In My Mailbox #49

In My Mailbox was created by Kristi at The Story Siren, inspired by Alea at Pop Culture Junkie.

ARC Tours:
Incarnate (Newsoul, #1) by Jodi Meadows (Thanks to Lyndsey @ Strangemore!)
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (Thanks to Flannery @ The Readventurer!)

ARCs Won:
The Beginners by Rebecca Wolff (Thanks to Riverhead/Penguin & GoodReads!)
Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins (Thanks to The Nerd's Wife!)

The Scorpio Races not pictured.

I've been quite busy with tours lately. Huge thanks goes out to my book group for putting Incarnate & The Scorpio Races on tour! I'm reading Incarnate right now, and although I haven't gotten far, so far so good. I like the writing and Ana & Sam. I've heard The Scorpio Races is good, so I hope I enjoy it too.

I won The Beginners from GoodReads. I liked the cover, and when I read the summary I thought it would be a YA/adult type book. Then a few weeks passed & I read a review, and yeah...I was wrong. Doesn't sound like my cup of tea; I'm honestly not sure when I'll get around to it.

Finally, I won an ARC of Lola and the Boy Next Door. Super excited when I found out I won! :D I've already read it, and omg... I loved it even more than Anna and the French Kiss, which I loved a whole lot! It was so good and just perfect. I cannot wait for Isla and the Happily Ever After. (I'm crossing my fingers for cameos from Anna/St. Clair and Lola/Cricket in that one!) Big thanks to Arena @ The Nerd's Wife for hosting the giveaway!

Well, that's it for this week. Time for me to get back to Incarnate. Have a great week! :)

Review: Girl Saves Boy by Steph Bowe

Title: Girl Saves Boy
Author: Steph Bowe
Pages: 288
Publisher: Text Publishing
Release Date: August 30, 2010

The first time we met, Jewel Valentine saved my life.

Isn’t it enough having your very own terminal disease, without your mother dying? Or your father dating your Art teacher?

No wonder Sacha Thomas ends up in the lake that Saturday evening…

But the real question is: how does he end up in love with Jewel Valentine?

With the help of quirky teenage prodigies Little Al and True Grisham, Sacha and Jewel have a crazy adventure, with a little lobster emancipation along the way.

But Sacha’s running out of time, and Jewel has secrets of her own.

Girl Saves Boy is a hugely talented debut novel, funny and sad, silly and wise. It’s a story of life, death, love… and garden gnomes.

My Thoughts: Girl Saves Boy was a quick read told in alternating point of views between Jewel Valentine, a loner girl whose family fell apart after the death of her brother 10 years ago, and Sacha Thomas, a boy who survived childhood cancer and lost his mother only about a year ago. They first meet at the lake where Jewel saves Sacha after he tries to drown himself. After that chance encounter, they start to fall in love.

Throughout the book, it seemed both Jewel and Sacha were unsure about their futures. One doesn't like to think too far ahead, and the other really doesn't have one to look forward to. It sounds like it would be a depressing read, huh? There are definitely sad parts throughout, but for the most part, there was actually a lot of humorous moments. Quirky is the perfect word to describe it. I never quite knew what to expect from the characters and the story next.

I almost gave this book 4 stars, but I didn't for a couple reasons. The romance between Jewel and Sacha was sweet, but it was rushed. I would have liked more development between them and more from the rest of the characters. I also didn't get enough out of the ending. I almost thought pages were missing from the copy I read. When books just end like that I feel sad. I know I'm suppose to use my imagination, but I needed a bit more closure.

Overall, I thought Girl Saves Boy was good for a debut novel. I've liked the writing in all the Aussies novels I've read so far, and this book was no exception. (I've also noticed Aussie books are tiny and cute in size. And usually less than 300 pages. Why is that? I need more!) I hope to see more novels by this author in the future.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Thanks to Arlene for letting me borrow her copy! :)

Review: Winter's Shadow by M.J. Hearle

Title: Winter's Shadow
Author: M.J. Hearle
Pages: 424 (ARC copy)
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Release Date: June 1, 2011

Blake Duchamp...

He's all that Winter Adams can think of. Ever since their fateful meeting at Pilgrim's Lament. Ever since he looked at her with those emerald eyes. Ever since he saved her life.

But Blake isn't all that he seems. There is a strangeness about him, something dark and otherworldly. Something dangerous. In his attic is a secret he would kill to defend, but Winter seems to have a special ability to make him forget his duty. And he is her only protection against the gathering darkness.

The only problem is, to protect Winter, Blake must risk exposing her to an even greater danger. Himself.

My Thoughts: While taking photos inside an old, abandoned church for the school newspaper, Winter Adams is saved by a man she's never seen before in her small town after the church's roof collapses. His name is Blake Duchamp, and he's beautiful with mesmerizing green eyes. After their encounter, Winter can't stop thinking about him. She knows there is something different and dangerous about him, but she can't stay away and neither can Blake, no matter how hard he tries. As their connection grows, Blake tries to protect Winter from others who want them dead...and from the danger lurking inside himself.

I love to read young-adult books from Australia, and since I haven't read much paranormal from there, I was very excited to read Winter's Shadow. What I liked about this book was that the writing really set the mood of the story. The atmosphere is dark and creepy and mysterious. I thought it was a good setting for a paranormal novel. I found the supernatural aspect to be pretty original. It's definitely not the usual vampires, werewolves, or angels. It was something I don't believe I've ever come across in other YA paranormals. I felt like I learned enough about it to be satisfied, but not too much so that I would continue to stay curious.

While it did have it's own unique moments, I felt Winter's Shadow mostly had what is usually seen in YA paranormal romances. If I had read this about a year ago or even months ago, I probably wouldn't have minded as much. However, I'm getting to a point where I'm starting to want something more than the typical storylines and characters with instant romances that include some kind of paranormal twist. I want all of it to be unexpected, instead of just moments in the last half of the book. And if it's going to have some of the usual, then I want to feel that it stands out among the rest by the time I get to the very end. As I mentioned, it did have it's moments, but overall, this was a case where I felt it wasn't too different from other YA paranormals I have read.

I think Winter's Shadow will appeal to YA paranormal fans who aren't necessarily looking for a story that diverges from the usual characteristics found in paranormal books. The book ends in a way that should leave readers wanting more. Thankfully it seems the author is currently working on a sequel, and after what happened, I'm hoping that the sequel will be a bit different. Because if it is, I look forward to reading it.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Thanks to Nic @ Irresistible Reads for sending this out! :)

Review: Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Title: Graffiti Moon
Author: Cath Crowley
Pages: 244
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Release Date: August 1, 2010

"Let me make it in time. Let me meet Shadow. The guy who paints in the dark. Paints birds trapped on brick walls and people lost in ghost forests. Paints guys with grass growing from their hearts and girls with buzzing lawn mowers."

It’s the end of Year 12. Lucy’s looking for Shadow, the graffiti artist everyone talks about.

His work is all over the city, but he is nowhere.

Ed, the last guy she wants to see at the moment, says he knows where to find him. He takes Lucy on an all-night search to places where Shadow’s thoughts about heartbreak and escape echo around the city walls.

But the one thing Lucy can’t see is the one thing that’s right before her eyes.

My Thoughts:

"...we watch the dirty silk of the factory smoke float across the sky."

I loved that there was a lot of graffiti and mentions of glassblowing in Graffiti Moon. Photographs of urban decay featuring old, abandoned buildings and factories are my favorite form of art to look at, but graffiti is a close second. Whenever I see graffiti sprayed on the wall of a building or painted on the side of a boxcar moving along the railroad tracks, I always wonder, 'Who made that? When did they do it? Why did they do it? And where are they now?' It just blows my mind, and it's one of the reasons why I loved this book.

Lucy wonders about the graffiti made by the artist who calls himself Shadow. She finds Shadow's work to be extremely inspiring, and she is determined to figure out his identity so that she can meet him in person. She wants to tell him everything she feels whenever she sees his work...and what she feels for him because of it. But she's been searching for Shadow for awhile now and it seems she misses him by mere minutes every single time. Then one night, Lucy and her friends meet a few guys from school who claim to know Shadow. One of the guys is Ed, someone she has a history with and doesn't want to be around. But she's willing to endure Ed's company for the night if hanging out with him means finally meeting Shadow.

Aussie cover

I have read one other book by Cath Crowley (A Little Wanting Song, which I loved!), and she has already made my favorite authors list. I absolutely love her writing. Her characters are extremely likable and funny, and they have such great relationships. I could easily relate to Lucy, and she was spunky and just completely awesome. Ed... I adored him. I want my own Ed. Lucy seems to have gotten the wrong impression of him because I think he's actually the kind of guy you want to be around. In the book, Ed takes Lucy on an adventure through the city to see more of Shadow's graffiti. I thought the atmosphere and the setting were perfect. It made me want to be there with them, hanging out and exploring the city at night in search of amazing graffiti.

Like I mentioned, I always have questions whenever I see graffiti, and I felt Lucy and I shared the same curiosity. Who is this mysterious guy who fills her with so much inspiration? And where is he? Since Graffiti Moon is told in alternating point of views between Lucy and Ed, Shadow's real identity is quite obvious to the readers. However, I didn't feel it lessened the mystery or allure of Shadow, especially since Lucy truly has no idea. I always wonder if someone will live up to my expectations when I meet them, and for Lucy it's even more crucial because she's falling for Shadow. I was holding my breath for the moment when Lucy finally figures out who he is. Will he be like the Shadow she's imagined? Or will she end up being disappointed? I think moments like that are pretty priceless.

I cannot wait to read more novels by Cath Crowley because this was another book that I didn't want to end. I highly recommend Graffiti Moon to YA contemporary and Aussie fans. If you can't get a hold of this book and you desperately want to read it, don't worry. It will be published in the US on February 14, 2012 from Knopf Books for Young Readers. The cover is amazing, by the way. Be sure to check it out!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Thanks to Go Aussie Book Tours! :)
The factory picture is by PET.

Mini-Reviews #1

I was inspired by Nic @ Irresistible Reads to do this Mini Reviews post. :) The following mini-reviews are for ARCs I've read. I didn't write full reviews for these for different reasons, but I hope I managed to get my feelings across in each of these mini-reviews.

Dreamland Social Club by Tara Altebrando / Released: May 12
When I started this book, I was really intrigued and I liked the strangeness of the characters. But as I continued reading, I felt like the main character wasn't making much progress in learning more about her mother (convenient how her own father doesn't seem to know anything, huh?). I'm sure by the end she would have learned just about everything, but I think it's taking too long, especially since I started finding the story less and less interesting. It took me two weeks to get halfway with this book, and it's been months since I picked it back up. I really wanted to like this book, but I don't see myself continuing it at the moment. Rating: None / DNF

Stay with Me by Paul Griffin / Release: Sept. 8

A fast-paced novel told in alternating POVs between fifteen-year-olds Mack and Céce over the course of one hundred and two days. Reading through this book was a struggle for me at first. I could not connect with the characters. Didn't feel much of anything for them. The relationship between Céce and Mack.... It seemed like I blinked and they were already all over each other, saying how much they were in love. I felt like I missed something. Eventually I just let it go, and after that I was able to appreciate the story more. By the end, I was a bit more connected with the characters. I think the ending was fitting, but I felt sad about the whole situation. Because stories like this happen all the time. Life isn't always fair, and people end up making terrible mistakes. All you can do is move on and have hope that things will get better. I wish these characters all the best. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin / Release: Sept. 27
Huh... That was... I don't even know... What?? I liked Mara Dyer. But sometimes the choices she made (or tried to make) and her reasoning behind them frustrated me. A lot. I also liked Noah. However, in the beginning, he was hard to figure out, and there were a few things about him I didn't like. But, he ended up being...not that bad, actually. It's just...yeah. I know I'm not making much sense. I just felt the need to type a little something because I'm still trying to figure out what I just read. What's real and what's not real. Very original and unique story. Overall, I liked it and can't wait to read the sequel. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

In My Mailbox #48

In My Mailbox was created by Kristi at The Story Siren, inspired by Alea at Pop Culture Junkie.

For Review:
Blood Rights (House of Comarré, #1) by Kristen Painter (Good Choice Reading ARC Tours)
Waterfall (River of Time, #1) by Lisa Tawn Bergren (Books With Bite Book Tours)
Vanish (Firelight, #2) by Sophie Jordan (NetGalley)

Won:
Glow (Sky Chasers, #1) ARC by Amy Kathleen Ryan
The Probability of Miracles ARC by Wendy Wunder
Dreaming Anastasia (Dreaming Anastasia, #1) by Joy Preble
Thanks to St. Martin's Press, GoodReads, LibraryThing's ER, Penguin, Joy Preble, and I Read Banned Books!

Glow not pictured. Yes, that's
Naruto beside the books.

Some lovely covers this week! :) So... The only book I've managed to finish from this pile is Blood Rights and my review for that one can be found here. I'm currently reading Waterfall and haven't gotten far enough to form an opinion yet, but I'll read more later today and hopefully have a review up in a week or two.

I'm pretty excited to read Vanish and The Probability of Miracles. I really hope I enjoy them both because I kind of already have some expectations. :P I love the cover of TPoM! It's one of my favorites in this IMM (the other one I really love is Blood Rights's cover). Not sure what I'm going to think of Dreaming Anastasia and Glow, but I'm glad I have copies to read. And like with every book I read, I hope they're good! :)

That's it for this week. Time to start reading! :D

Review: Blood Rights by Kristen Painter

Title: Blood Rights (House of Comarré, #1)
Author: Kristen Painter
Pages: 392 (ARC copy)
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: September 27, 2011

Born into a life of secrets and service, Chrysabelle’s body bears the telltale marks of a comarré—a special race of humans bred to feed vampire nobility. When her patron is murdered, she becomes the prime suspect, which sends her running into the mortal world…and into the arms of Malkolm, an outcast vampire cursed to kill every being from whom he drinks.

Now Chrysabelle and Malkolm must work together to stop a plot to merge the mortal and supernatural worlds. If they fail, a chaos unlike anything anyone has ever seen will threaten to reign.

My Thoughts: The world of this series is set in the not so distant future. There seems to have been a major war, at least in the Americas, and there are advances in technology, but minus the vampires and other supernatural beings, it doesn't feel too different from the world we live in today. That was something I liked because it was easy to imagine and I tend to like stories set in the future more so than the past. So, in Blood Rights, it is the year 2067, and the covenant that protects humans from the supernatural world is close to being destroyed. However, before that can be fulfilled, the ring of sorrows must be found.

As a comarré, Chrysabelle's life in Romania has revolved around protecting her vampire patron Lord Algernon and offering him her blood. Allowing her patron to drink her blood helps them both gain strength and power and prevents Chrysabelle's blood from building up and poisoning her body. Chrysabelle dreams of escaping of her comarré duties, but it seems unlikely that her patron will ever give her the freedom she desires. That all changes when Algernon is found murdered. Although Chrysabelle is finally free, she is accused by noble vampires of murdering Algernon. She is forced to go on the run, seeking refugee with her comarré aunt in New Florida. It is there that she encounters a dangerous anathema vampire named Malkolm, who may be able to help her prove her innocence, and finds out that the ring her patron gave her before he died may be the real reason she is being hunted.

Blood Rights is told from the perspective of various characters, the main ones being Chrysabelle, Malkolm (or Mal), and the power-hungry noble vampire Tatiana. Chrysabelle would have to be my favorite out of all the characters. She's disciplined and serious. I really liked that she could hold her own in a fight, and it was a bit amusing how she tried adjusting to a world that didn't fit with the comarré lifestyle she was used to. The relationship she has with the castaway noble vampire Mal is an interesting one. Mal's cursed with a beast inside him and voices in his head that constantly demand he kill Chrysabelle, and it takes a lot of self-control from him to ignore the urge. Because of this Chrysabelle and Mal have a hard time trusting each other and are always clashing in the beginning, but once they get to know one another, the walls between them begin to slowly crumble and they come to care for each other just a bit. Both are actually very caring of the people they love and consider their allies and would do anything to protect them. There isn't quite a romantic relationship between them in this book, but it's obvious they are attracted to one another. I have a feeling their relationship will continue to develop, and I can't wait to read more about them and find out where their relationship goes.

While I liked Chrysabelle and Mal, I can't say I particularly liked Tatiana. Tatiana is a vampire who wants one thing only: power. It seems she's been scheming for awhile now to replace Lord Algernon as Elder, and she desperately wants to become Dominus, the ruler of her noble vampire family. She didn't have the greatest life as a human and suffered some tragedies, but I felt that wasn't enough to explain why she became cruel and power-hungry. Maybe she's just easily influenced. Or maybe there is still plenty more to learn about her. Whatever the reason I found it very hard empathizing with her throughout the book and understanding her purpose in siding with evil. To me she just came off as selfish and even a bit delusional, and I didn't think she was even close to being the scariest or evilest character in the book. I'm curious to know what happens to her; however, I hope she acquires some redeeming qualities because at the moment I don't believe I can bring myself to feel sorry for her.

Ever since I saw the amazing covers for this series, I knew I wanted to read Blood Rights. I'm glad I had the opportunity to read it early, and the great thing is that the next two books will be released within only two months after Blood Rights's official release in September. So, the wait isn't long at all. Overall I thought it was a pretty solid first book for the House of Comarré series, and I look forward to finding out what happens next with Chrysabelle and Mal.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Thanks to Good Choice Reading ARC Tours for providing the ARC!

In My Mailbox #47

In My Mailbox was created by Kristi at The Story Siren, inspired by Alea at Pop Culture Junkie.

ARC Tours:
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Half-Blood (Covenant, #1) by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Winter's Shadow by M.J. Hearle

Library / Won / Bought:
Last Sacrifice (Vampire Academy, #6) by Richelle Mead
Legend (Legend, #1) ARC by Marie Lu [my review]
The Gorgon in the Gully by Melina Marchetta [my review]

Half-Blood & Winter's Shadow
not pictured.

Okay, so I'm pretty busy with ARC tours. @_@ I've realized that tour books usually like to arrive all at once. I think there needs to be more hours in the day... Thankfully this weekend is July 4th weekend. Hopefully I can get a lot more reading done. I am looking forward to finishing all 3 of those books, and they all sound good, so I'm hoping all of them do end up being good. (Don't they have pretty covers? Love 'em.)

Now, I have read the last 3 books listed! Phew! Bloodlines really motivated me to read Last Sacrifice. VA had a good ending, and now I just want book 2 in the Bloodlines series even more! (Adrian!!!) I loved Legend and The Gorgon in the Gully. My reviews for both those books are already up (I linked them up there in the list). Really cannot wait for the next Legend book, and I'm happy I got a Melina Marchetta fix that should last me until Froi of the Exiles! (And if anyone's wondering, I bought Gorgon in the Gully at FishpondWorld.com, which sells Aussie books and has free worldwide shipping.)

That's about all I have to say. I need to start reading now. Have a nice week! :)