Waiting on Wednesday (30)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. 

My pick this week:

When We Wake

Karen Healey

Release date: March, 2013

by Little Brown Books

Add it to your Goodreads

My name is Tegan Oglietti, and on the last day of my first lifetime, I was so, so happy.

Sixteen-year-old Tegan is just like every other girl living in 2027 - she's happiest when playing the guitar, she's falling in love for the first time, and she's joining her friends to protest the wrongs of the world: environmental collapse, social discrimination, and political injustice.

But on what should have been the best day of Tegan's life, she dies - and wakes up a hundred years in the future, locked in a government facility with no idea what happened.

Tegan is the first government guinea pig to be cryonically frozen and successfully revived, which makes her an instant celebrity - even though all she wants to do is try to rebuild some semblance of a normal life. But the future isn't all she hoped it would be, and when appalling secrets come to light, Tegan must make a choice: Does she keep her head down and survive, or fight for a better future?

RIIIIGHT? First, the cover - I love! Imagine the possibilities for the hardcopy, it could definitely stand out. And second, this synopsis blows my mind! Imagine waking up in 100 years and having to take it all in - or imagine someone from 100 years ago waking up today! O_O Things change so much! This could really be great. Very excited to get my hands on this! And then... and then I looked at the release date... and then I cried.

What do you think, guys? What's your pick this week?

Link me up! :)

Pure Tour Stop - Excerpt

I'm quite certain you have heard about Jennifer Armentrout's covenant series, if not - we're changing that now! Today I'm happy to gave the Pure blog tour stop by to show you all a fun excerpt from this highly anticipated sequel to Half-Blood!

Pure
Jennifer L. Armentrout
Series: Covenant, #2
Release date: April 3rd, 2012
by Spencer Hill Press

Goodreads / Purchase 

There is need. And then there is Fate...

Being destined to become some kind of supernatural electrical outlet isn't exactly awesome--especially when Alexandria's "other half" is everywhere she goes. Seth's in her training room, outside her classes, and keeps showing up in her bedroom--so not cool. Their connection does have some benefits, like staving off her nightmares of the tragic showdown with her mother, but it has no effect on what Alex feels for the forbidden, pure-blooded Aiden. Or what he will do--and sacrifice--for her.

When daimons infiltrate the Covenants and attack students, the gods send furies--lesser gods determined to eradicate any threat to the Covenants and to the gods, and that includes the Apollyon... and Alex. And if that and hordes of aether-sucking monsters didn't blow bad enough, a mysterious threat seems willing to do anything to neutralize Seth, even if that means forcing Alex into servitude... or killing her.

When the gods are involved, some decisions can never, ever be undone.

The Covenant series so far:

---

Excerpt of Pure - The first 100 words

“I started at the ceiling of the gymnasium, little black splotches dancing in frong of me.  Man, my butt hurt.  No surprise, as I’d landed on it about fifty times already.  The only thing not buring with pain was my face; it was on fire for an entirely different reason.


“My Gutter Fighting class wasn’t going well.


“This style of hand-to-hand combat wasn’t exactly second nature.  My muscles screamed as I pulled myself off the mats and faced our Instructor.


“Running a hand through his thinning hair, Instructor Ramvi looked disgusted with the entire class.  ‘If he’d been a daimon…’”

---

Jennifer's Blog / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

Jennifer lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you've heard about her state aren't true. When she's not hard at work writing. she spends her time reading, working out, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russel Loki. Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories....which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance.

This post was a part of the Pure Blog Tour. Click on the banner for the tour schedule

Also, as part of the blog tour, you can go enter a couple of giveaways at the following blogs:

-StuckInBooks

-A Cupcake and a Latte

To gain an entry in either/both of the tour giveaways, leave a comment on this post telling us your thoughts/opinions on this series and then go to the blogs above with my post link to complete your entry.

Have you read this series? Let me know what you think!

Review + Giveaway: Grave Mercy

Grave Mercy
Robin LaFevers
Series: His Fair Assassin, #1
Release date: April 3rd, 2012
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Goodreads / Purchase

Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae's most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

*A copy was provided by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for review purposes*

Assassins. NUN assassins. Who is not immediately intrigued by this premise? I sure was. It started with a bang too. We are introduced to our feisty protagonist, Ismae; with a bitter childhood and a somber future, she is sent to a convent where she will train to do Death's bidding. With this great main character and exciting plot, I obviously enjoyed it, my problems lay with the historical/political stand-points where I found myself getting confused and disinterested.

I have enjoyed historicals in the past, but not being a historical nut, Grave Mercy really had me overwhelmed. I had difficulty keeping up with the characters and their roles in this immense political scandal set in a time I am unfamiliar with. I mean, I am not unintelligent, I could keep up with the main plot points but it affected my ability to truly understand these characters and, thus, develop a connection with them. I kept forgetting their roles in this conspiracy, which in turn, also affected my reactions to the twists ; the unraveling of the betrayers was not as affecting as I feel it should have been. It also didn't help that I couldn't easily go back to check the character index with my e-reader. I may have been able to follow more easily if it had been a print copy.

With that out of the way, I thoroughly enjoyed everything else. Ismae, the setting, the writing - it's all excellent and I can see why so many are absolutely in love with this title. Ismae is the type of girl everyone loves, and should also fear (if only they knew). She can kill a man in a second, she does as she pleases, and she's highly intelligent. Plus, her being constantly underestimated makes her even more dangerous. I had a blast going into this story with her. She also has a great sense of humor that had me chuckling quite a bit.

I found the writing especially wonderful. This is often a big part of why I sometimes can't get into historicals, but LaFevers gives it all a great flow with an easy to follow prose, vivid descriptions, and enchanting dialogue. I especially loved how she wrote the relationship between Ismae and Duval. It starts off as a mutual distrust, and slowly builds into sometimes heart-meltingly sweet.

Intrigue, conspiracies, scandals, betrayals - you can find it all inside these 549 pages. It does have an immense amount of historical intrigue so for those who are able to follow this will become positively entranced in this powerful, action packed novel. 

3 Hot Espressos

Cover Reveal: Astarte's Wrath & Fairy Blues

Astarte's Wrath

Trisha Wolfe

Series: Kythan Guardians #0.5

Release date: July, 2012

Add it to your Goodreads

A Kythan Guardians Novella

Two thousand years before Dez Harkly developed her secret powers, Kythan Astarte vowed to free the Kythans from the binds that enslaved them to the Egyptian pharaohs and sorcerers. Discover the prophecy that originated from a very different time, and spans generations to link two very different girls...This is the beginning.

Set against the backdrop of the Battle of Actium, in the city of Alexandria, Star struggles with her guardian duties as her feelings for the newly named pharaoh of Egypt grow deeper. Not only is Caesarian her duty, he’s the son of Cleopatra, and he’s…human. All of which makes their love forbidden.

But when a conspiracy linked to Caesar, Caesarian’s own father, creeps its ways into Alexandria, Star must choose between helping her fellow Kythans free themselves of their servitude, or protecting her charge—the last pharaoh—while Egypt burns around her.

---

Excerpt

Whenever the sky bleeds, covering the once-blue pallet with crimson, and the bright ball of fire burns through billowy puffs of white, staining them and the earth in hues of red-orange and amber…and ash floats on a non-existent breeze, I know the Narcolym Guardians are waging a battle.
            Shuttering my window, I unloose the hemp thread, and a sheer curtain veils the sand-covered horizon from my vision. My fingers trail the cream fabric, the tips tracing the darkening clouds against the light material as my other hand curls into a fist by my thigh, dousing the swirling vortex rising up at the charge in the air.
            “Star…?”
            Astarte, I correct inwardly, but pinch my lips closed. “Yes, Habi?”
            Habi’s footsteps echo throughout the mud-brick room as he approaches. “It’s time…”

---

Kythan Guardians so far:

Fairy Blues
J.L. Bryan
Series: Songs of Magic, #2
Release date: January 20th, 2012

Goodreads / Purchase

The sequel to Fairy Metal Thunder.

With their enchanted instruments charming the crowds, the Assorted Zebras attract interest from record producers, and soon they’re off to cut their first album and music video. Jason and his friends don’t know they’ve just become pawns in a sinister plot by a cabal of evil fairies...

Meanwhile, Aoide and her band pursue a new strategy for regaining their stolen instruments, one that will take them into the most haunted region in Faerie.

---

About the cover

Fairy Blues depicts Rhodia, a fairy musician in a band (they prefer "troupe") whose instruments are stolen by human teenagers, who go on to fame and fortune as rock stars while the fairy troupe falls into poverty, unable to earn a living. Rhodia keeps her instrument in the form of a silver harp most of the time, but it can shapeshift into any string instrument. Infused with the power of water elementals, the harp's music reaches into the depths of the listener's heart. Rhodia herself is the sort of fairy who enjoys shopping for the latest fashions at Pick-A-Lily Circus (a major covered market in Faerie), getting her hair braided by the hummingbirds at the spa park, and flirting with the tall and the handsome at the trendiest dance halls in her hometown of Sidhe City. The band's troubled quest to recover their instruments, taking them on a great adventure far from home, into places without a single decent nectar cafe or foot salon, does not amuse her. (Second book in the series.)

---

Old cover vs New cover:

Ok first, Astarte's Wrath's cover is gorgeous. I love the colors, the girl is incredibly pretty and her bangs are totally rocksauce! If you haven't read Destiny's Fire, you should it's a great steampunk novel - my review can be found here.

Second, the Songs of Magic series by J.L. Bryan got a completely new design by PhatPuppyArt which I absolutely love! Make sure you go check the other 2 covers on the blogs below because they are stunning! Unfortunately, Fairy Metal Thunder is exclusive to paperback and Kindle until May 23. If you don't have a Kindle and would like to read it sooner, you can use a free Kindle app for almost any device... Or you can enter the flash giveaway (details below)!

For the other redesigned covers in the Songs of Magic series, visit:

-The Bookish Brunette for Fairy Metal Thunder (Book 1)

-Between the Pages for Fairystruck (Book3)

FLASH GIVEAWAY: The first ten comments on each of the three blogs today will win an ebook copy of Fairy Metal Thunder with the hot new cover! If you missed your chance here, head on over to the other blogs NOW! Be sure to include your email or Twitter in your comment so we can send it!

So what do you think, guys? Leave us your thoughts! 

In My Mailbox (28)

"In My Mailbox" is a meme, created by Kristi at The Story Siren, that features books I have

received/ purchased/ borrowed during the week. 

Hi ladies and gents! I just got back from my second viewing of the Hunger Games and it was just as amazing, and now I'm in a super mood! :D So what happened this week? I had the blog tour for Someone Else's Life drop by for my review and a really fun interview here. I also received two copies of The Calling as you can see below, so I'm hosting a giveaway for the 2nd copy : enter here.

This week, I got for review (click on cover or title link for Goodreads):

-Ascend by Amanda Hocking

-The Obsidian Blade by Pete Hautman

-The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

-The Starboard Sea by Amber Dermont 

-Elemental by Emily White

-The Calling by Kelley Armstrong (Giveaway for the 2nd copy HERE.)

*BIG Thank You to Random House Canada, Random House Children's Books, St. Martin's Press, Spencer Hill Press, Rhiannon Frater, Entangled Publishing and HarperCollins for these wonderful review copies!*

Also, I bought:

Tada!! More Rhiannon Frater! Would you believe!? (There's one above too) BlookGirl Katie Someone I won't name called me a groupie, which is totally false *takes out stalker binoculars*, she's just jealous of my reading of awesomeness and book pimp abilities!

Week of insanity!

 What's in your haul, lovelies?

Leave me a link! :)