Waiting on Wednesday: Unwanted, by Alivia Anders

 Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill from Breaking The Spine to showcase books we're eagerly anticipating.

My pick this week, somewhat belated today because I was at an Amanda Palmer gig last night:

add it on goodreads

Expected release: July 30, 2013
Publisher: Red Alice Press
Format: Paperback, 280 pages

She would be his freedom.
He would be her price.

In a world overrun with people and narrowing resources, the basis of life has turned to do or die. No longer does the balance of wealth and power apply. A strict split between the rich and poor has made the lines clear- the more money you have, the more power you control.

For seventeen year old Emily Beucant, life is an equal gift and curse. Having grown up pre- Unwanted society, she can still remember the days it was okay to play with children from the other side of the concrete wall, back when her father was still alive, and back when the Unwanted program was used to Mark and hunt criminals, not sign away the lives of ungrateful children or spouses with high insurance collections over their heads.

But since her father's creation of the program, the government has taken control and made it into a lucrative monster. And as Emily is days away from her eighteenth birthday, and handsome inheritance, she will soon see just how badly it is to be Marked.

When her soulless aunt places Emily up to be Marked an Unwanted, she is forced to go on the run from all she has ever known. No where is safe for her, and no one will protect her, least they wish to have the same fate as her. It isn't until she forms a tense, explosive alliance with a former doctor, Ben, that it looks like the tables may turn in her favor. Together they race against those searching for her, desperate to find a way to free her from an early death. But is it too late?

No one is safe.
No one is free.

This sounds like an intriguing, insidious dystopian society.  The problem of too many people and not enough resources is a very real one and I consider the marking of certain people as inferior to 'save' goods a real, terrible possibility. I can't wait to read about how Emily makes her way through this society. The contrast between her life of wealth an her life as an outcast must be huge, and I'm curious to see how she tackles it. And of course I want to meet that former doctor ;)

 What do you think of my pick? Have you heard of it before? And what are you waiting for this Wednesday?

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Kick-Ass Heroines

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week, various bloggers put together their top ten list on a specified topic.

I love girls who can hold their own, so it was hard to pick! Those are in no particular order. Sorry for the lack of pictures - after I watsted about half an hour trying to format them in only to have them wildly jump around, I gave up and deleted everything.

1. Rachel Morgan, from Kim Harrison's The Hollows series
   Rachel constantly has to defend herself and her friend against various supernatural creatures, be it demons, vampires, banshees or member of the council of the witches, her own brethren. She brings in Inderlander criminals for a living after all! She drops her adversaries with a boot to the butt as well as with her sleepy-time potions or ley line skills.
2. Ari Selkirk, from Kelly Keaton's Gods and Monsters series
   Ari is an orphan and grew up in the foster system. Her latest foster parents are bounty hunters. They taught her to fight with guns as well as with knives or the raw force of her own body. Ari is determined and self-reliant. However, she's not hothead - she's smart and tries to act on a plan. As she well needs to since she's up against Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom.
3. Lila Zacharov, from Holly Black's Curse Workers series
   Lila is the daughter of a mobster boss, spent several years caged up a a cat, and has a taste for vengeance. She's afraid of nothing and takes shit from nobody. She' smart and she's ruthless when she has to be. She's a liar. But she's not without a heart.
4. Rose Hathaway, from Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series
   Rose's strigoi-staking skills are as legendary as her anti-authorian attitude. She's fiercely loyal and never gives up on the ones she loves.
5. Isabelle Lightwood, from Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series
   Isabelle crushes boys' hearts and demon guts under her boots. With her whip skills as well as her blade she can hold her own against her brothers. Also, she has great fashion sense.
6. Cat, from Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series
   At age 22, Cat's been hunting vampires all on her own for six years. After she meets Bones, they become a force to be reckoned with. I loved seeing her grow into her own. When the lives of those she loves are on the line, she's not afraid to get her hands dirty.
7. Lisbeth Salander, from Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy
   Hacker extraordinaire, math genius, abused product of a corrupt system. Anti-social, drives a moterbike and is a fan of vigilante justice. Follows her own sense of morals. If a girl who digs herself out of her own grave after she's been shot in the head and left for dead isn't kick-ass then I don't know who is.
8. Aya, from Melissa Marr's Carnival of Souls
   She might have been born part of the ruling caste, but she's ready to risk everything in the Carnival to gain autonomy over her life so she cannot be forced to mate and bear children. She defies all decorum for woman of her status to go her own way, and she'll fight by any means necessary to achieve her independence.
9. Eowyn, from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
   When I read LotR for the first time (I was 13) Eowyn sort of got on my nerves, but after re-reading it and watching the movies over and over I realized how strong she is. She wants to fight like a man, to support her uncle and brother. She wants more than the role fate and tradition usually dole out to women like her. She's been trained to fight and is eager to apply her skills in a real battle - especially since she knows that every 'man' is needed to fight Sauron! And I mean hello - just remember that amazing movie moment in the battle of Minas Tirith when she charges forward with Theoden's army and eventually kills the leader of the ring wraiths!
10. Allie Sekemoto, from Julie Kagawa's Immortal Rules
    I haven't read all that many dystopians but the world from The Immortal Rules was, in my opinion, one of the toughest. Allie is orphaned, has no one to stand up for her, and has to be happy to find way moldy, gross food to have anything to eat at all. She survives on a day-to-day basis until she is turned into a vampire and taught to fight, with a samurai sword among other things. I really admired how no matter how terrible the situation, she never gave up!

There are, as I said, more heroines I could have included. Katniss Everdeen. Mae fom Sarah Rees Brennan's Demon's Lexicon series (though she's more of a strategist). I thought about Rosalind from Shakespeare's As You Like It. Riley from Jana Oliver's Demon Trappers series...

Anyhow, I'm really curious about what you guys picked and what you think of my choices :) Leave me your links in the comments so I can check out your lists!

I'm doing NaNo! What about you?

Yup, once more I have signed up for the mad dash that is NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. This is my second year participating and I really hope that it'll be as much of a success for me as last year was! Don't worry, I won't be bothering you with daily updates but I think I'll write a round-up post every Sunday about how I'm doing with the story, where I'm struggling, other random things I realized while writing etc.

A year ago, I was completely unsure whether or not to do NaNo. I had heard about it before but never had time to enter. Last year, after finishing my BA in the summer, I decided to go easy on the MA courses for a semester. So I just had to tell myself: Carmen, you will never again have as much time in November as you do now, so stop being a coward and just try! It turned out to completely change the way I think of myself as a writer. I was electrified, on fire! Writing was the most amazing feeling in the world and I got to do it every day! I walked with a spring in my step. I probably grinned like a fool in love. I connected with other writers on the NaNo forum and also met them for real life writing sessions. Talking about our books and doing word wars was so much fun!

I started with a goal of 30,000 words. I told myself that I could do 1000 a day. Well... about a week in, there was this crazy moment when I wrote 10,000 words in 2 days. I was excited about my project, which, by the way, had fooled me into thinking it was just a short story. It took me a while to admit to myself that it was actually a novel. I think without the story fooling me, I would have panicked at the thought of writing it. I had virtually nothing when I started apart form a scrap of paper with an idea written down two years earlier. During the whole time, I never wrote an outline. I can't. I don't know what happens next unless I put my fingers on those computer keys. Things show up in my head, I 'see' them before my eyes, I write them down.
At the end of the month, I had 66,000 words. Two months later, I completed my draft at 95,000 and had written another 10,000 from a different character's POV as a Christmas present for a friend.

And now comes my moment of shame. I wrote a novel draft in 3 months. But 9 months later, I am still not done with the first re-read / round of revisions. I find it so much harder. It's actual work rather than just the fun of writing. It makes me question myself and my story constantly, and I feel lost. Nevertheless, I want to finish that first re-read so I'm on top of what's happening again, because this year I want to write the sequel to last year's project. Hopefully, that will motivate me again so I can take up that draft with new energy and motivation and rework it in December while simultaneously finishing book 2.
Ambitious goals, I know.

What about you guys? Have you participated in NaNo before? What was your experience? Are you up for the craziness this year? Do you prepare yourself or do you just start from scratch on November 1?

I'd really like to connect to those of you who do NaNo! My username is ButterflyGhost - feel free to add me as a buddy or leave your own alias in the comments :) Also, if you have a separate blog dedicated to your NaNo project, feel free to leave me a link!

Stacking the Shelves - mixed bunch

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to showcase the books we got during the week. Those can be bought, gifted for review, borrowed... you name it.


Here's what I got this week:

William Shakespeare - Antony and Cleopatra. Edited by John Wilders.
Stacy Schiff - Cleopatra, A Life
Signed bookmark from Gretchen McNeil


I'm still on the book buying ban but growing ever more sick of it... I'm getting some reading done though, which is good. The books above don't count because they are for a university course on feminity, power, queenship, and glamour and how those concepts interrelate. I'm reading Stacy Schiff's book right now and I like her style a lot so far.
I got the bookmark for being in Gretchen McNeil's Army of Ten. Pity I'm not US-based or I could've done more to support the book and win awesome stuff! But I like signed bookmarks :) There's a design based on the Ten cover on the over side of it but I photographed it this way because of the signature. Which you probably can't see very well in the pic.

However, I did break tha ban after all. I preordered Venom by Fiona Paul because if you did that and signed up, you could get a Venom prequel novella for free. I couldn't possibly resist that...

Also, I got this one from NetGalley because it's on my TBR list and I read some good reviews of it. Also, it was downloadable without formally needing to be requested:

Gorgeous cover, right? You can check out the blurb here.


Also, I'm really sorry for the lack of reviews lately. I hope I can get back into the swing of things next week. I've been reading a lot and I have two NetGalley reviews to write, but I've just been feeling really unmotivated and lazy. Also, university and real life (lots of concerts I'm going to, meaning my evening is full and I have no time to blog) are keeping me busy...

Oh, and while you're here - check out my giveaway for the Spooktacular Hop if you haven't already ;)

Have you read any of the books on my pile? And what was in your haul this week?

Cover Reveal: Sweet Peril, by Wendy Higgins

Hey guys! I'm really excited to be part of the cover reveal for the sequel to Wendy Higgins' Sweet Evil! It was one of my favorite reads of 2012 and when the future of the series was uncertain I was extremely worried about never getting to see how Anna and Kaidan's story continues. I was so relieved when I heard that Harper is going to continue publishing the trilogy!
But now, without further ado, the cover for Sweet Peril!

I think it's absolutely gorgeous! I love how it takes up elements of the first cover but also makes it clear that the situation is now different. Anna's expression is no longer innocent and unknowing. I also like that both her and Kaidan are dressed in the same color. I'm reading that as a connection. They are no longer exact opposites. However, they aren't openly touching so it's clear that they can't really be together. The color of the sky implies that the overall situation is dire but not without, maybe, hope? Anyway, those are my thoughts. I'd love to hear yours in the comments!

Here's the book blurb:

Anna Whitt, daughter of a guardian angel and a demon, promised herself she’d never do the work of her father—polluting souls. She’d been naive to make such a claim. She’d been naive about a lot of things. Haunted by demon whisperers, Anna does whatever she can to survive, even if it means embracing her dark side and earning an unwanted reputation as her school’s party girl. Her life has never looked more bleak. And all the while there’s Kaidan Rowe, son of the Duke of Lust, plaguing her heart and mind.

When an unexpected lost message from the angels surfaces, Anna finds herself traveling the globe with Kopano, son of Wrath, in an attempt to gain support of fellow Nephilim and give them hope for the first time. It soon becomes clear that whatever freedoms Anna and the rest of the Neph are hoping to win will not be gained without a fight. Until then, Anna and Kaidan must put aside the issues between them, overcome the steamiest of temptations yet, and face the ultimate question: is loving someone worth risking their life?

Sweet Peril will be released on April 30, 2013 by HarperTeen.

Book 3 of The Sweet Trilogy, Sweet Reckoning, is slated for spring/summer 2014.

Sweet Peril on Goodreads 

Preorder on Amazon   Preorder on The Book Depository   Preorder on B&N

And for those who don't know the series, the cover & description of Sweet Evil.

add it on goodreads

Published: May 1, 2012

Publisher: HarperTeen

Format: Paperback, 453 pages

Embrace the Forbidden

What if there were teens whose lives literally depended on being bad influences?

This is the reality for sons and daughters of fallen angels.

Tenderhearted Southern girl Anna Whitt was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She's aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but Anna, the ultimate good girl, has always had the advantage of her angel side to balance the darkness within. It isn't until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage and her willpower is put to the test. He's the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.

Forced to face her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns?

About the author:

Wendy Higgins was born in Alaska, grew up an Army brat, and lived all over the United States before settling in the Washington, DC area. She attended George Mason University for her undergrad degree in creative writing, and Radford University for her masters in curriculum and instruction. Wendy taught 9th and 12th grade English in a rural school before becoming a mother and author. She now lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, daughter, and son. Sweet Peril is her second novel.

Website    Wendy's Facebook    Wendy's Twitter 

Sweet Evil on Facebook    Kaidan on Twitter

 Thanks to Wendy for letting me be part of the cover reveal!

I can't wait for the book to be released! I hope there will be a trailer :) What about you guys? What are your thoughts on the new cover or the series?

Waiting on Wednesday: Dance of the Red Death, by Bethany Griffin

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme created by Jill from Breaking the Spine to highlight upcoming releases that we can't wait to get our greedy book-hoarding fingers on. This week's pick is:

Expected release: April 23, 2013
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Format: Hardcover, 400 pages

Goodreads description:
The sequel to Masque of the Red Death, which Melissa Marr called, “Haunting and beautiful.” Araby Worth is poised either to save her city, or to abandon it. In a novel that embodies dark, sexy, tragic, and fearless, Bethany Griffin concludes her incredible, atmospheric reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic short story.
Araby Worth’s city is on fire. Her brother is dead. Her best friend could be soon. Her mother is a prisoner, her father is in hiding. And the two boys who stole her heart have both betrayed her. But Araby has found herself, and she is going to fight back. Inspired by one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most compelling stories, “The Masque of the Red Death,” Bethany Griffin has spun two sultry and intricate novels about a young woman who finds herself on the brink of despair but refuses to give in. Decadent masquerades, steamy stolen moments, and sweeping action are set in a city crumbling from neglect and tragedy. A city that seeps into your skin. Dance of the Red Death is the riveting conclusion to the dark and fascinating saga of an unforgettable heroine.


Ever since finishing Masque of the Red Death, I've been itching for this one. When the exquisite cover was revealed, it got even worse. I can't wait to find out what's going ot happen to Araby. And I want more of Will ^^' Basically I just want to throw myself into that intriguing world and gorgeous prose again. You can read my review of the first book here.

Have you read Masque of the Red Death? And what are you waiting for this week?

Spooktacular Giveaway Hop: Choose 1 of 15 books

Hey guys :) Welcome to my stop of the Spooktacular Giveaway Hop, hosted by I Am a Reader, Not a Writer & The Diary of a Bookworm. There are about 500 blogs participating, so make sure to hop along with the linky at the bottom of this post.

I love Halloween! I don't get to do much because the event isn't really celebrated in Switzerland much, but I love all the pictures of costumes and decorations that show up on my twitter feed around this time from the Americans I'm following.

And of course, I love spooky books and movies. So let's get to the goodies ;)

There will be one winner who can pick one of the following books:









Click the covers to check the books out on goodreads. Those are all books I have either read and loved or heard awesome things about.


Rules:

• Open internationally as long as The Book Depository ships to you.
• One entry per person / household. 
• Duplicate entries or any other type of cheating results in deletion of all your entries. I will check ALL of them before I pick a winner.
• You have to be at least 13. You have to be 18 to pick one of the following: Drawing Blood, Lost Souls, Halfway to the Grave. Those are NOT YA.
• The winner will be emailed and has 48 hours to respond before I pick someone new.
• The cover/edition of your pick may differ because of regional restrictions. I will order paperbacks if available (Ember will be kindle format, as I cannot order paperbacks from amazon.com and it's unavailable from TBD).
• I am not responsible for what happens to the book after I've ordered it for you.

Now have fun and enjoy the spooky season!




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Teaser Tuesday: The Shadow Society

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

add it on goodreads

This week's teaser is from The Shadow Society by Marie Rutkoski. I got an ARC on NetGalley but didn't get around to reading it before the release, which was last Tuesday. I'm about 20% in and I love it already!

"Conn shifted. His lips hardened, grew eager. Almost angry. He grasped my fingers, lowered them to his waist, and seized my upper arm. Gripped it to the bone. Yet I didn't pull away. I couldn't. He crushed me close. I strained closer. Our kiss was a deep, dark well, and I fell into it, and never wanted to sea the sun again." (eARC, position 688 of 3583)

I love how Darcy likens the kiss to falling into a well. She's great so far anyway, one of my favorite heroines I've read this year. I'm not telling you what happens immediately after this kiss though, only that it's nothing of the sexy variety ;)

Have you read The Shadow Society or is it on your TBR list? What are you teasing the rest of us with this Tuesday? Link me up in the comments :)

Stacking the Shelves - or how I thought I was breaking the ban

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's reviews to showcase books we got over the week, no matter whether they're print or ebooks, gifted, borrowed, or bought. Just show off your new pretties ;)

Well, I think by now you're familiar with my book buying ban until I've read up on my stack... but honestly, I thought I broke it this week. A book I wanted was only 99c on amazon for two days so I bought it, with a slightly bad conscience. Then I realized that I actually still had some giftcard money on my account, so I didn't technically break the ban, even though I thought I was and bought the book anyway. It's just so hard not to buy any books! Anyhow, here's what I 'bought':

I looooove this cover! And I've been feeling like reading something a bit more adult. This is still NA, I think, but yeah. College setting. Gorgeous rockstar. Yes, please. You can check it out on goodreads here.

I also went to NetGalley (which isn't breaking the ban) and found a book I'd heard about more than a year ago but lost sight of again. I don't know whether it was picked up by a different publisher or why it suddenly showed up there, but I requested it and was approved. Click here to get to goodreads.

It has a different cover now, and I liked the old one better, personally:

But whatever, the story's still the same. And it's set in Prague! I was there for half a week this summer and loved the city. Also, it features not only vampires but also elves and witches and several other types of creatures. I look forward to reading it.

Oh, and I just found that Word and Breath is free on amazon at the moment (Friday night, dunno if it still is when you read this) so I had to have it.

Finally, I need to apologize. I was extremely busy this past week and had zero time to review anything or get a lot of non-university-related reading done. I hope I can post a review on Sunday though and be a better blogger next week.

Have you guys heard of or read these books? And what's new on your shelves?

Cover Reveal & Giveaway: Sealer's Promise, by Kathy Coleman

I'm excited to be part of the cover reveal for Sealer's Promise, the debut novel of Kathy Coleman! Below you can find the book descritption and beautiful cover. But that's not all! There's also a trailer, and a youtube video of Kathy reading out the prologue! I think the video and live reading are a great idea and give more life to the book than a simple written excerpt. And, at the very end of this post, you can enter a rafflecopter giveaway.


The Book
Some promises are meant to be broken.

Sarena Lengton knows what it's like to die -- two years ago her soul journeyed to the Underworld. Zakariah, the Lord of Judgement, has offered to spare her life in return for a promise. Sarena must convince his younger brother, Kesyl, to use his powers as a Sealer to open a portal to the Underworld. Then Zakariah can absorb Kesyl's soul and experience life on Earth.

Now seventeen, Sarena has managed to avoid completing Zakariah's task. But when she witnesses a murder at Sterling High where nothing but a skeleton is left behind, Sarena knows she will need Kesyl's help to catch the killer. As they work together, she finds herself falling for the boy she promised to help destroy.

Sarena doesn't want to know what Zakariah will do to her if she defies him. But if she keeps her end of the bargain, Kesyl will lose his soul. Can Sarena keep her life and her love? Or will both be torn from her forever?

Doesn't it sound intiguing? I love stories about the Underworld. And about conflict and forbidden attraction - this story offers plenty of both. I really want to meet Kesyl and Zakariah for myself, and I'm curious about why Sarena was in the Underworld in the first place and why she was offered a deal at all. But for now, take another look at the gorgeous cover!

I love the details in Sarena's dress and the snow-covered trees in the background! I like her pose, too. She looks confident, she doesn't cower or look up to anyone else to save her. I'm curious about what you guys think.

Do you want to know more about the book and Kathy Coleman? Watch the trailer and the reading of the prologue below!

Curious? Want a glimpse at the story? Watch Kathy read the prologue (2 parts):

If you'd rather read the prologue, you can do so here.

About the Author

Kathy Coleman lives with her family in a small town in Ontario, Canada. She attended Trent University, where she studied English and Cultural Studies.

When her characters are not waking her up with crazy ideas at 3 a.m., Kathy can be found blogging at I Write, I Read, I Review, performing karaoke or playing her Pandaran monk (Caitt) or Troll shaman (Sarenna) on World of Warcraft.

Kathy loves to talk about books and writing. She can be reached at isis_willowsong (at) hotmail (dot) com. 

Website      Blog      Twitter      Facebook     Goodreads

What do you guys think about the cover, the trailer, the book summary or the videos? Do you like stories about the Underworld? Share your impressions in the comments, and don't forget to enter the giveaway below ;)  

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Waiting on Wednesday: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine to showcase upcoming releases that we're impatiently waiting for.


My pick this week:

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, by April Genevieve Tucholke

Expected release: August 2013
Publisher: Penguin / Dial
Format: no info yet

Goodreads description:
Violet's grandmother had warned her about the Devil, had talked about him often, as though he were a best friend, or an old lover. But she never told Violet that the Devil could be real. She never told Violet that the Devil could be a dark-haired boy in vintage clothes who takes naps in the sun and likes old movies and vigilante justice.

River West is the seventeen-year old stranger renting the guesthouse behind the rotting mansion on the sea, where Violet lives. And as eerie things start happening in Violet's town, she begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. Is River just a crooked-smiling, coffee-loving liar with rascally eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something else? Something...evil?

Violet's already so knee-deep in love she can't see straight.

And that's just how River likes it.


Click here to check it out on Goodreads.

I know I know... almost a year off, doesn't even have a cover yet, but! The descprition sounds sooo awesome!! Devils or demons. Dark-haired, coffee drinking male lead who just might be a compulsive liar. Rotting mansions. Liars. Mystery and lore. The sea. Intrigues and ploys. Waaaah I need this NOW >_< Can't wait to see the cover!

EDIT:  I wrote this on Monday, when there wasn't a cover yet, but now there is! Look!

I love the font, and the cliffs! It looks so dark and tempestuous! Makes me even more eager about the setting. I hope it's reflected in the writing style as well.
 

Ahem. So what do you think? And what are you waiting for this week?