - Passion. Fate. Loyalty.

Would you risk it all to change your destiny?

The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she’d be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year-old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world. But that’s exactly what happened. Face-to-face with dark forces, spellbinding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever.

Tiger’s Curse is the exciting first volume in an epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more.


OOH! What a gorgeous cover that is! I'm really looking forward to this book. Epic fantasy-romance? I'm so there. I hope Tiger's Curse is as exciting as I expect it to be :)


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The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens
- Kate, Michael, and Emma have been in one orphanage after another for the last ten years, passed along like lost baggage.

Yet these unwanted children are more remarkable than they could possibly imagine. Ripped from their parents as babies, they are being protected from a horrible evil of devastating power, an evil they know nothing about.

Until now.

Before long, Kate, Michael, and Emma are on a journey to dangerous and secret corners of the world...a journey of allies and enemies, of magic and mayhem. And—if an ancient prophesy is correct—what they do can change history, and it is up to them to set things right.


Oh, I'm quite excited about this one! The Emerald Atlas sounds like the kind of fantasy adventure that I love to fall into and get swept away by. I'm very much looking forward to this one.

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Outside In by Maria V. Snyder - Me? A Leader? Okay, I did prove that there's more to Inside than we knew. That a whole world exists beyond this cube we live in. And finding that led to a major rebellion - between worker scrubs like me and the snobby uppers who rule our world. Make that ruled. Because of me, we're free. I thought that meant I was off the hook, and could go off on my own again - while still touching base with Riley, of course. He's the one upper I think I can trust. But then we learned that there's outside and then there is Outside. And something from Outside wants In.

And Outside In! I'm being very spoilt for choice this week. This is the sequel to Inside Out, which I read and reviewed earlier this year. I really loved and it's always a treat to return to great characters and a different world! Look out for my review soon.

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Die For Me by Amy Plum - My life had always been blissfully, wonderfully normal. But it only took one moment to change everything.

Suddenly, my sister, Georgia, and I were orphans. We put our lives into storage and moved to Paris to live with my grandparents. And I knew my shattered heart, my shattered life, would never feel normal again. Then I met Vincent.

Mysterious, sexy, and unnervingly charming, Vincent Delacroix appeared out of nowhere and swept me off my feet. Just like that, I was in danger of losing my heart all over again. But I was ready to let it happen.

Of course, nothing is ever that easy. Because Vincent is no normal human. He has a terrifying destiny, one that puts his life at risk every day. He also has enemies . . . immortal, murderous enemies who are determined to destroy him and all of his kind.

While I'm fighting to piece together the remnants of my life, can I risk putting my heart—as well as my life and my family's—in jeopardy for a chance at love?

How gorgeous is the cover for Die For Me? I've been dying to read this one for awhile, so I'm very excited to now have a copy waiting for me once I'm able to navigate through my stacks and stacks of TBR piles. Wasn't I supposed to be on a book-acquiring ban?!


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The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter - It's always been just Kate and her mom—and her mother is dying. Her last wish? To move back to her childhood home. So Kate's going to start at a new school with no friends, no other family and the fear her mother won't live past the fall.

Then she meets Henry. Dark. Tortured. And mesmerizing. He claims to be Hades, god of the Underworld—and if she accepts his bargain, he'll keep her mother alive while Kate tries to pass seven tests.

Kate is sure he's crazy—until she sees him bring a girl back from the dead. Now saving her mother seems crazily possible. If she succeeds, she'll become Henry's future bride, and a goddess.

I can't say that I've heard much about this one. I saw it briefly on NetGalley, but I didn't request it. When I saw that two of my favourite book bloggers, Sya and Vivienne have opposing viewpoints on the book, I thought that I really must read The Goddess Test to see where I stood on the matter.


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Wintercraft: Blackwatch by Jenna Burtenshaw - Kate has escaped the clutches of the High Council and Silas has left Albion for the continent. But their lives are forever linked and as the veil weakens, causing Albion's skilled to fear for everyone's safety, Silas and Kate find themselves drawn together by the mysterious and corrupt Dalliah Grey.

YAY! I was a massive fan of the first book in the Wintercraft series, so I'm hugely excited to read this follow-up. I really can't wait to get back to these characters (especially Silas!) and this world to see what happens next.

A big thank you to Vivienne at Serendipity from which I won this book in a giveaway. Can't wait! :)


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Burned by Ellen Hopkins - Raised in a religious -- yet abusive -- family, Pattyn Von Stratten starts asking questions -- about God, a woman's role, sex, love. She experiences the first stirrings of passion, but when her father catches her in a compromising position, events spiral out of control. Pattyn is sent to live with an aunt in the wilds of Nevada to find salvation and redemption. What she finds instead is love and acceptance -- until she realizes that her old demons will not let her go.

I'm a massive fan of Ellen Hopkins, I really am. I've been trying to track down copies of all of her books, so I was thrilled to see Burned show up on ReadItSwapIt. This book sounds just as emotional and moving as Ellen's other works and I look forward to reading it and more verse novels in the future!


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And those are the books which made their way into my possession recently. What books have you recieved lately?

14 comments:

  1. great books, I'm sue you will love Die for Me and I just finished An act Of Love last night, It's very good! very powerful! I hope you enjoy your books! x

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  2. Great selection of books this week! I have Celia Frost too and can't wait to start reading it. I have to say that I wasn't the biggest fan of Pretty Twisted although I know heaps of people who have enjoyed it.

    Yay, you got Passion and The Goddess Test - both sound brilliant :)

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  3. Awesome mailbox!

    Hope you enjoy your books! ;)

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  4. I just started Outside In and I know I'm going to love it as much as I did the first one already. Happy reading!

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  5. Great selection, a few of those are on my mental wishlist based on the reviews I've been reading. I've got Tiger's Curse waiting for me at the post office, I must go and collect it :D

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  6. I received Pretty Twisted unexpectedly too! I'm intrigued.

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  7. I love the cover to Defiance and I plan on getting it soon but I've still yet to read the first three! I also love the covers for Die For Me and The Goddess Test, so beautiful. Mad Love sounds like a really interseting read too :)

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  8. Great list! Alanna is one of my fave books and I can't wait to get my hands on Passion :-) Please participate in my give-away for "A Gate at the Stairs" :-)

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  9. OMG, INCREDIBLE books this week! Clover, I am JEALOUS!!!!!!!! I'm not gonna comment on all of them, that would take too long! - but I will say one thing: The cover of Tiger's Curse is WEIRD! But sort of epic at the same time...

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  10. Kirsty - Yes there are, I'm very happy :)

    Raimy - Ooh, I hope that An Act of Love will be one of my next reads, I can't wait.

    SJH - I've seen lots of people with Pretty Twisted lately, and I have seen mixed reviews. I'm just going to work my way slowly to it though. And absolutely rush to get to Passion! :)

    Iffath - Thank you, I hope I do too!

    Sophie - That's excellent news :) Thanks!

    Jenni - Mental wishlist! Hard to keep track of, that one :)

    prettybooks - I want to know just how twisted it gets!

    TLO - Oh you really must read the first three Strange Angels books! I seriously love them.

    Willa - I've heard such wonderful things about Alanna! Will check out your giveaway later this morning, thanks :)

    Cliona - Do you think that cover looks weird? I really love it. It really stands out for me!

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  11. Hi Clover! Wow, a great collection of books! So glad you won HIDDEN - it's a great read! And THE TRUTH ABOUT CELIA FROST is on my must-read pile too!
    I just wanted to let you and your followers know that if they like those books and THE LONG WEEKEND, then please check out THE EDGE AUTHORS blog as Paula Rawsthorne, Miriam Halahmy and me are all blogging there, plus another five 'edgy' fab authors!
    Happy reading everyone!

    Is it okay to post the link here?
    http://edgeauthors.blogspot.com/

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  12. Savita - Of course it's OK to leave the link, thank you for doing so, I've just followed your blog! I've been noticing quite a few author collaborative blogs, I think they're fascinating to read. And I do love edgy.

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  13. If I'm honest I wouldn't hurry on reading Pretty Twisted. The idea is good but the actually book left a lot to be desired.
    Apart from that, wow what a collection.

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