In My Mailbox (26)

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

received/ purchased/ borrowed during the week. 

I don't know about you all but I've had a fabulous week. I'm just in an awesome mood for some reason. You know, just all around giddy - I'm sure some may have noticed on Twitter I guess my tweets have been a bit random and full of epicness, and I  LOVE you guys for joining along in my happy dance mood! *ahem* So yeah, did you miss anything awesome this week at Xpresso Reads? Well there was the Channeler's Choice blog tour stop - a series I'm really enjoying and you can maybe win something! There was also a cover reveal with TWO gorgeous new covers - check it out! I still have a bunch of open giveaways too so check out the sidebar to go and enter! Last thing - if you missed it last week, I'm on Formspring now! You can ask me anything you want here: http://www.formspring.me/Giselleco

ARCs I got this week (click on cover or title links for Goodreads):

- The Right & the Real by Joelle Anthony

-The Waiting Sky by Lara Zielin

-The Implosion of Aggie Winchester by Lara Zielin

-Cold Fury by T.M. Goeglein

-Black City by Elizabeth Richards

-Siege by Rhiannon Frater (Already read and it's EPIC! See how the cover is all bent - THAT's how intense it was!)

*HUGE thank you to Penguin Books, Rhiannon Frater, Matt Merrick,  St. Martin's Press, Entangled Publishing and Random House for these awesome pretties*

Bought:

Ok so, if you follow my tweets AT ALL, you have to have noticed my borderline psychotic ravings of Rhiannon's As the World Dies series (BLEW my MIND [And my heart!]). Aanyways, I then got out and bought every thing else she's written because I'm a stalker that way. So this section is particularly Rhiannon-esque, and my paperbacks haven't even arrived yet! >.<  

And also because of Rhiannon's rec, I grabbed Jenny Pox which is FREE (here) - a Carrie-like (adult) horror. I'm reading it now and so far it's awesome!

What a freaking epically awesome week!!

So what did YOU all get!? 

Link me up!

Fresh Batch (March 18th - 24th)

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

Flavor of the week:

Croak

Gina Damico

Release date: March 20th, 2012
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Goodreads / Purchase 

Sixteen-year-old Lex Bartleby has sucker-punched her last classmate. Fed up with her punkish, wild behavior, her parents ship her off to upstate New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of dirty farm work will whip her back into shape. But Uncle Mort’s true occupation is much dirtier than that of shoveling manure.

He’s a Grim Reaper. And he’s going to teach her the family business.

Lex quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated entirely by reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next. Along with her infuriating yet intriguing partner Driggs and a rockstar crew of fellow Grim apprentices, Lex is soon zapping her Targets like a natural born Killer.

Yet her innate ability morphs into an unchecked desire for justice—or is it vengeance?—whenever she’s forced to Kill a murder victim, craving to stop the attackers before they can strike again. So when people start to die—that is, people who aren’t supposed to be dying, people who have committed grievous crimes against the innocent—Lex’s curiosity is piqued. Her obsession grows as the bodies pile up, and a troubling question begins to swirl through her mind: if she succeeds in tracking down the murderer, will she stop the carnage—or will she ditch Croak and join in?

Gina's Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

I grew up under four feet of snow in Syracuse, New York. I received a degree in theater and sociology from Boston College, where I was active with the Committee for Creative Enactments, a murder mystery improv comedy troupe that may or may not have sparked my interest in wildly improbably bloodshed. 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 live in Boston with my husband, two cats, and a closet full of black hoodies.

Review: Chimera by B.D. Swan

Chimera
B.D. Swan
Release date: November 16th, 2011


Goodreads / Purchase

Kyanna Kash has a problem: she's fallen for two guys, but one of them lives only in her mind. At least, that's what makes sense. But, when she discovers shocking evidence that the man living inside her dreams is real, and is now missing, she is forced to choose which reality to pursue. Her decision, however, might cost her everything; even her life.

*A copy was provided by B.D. Swan for review purposes*

Definitely original, absolutely intriguing: Battling a dual reality, Kyanna is suffering from fainting spells where she lands into a fantasy world with kings, battles, deadly beasts, and a gorgeous soldier.

Chimera throws us into not one, but two story-lines which are both full of mystery and romance. In her reality, Kyanna is a simple girl in love with the baseball star and trying to figure out her future plans. Her relationship with Lincon is incredibly romantic. I adored him - he's sweet, talented, and visibly in love with Kyanna. They've been together for a little while already, too, so there's no awkwardness of getting to know each other, or worse: insta-love. Kyanna, however, during her fainting spells, finds herself fiercely attracted to Koden - defender of the king in this alternate world right out of a fantasy novel. Koden is old world gentlemanly with a personality you can't help but admire. I could never decide who I wanted Kyanna to be with, or which reality I wanted her to live in. I was super intrigued by her actual life - what exactly is happening to her to cause her to faint. However, I couldn't help but become fascinated by the exciting events she was thrown in inside these dreams: We've got beasts who prey on women, vengeful princesses, and a fantastically beautiful scenery.

Kyanna herself is a bit hard to relate to at first. I felt the author, being male, was trying a bit too hard to get inside the head of a teenage girl. Making a few stereotypical girly remarks and pointing out the obvious. It did get better after a while, though, and I was able to make a better connection with her during the second half where she seemed to get a more solid personality.

This journey is not fast-paced. It's a slow process building up to Kyanna's dream, to have her discover everything this bizarre world has to offer. Nevertheless, I was so captivated by the beauty, the mystery of it all that I was not too bothered by the slow movement. I felt it was designed to give a gradual introduction into the unknown. It also helps that we get thrown from Kyanna's reality to her dreams, constantly leaving us with fresh intrigue.

All in all the unique story easily won me over, plus the writing flows surprisingly well for a debut author. We've got a gorgeous setting and an easy to follow prose that will suit especially those reluctant to get into heavy fantasy.

4 Hot Espressos

Cover Reveal: Wings of Arian & Between

Wings of Arian

Devri Walls

Release date: May, 2012

by Stonehouse Ink

Add it to your Goodreads

Kiora thought she had never heard a lie until she was sixteen. But she was wrong. Her entire existence was based on nothing but. She thought that evil did not exist. Lie. That magic was not real. Lie. And that the land of Meros was all there was. One more lie.

With Aleric telling her that evil is knocking on the door and that she is the only one who can stop them she has a choice to make. Refuse, or start the wildest most painful ride of her life.
She reluctantly dips her toe into her new existence of magic and threads, dragons and shapeshifters, and the person who wants to take control of it all: the evil Dralazar.

However, this journey was never meant to be hers alone. She will be accompanied by a Protector. To her disbelief, and utter irritation they name the hotheaded, stubborn, non -magical, (albeit gorgeous) Prince Emane. They will have to trust each other with their lives, but right now Kiora would settle for a non hostile conversation.

And now it comes down to this, If you had never heard a lie, would you know when you heard one? Is knowing good from evil innate? Kiora finds herself having to decide who lives and who dies on those very questions.

Between
A Heven and Hell Novella
Cambria Hebert
Release date: April 20th, 2012

Add it to your Goodreads

I grew up in a comfortable house with two parents and a white-picket fence. My brother, Sam, and I used to play with sticks in the backyard and pretend they were swords. There were always cookies on the table and milk in the fridge. Then, one day, things changed.

Sam changed.

Life was never the same again. Sam left. My parents abandoned him when he needed them most, and I was left to survive in a house that was merely a shell of what it used to be. Mom cried all the time and Dad expected me to fill the void my brother left behind. But mostly, all we did was pretend. We pretended that things weren’t messed up. We pretended that Sam never existed.

Until I changed, too.

Now, everything’s a mess and I’m so confused. It’s like there are two different people trapped inside one body—my body—and one of them wants out. I do things. Bad things and I don’t know how to stop. I’m not sure I want to. The only way I can be normal again is if I find Sam. He’ll know what to do.

He has too.

Previous books in The Heven and Hell series:

I love how different these are! Wings of Arian's cover is definitely sexy and powerful. This will be the first in a planned trilogy and it sounds awesome. Plus I got to know Devri on Twitter and she's fabulous. As for Between I really like the ominous shadow on the ground! Plus Cambria is also fabulous and I really enjoyed the other books in the series so far! You can read my review of Masquerade here.

Let us know what you think of these pretties! :)

Review: Life Is But a Dream by Brian James

Life Is But a Dream
Brian James
Release date: March 27th, 2012
by Feiwel & Friends

Goodreads / Purchase

Sabrina, an artist, is diagnosed with schizophrenia, and her parents check her into the Wellness Center. There she meets Alec, who is convinced it's the world that's crazy, not the two of them. They are meant to be together; they are special. But when Alec starts to convince Sabrina that her treatment will wipe out everything that makes her creative, she worries that she'll lose hold of her dreams and herself. Should she listen to her doctor? her decision may have fatal consequences.

*A copy was provided by Raincoast Books for review purposes*

Did you know that Schizophrenia typically appears between the ages of 16 and 25? How old are you? Scary, huh? I've always been fascinated, if a bit terrified, by this illness. I got a chance to learn a lot about it in one of my psychology classes at University and it's not a disorder that many really understand. Life Is But a Dream takes us in the mind of Sabrina - in a mental facility because of this incurable illness.

There is so much sadness, underneath it all. We go into Sabrina's mind and see her delusions, her perceptions, and even when she thinks she's completely happy, you can feel her helplessness; it's brilliantly written. You get a grip on how this illness takes away your sense of the world. However, I could never completely connect with Sabrina. I felt like she held the reader at arm's length in a way that made it hard to me to really be able to sympathize for her. No doubt is it distressing, but I felt this in a more general sense of the illness, than towards Sabrina herself.

Alec - in the mental facility as well - quickly falls for Sabrina, and she him. The romantic element is a sweet way to give a little light to the otherwise gloominess of the story. I was happy that she found someone to be herself with, although I didn't particularly like how he was feeding her conspiracies that negatively affected her mental state. Especially that he is otherwise healthy, thus should have realized this wasn't helping her.

The book consists of Sabrina trying to understand, to accept, who she is. It's a fairly short novel of a little over 200 pages, even so I did find the story was moving too slowly for my taste. I felt myself longing for something deeper to unravel. Nonetheless, there is a definite beauty in the slow, painful way that it's told. Flashbacks throughout the novel also helps us understand how her illness started, unfolding to the events that led her to the facility.

Life Is But a Dream opens our eyes to a mental disability that is often misunderstood. Brian's portrayal of schizophrenia is impressive; he makes us see the despair, as well as the beauty in such a sensitive subject. For those who enjoy books dealing with mental disorders, this is one that will make you see the world in a completely new way.

 "Is the world crazy--or is she?" - quote on cover

3 Hot Espressos