Xpresso Weekly: Stacking the Shelves (33)

Xpresso Weekly is my edition of Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews featuring the books I got this week, and I also mention blog news/happenings of the past week.

This week at Xpresso Reads

How is everyone this week? I hope you're all getting ready for the holidays! Can't believe it's Christmas in 2 weeks! But you know what? A Kindle would be an awesome gift and you can win one! Yay! If you're Canadian you get 2 chances! Canadian Kindle giveaway here. International Kindle Fire giveaway here! And in case you missed it, I also posted a giveaway for Beyond: A Ghost Story!

Reviews on the blog this week:

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XPRESSO BOOK TOURS - OPEN FOR SIGN UP

-Cover Reveal: Disconnect by Imran Siddiq
-Book Blitz: Snow White Sorrow by Cameron Jace
-Cover Reveal: Sworn to Raise by Terah Edun
-Cover Reveal: Timespell by Diana Paz

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New by Xpresso Design (click to view live)

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Stacking the Shelves

I received for review (Click on cover for Goodreads):

-Timeless by Michelle Madow
-Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo (review here)

Love signed pretties! Thanks, Michelle!

 *Big hugs and thanks to Macmillan, Nikki Jefford, Michelle Madow, and Random House Canada for these pretties!*

I was gifted:
A very BIG thank you to the wonderful Henrietta from Leisure Reads for these two pretties! I have deduced that she is Santa! Yep! So obviously being Santa makes her fabulous and you should all go and follow her! :) Thanks, muffin!
 

Peace out, lovelies!!
Link me up to your book haul post! :) 

Fresh Batch (December 9th - 15th)

Exclusively titled for Xpresso Reads, Fresh Batch features the hottest releases of this upcoming week.

Flavor of the week:

All the Broken Pieces
Cindi Madsen
Publication date: December 11th 2012
by Entangled Teen

 

What if your life wasn’t your own?

Liv comes out of a coma with no memory of her past and two distinct, warring voices inside her head. Nothing, not even her reflection, seems familiar. As she stumbles through her junior year, the voices get louder, insisting she please the popular group while simultaneously despising them. But when Liv starts hanging around with Spencer, whose own mysterious past also has him on the fringe, life feels complete for the first time in, well, as long as she can remember.

Liv knows the details of the car accident that put her in the coma, but as the voices invade her dreams, and her dreams start feeling like memories, she and Spencer seek out answers. Yet the deeper they dig, the less things make sense. Can Liv rebuild the pieces of her broken past, when it means questioning not just who she is, but what she is?

Excerpt

Olivia reached up, feeling the tender spots on her head. Her fingers brushed across a row of—were those little ridges made of metal?
“Careful. The staples are almost ready to come out, but it’s still going to be sore for a while.”
Staples?!Her stomach rolled. I have staples in my head? She lowered her now-shaking hand. “Can I get a mirror?”
Mom looked at Dad, then back at her. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Not until you’ve healed a little more.”
Mom patted Olivia’s leg. “You just relax. We’ll be back in a few minutes.”
The two of them left the room, but when Mom swung the door closed, it didn’t latch. Olivia could hear their voices in the hall.
“I still think we should…” She couldn’t make out the rest of Dad’s muffled words. “…know if I can do this.”
“…late for that,” Mom said. “We’d lose everything, including…” Her voice faded as they got farther away. “…have to move.”
Olivia could tell the conversation was tense, but the words were impossible to decipher now. Holding a hand in front of her face, she turned it back and forth. A plastic tube ran from her arm to a machine next to her bed. She peeked into her nightgown and stared in horror at the long red stripe running down her chest.
Sick.
You’re alive. You shouldn’t be thinking about looks.

Lowering her hand, she scanned the room. I wonder how my face looks. From the way Dad stared at me, plus the fact Mom won’t let me see a mirror, it must be bad.
Brains are more important than looks.
That’s what ugly people say.
Olivia put her hands on her head and squeezed. “Stop it,” she whispered to her arguing thoughts, hysteria bubbling up and squeezing the air from her lungs. What was happening to her? Why didn’t she recognize her parents or know where she was? Who she was? Tears ran warm trails down her cheeks. “Just make it all stop.”

Cindi's Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

Cindi Madsen sits at her computer every chance she gets, plotting revising, and falling in love with her characters. Sometimes it makes her a crazy person. Without it, she’d be even crazier. She has way too many shoes, but can always find a reason to buy a new pretty pair, especially if they’re sparkly, colorful, or super tall. She loves music, dancing, and wishes summer lasted all year long. She lives in Colorado (where summer is most definitely NOT all year long) with her husband and three children.

Review: Love and Other Perishable Items

Love and Other Perishable Items
Laura Buzo
Publication date: December 11th 2012
by Knopf Books for Young Readers

 

Love is awkward, Amelia should know.

From the moment she sets eyes on Chris, she is a goner. Lost. Sunk. Head over heels infatuated with him. It's problematic, since Chris, 21, is a sophisticated university student, while Amelia, is 15.

Amelia isn't stupid. She knows it's not gonna happen. So she plays it cool around Chris—at least, as cool as she can. Working checkout together at the local supermarket, they strike up a friendship: swapping life stories, bantering about everything from classic books to B movies, and cataloging the many injustices of growing up. As time goes on, Amelia's crush doesn't seem so one-sided anymore. But if Chris likes her back, what then? Can two people in such different places in life really be together?

Through a year of befuddling firsts—first love, first job, first party, and first hangover—debut author Laura Buzo shows how the things that break your heart can still crack you up.

*A copy was provided by Random House of Canada for review purposes*

Previously released in Australia under the name Good Oil, Love and Other Perishable Items is one of those reads that are one hundred percent refreshing. You sit, you read, you enjoy the time you spend with it, and then you move on. Nothing profound happens, nothing even that exciting happens. Actually, nothing really happens at all other than an average year in an average teenage girl's life. This is what initially sent me into indecision about how to rate this book after I turned the last page. I liked it, I really did. It's short, it has fantastic characters, but it is really a story about nothing.

Some may say life is about nothing, and perhaps this is the angle Laura is going for. This story is undoubtedly realistic. We don't always get the things we want, or end up with a happy ending--or a bad one. Sometimes, life is just life. On one hand, I read books to escape from mundane life happenings, I want sparks and excitement, a book that brings surprises and guilty pleasures, but on the other hand, I appreciate the authenticity of this book, the "true to life" factor. At any rate, I was surprisingly wrapped up in Amelia's story. Her being such a memorable character turned this uneventful tale into something kind of wonderful. Who knew the dynamics of a supermarket crew could become so tangled?

Amelia is a girl with a crush. A crush that makes your heart flutter along with hers. But unfortunately, their age difference is a big obstacle in their path which makes it a viciously bittersweet love story. It makes you savor every moment. Amelia's naive young mind is endearing throughout this story. Her best quality, though, is her intelligence; she's smart and cultured, she cares deeply about things way beyond her years, like feminism. This trait creates some witty and fascinating dialogue that even supplies food for thought. These interactions were my favourite parts of this novel. What is also a pleasure is how, at first, we see everything through Amelia's eyes, but then, we rewind and go through it all again in Chris's perspective. You'd think this would get monotonous, but it doesn't. Seeing how Chris perceives things differently, or getting to understand his rationalizations, gives it this extra flair to help you connect with these people and their situation even more.

This novel may as well be called "A Year in the Life of An Average Teenage Girl With a Crush, When Nothing Happens", however I couldn't help but find it inexplicably charming. Can a book be both uneventful and addicting? This book is a warm sunny day where you don't have to do more than sit and relish in it.

4 Hot Espressos

Review: Swell by Julie Rieman Duck

Swell
Julie Rieman Duck
Publication date: September 1st 2012

 

When Christian Rusch plucks Beck Ionesco from the freshman ranks for himself, she’s tempted with parties, popularity, and love. But as the free-flowing booze that soaks his world seeps into her own, Beck begins using liquid courage as a way to ignore Christian’s dark moods… and cover her anxiety about his flirtatious friend Hillman.

However, when Christian breaks up with Beck, and Hillman makes a dangerous move, no amount of alcohol can stop the pain or keep her out of trouble. And just when it seems like she’s lost everything, Beck is partnered with Jesse Leary for an art project. After spending time with him, Beck realizes it’s more than a study date… and Christian’s not happy about it. Then again, Beck’s not sure she’s happy with him, either.

But only after plowing through a bottle of wine, a wild fight, and one guardrail that becomes Christian’s last call, does Beck admit to her problem and ask for help from the one whose life secretly parallels her own.

*A copy was provided by BB Book Promotions for review purposes* 

I enjoy contemporaries for many reasons, one of them being the emotional output that you get from them, another is the rawness of their subjects. Swell, both emotional and raw, is a truly great read about teen alcoholism. The topic itself is gritty and unforgiving, and the characters that we meet make us not only sympathize, but understand how something like this happens. And it happens, unfortunately, much more than we might realize.

Don't think this to be a slow spiral into alcoholism, though. The book begins with Beck being introduced to this new liquid courage, and the story takes place during the heart of her addiction. While some may find it a quick downfall into alcoholism, having seen it happen to friends in high school, I know just how quick this habit can become more than. At first it begins with wanting to fit in, or conform to your peers' ways of life, then you start having a drink even when you're alone, which, soon enough, leads to panic and desperation when you run out. The novel also spans quite a few days and weeks in mere chapters which makes it seem like no time has passed, when, in reality, finally finding something that makes you socially accepted, made me understand why the addiction came on strong. Who would want to go back to the way it was?

The blame for this addiction lies mostly on Christian. Christian is good looking and popular, he's interested in Beck--a freshman--, but he's also interested in his drink. Being influenced by a cute guy is no uncommon phenomenon. What's funny in this case is that, even though I recognized his bad influence from the start, and I should have wanted him to piss off, I still liked him. It's kind of like the author gets her reader influenced alongside her protagonist. I got Beck; I knew why she loved the idea of Chris, and the social privileges that came with, but drinking aside, I never saw Christian as an enigma. He was a jerk at times, sure, but I always felt he had his reasons--his own darkness that influenced him as well.

When it comes between Christian and Jesse, however, there is no contest. A genuinely good and pure hearted soul, Jesse is a breath of fresh air in this novel. A respite from the otherwise agitated tone of the book. Although it is, technically, a love triangle, I wouldn't even classify it as a "triangle". In this case, I understood her attraction to both guys. I even saw it more as a confused teenager than any type of triangle. We all experienced teenage hormones, and most know what it is like to be attracted to more than one person. This is not a improbable concept, especially from an emotionally perturbed teenage girl who's going through way more than anyone should.

Swell is not sugar coated, it's not pretty or fluffy, it's a surprisingly profound read dealing with strong emotional events. Because of which I would recommend this for more mature readers. Sex, drugs, and, of course, alcohol, all make grand appearances. If this is the type of raw contemporary you enjoy, I would hand it to you enthusiastically! 

4 Hot Espressos

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Giveaway: Beyond: A Ghost Story (Intl)

Beyond: A Ghost Story
Graham McNamee
Publication date: January 3rd 2013
by Hodder Children's Books

 

What if your own shadow turned against you?

Jane is not your typical teen. She and her best friend Lexi call themselves the Creep Sisters.

Only Lexi knows why Jane is different from anyone else: Her own shadow seems to pull her into near-fatal accidents. Jane is determined to find out why these terrifying things happen, and to overcome her shadow enemy.

But her sleuthing with Lexi connects her own horrors to the secret history of a serial killer...

The wonderful people at Hachette UK has generously offered up one finished copy of this creeptastic novel to one lucky winner! The giveaway is open internationally, but the book will be the UK release.