In My Mailbox (10/12/11) and Review Sum Up

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren, 

in which you post all of the books/e-books/audio books that you have recieved/bought/won this week and link 'em all up!

I got two university offers! University of East Anglia and York University have offered me conditional offers, which is amazing! So excited. My kindle broke on Monday, but Amazon sorted it out and I had a new one within two days of me contacting them and today I got a few awesome books this week, so it's looking amazing!

Swapped:

Anxious Hearts by Tucker Shaw

For Review:

  

Advent by James Treadwell: Hodder and Stoughton, February 2nd (Print ARC)

Haven't heard much about this, but it sounds like something new and unique, I look forward to reading and reviewing it!

Fracture by Megan Miranda: Bloomsbury, January 5th (Print final)

I have been dying to read this, so cannot wait! It's my next read on my pile!

Stolen Away by Alyxandra Harvey: Bloomsbury, January 5th (Print final)

I LOVE Alyxandra Harvey, so I can't wait to see how she writes faerie!

  

Katana by Cole Gibsen: Flux, March 8th (eArc, NetGalley)

This sounds amazing, original and witty!

Ripper by Amy Carol Reeves: Flux, April 8th (eArc, NetGalley)

haven't heard much about this, but historical paranormal is one of my fave genres and I don't have enough of it!

  

Happy Birthday to You (Birthday Trilogy #3) by Brain Rowe (Ebook from Author)

I loved book one and I'm about quarter through book two and loving it so far, so I'm so glad that I have the chance to review book three!

Surfacing by Shana Norris (Ebook from Author)

Spooky and mysterious! I can't wait to read it!

Conquest by Vick Rubenfeld (Ebook from author)

I love books about bands and fame and music, so this looks awesome.

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Sum Up of Reviews:

Last Week

Happy Birthday to Me by Brain Rowe

Addison Blakely, Confessions of a PK by Betsy St. Amant

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Next Week

Far From The War by Jeffrey David Payne

Tempest by Julie Cross

Heist Society by Ally Carter

Feyland by Anthea Sharp

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Review: Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Since she’d been on the outside, she’d survived an Aether storm, she’d had a knife held to her throat, and she’d seen men murdered. This was worse.

Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland—known as The Death Shop—are slim. If the cannibals don’t get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She’s been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He’s wild—a savage—and her only hope of staying alive.

A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile—everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria’s help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.

Dystopian has done it again, if The Hunger Games and the Uglies series hadn't made dystopian my favorite genre years ago than the likes of Shatter Me, Divergent and now Under the Never Sky have definitely convinced me this year. Whatever you're doing Harper Collins, keep doing it, you seem to be bringing out an awful lot of fantastic dystopians this year. Keep this trend going next year, please.

What I loved about Under the Never Sky was that it seemed to be going into the usual dystopian storyline when Aria is exiled from the world she knows so well to the outside, known as the death shop, where tribes live primitively. She is rescued by Perry, who comes from one of these tribes. It seemed very typical but it shocked me by being utterly original. Rather than throw us into an action adventure from start to finish Rossi subtly introduces us into her dystopic world. Aria and Perry meet a lot of threats on their journey but rather than being non-stop action these things are spread about.

The romance was so well written and I could actually see the chemistry developing between Aria and Perry rather than it just being instant love and I enjoyed reading their romance, though the 'differentpowers' thing seemed like an obstacle that Rossi had thrown in because she needed one. I didn't connect with the characters until late in the book though, when Aria got a backbone and Perry started being a decent person, so that was a tiny bit of a put off.

I wish there'd been more world builing because I'd like to know what happened in 'The Unity' and how the Aether came about, as well as that I struggled with understanding the powers that the tribes had, so I'd like to see more of that. 

Overall, Under the Never sky was an exciting, fantastically written read that I could read over and over again. Not my favorite dystopian of the year, put pretty great nonetheless.

Overall Rating: B+


Book released 3rd January by HarperCollins.
Received my from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Other Books by this Author:

Through the Ever Night (#2)

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

I love fairy tale retellings and Cinderella retellings are the most popular ones, so it was nice to see something original. I mean Cinderella as a cyborg mechanic? The concept is amazing and for the most part Meyer pulls it off. The start was very slow for me and I actually almost gave up, but a few chapters in the pacing picks up, I really enjoyed the storyline and how it developed, there were concepts from Cinderella, the prince, the ball, the stepmother and the stepsisters. No godmother though, Cinder doesn't need a fairy godmother, Cinder is her own women.

I loved the world that Meyer has created, with Cyborgs, Lunars and Androids, it's like the best sci-fi concepts in one book, I wish there'd been more of a back story because I didn't really understand the difference between Cyborgs  and Humans apart from the fact that they had metal prosthetic limbs, in a way. I also wish I knew how the Lunars had developed, what made them so different. As well as that, the story is set in New Beijing but apart from the name suffixes, nothing really had that eastern vibe that I would have liked.

Cinder was such an awesome character, independent and strong but still unsure about where she belonged in the world which added the independance. Kai was handsome and sweet but made some big mistakes so I'm unsure about him because of the ending. The other characters were well written though some were developed more than others.

Overall, Cinder was a romantic and well written take on Cinderella. The story was so original that it didn't even feel like I was reading a retelling. The pacing wasn't as fantastic as I'd wished.

Overall Rating: B+

Released 3rd January 2012 through Feiwel and Friends, B
Book received as an eGally through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Other books from this author:
Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles #2)

Review: Addison Blakely; Confessions of a PK by Betsy St. Amant

Sixteen-year-old Addison Blakely has tireless played the role of PK—preacher’s kid—her entire life. But after Wes Keegan revs his motorcycle into town and into her heart, Addison begins to wonder how much of her faith is her own and how much has been handed to her. She isn’t so sure she wants to be the good girl anymore. Join Addison Blakely as she attempts to separate love from lust, facts from faith, and keep her head above water in her murky, fishbowl existence.

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I have a special place in my heart for PKs, preacher's kids. My boyfriend is one (well a Reverand's kid) though he himself isn't religious so he doesn't have to worry about the same things that Addison does in this book. As well as that, I have loved Footloose since I was a kid so the whole PK meets bad boy thing, whilst not very original, holds a place in my heart.


I can't say that I absolutely loved this book and was totally gripped, but I never got bored, and the story was cute with some pretty deep moments, the writing was good to read and it flowed well. Addison as a character never got too annoying for me, though her attempts to turn Wes into a good guy annoyed me - she claims to 'love' this guy then wants to change him? I loved the inner struggles that Addison went through, it was both this love story, but also a coming of age story that showed Addison coming to terms with who she is and who she wants to be and finding some middle ground.


Wes was a typical bad guy with a heart of gold, but I still liked him. I can't say he was my favorite character of the book (that goes to Marta) but not my least favorite either (probably Luke), he didn't really have that much development but I was still cheering on him and Addison. Marta was an amazing best friend, and her blunt honesty with Addison was just what the book needed.


I'm not a religious person so some parts seemed pretty preachy to me, I also don't think I can fully understand the moral of the story, which seems to be Addison coming to terms with her religion but also being able to get what she wants. But I definitely relate to the idea of trying to live up to peoples expectations whilst struggling to be who you want to be.


Overall, this book was a cute and fun read, but I can't say I loved it. The writing was good, and some of the characters were well developed however some of the characters were just stereotypes. The moral was probably lost on me and my lack of religion may have affected my judgement, but I enjoyed the story and it killed some time.


Overall Rating: C+

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Book to be released January 1st by Barbour Publishing, book received for review through NetGalley. Thanks to the publisher for giving me a chance to read this early.

Review: Happy Birthday to Me by Brain Rowe

Seventeen-year-old Cameron Martin has a huge problem: he’s aging a whole year of his life with each passing day! 

High school is hard enough; imagine rapidly aging from seventeen to seventy in a matter of weeks, with no logical explanation, and with prom, graduation, and the state championship basketball game all on the horizon. That’s what happens to Cameron, a popular pretty boy who's never had to face a day looking anything but perfect.

All Cameron wants to do is go back to normal, but no one, not even the best doctors, can diagnose his condition. When he finds love with a mysterious young woman, however, he realizes his only hope for survival might be with the one person who started his condition in the first place..

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This book grabbed me from page one, because the beginning is actually a scene of the book pretty close to the end of it, so from the beginning we know how things are going to pan out and this bit at the beginning has us wondering all the way through what will happen at the very end. (I'm trying to be cryptic, is it working?), and Cameron's voice is so engaging that it didn't take me long at all to be interested in his story.


At times this book seemed pretty similar to Alex Flinn's Beastly, whilst both have their originality, they both use the concept of an attractive, cocky, popular boy being made less attractive somehow by the mysterious, unusual girl. Don't let that sway your opinion, this story is more engaging than Beastly and the characters were better to read.


I loved both Liesl and Cameron as characters but their whirlwind romance at the end comes as kind of instalove, and I can't help but see images of this pretty seventeen year old girl walking hand in hand down a school hall with an eighty year old man, which hindered my enjoyment of the romance. I also like Wesley, Cameron's best friend who was supportive of his condition, Aaron, who has a crush on the aging Cameron. I totally disliked Charisma, Cameron's ex-girlfriend, but personally I'm bound to dislike anyone with  name like that.


The book has a lot of humour, which I absolutely loved. Some of the scenes had me heaving with laughter, like the bedroom scene with his mum, or the library lady kidnapping him, but the book also had a pretty good moral.


Overall, Happy Birthday to Me was a fun and engaging read which, despite not being the most original book, makes up with it in humour and writing.


Overall Rating: B-

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Published April 7th 2011 independently, this book was given to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.

In My Mailbox (02/12/2011) and reviews for next week!

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren, 

in which you post all of the books/e-books/audio books that you have recieved/bought/won this week and link 'em all up!

I've been a bit lax on reviews and memes lately, maybe because I've been putting in my university applications and that's taken a lot of time up. I'm on a book buying ban for christmas so these posts are going to a be bit small for the next month.

Swapped/Bought

  

Swap: Torn by Cat Clarke (ARC) - January 5th

Bought (Kindle) - Remembrance by Michelle Madow

Review

    

In Darkness by Nick Lake - Bloomsbury 5th January

8 by Mike Mullin 

If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where's my Prince? by Melissa Kantor (NetGalley Disney-Hyperion)

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Reviews coming next week!

    

Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

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Oh. Wow. 
Sorry, can't formulate words right now.
This book was absolutely breathtaking, the story was amazing and the writing was absolutely beautiful, it was the type of book that had me gripped from page one to the last page which is rare because usually it takes me a chapter or so to immersed in the book.
So yeah, this book was pretty awesome.


What was the best part of this book? I'd have to say the writing, if I had to chose, but nothing about this book was bad. The writing style was so unique, there were lines crossed out and numbers as a motif which added something special to it. The narrating voice was beautiful and totally reflects Juliette's mindset, at the beginning the writing is very magical, the thoughts are scattered and full of metaphors which showed Juliette's loneliness in prison, the thoughts go from romantic to strong and I loved that the writing was so different.


The story was so different, it was like... a dystopian superhero book, but so much more. The world created was bleak, and Juliette's story is quite deep but it's unique to a lot of dystopians because of the superpower storyline. It was also nice to read a book which was the first in a series but it concluded well so even though I desperately want to read the sequel it didn't leave me on this annoying cliffhanger, which was fantastic.


Adam and Juliette, I loved. Juliette is broken but she's also strong, with equal sharings of the two, Adam was amazing, get me an Adam(please). I loved him from the start, I felt betrayed by him at times, but also trusted him. I liked that their romance was already developed, so whilst it comes on pretty quickly they also knew each other before the story so it felt believable.


Overall, this book goes beside Divergent as one of my favorite YA books of the year. Thank you, Tahereh Mafi, for writing this beautiful work of art.


Overall Rating: A+

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Book released November 15th 2011 by HarperCollins, I bought this book.