In My Mailbox 42

Welcome to another edition of In My Mailbox. IMM is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi of The Story Siren in which bloggers get the chance to share with their readers the books that have recently come into their possession. I really love this meme and I look forward to seeing all my favourite blogger's books each week. Thank you to Kristi for hosting something that is such fun!

Here are the books that I acquired this week...


Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare - Magic is dangerous--but love is more dangerous still.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What's more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa's power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by--and torn between--two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm's length...everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world...and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

After recieving Clockwork Prince last week, I figured I really should read the first book in the series! Luckily I was able to swap for this book on ReadItSwapIt. I'm looking forward to it!

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My Beating Teenage Heart by CK Kelly Martin - Ashlyn Baptiste is falling. One moment she was nothing—no memories, no self—and then suddenly, she's plummeting through a sea of stars. Is she in a coma? She doesn't remember dying, and she has no memories of the life she left behind. All she knows is that she's trapped in a consciousness without a body and she's spending every moment watching a stranger.

Breckon Cody's on the edge. He's being ripped apart by grief so intense it literally hurts to breathe. On the surface, Breckon is trying to hold it together for his family and his girlfriend, but underneath he's barely hanging on.

Even though she didn't know him in life, Ashlyn sees Breckon's pain, and she's determined to find a way help him. As her own distressing memories emerge from the darkness, she struggles to communicate with the boy who can't see her, but whose life is suddenly intertwined with hers. In alternating voices of the main characters, My Beating Teenage Heart paints a devastatingly vivid picture of both the heartbreak and the promise of teenage life—a life Ashlyn would do anything to recover and Breckon seems desperate to destroy—and will appeal to fans of Sarah Dessen, John Green, and David Levithan.

CK Kelly Martin is just one of those authors that I've always heard about and that I've always wanted to try. Again, this book was swapped for using ReadItSwapIt. I really love that website, and of course the wonderful people who use it and agree to my swaps! :)

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Dark Parties by Sara Grant - Sixteen-year-old Neva has been trapped since birth. She was born and raised under the Protectosphere, in an isolated nation ruled by fear, lies, and xenophobia. A shield "protects" them from the outside world, but also locks the citizens inside. But there's nothing left on the outside, ever since the world collapsed from violent warfare. Or so the government says...

Neva and her best friend Sanna believe the government is lying and stage a "dark party" to recruit members for their underground rebellion. But as Neva begins to uncover the truth, she realizes she must question everything she's ever known, including the people she loves the most.

I've been looking forward to reading this one for awhile! I really hope it lives up to my expectations! :)

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The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan - How does one talk about love? Do we even have the right words to describe something that can be both utterly mundane and completely transcendent, pulling us out of our everyday lives and making us feel a part of something greater than ourselves? Taking a unique approach to this problem, the nameless narrator of David Levithan’s The Lover’s Dictionary has constructed the story of his relationship as a dictionary. Through these short entries, he provides an intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of being within a couple, giving us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time.

Thrilled to have swapped for this book using ReadItSwapIt! I'm trying hard to track down all of David Levithan's books as I've enjoyed his stories very much. It seems a pretty slim novel, so I'm sure I'll fly right through it. (I have since already finished this one!)

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The Memory Cage byRuth Eastham - Alex's Grandfather keeps forgetting things. Desperate to help him remember, Alex starts collecting old photographs. Bust as Alex digs into his grandfather's past, he stumbles across secrets that have been buried since World War II. Uncovering the truth could save Grandad ... but it might also tear Alex apart.

I've always heard such good things about this one, so I was thrilled to win this signed copy from Mostly Reading YA, so thank you very much! :)

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Night School by CJ Daugherty - Sometimes school is murder.

Allie Sheridan's world is falling apart. She hates her school. Her brother has run away from home. And she's just been arrested.

Again.

This time her parents have finally had enough. They cut her off from her friends and send her away to a boarding school for problem teenagers.

But Cimmeria Academy is no ordinary school. Its rules are strangely archaic. It allows no computers or phones. Its students are an odd mixture of the gifted, the tough and the privileged. And then there's the secretive Night School, whose activities other students are forbidden even to watch.

When Allie is attacked one night the incident sets off a chain of events leading to the violent death of a girl at the summer ball. As the school begins to seem like a very dangerous place, Allie must learn who she can trust. And what's really going on at Cimmeria Academy.

Hooray, I was really hoping this book would make it into the goodie bags :) CJ was at the Atom blogger party and we heard her talk about her inspiration for Night School and she was there afterwards to sign copies of her book! We're both American expats who moved here 11 years ago, so I found it very cool to meet her and talk with her :)

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Trapped by Michael Northrop - The Breakfast Club meets The Blizzard of the Century: A young adult suspense novel from PW Flying Start author Michael Northrop.

Scotty and his friends Pete and Tommy are among the last kids waiting to get picked up at their high school. The snow has been coming down for hours, and it's starting to look like no one is coming for them. As the snow piles higher, their teacher Mr. Gossell leaves them behind to seek help--and disappears into the drifts outside. Now the seven remaining students are on their own, with no food and no electricity, facing a night of sleeping on classroom floors. Will their friendships survive the night . . . and will THEY?

I hadn't heard of this one before attending the Atom blogger event earlier in the week, but it sounds really good! Creepy and atmospheric, I'm looking forward to it!

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The Witch of Turlingham Academy by Ellie Boswell - It's not easy being the only day girl at Turlingham boarding school: Sophie misses out on all the midnight feasts and late night gossip. Things take a turn for the worse when a new girl - Katy - shows up and all Sophie hears is Katy, Katy, Katy from her friends. It's like she's put a spell on everyone. Katy's no witch, but there is a witch at Turlingham. Katy comes from a long line of witch hunters whose fate is to stop evil magic once and for all. Sophie is going to help her - anything to get Katy out of her life and get things back to normal. But what she finds out means nothing will ever be normal again!

This book isn't out until March of next year! Atom are soon to be launching a range of books for aimed at a younger than YA audience, and I'm really looking forward to it. Especially this book, as it sounds quite fun. Yay for boarding schools! :)

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172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad - Three teenagers are going on the trip of a lifetime. Only one is coming back. It's been more than forty years since NASA sent the first men to the moon, and to grab some much-needed funding and attention, they decide to launch an historic international lottery in which three lucky teenagers can win a week-long trip to moon base DARLAH 2 - a place that no one but top government officials even knew existed until now. The three winners, Antoine, Midori, and Mia, come from all over the world. But just before the scheduled launch, the teenagers each experience strange, inexplicable events. Little do they know that there was a reason NASA never sent anyone back there until now - a sinister reason. But the countdown has already begun..

Couldn't find the cover art of this one easily, but we heard talk of it at the Atom party and it really sounds interesting. I'm looking forward to it. Not out until April of next year though!

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Halo by Alexandra Adornetto - Three angels – Gabriel, the warrior; Ivy, the healer; and Bethany, the youngest and most human – are sent by Heaven to bring good to a world falling under the influence of darkness. They must work hard to conceal their luminous glow, superhuman powers, and, most dangerous of all, their wings, all the while avoiding all human attachments.
Then Bethany meets Xavier Woods, and neither of them is able to resist the attraction between them. Gabriel and Ivy do everything in their power to intervene, but the bond between Xavier and Bethany seems too strong.
The angel’s mission is urgent, and dark forces are threatening. Will love ruin Bethany or save her?

I've been hearing mixed things about this book, but I really want to give it a try to see what I think of it! It was on offer at the Atom blogger party, so I snapped it up :)

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Hades by Alexandra Adornetto - IS LOVE A GREAT ENOUGH POWER AGAINST EVIL?

Bethany Church believes so- after all, the love of her angel siblings and her boyfriend Xavier saved her from the clutches of hell itself.

But when Jake Thorn returns to town, determined to take Beth away with him, it seems he may be able to destroy everything she cares about.

Will Jake's actions shatter Beth's faith in love? Or can she overcome heartache and betrayal to fulfil her role on Earth?

I figured I may as well pick up the sequel while I had the chance!

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Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi - Set initially in a future shanty town in America's Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being dissembled for parts by a rag tag group of workers, we meet Nailer, a teenage boy working the light crew, searching for copper wiring to make quota and live another day. The harsh realities of this life, from his abusive father, to his hand to mouth existence, echo the worst poverty in the present day third world. When an accident leads Nailer to discover an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, and the lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl, Nailer finds himself at a crossroads. Should he strip the ship and live a life of relative wealth, or rescue the girl, Nita, at great risk to himself and hope she'll lead him to a better life. This is a novel that illuminates a world where oil has been replaced by necessity, and where the gap between the haves and have-nots is now an abyss. Yet amidst the shadows of degradation, hope lies ahead.

This is another book that was up for grabs at the Atom blogger party. I seem to remember Hank Green enthusing about this one recently and it sounds interesting! I'm glad I now have the chance to read it.

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Breakfast at Darcy's by Ali McNamara - When Darcy McCall loses her beloved Aunt Molly, she doesn't expect any sort of inheritance - let alone a small island. Located off the west coast of Ireland, Tara hasn't been lived on for years, but according to Molly's will Darcy must stay there for twelve months in order to fully inherit, and she needs to persuade a village full of people to settle there, too. Darcy has to leave behind her independent city life and swap stylish heels for muddy wellies. Between sorting everything from the plumbing to the pub, Darcy meets confident Conor and ever-grumpy Dermot - but who will make her feel really at home?

Earlier in the year, I read and absolutely adored Ali McNamara's From Notting Hill, With Love ... Actually and have been excited to read more from her. The wait is over, and I'm really looking forward to this one!

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Home For Christmas by Cally Taylor - Beth Prince has always loved fairytales and now, aged twenty-four, she feels like she's finally on the verge of her own happily ever after. She lives by the seaside, works in the Picturebox - a charming but rundown independent cinema - and has a boyfriend who's so debonair and charming she can't believe her luck!

There's just one problem - none of her boyfriends have ever told her they love her and it doesn't look like Aiden's going to say it any time soon.

Desperate to hear I love you' for the first time Beth takes matters into her own hands - and instantly wishes she hadn't. Just when it seems like her luck can't get any worse, bad news arrives in the devilishly handsome shape of Matt Jones. Matt is the regional director of a multiplex cinema and he's determined to get his hands on the Picturebox by Christmas.

Can Beth keep her job, her man and her home or is her romantic-comedy life about to turn into a disaster movie?

I don't normally read adult books, but I read Cally Taylor's Heaven Can Wait awhile back and I thought it was absolutely wonderful. Very sweet, so when I saw this book on the shelves, I snapped it up quick. And have already finished it, review soon!

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Six Days by Philip Webb - For Cass, the life of a 'scav' is all she’s ever known – scavenging what’s left of London in search of a precious relic no-one, not even her new Russian masters, has ever seen.

But when two survivors from another time show up, claiming they hold the key to the whereabouts of the missing ‘artefact’, scavving will never be the same again. They have six days to find it before their world will come to an end.

A gripping post-apocalyptical adventure set in the ruins of London about a desperate race to find a relic of extraordinary power. Spectacular science-fiction debut from Philip Webb.

Doesn't this one sound wonderful?! Lovely Tina from Chicken House kindly sent it over. I'm very much looking forward to reading it. London in ruins, can you imagine? :)

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Vixen by Jillian Larkin - Jazz . . . Booze . . . Boys . . . It’s a dangerous combination.

Every girl wants what she can’t have. Seventeen-year-old Gloria Carmody wants the flapper lifestyle—and the bobbed hair, cigarettes, and music-filled nights that go with it. Now that she’s engaged to Sebastian Grey, scion of one of Chicago’s most powerful families, Gloria’s party days are over before they’ve even begun . . . or are they?

Clara Knowles, Gloria’s goody-two-shoes cousin, has arrived to make sure the high-society wedding comes off without a hitch—but Clara isn’t as lily-white as she appears. Seems she has some dirty little secrets of her own that she’ll do anything to keep hidden. . . .

Lorraine Dyer, Gloria’s social-climbing best friend, is tired of living in Gloria’s shadow. When Lorraine’s envy spills over into desperate spite, no one is safe. And someone’s going to be very sorry. . . .

From debut author Jillian Larkin, VIXEN is the first novel in the sexy, dangerous, and ridiculously romantic new series set in the Roaring Twenties . . . when anything goes.

This one showed up unexpectedly, could be quite fun! :)

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Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella - Becky Brandon (nee Bloomwood) thought motherhood would be a breeze and that having a daughter was a dream come true - a shopping friend for life. But it's trickier than she thought - two-year-old Minnie has a quite different approach to shopping. She can create havoc everywhere from Harrods to Harvey Nicks to her own christening.

I wasn't sure that I was going to read this book. I haven't been enjoying the last few Shopaholic books, but I saw this book in a charity shop for 50p and thought 'why not?'

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The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell - In 1799, Jacob de Zoet disembarks on the tiny island of Dejima, the Dutch East India Company’s remotest trading post in a Japan otherwise closed to the outside world. A junior clerk, his task is to uncover evidence of the previous Chief Resident’s corruption.

Cold-shouldered by his compatriots, Jacob earns the trust of a local interpreter and, more dangerously, becomes intrigued by a rare woman – a midwife permitted to study on Dejima under the company physician. He cannot foresee how disastrously each will be betrayed by someone they trust, nor how intertwined and far-reaching the consequences.

Duplicity and integrity, love and lust, guilt and faith, cold murder and strange immortality stalk the stage in this enthralling novel, which brings to vivid life the ordinary – and extraordinary – people caught up in a tectonic shift between East and West.

David Mitchell sort of intimidates me, I don't know. I've only read the one book of his, Black Swan Green, though I do have several others unread on my shelves. I worry that this book will collect dust like the others, but perhaps not? Again, I found this book in a charity shop for 50p...

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Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan - Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he cant seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worsePercy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. Percys mom decides its time that he knew the truth about where he came from. She sends Percy to Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friendsone a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of AthenaPercy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

I haven't yet read this book! I know, where have I been in the last few years?! It just seems like a lot of fun, I'm pretty sure I will enjoy it :)

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Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick - No, she thought. No, please, God, I'm not seeing this

Seventeen-year-old Alex is hiking through the wilderness when it happens: an earth-shattering electromagnetic pulse that destroys almost everything.

Survivors are divided between those who have developed a superhuman sense and those who have aquired a taste for human flesh. These flesh-hunters stalk the land: hungry, ruthless and increasingly clever...

Alex meets Tom, a younge army veteran, and Ellie, a lost girl. They will fight together and be torn apart, but Alex must face the most difficult question of all:
In such a vastly changed world, who can you trust?

A srtory of high-wire tension, gut-wrenching twist, and burgeoning love, Ashes will leave you breathless.

This was a total impulse buy. I'd heard a few vague things about it, but couldn't remember much. I bought it, and came home to read several really positive reviews of it. So yay!

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Unearthly by Cynthia Hand - In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

When I was at the Atom blogger party, I think I recall Carly from Writing in the Tub saying that this is one of the few paranormal books she enjoyed reading, so I thought I should give it a try!

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And those are the books that arrived for me this week. Which books did you get? Have you read any of these? Where should I start?