Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Lost Saint by Bree Despain (Dark Divine book 2)

"A family destroyed. A love threatened. An enemy returns."

SPOILER ALERT! Please do not read any further if you haven't read the first book in the series, The Dark Divine. I don't want to ruin the story for you.

Ten months have passed since the ending of The Dark Divine. Jude has disappeared, Daniel is cured of the wolf curse and Grace is learning more about her new found abilities. Life in the Divine house hold is difficult since Jude's disappearance. Grace's mother watches news reports and constantly looks for him in the background while her father is always gone looking for him. Now Daniel has become sistant and is pulling away from Grace. Grace is determined to use her neew wolf abilities into finding Jude, even if her life is in danger. Since Daniel is keeping secrets, Grace turns to Talbot, her volunteer partner for a service project for school. Talbot knows who Grace is and offers to help train her abilities and find Jude. But what happens when things aren't what they seem and a deadly enemy returns? Fans of The Dark Divine are going to be completely blown away by the ending and left waiting for the next installment.

Visit Bree Despain's website.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Firelight by Sophie Jordan

"A hidden truth. Mortal enemies. Doomed love."

When Jacinda and her friend Az sneak out early one morning to fly, they know they are breaking the rules of their pride. Jacinda and Az are draki, descendants of dragons, who are able to elude hunters by shifting into human form. When they encounter a group of hunters, things quickly go down hill for the pair. Az panics and Jacinda, the faster of the two, decides to draw the hunters to herself. Jacinda is injured and forced to hide in a cave along the shores of a deep pool. When one of the hunters, a gorgeous young boy her age comes looking for her, she never expects him to let her go. Even more surprising is what Will whispers when her touches her, beautiful.

Soon the hunters leave and Jacinda goes to look for Az. She is shocked to learn Az made it back to the pride and an alarm has been sounded. There hasn't been an alarm since her father's disappearance years ago. But Jacinda isn't an ordinary draki. She is the first fire breather in her pride in four hundred years and faster than Cassian, the alpha draki's son who has his eye on her. When her mother, who no longer manifests into draki form, decides to take her daughters away from the pride, Jacinda is crushed. Her twin sister, Tamra, who never manifested and is human, is thrilled to be leaving, especially since her crush on Cassian will never be reciprociated. Their mother takes them to the desert where her own draki dried out years earlier.

Tamra is enjoying their new life while Jacinda is miserable. Jacinda knows her draki is doomed until she feels a dangerous presence in her midst. She knows it is Will before she even sees him. It takes everything Jacinda has not to manifest in the school hallway. Tamra tells her to stay away from him, which becomes impossible when he sits next to her in study hall. Soon two other dangerous boys begin talking to Will. He intorduces Jacinda to his cousins Xander and Agnus and Jacinda realizes that they are hunters as well. Will tells her he is not a good  guy and leaves when the bell rings.

Jacinda feels her draki withering in the dry heat of the desert, except when it threatens to erupt around Will. Jacinda is desperate to get back to her pride, even though she realizes that her mother has been less than truthful about the pride and will become Cassian's mate. Will she risk everything to be with Will in an attempt to keep her draki alive even though he is her natural enemy? And what will happen when she realizes she is in love with Will and Cassian finds where they are hiding?

Jacinda's story continues in Vanish. 


Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Ever since her younger brother's death, Andi and her parents have been swallowed by grief. Her father, a Nobel winning DNA scientist, is as consumed with his work as ever and has moved on with a new girlfriend. Her mother, an artist, paints portriats of Turman all day and night, commenting that she can never get the color of his eyes right. Andi is a senior at a prestigious Brooklyn prep school. She is gifted both academically and as a guitartist, but is failing out of school over her guilt in Truman's death. When her father finds out from the school that Andi hasn't started her senior thesis, he encounters a house filled with grief. He checks her mother into a mental hospital for treatment and takes Andi with him to Paris where he is going to be working on a project and she can begin her thesis outline.

Andi and her father go to stay with his college roommate, G, who is a world famous expert on the French Rvolution. G is looking for the financial backing to start a museum on the Revolution and has brought in Andi's famous father to help him on a gentic experiment. G wishes to do DNA testing on what is believed to be the heart of Louis-Charles, the son of King Louis XVI and Marie Antionette. When Andi sees pictures of the heart encased in its glass urn and a portriat of the ten year old heir, she immediately thinks of Truman. The resembalance is uncanny. G allows her to play an expensive antique guitar that he illegally purchased from someone who found it in the catacombs beneath Paris. Andi is thrilled to be playing such a fine guitar. In looking at it's case, she realizes that the lock is broken and begins to work on opening it. In a last ditch effort to free the lock, the key Andi keeps around her neck falls from her shirt. The key belonged to Truman and Andi has worn it since his death. She tries it in the lock and it works. When the bottom opens, Andi thinks she has broken the case but soon realizes that it has a false bottom. In it she finds a miniature portriat of Louis-Charles and a diary written during the Revolution.

Soon Andi is drawn into the diary of a young girl named Alex who was the companion for Louis-Charles. The diary is her way to get his story to the public but was lost for the past 200 years. Between working on her thesis outline and reading the diary, Andi meets a handsome young taxi driver who is an aspiring musician. She soon finds herself falling in love with Virgil but is terrified by becoming close to someone after walling herself and her emotions off from the rest of the world.

Will Andi be able to pick up the pieces of her life and resolve her feelings of guilt over Truman's death? Can she repair her broken relationship with her father and manage to write her thesis? Is Andi capable of revealing herself not only to Virgil but herself? And what will happen to Alex in the diary and the mysterious Louis-Charle? Does the story end well for either girl?


Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Matched by Allyson Condie

In the future, Society will determine what you eat, where you work and how you spend your free time. More importantly, Society determines who you will marry. For Cassia Reyes, she is thrilled that her Matched ceremony occurs on her seventeenth birthday. Even better, Cassia is Matched with Xander, whom she has known since childhood. Cassia sees her life as perfect. She will get to spend the rest of her life with her best friend. So when Cassia reads her microcard on Xander from her Matched ceremony, she is shocked when Xander's photo fades into Ky Markham, a boy she also knows.

Later that evening while at rec time, an official from the Societal Classification Department comes to talk to Cassia. She informs Cassia that what happened is a rare mistake and hopes that someone didn't play a cruel joke. Cassia realizes that Ky is a Single, someone who will not be Matched or allowed to have children. Only those Matched are allowed children. No, the official says. "He's not a Single. Ky Markham is an Aberration." People who are Aberrations have usually incurred an infraction but that knowledge is not publically known. Cassia is told to keep this information to herself. She asks if she may tell her Grandfather whose 80th birthday is in a couple of days. The official says that would be alright. In Cassia's Society, one's eightieth birthday is also the day one dies. As Cassia's family prepares for Grandfather's final banquet, he tells Cassia to bring his mother's gold compact. The compact is Cassia's artifact, the one item from past society that she is allowed to keep. He reveals that there is a secret piece of paper inside that he finds comfort in. He also tells her to be true to herself before he passes away.

Since her Match ceremony and the blunder with the microcard, Cassia begins to see Ky Markham everywhere. She is surprised when they share the same summer rec activity, hiking. With no instruction, the group is told to meet at the top. Cassia takes off through the woods. Near the top, she stops and hides. She pulls out her compact to read the slip of paper hidden there. On it are two poems, but they are not a part of the 100 poems that Society has chosen. As Cassia reads the Dylan Thomas poem, she quickly realizes why it wasn't chosen. It is about fighting for what you believe in and Cassia begins to understand what her Grandfather's final words to her truly mean.

Soon Cassia finds herself drawn to Ky even though she is Matched to Xander. As the two get to know more about each other on their hikes, Cassia begins to question Society's control over every aspects of their lives, especially when Society begins to tighten their control. Will Cassia assume the role Society has planned for her or does she take her Grandfather's last advise and follow her heart?

Cassia'a story continues with Crossed on November 1, 2011.

Visit Allyson Condie's website.
Visit the official website for Matched.

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

Sisters Scarlett and Rose March have always been extremely close. In fact, they believe that they started out as the same person. Scarlett wanted to be born, so she took half of their heart and Rose followed later with the other half. So when the strange man arrived at Oma March's cottage that day selling citrus fruits, Scarlett protected her younger sister Rose from the man who changed into a Fenris or werewolf when he killed their grandmother. Scarlett paid a heavy price in killing the Fenris by losing her right eye and becoming heavily scarred. In the seven years since, Scarlett and Rose have learned how to lure and hunt the Fenris who come to their small town of Ellison, Georgia. Red cloaks and perfume work well to draw the Fenris from his human form.

Scarlett lives to hunt the Fenris. Wearing her cloak and carrying a hatchet, she vows to keep other young girls safe and kill all of the wolves. Rose also hunts the Fenris and her bond with Scarlett is strong. But what happens when Rose dreams of a life outside of hunting the wolves? And how will Scarlett react when Rose finds herself drawn to Silas Reynolds, a young woodsman who is Scarlett's hunting partner and only friend?

Told in alternating points of view between the March sisters, this modern day twist on the Little Red Riding Hood story will have you on trhe edge of your seat.

Sweetly, a companion to Sisters Red debuts June 2011.



Friday, January 14, 2011

Books Coming to the Big Screen in 2011

Feb. 18 - I Am Number Four by Pitticus Lore

March 4
Beastly by Alex Flinn

March 11
Jane Eyre
Little Red Riding Hood

July 15 -  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two

Oct. 14 - The Three Musketeers

Nov. 19 - The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part One

Dec. 16 - Sherlock Holmes 2

Dec. 21 - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Book movies in production in 2011

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (Starring Taylor Lautner as Finn)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Monday, January 10, 2011

Titles Eagerly Awaiting in 2011



Notice that a lot of these titles are sequels.

Feb. 1 - Delirium by Lauren Oliver

March 1 - Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins (Hex Hall book 2)

March 22 - The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan

April 5 - A BIG Reading Day, what to read first?
Plague by Michael Grant (Gone book 4)
City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare (Mortal Instruments book 4)
Red Glove by Holly Black (Curse Workers book 2)

May 31 - What Ever Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

June 14 - Passion by Lauren Kate (Fallen book 3)

July 12 - Forever by Maggie Stiefvater (Linger book 3)

August 23 - Sweetly by Jackson Pearce (Sisters Red book 2)
August 30 - Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare (Infernal devices book 2)

Dates To Be Announced

Beautiful Creatures book 4 by Kami Garcis and Margaret Stohl
Crossed by Ally Condie (Matched book 2)

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Alex Van Helsing : Vampire Rising by Jason Henderson

"This doesn't happen ... does it?"

Alex Van Helsing has always gotten comments on his name, especially from those fascinated with the Dracula story. His father runs the Van Helsing Foundation, a research foundation that brings health care to Third World countries. Or so he is led to believe until he arrives at his boarding school, Glenarvon Academy, situated on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Within three days of his arrival, Alex encounters two vampires and notices the late night wanderings of his literature teacher Mr. Sangster. Alex follows Mr. Sangster one night and hides in a roadside ditch when he hears a caravan of vehicles behind him. Turns out it is a caravan of vampires and Alex is soon spotted.

Alex takes off running and soon encounters Mr. Sangster coming to his aid on a motorcycle. They arrive at a safehouse where Alex finds he is well known. Turns out Alex has stumbled upon the Polidorium, a secret vampire hunting organization that is the firepower behind the Van Helsing Foundation. Alex is shocked to learn his true family heritage and that his father has been untruthful to him. The Polidorium are in the area looking for the Scholomance, an ancient vampire university rumored to be in the area and a vampire clan lord known as the Icemaker.


When two of Alex's friends are kidnapped by the Icemaker, will he embrace his vampire hunter heritage and go after them?

Alex's story will be continued in book two of the series, Voice of the Undead to be published July 26, 2011.

Visit Jason Henderson's website.
Visit the Alex Van Helsing website.

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

SPOILER ALERT! Please do not read any further if you have not read Hush, Hush. I don't want to ruin the story for you.

The book in which several lingering questions are answered, yet the ending is a complete shock that I never saw coming. Two months after the end of Hush, Hush, Patch is now Nora's guardian angel but life is far from perfect. When Nora tells Patch that she loves him, he begins to pull away from her. Worse yet, he begins to spend time with her mortal enemy, Marcie Millar. So when an old family friend, Scott Parnell, moves back to town, Nora is determined to uncover his secrets, even when she is in danger. On top of everything that is going on, Nora begins to see her dead father. Sometimes secrets are better left buried.

Becca Fitzpatrick continues Patch and Nora's story in a still untitled book due out October 18, 2011.

Visit the official fansite, Fallen Archangel.


Monday, January 3, 2011

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

SPOILER ALERT!!! If you haven't read the first book in the trilogy, Levianthan, please don't read any further. I don't want to spoil the series for you.

Behemoth picks up the next morning where Leviathan left off. The Leviathan has left the Italian peninsula behind and is headed for the city of Istanbul. Deryn is still in disguise as a boy in the British Air Service and Prince Alek is hiding his true identity from the British crew of the Leviathan. The crew's mission is to deliver Dr. Barlow's eggs to the Sultan. Alek and Deryn have been taking care of them. The hope is to keep the Ottoman Empire from joining the Clankers in the brewing war. But what will happen when the peace keeping mission doesn't go as planned? Will Deryn and Alek be able to survive in a strange city when they are not only separated from the Leviathan but from each other? Who discovers Deryn's secret? And will Alek be able to find any allies in a city crawling with Germans?

Deryn and Alek's story will conclude with book three in the series due out Fall of 2011.

Visit Scott Westerfeld's website.