Top Ten Tuesday: books on my spring TBR list

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.

Hello there, to those that still follow. This time around, I will not say that I'm back because I did that in January and things didn't turn out that way. I've been in a bit of a funk, but I'm not ready to give up on blogging yet. So hopefully now that spring has arrived and the flowers are starting to bloom (at least where I live), my urge to post new content and engage with other readers and bloggers will return as well.

It's been a long while since I've done a TTT post and I don't have a clear idea of what books are coming out in the next few months, but my Spring TBR was a list that I felt I could post anyway, even if it's not only filled with upcoming releases ;)

The books are in no particular order.



Crimson Bound, by Rosamund Hodge
I really enjoyed Cruel Beauty, Hodge's debut. Rachelle sounds like an equally fierce heroine and I hope I'll enjoy this fairytale rewriting as much as the last one!

The Novice, by Taran Matharu
Demon summoning. Magic battle. A badass cover. Alliances and betrayals. I have high hopes for this one and was lucky enough to get an ARC, so I'll probably be reading it some time next month :)



The Winner's Curse, by Marie Rutkoski
I loved Rutkoski's writing style in The Shadow Society (my review is here) and I've wanted to buy this book for so long. I finally caved a few weeks ago and will definitely read it this spring, especially with the sequel having just released :)

Between the Spark and the Burn, by April Genevieve Tucholke
I really enjoyed Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea and I've had this book on my shelf since late summer. I've been putting it off because I need to re-read Deep Blue Sea first (or at least skim over the second half) and I've been more focused on reading books I hadn't read before. I'm tackling sequels and the moment though, so I will get to it! Also, I just realized that there won't be a third book, which means I can binge-read the whole story :D



Ensnared, by A.G. Howard
I got this conclusion to the Splintered trilogy a week or two ago but haven't gotten to it yet. I admit I'm sad (and a little scared) to see this series end. Also, I think my preferred 'ship' (Alyssa + Morpheus) is not going to make it... and let's face it, that always hurts to read, no?

Unbound, by Victoria Schwab
I read A Darker Shade of Magic and it reminded me of how much I love her writing style! I think I need to re-read The Archived first though because it's been a while...



Stormdancer, by Jay Kristoff
Because it's about time and I have it on my kindle.

The Night Itself, by Zoë Marriott
Same reason as above (on my shelf since summer 2013). Also, I think the trilogy is complete by now or at least the second books is out and the third upcoming later this year.



Storm Glass, by Maria V. Snyder
I'm on a roll with her books. They are sooo good! I admit that I'm anxious to return to Yelena and Valek but I'm interested in Opal's story too and it's all in the same fictional universe.

The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner
Because this series seems to have become a classic of sorts and sometimes, I am in need of some high fantasy with thieves taken from prisons to fulfill a particular task and have adventures. Also, Sarah Rees Brennan recommended it.


Do we have any spring reads in common? Or have you read them earlier and can recommend them? Also, please link me up to your own TTT posts, I'd like to discover some new books :)

Waiting on Wednesday: Heart of Stone (Gods & Monsters #4), by Kelly Keaton

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 17, 2015
Publisher: self-pubbed
Format: ebook

Goodreads description
A CHILD FATED TO START A WAR. A LOVE SHE’LL RISK EVERYTHING TO PROTECT.

Set in New 2, a dangerous and lush alternate New Orleans, the fourth book in Keaton’s Gods & Monsters series, finds the God-killer Ari and Mistborn Sebastian on the hunt for Archer, infant son of Athena, a child fated to bring about the Blood Wars, the ultimate showdown between the gods and the monsters they created, a war that will trap mankind in the middle of a destructive conflict thousands of years in the making.

As Ari and Sebastian attempt to rescue the child, forces pull them apart, sending Sebastian on a perilous journey to the desert sands of Egypt and into the lair of a dark, enthralling entity, and Ari to the Halls of Olympus and, darker still, the very heart of the Underworld where Death awaits with a bargain that brings Ari’s worst nightmares into sharp and heart wrenching focus…

Last week, I re-read book 2 in the series and finally read the third one, too. I read each one in a day and remembered how much I love this series! I'm so glad the third book was even published (Harper had at first only bought the first 2) and I'm excited to see Ari and Sebastian and Violet's story continue, now in self-pubbed form. If you haven't checked this series out yet and you love Greek mythology, you really should give it a try!

Stacking the Shelves: Find Me Forever After Rising

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 :)

I haven't done an StS post since the end of October, so obviously I'd have quite a few new books to show off. However, I can't really remember what I bought when and I don't feel like linking up so many books ^^'' So I'll only show you some of my most recent ones.

The Forever Song, by Julie Kagawa

Red Rising, by Pierce Brown

Isla and the Happily Ever After, by Stephanie Perkins

Find Me, by Romily Bernard

Blood of My Blood, by Barry Lyga

The Forever Song has been out for, well, forever, but the release totally went past me because I was in MA thesis mode. And then I didn't know which edition to buy because my version of Immortal Rules was discontinued anyway. in the end I settled for the UK edition because I was at Waterstone's in London and that's what they had.

I also got Red Rising and Isla there, I'd wanted both for forever. And the Red Rising paperback was usually 27 bucks in Switzerland. 27 bucks for an effing paperback. Nuh-uh. The English had a much more reasonable price.

I had Find Me and Blood of My Blood in my mailbox this morning, which was a nice surprise because I thought they'd arrive on Monday and now I have an excuse to hole up in my apartment tomorrow while it snows outside ^^ I love the new cover for Find Me. The old one was more thriller-ish but if you look at the details, the new one has those relations to hacking etc. too.

And I just know that Blood of My Blood is going to be a total mindfuck. Game ended in such a terrible place but somehow I feel like things are going even more downhill for Jasper from there. That series is truly chilling. That's why I like it so much.

I did way too much blabla here for an StS post but whatever. At least I posted something, right? I'll try to write either a review or a discussion post tomorrow and have it up for Monday. Now that I'm connected to the internet again, I have this desire to blog and talk about stuff.

So yes. I haven't read any of those in my haul yet, so if you have, tell me what I need to pick up first :) Also, link me up to your own haul! I want to see some book-pretty and I'm way out of the loop as to what's coming out.

Top Ten Tuesday: Characters I wish would get their own book

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 is such a cool idea for a post! There are so many interesting side characters I'd like to know more about!

As always, my top ten are in no particular order.


Abby from Katie McGarry's Crash Into You
She's tough, I like her, and she definitely has a story to tell. I actually thought the fourth book in the series would be hers but so far it doesn't seem to be happening.


Gavriel from Holly Black's The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
I'd love to know more about his past before he met Tana! We do get some of his backstory but I'd like to hear it from his own point of view.


Sturmhond from the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo
One of my favorite characters there! I'd love to hear more about his days as a pirate or when he served in the army. Or really just a glimpse into his mind.


Durzo Blint from the Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks
He is such a prominent character but a big enigma for a large part of the series. I'd like him to get his own novel. Or a prequel trilogy. I know there's a novella that looks into his life, but it's short and I haven't read it yet.


Noah from the Mara Dyer Trilogy by Michelle Hodkin
He's such a great character! I think I could listen to what goes on in his head for hours. And well, it's implied that his life before he met Mara was already eventful. So there'd be no shortness of story to tell.

 
Walter C. Dornez from the Hellsing manga series by Hirano Kouta
That guy is so badass. I always loved his fighting scenes! I really wish the author would continue the Hellsing: The Dawn series about Walter and Alucard's adventures when he was younger, during WWII. So much sass.


Fear from Kelsey Sutton's Some Quiet Place
He was great. I know he features prominently in the novel but I'd like to know what it all looks like from where he's standing.


Morpheus from A.G. Howard's Splintered series
He's one of my favorite characters. You never know what he's playing at. His head would be a... madly interesting place.


Ivy from the Hollows series by Rachel Harrison
I'm sort of cheating here because I think the graphic novel adaption of the series (which I haven't read) is from Ivy's perspective. She's awesome. And I've read a short story from her POV but I'd like to see more. Maybe also of her past with Kisten and growing up under the eyes of Piscary.


Zero from the Vampire Knight manga series by Matsuri Hino
I admit it. I was a Kaname person for quite a while, but at some point I did a 180. And when I re-watched the anime and re-read part of the manga... oh Zero, my heart aches for you. Such a great character, so much undeserved pain. Seems to be a thing with side characters.


Despite thinking the topic is awesome, this was actually harder than I thought it would be. So many great characters have already gotten their own book / spin off series / novella! (Adrian from Vampire Academy, Space and Mencheres from the Night Huntress series, Mae from The Demon's Lexicon, Tod from the Soul Screamers series, Warner from Shatter Me...) Or else it's the mystery that makes them so interesting and so I am hesitant about wanting to read about it all.
What do you think of my picks, and how did you fare with your own?

Book Trailer Reveal: Hellhole, by Gina Damico

Hey guys :)

Today I've got something special for you, namely the book trailer for Gina Damico's upcoming novel Hellhole. I love her Croak trilogy - it's about reapers, but these books are also among the funniest things I've ever read! So much quirky, sarcastic humor. Plus, I love the book trailer for Croak (it's what first brought the series to my attention), so  I jumped at the chance to help reveal the trailer for Gina's newest book, which will be out in January.


But before we get to the video, here's some more info on the book and author

Release date: January 6, 2015
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Format: Hardcover / ebook, 368 pages

Description
Geeky, squeaky-clean Max Kilgore only has one dirty habit: digging for fossils. One day, to his horror, his shovel strikes not upon a dinosaur bone, but a pit to hell—and out of it comes a devil. Specifically, the kind of devil who eats a lot of junk food, watches a lot of reality television, plays a lot of video games, and refuses to leave Max’s basement. But evil is still evil, no matter what form it takes. And Max has to find a way to comply with the demands of the big red menace, lest he lay waste to everyone and everything Max cares about.

With the help of Lore, a former goth girl who knows a thing or two about the dark side, Max goes in search of a new abode for his unwanted guest. Finding a place where he can reside in luciferian luxury isn’t easy, but Max has strong motivation: his mother, whose terminal illness the devil promises to cure if Max gives him what he wants. Lore has her doubts about making a deal with the devil, but Max will stop at nothing to save his mom. And pretty soon, he’s doing things the good kid he once was would never dream of doing. Clearly, hanging around with a devil is a bad influence. But how can Max get rid of the guy without incurring the wrath of hell?

Amazon    Barnes&Noble    IndieBound

ABOUT GINA DAMICO
I grew up under four feet of snow in Syracuse, New York. I received a degree in theater and sociology from Boston College, and I have since worked as a tour guide, transcriptionist, theater house manager, scenic artist, movie extra, office troll, retail monkey, yarn hawker and breadmonger. I am the author of the grim-reapers-gone-wild books of the Croak trilogy (Croak, Scorch, and Rogue), published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and the upcoming Hellhole (January 2015). I live in Western Massachusetts with my husband, two cats, one dog, and while I have never visited hell in person, I have spent countless waking hours at the Albany Regional Bus Terminal, which is pretty darn close.

Website    Facebook    Twitter    Tumblr

Alright, and now without further ado...

Waiting on Wednesday: A Cold Legacy, by Megan Shepherd

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: January 27, 2015
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Format: Hardcover, 400 pages

Goodreads description
After killing the men who tried to steal her father’s research, Juliet—along with Montgomery, Lucy, Balthazar, and a deathly ill Edward—has escaped to a remote estate on the Scottish moors. Owned by the enigmatic Elizabeth von Stein, the mansion is full of mysteries and unexplained oddities: dead bodies in the basement, secret passages, and fortune-tellers who seem to know Juliet’s secrets. Though it appears to be a safe haven, Juliet fears new dangers may be present within the manor’s own walls.

Then Juliet uncovers the truth about the manor’s long history of scientific experimentation—and her own intended role in it—forcing her to determine where the line falls between right and wrong, life and death, magic and science, and promises and secrets. And she must decide if she’ll follow her father’s dark footsteps or her mother’s tragic ones, or whether she’ll make her own.

With inspiration from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this breathless conclusion to the Madman’s Daughter trilogy is about the things we’ll sacrifice to save those we love—even our own humanity.


I was really reluctant to start this series for some reason, but when I did it blew me away. I love how Shepherd combines The Island of Doctor Moreau, Jekyll & Hyde as well as other classics in a tale that is set in the 1890s but still so, so relevant in today's world! I can't wait to see what she does with Frankenstein and read more about Juliet, Edward, and Montgomery.

Stacking the Shelves: devils and stormdancers are wicked within and lie with every breath

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 :)


I didn't do an StS last week because there wasn't much new to show off, so this is my haul of the past 2 weeks.

For review from NetGalley

 Every Breath, by Ellie Marney

I finished this one this morning and it's one of my favorite contemporaries of the year! I loved it so much, I had to order myself a pretty hardcover immediately. Review to come next week.

Bought in print

Heaven's Net is Wide, by Lian Hearn

Last Blood, by Kristen Painter

The Wicked Within, by Kelly Keaton

I read Lian Hearn's other books in this series as a teen, but this one was (I think) never published in German and thus never made it on my shelf. It's a prequel to the rest of the series and I'm looking forward to immersing myself in that world again!
The Wicked Within is another one I'm really looking forward to, especially because it almost didn't happen (the publisher had only bought the first two books and for a while it looked like we'd never get to see the story end).


Bought as ebooks



Die For Me, by Amy Plum
Lie For Me: Griff's Story, by Romily Bernard
Stormdancer, by jay Kristoff
Broken Symmetry, by Dan Rix
The Devil's Reprise, by Karina Halle
Red at Night, by Katie McGarry
Yeah, I went a bit crazy with the one-click option. But I've wanted to read Die For Me and Stormdancer for years, and both were finally on sale even from my location, so I had to have them. Broken Symmetry entranced me with that cover as well as the description: it's a sci-fi thriller about a girl who can step through mirrors into a parallel world, and it was free when I got it. I'm also really looking forward to the Katie McGarry novella! I haven't read anything by her in about a year.

As for what else is going on this week: I posted my review of The Fall by Bethany Griffin yesterday, and my giveaway for the Spooktacular Hop is still running, in case you haven't entered yet :)

What do you think of my haul? Have you read any of them? And what did you get in the past week? Link me up! :)

Review: The Fall, by Bethany Griffin

Release date: October 7, 2014
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Format: Hardcover, 400 pages

Goodreads description
Madeline Usher is doomed.

She has spent her life fighting fate, and she thought she was succeeding. Until she woke up in a coffin.

Ushers die young. Ushers are cursed. Ushers can never leave their house, a house that haunts and is haunted, a house that almost seems to have a mind of its own. Madeline’s life—revealed through short bursts of memory—has hinged around her desperate plan to escape, to save herself and her brother. Her only chance lies in destroying the house.

In the end, can Madeline keep her own sanity and bring the house down? The Fall is a literary psychological thriller, reimagining Edgar Allan Poe’s classic The Fall of the House of Usher. 

Amazon    Barnes&Noble    The Book Depository

The following review is based on an eARC provided to me by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for my honest opinion.


Review
I loved Bethany Griffin’s Poe-inspired duology Masque of the Red Death and Dance of the Red Death, so I was very excited to read The Fall, a standalone re-imagining of The Fall of the House of Usher. I ended up loving this book, but it took me a couple of chapters to get used to the structure.

The story is narrated by Madeline Usher between ages 9 to 18 and alternates between chapters during these nine years inbetween. As a reader, you see how different she is between these two points in her life and slowly begin to fill in the gaps as the story moves along and you piece together what happened. At times, these jumps between the two points in the narrative threw me because I left fifteen-year-old Madeline at a cliffhanger to then spend two chapters with nine-year-old Madeline, but on the whole it was a genius move on Griffin’s part and made it hard to put the book down.

Madeline is cursed, as is her mother and indeed most of her family line hundreds of years back. Her family never leaves the land the house is built on and they drift through it like ghosts, all lost in their own world. From early on, Madeline has felt the house like a presence. She knew what the house wanted or didn’t want. She explored it. She wanted to please it. But she was also afraid of and imprisoned by it.

The presence of the House in this book is total and eerie. It permeates and haunts everything, everyone, every relationship between the characters. And it drives a wedge between Madeline and Roderick, her twin brother. He can’t hear the house. He, unlike Madeline, is afraid of everything. And he’s the one who gets to leave and go to school in the outside world, while Madeline has never even been to the nearest town.

After the death of their parents, Madeline is all alone in the house with the doctors the family had hired years ago to tend to their many ailments and maybe find a cure to the curse. Nobody takes care of her. Roderick’s visits are few and far-between. Madeline has no one. So when a young doctor comes to the house as an apprentice and shows her attention even though his motives are questionable, what will she do?

I was horrified by the way Madeline had to live. Isolated, mostly uneducated (letters begin to move around the page before her eyes), left to her own devices. Especially after her parents’ deaths, I found her situation precarious and vulnerable. But as the tale develops, she begins to show incredible strength and initiative. She refuses to back down and succumb to the curse that has haunted the rest of her family.

There were many situations in this book that made me very uncomfortable, often not with what was said and shown but with gaps and silences, with space between scenes. The unspoken is at least as if not more important than what is actually on the page, something I already admired in Griffin’s earlier novels. The Fall was all about voices, about hauntings, about layer upon layer of secrets. Its unusual pacing develops a momentum that kept me completely wrapped up in the dark hallways of the Usher mansion.

While knowing the original Usher short story by Poe enhanced my reading experience of The Fall, it is no problem to read Bethany Griffin’s novel without any previous knowledge of the original story. Personally though, I loved how she picked up on and twisted several elements both from the content of the story as well as its narration. The tarn, the coffin, the fissure running through the house, Roderick’s friend, the overload of sensation experience by the cursed – it was all there, but had been given a new meaning. The Madeline in the short story is a mute figure, while Griffin’s Madeline finds her voice, her strength, her will to escape and live no matter what.

The Fall is an eerie read perfect for the season. Its atmosphere of doubt and dread builds up and shifts slowly until I, too, felt caught in the endless corridors of the house. As is typical of the Gothic tradition, the reader can never be sure whether what is happening is natural or supernatural, illness or curse, real or just the fantasies of an unreliable narrator. Even though I knew the Poe story, I could never tell which way the plot would turn.

With a complex cast of characters and a narrative that spans almost a decade, The Fall is a story of madness, hope, and twisted desires that will continue to haunt readers even long after they have reached the last page and closed the book.

Spooktacular Giveaway Hop! (INT)

Heys guys, it's October which means the leaves are turning red and gold and you wake up for your jobs and school in pre-dawn darkness (at least where I live). It also means Halloween is near! Unfortunately, we don't celebrate it here but that doesn't stop me from getting into the spirit and feeling like reading and watching creepy stuff (I'm looking at you, American Horror Story)
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This is my third year participating in this hop and I hope it'll be fun this time around, too! The rules are simple and explained under 'Terms & Conditions' in the Rafflecopter. In short: the giveaway is open internationally wherever Book Depository ships, cheaters will be disqualified and all their entries deleted.
Since this is a themed hop, I've got some suggestions for you below (click to cover to get to goodreads). You can always choose another book in the same series (no preorders). If none of these appeal to you, you can pick one between 10-15$ (as seen from my location) as long as it's somehow creepy and/or Halloween related.




Note: the cover shown here may differ from the one of the edition I will eventually order for you if you win.

Okay, now fill out the Rafflecopter and have fun hopping around the other blogs! Go out and enjoy the spooky season, or curl up with a creepy book and a cup of whatever makes you happy :)


a Rafflecopter giveaway