Top Ten Tuesday: sequels I can't wait to get my hands on

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week they post a new topic that the participants come up with a top ten list for.


This week is about sequels we can't wait to get our hands on, and there are definitely more than enough of those >.<



Unhinged, by A.G. Howard (Splintered #2)
Need more Morpheus. He and Alyssa have unfinished business. I tried my best to get an ARC, but no luck. Two more months...

The Retribution of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin (Mara Dyer #3)
Because the ending of book 2 was a mindfuck. Seriously. And then to find out it's been pushed back 9 months?! Ugh. I want Mara to bring down havoc and get her revenge.

Oblivion, by Kelly Creagh (Nevermore #3)
Probably one of my favorite serieses ever, so I'm sad to see it end... but I need more Varen and Isobel. Kelly Creagh's world is just so beautiful and creepy and dark. And that wonderful prose *sigh*



City of Heavenly Fire, by Cassandra Clare (Mortal Instruments #6)
I prefer The Infernal Devices to TMI, but I want to see how it all ends.

Hunting the Dark, by Karen Mahoney (Moth #2)
I really enjoyed Falling to Ash. Moth is a great character and I loved the support cast as well. There's no cover for this one yet, but you guys should check out Karen's writing anyway :) Oh, and if goodreads is to be trusted, this one will be out on my birthday ^^

Dreams of Gods & Monsters, by Laini Taylor (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #3)
Laini Taylor is a magician with words. And of course I want to know how Karou and Akiva and Ziri forge their way onwards.



The Next Throne of Glass novel by Sarah J. Maas
Crown of Midnight was so, so good!! Seriously. I thought it was a trilogy and at the end I was like 'how is she going to wrap this up in just one more book?!' but then I saw that there are about six planned, so yay! No cover or description yet though.

Strange and Ever After, by Susan Dennard (Something Strange & Deadly #3)
I love the characters and the world! I own book 2 but haven't read it yet (need to get to that) but I know that once I finish, I'll crave the next one.

The Forever Song, by Julie Kagawa (Blood of Eden #3)
Because Allie is kickass and the ending of book 2 was just meeeeeaaan. Plus I want to see more of Kanin. Very intriguing character. Again, no cover, but at least there's a description.

The Lovely and the Lost, by Page Morgan (The Dispossessed #2)
Again, I want to go back to the world and learn more about gargoyles and all the rest that's going on. The writing was great as well. No description yet though *sigh*


What do you think of my picks, and what books made your own list?

Book blitz: demon summoning guide & giveaway: The Unseen, by J.L. Bryan

Hey guys :) Fitting for the Halloween time, I present you a creepy book for the darkening days ahead! It's about a tattoo artist, which I find particulary intriguing. Below you can find more info on the book and author, as well as a list about the Do's and Don'ts of demon summoning ;) There's also two giveaways, one international and one US/CAN only.

Release date: October 31, 2013
Format: ebook, 343 pages

Description:
Cassidy is a young tattoo artist living in the Little Five Points neighborhood of Atlanta. She’s always suffered terrible nightmares, and sometimes the hideous creatures seem to follow her out of her dreams and into her waking life, though she’s the only one who can see them. Drugs and alcohol can blot them out, but never entirely chase them away.

When a demonic cult begins to take control of the people in her life, including her younger brother, Cassidy discovers that the unseen world of monsters is very real. She can no longer avoid it. To protect those she loves, she must accept her own hidden supernatural talents and face the forces of evil before the sinister cult achieves its twisted goals and casts the world into darkness.

Goodreads    Amazon    B&N

AUTHOR BIO 

The Unseen by J.L. Bryan has a special release price of 99 cents through Halloween. See his website for details and links.

J.L. Bryan studied English literature at the University of Georgia and at Oxford, with a focus on the English Renaissance and the Romantic period. He also studied screenwriting at UCLA. He enjoys remixing elements of paranormal, supernatural, fantasy, horror and science fiction into new kinds of stories.

He is the author of The Paranormals series (starting with Jenny Pox), The Songs of Magic series, Nomad, and other books. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Christina, his son John, and some dogs and cats.

Website    Twitter

Demon-Summoning Do’s and Don’ts

So you’ve cast a circle and you’re ready to bring an infernal spirit into your home for a visit. Or are you? Summoning demons takes care and consideration—it’s nothing to jam in between doing the dishes and catching the new episode of Walking Dead.

These simple tips will help you put together an exciting evocation, without all the messy embarrassment of getting your soul ripped from your flesh and devoured.

DO offer a blood sacrifice. Your guest has traveled across endless darkness from the lower pits of Hell and will be expecting a snack. Chicken or lizard blood will do nicely for a lesser spirit. For an archdemon, you’ll want to sacrifice a human being instead—anything less is considered rude. Virgins are still preferred, but no longer expected by more modern demons. Finally, an activity you can do with that annoying neighbor you’ve always wanted to eliminate from the earth!

DON’T call up the wrong kind of demon. Incubi and succubi will arrive with certain expectations, because these unholy hornballs only have one thing on their evil minds at all times. If you’re not ready for a swingers’ sabbat, avoid them. If you do summon them, you’re going to need a little more protection that the typical enchanted circle provides—the beasties get around. Also avoid gluttony demons, because these corpulent creatures not only look like disgusting mountains of flab with enormous mouths, they’ll also destroy your snack bar and leave an unpleasant flatulent odor that takes weeks to remove from your carpet.

DO be polite. Powerful demons resent being summoned by mere mortals, but minding your manners can go a long way towards creating a more pleasant evening. When you say, “I bind thee and summon thee, foul Mephistopheles!” and the enraged horned demon appears in a flash of fire and brimstone, don’t forget to add, “Thank you!”

DON’T expect them to bring wine or a hot dish. Again, they’ve come a long way and can’t be expected to carry host gifts up from the abyss. Also, demon food tends to be rotten and vermin-infested, so how badly did you really want that casserole, anyway?

DO remember to take pictures! Remember, the only reason to do anything extraordinary in life is so you can brag to your friends on Facebook. A picture of you and Beelzebub with his host of flesh-eating flies will totally shut up that one friend who’s always bragging about the time she met Colin Farrell on an airplane.

DON’T forget to banish! If you don’t send that demon right back to Hell when you’re done, it may move onto your couch and stay there for months. Demons don’t pay rent, they don’t do chores, and they never, ever give up control of the remote. They will, however, watch home shopping channels twenty-four hours a day and max out your credit card to ordering useless knickknacks. They won’t take subtle hints to go home, either, no matter how many you drop—you have to order them out. Exercise your right to excorsize!

Following this list is sure to make your demonic encounter a more successful one! When you summon horrific spirits from the fiery underworld into your living room, you don’t want it to ruin the rest of your weekend.

GIVEAWAY (US/CAN)

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GIVEAWAY (INT)

• one entry per person/household
• winner must respond to my email within 48h or I'll pick someone else
• I check all the entries, cheaters will be disqualified and their entries deleted
• you must be at least 13 years old  
• the tour host is responsible for making sure you get your copy

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Blog Tour: Review & giveaway for Catch by Michelle D. Argyle

Hi there and welcome to my stop on the tour for Michelle D. Argyle's novella Catch! Below you can find out more about the book & author, as well as my review and an international giveaway.


THE BOOK

Release date: September 20, 2014
Publisher: MDA books
Format: ebook, 20,000 words/90 pages

Goodreads description:
When eighteen-year-old Miranda chases a purse snatcher on the Las Vegas Strip, the last thing she expects is for the pursuit to turn into an extended game of hide-and-seek. All Miranda wants are the old black and white photographs buried at the bottom of her purse. They’re the only things she has left of the grandmother she never knew. But how much is she willing to put on the line to save them? And is it possible she’s falling in love with a thief?

Goodreads    Amazon

THE AUTHOR

Michelle D. Argyle lives and writes in Utah, surrounded by the Rocky Mountains. She adores cheese, chocolate, sushi, and lots of ethnic food, and loves to read and write books in the time she grabs between her sword-wielding husband and energetic daughter. She believes a simple life is the best life. Michelle writes contemporary Young Adult and New Adult fiction (and other genres when she feels like it).

Website    Twitter    Facebook

The following review is based on a copy provided to me by the tour organizer in exchange for my honest opinion.


REVIEW
I loved Michelle Davidson Argyle’s The Breakaway and Pieces (click for my reviews), so when the opportunity to be part of the tour for this novella arose, I had to be on it! Catch didn’t deliver the kind of emotional punch that the former two books did for me, but that’s okay because this is a different type of story and I still very much enjoyed it.

Miranda’s dad has to go to Las Vegas on business, and because Miranda will be going to college once summer is over, her family decided to turn it into their last vacation together. Miranda loves her family but is unsatisfied with the predictability of her life and disillusioned with guys after having made a couple of negative experiences. When her mother sends her and her sister on a hunt to rediscover their dead grandmother’s life via a bunch of old photographs, her purse is snatched from her by a young guy in a suit.

Almost to her own surprise, Miranda goes after him but eventually has to give up. Her phone, her mother’s camera, her wallet… lost. Most of all though, Miranda wants the pictures back because they cannot be replaced. When her sister suggests in jest that she should just call her own phone, she never expected the thief to pick up, nor the crazy bunch of days to follow after that initial conversation.

Miranda is a very likeable character that I think a lot of girls who are in that gap between high school and college, family and a life on their own, will be able to identify with. She’s lived a fairly sheltered life with parents who love her and left her a lot of freedom, but she’s also been burned by relationships in the past and does not trust easily. I really enjoyed the focus the novella put on family constellations, memories, reconstructing the past, but also looking towards the future and building your own life by making independent decisions.

As for Ollie, the thief, he remains a mystery for quite a big part of the book, and that’s part of the reason Miranda is fascinated by him. Why does a seemingly well-to-do guy steal purses? Why is he sending her on a ‘treasure hunt’ around the city to get her stuff back? Who is he, and how does he tick? I can’t say too much here because of spoilers, but I really enjoyed seeing the two of them get closer to each other and I loved the setting and the conversation when they really got to know one another. The moment was somehow suspended in time, both artificial and natural, and I found myself highlighting a lot of passages because I liked them so much.

There’s a twist towards the end that I wasn’t expecting, but it definitely added to the story and heightened the tension. The ending itself could have been cheesy, but wasn’t because it still manages to remain realistic and somewhat open (not in the sense of being left hanging).

Despite being rather short (20,000 words), quite a lot of themes are packed into Catch. What stood out for me was the wavering between opposites: safety vs. risk, family vs. independence, past vs. future, fear vs. desire. The way these subjects were treated went beyond the superficial and made me think about my own situation.

"In all reality, she wanted safety. Staying in one place could guarantee that. But she also craved excitement and adventure and had always dreamed of breaking out of her shell. To her, safety and excitement were akin to oil and water. Was it possible to have both?"
(Loc. 716 / 75% through the ebook)

If you’re looking for a short contemporary treat to devour in one sitting, Catch should be up your alley, especially if you enjoy stories that fall into the overlap between YA and NA. The main characters are well-developed despite the shortness of the story, and the pacing kept me engaged throughout. All in all, a great story and a good way to check out the author’s writing if you’ve been thinking about reading one of her novels (which you should).

GIVEAWAY

Enter below for your chance to win! Also, don't forget to check out the other stops on the tour with interviews and excerpts (links below). Thanks to Shane from Itching For Books for organizing everything :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

October 28th -

the enigma of herself *Review & Dream Cast (blogger's choice)
Book Savvy *Review

October 29th -

Beth's Blog *Review
The Book Town *Review & Favorite Quotes

October 30th -

My Tangled Skeins Book Reviews *Guest Post
Crossroad readers *Review & Excerpt (blogger's choice)
deal sharing aunt *Blurb

October 31st -

Book Freak *Review & Excerpt (blogger's choice)
Two-tall-tales *Interview
Stephanie Parent Reader and Writer *Review
Some Like It Paranormal *Review & Excerpt (blogger's choice)

November 1st -

kimberlyfaye reads *Review
Pete de violet *Review
Shelfspace Needed *Review & Excerpt (blogger's choice)
Random-ish *Interview

Waiting on Wednesday: Insanity, by Susan Vaught

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine to spotlight upcoming book releases that we're excited about.


This week's pick

Release date: February 18, 2014
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Format: Hardcover, 300 pages

Goodreads description:
Never, Kentucky is not your average scenic small town. It is a crossways, a place where the dead and the living can find no peace. Not that Forest, an 18-year-old foster kid who works the graveyard shift at Lincoln Hospital, knew this when she applied for the job. Lincoln is a huge state mental institution, a good place for Forest to make some money to pay for college. But along with hundreds of very unstable patients, it also has underground tunnels, bell towers that ring unexpectedly, and a closet that holds more than just donated clothing....When the dead husband of one of Forest's patients makes an appearance late one night, seemingly accompanied by an agent of the Devil, Forest loses all sense of reality and all sense of time. Terrified, she knows she has a part to play, and when she does so, she finds a heritage that she never expected.

With her deep knowledge of mental illness and mental institutions, Susan Vaught brings readers a fascinating and completely creepy new book intertwining the stories of three young people who find themselves haunted beyond imagining in the depths of Lincoln Hospital.

I love how creepy this one sounds! It's perfect for the season ;) The cover image is haunting, and I love stories set in old hospitals or asylums. The Devil's agent makes it even more intriguing. February is suddenly very far off...

Top Ten Tuesday: scariest looking book covers

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week they post a new topic that the participants come up with a top ten list for.



Hey guys! This week's topic is supposed to be about scary book covers, but to be honest I don't know if any of my picks are downright scary. I think it's closer to creepy or ominous. But whatever, I really like them! They're in no particular order.



Girl of Nightmares, by Kendare Blake
While the cover for the first book is also scary, this one is even more so. Anna is reaching out... to Cas? The reader? To be pulled out of hell? To pull you in? And do you see those fiery demons at the bottom reaching for her leg?

Lost Souls, by Poppy Z. Brite
Now this is definitely not YA. But if you want some early 90s feeling with vampires who are bloody monsters, some voodoo, and intriguing characters and writing, you should go for it! It's very explicit though.



Asylum, by Madeleine Roux
I haven't read it (yet) but it looks and sounds awesomely creepy! The picture looks like an old, worn-off photographs (there are photos in the book) or a tapestry that has been peeled off to reveal another layer. It reminds me a bit of the photographs that Francesca Woodman did inspired by Gilman's Yellow Wallpaper.

In the Shadow of Blackbirds, by Cat Winters
Creepy, ghostly, ghastly, amazing. It's a wonderful story, but there were moments when I seriously felt a bit paranoid and very alone.



Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, by April Genevieve Tucholke
The cliffs, the waves, the pines, the figures. I really like it. It's dark and romantic, but there's a definite sense of impending danger. It suits the story very well.

Blackbirds, by Chuck Wendig
Again, definitely not YA! Lots of cussing, violence, sex. Which is perfectly okay for a horror novel. This cover isn't just awesome graphically - look at it more closely (make it bigger) and you can spot tons of tiny details in there that are from the story. Yes, a lighthouse, motel signs, hands... the more you look, the more you see.



Pretty When She Dies, by Rhiannon Frater
I admit I haven't read it yet, but I own it. What makes it creepy to me is mostly the colors, enhanced by the teeth and smeared lipstick/blood. It's simple but effective because it makes it clear that this is a vampire novel but that the focus won't just be on some sappy romance.

The Drowned Forest, by Kristopher Reisz
This one isn't out yet but the cover and description (girl jumps into pond and never resurfaces... but something else does) make me anticipate goosebumps!



Fiendish & The Replacement, by Brenna Yovanoff
She is blessed by the cover fairy, isn't she? These too aren't openly scary but definitely ominous and haunting. I loved The Replacement (never mind that it tore my heart out) and I hope Fiendish will be among my favorites as well once I've read it :)


This is it! I think there are most definitely scarier covers out there, but I like it if they're still somewhat aesthetic and I wanted it to be mostly books I've actually read. What do you think? And please link me to your post! I want to find some new scary books :)

Stacking the Shelves: Faking Awakenings at the Hotel Dumort

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews to showcase all the books we got in the past week. Those can be bought, won, gifted, for review, borrowed, print or ebooks... no matter, just share what you got :)


This week was ebooks only for me, which is good because I have too many print books as it is...

Bought

The Rise of the Hotel Dumort, by Cassandra Clare & Maureen Johnson
The Truth about Faking, by Leigh T. Moore
The Selection, by Kiera Cass

The Selection is a book I've been looking at and debating whether or not to buy for about two years, so when the ebook was on sale I decided that's a sign. As for the Hotel Dumort, I really enjoy the Bane Chronicles books and I think they're getting better with each installment! Number 3 and 4 were my faves so far (Herondales, duh), let's see how I like the 5th one.

Freebie

The Awakening, by Christy Dorrity

This one was free on amazon on Friday, if you're lucky it still is.

That's it from me. I haven't had much time to read this week, and I think that's only going to get worse in the next few months. I have a lot of work in front of me with my master thesis (which I'm planning to write in half of the usually alotted time) and finsihing up my courses. But the master thesis means I'll get to read fantastic literature/sci-fi of the 1880s/90s as well as steampunk of the 1980s and today, because I'm doing kind of a comparison. So maybe you'll get reviews of books you don't usually see around, and that could be interesting ;)

What do you think of my haul? Have you read any of them? Also, link me up to your latest haul :)

Discussion: 'clean' books?

So... I hope I'm not stepping on too many toes here. But Kelly from Effortlessly Reading recently made a post about cussing on your blog (even words like 'damn' or 'hell') and that got me thinking about YA and what kind of content is acceptable, not just on blogs but in the books themselves.

Sometimes I see books advertised as 'clean' fiction or clean YA, or blogs as clean or family friendly. And somehow that rubs me the wrong way. I suppose 'clean' here refers mostly to issues related to sex, language, or drug abuse and the like. I don't know what exactly it includes because I was never all that interested.
On the one hand, I get it. There are quite a lot of bloggers who are mums and don't want their kids to stumble across a certain type of content in books or on the internet, so to them 'clean' signals 'safe', I suppose. While I understand the sentiment of wanting to 'protect' your children, I can't help associating the label 'clean' with 'fake'.

It makes me think of stories featuring teens or people in general that just don't seem real. People cuss. People drink. People have sex, also some (though by far not all) teens. It's simply a fact of life. People cuss when they get angry. People do stupid things. There are teens in terrible, abusive situations (alcoholic/abusive parents or boyfriends, peer pressure, groups that aren't good for them) and the idea that their stories, their voices and lives, are somehow unclean and shameful makes me really angry. It's like they are not worthy of being heard or understood. It's people looking away because something is ugly and incongruent with the way they want to look at the world.

I think these books especially are really important! The world isn't white picket fences and happy families. There are teens in horrible and abusive types of situations, and they should have the possibility of finding people like themselves in books and maybe gaining hope by reading about these characters' struggles and feeling like they're not alone. I'm thinking of books like Pushing the Limits or Eleanor and Park as well as a lot of Ellen Hopkins' or Laurie Halse Anderson's work.

I'm not saying there should be loads of drug use and explicit sex scenes in YA, but sometimes the author's agenda is just so obvious when there are lengthy/preachy contrived discussions between teens in the books about how it's better to wait or how some girls are so slutty (because it's okay when guys do the same thing, right? *eyeroll*). Sometimes there are also religious overtones, and that's just something that I personally have a problem with. I don't mind reading about a character who is a believer, but please don't try to moralize me or convert me or otherwise shove your beliefs down my throat.

I also don't think that by trying to keep your kids away from 'unclean' books, you are protecting them. The idea that kids don't come into contact with these issues in real life and at school is an illusion. And if they really are that sheltered, I think it would be important to at least have read about those things in novels. One day, these kids will enter the real world woefully unprepared.

I could go on a bit longer about this subject and open a bunch of new cans of worms, but I think I'll leave it at this.
What do you think about the topic of 'clean' books? Have you read any that were advertised this way? What was your experience? Am I being unjust or prejudiced? Am I misunderstanding the agenda? I'd really love to get some opinions here!

Waiting on Wednesday: Fiendish, by Brenna Yovanoff

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine to spotlight upcoming book releases that we're excited about.

I actually wanted to highlight it last week, but suddenly there was no more time so there was no post. I'm really really excited for it though!

This week's pick:

Release date: June 26, 2014
Publisher: Razorbill
Format: Hardover, 352 pages

Goodreads description:
Clementine DeVore spent ten years trapped in a cellar, pinned down by willow roots, silenced and forgotten.

Now she’s out and determined to uncover who put her in that cellar and why.

When Clementine was a child, dangerous and inexplicable things started happening in New South Bend. The townsfolk blamed the fiendish people out in the Willows and burned their homes to the ground. But magic kept Clementine alive, walled up in the cellar for ten years, until a boy named Fisher sets her free. Back in the world, Clementine sets out to discover what happened all those years ago. But the truth gets muddled in her dangerous attraction to Fisher, the politics of New South Bend, and the Hollow, a fickle and terrifying place that seems increasingly temperamental ever since Clementine reemerged.

I loved loved loved Brenna Yovanoff's The Replacement and I'm determined to read all her novels! This one here sounds perfect for me. I love haunted house movies and all things creepy, and I know how well Yovanoff can create this small-town atmosphere where everyone is sort of in the know but no one talks about it. Also, that cover *stares*
What do you think of my pick? Have your read any of the author's other books? And what did you choose to highlight today?