IMM is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. It is a way for book bloggers to post what they have received for review, borrowed from a friend, bought at the bookstore, or picked up at the library. (All summaries are courtesy of Goodreads.com):
Review:
Act of Redemption (Gastar Series #1) by C. C. Cole (received signed copy from author)
The once-great city of Gastar now stands underpopulated and in ruins following centuries of war against an evil priesthood. Now a demon lord arrives with plans for annihilation of the people and plans to create a half-demon, half-human son to stay and rule after Gastar becomes an extension of hell. A trio of former soldiers arrive to help the people regain their battle skills and hope for victory. An unexpected ally arrives, the teen assassin Shevata, who participated in a rescue mission in hell to rescue living hostages. Upon her return to the human world, she was cursed by having her soul removed after killing an evil priest without a death order. Her presence gets the attention of the demon lord, as he knows her from the experience in the underworld as a powerful adversary. Shevata, the humans, a human traitor, the demon lord, his son, and Shevata’s dragon mentor ignite the spark that drives this fast paced action story to its dramatic end with more to come.
My thoughts: A huge thanks goes out to C. C. Cole for sending me signed copies of her books. That is so generous and sweet of you! Wow! This book sounds intense. Demons, dragons, and girls who kick some major booty; I can’t wait to read it!
Children of Discord (Gastar Series #2) by C. C. Cole (recieved signed copy from author)
After two centuries, the City of Gastar grows and thrives since the devastating years of a prolonged war and invasion of a demon lord. Two centuries later, dark forces from its past emerge to achieve their own gains. Unknown to the citizens of Gastar, the evil boy Goldeon plans to manipulate creatures under his control to topple the existing leadership. Shevata, his long time enemy, finds herself propelled from tracking him in hell back into the city by unlikely allies. The city is now the place where old scores between the two powerful children will be settled, with the people unknowingly wedged between their secret war. Who is the greatest risk to the people, Goldeon and his army of creatures, Shevata, an assassin with a horrific curse, or the war between the two? Follow Shevata as she faces her enemies and realizes the important role of humanity driven by a touching love story and considers the consequences of her own past actions.
My thoughts: Ohh!!!! I haven’t even read the first book and I’m already beginning to wonder what happens in this one! A war between two very powerful people is sure to be explosive (figuratively & literally).
Bought:
Wither by Lauren DeStefano
What if you knew exactly when you would die?
Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.
When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden’s genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.
But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden’s eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limted time she has left.
My thoughts: Everything about this book seems awesome. The cover is gorgeous, the idea of young girls forced into marriage sounds intriguing, and the reviews have said that this is a “Must Read” book. I can’t wait to get started.
Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
Amy Curry thinks her life sucks. Her mom decides to move from California to Connecticut to start anew–just in time for Amy’s senior year. Her dad recently died in a car accident. So Amy embarks on a road trip to escape from it all, driving cross-country from the home she’s always known toward her new life. Joining Amy on the road trip is Roger, the son of Amy’s mother’s old friend. Amy hasn’t seen him in years, and she is less than thrilled to be driving across the country with a guy she barely knows. So she’s surprised to find that she is developing a crush on him. At the same time, she’s coming to terms with her father’s death and how to put her own life back together after the accident. Told in traditional narrative as well as scraps from the road — diner napkins, motel receipts, postcards–this is the story of one girl’s journey to find herself.
My thoughts: This books sounds romantic, sweet, and the perfect spring break read. I have been in the mood for a romantic book and I have a feeling this book is going to hit the spot!
Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
“I’ve left some clues for you.
If you want them, turn the page.
If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.”
So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the New York Times bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?
Rachel Cohn and David Levithan have written a love story that will have readers perusing bookstore shelves, looking and longing for a love (and a red notebook) of their own.
My thoughts: This book sounds so cute! I must have been under a rock for the past 18 years of life because I have never read one of Rachel or David’s books. This book sounds adorbale so there’s no doubt in my mind that I’ll be buying more from them.
To Catch a Prince: To Catch a Prince & The Frog Prince by Gillian McKnight
Helene Masterson and Alexis Worth are stepsisters and best friends. When Helene lands a summer internship in London, Alexis tags along. To make their summer more interesting, the girls make a bet that one of them must hook Prince William by the end of the summer. When the girls meet Simon and Lazlo, they find their perfect matches, but will the boys get discouraged with the girls’ royal distraction?
In The Frog Prince, Helene and Alexis are off to Paris after Helene’s estranged father invites her to stay for the summer. Helene and Alexis set out to catch the prince of Paris, chasing him all over town, but what if he turns out to be a toad?
Now both novels are available in one bind up just in time for a Royal Wedding!
My thoughts: I am way too excited to read this. I haven’t heard much about these two books but they sound great. Two sisters trecking across the world to find themselves some Princes; this sounds epic!
Borrowed:
Under the Rose by Diana Peterfreund
Amy Haskel made it into elite Eli University. Then she made it into the ultraselective Order of Rose & Grave. Now a senior, Amy is looking her future squarely in the eye—until someone starts selling society secrets. When a series of bizarre messages suggests conspiracy within the ranks and a female knight mysteriously disappears, no member of Rose & Grave is safe…or above suspicion.
On her side, Amy has a few loyal Diggirls—her fellow female Rose & Grave knights. Against her? Certainly it’s a group of Rose & Grave’s überpowerful patriarchs who want their old boys’ club back. As new developments in her love life threaten to implode, and the case of the vanished Diggirl gets weirder by the moment, Amy will need to use every society trick she’s ever learned in order to set things right. Even if it means turning to old adversaries for help—or discovering that the real foes are closer than she’d thought….
My thoughts: I have already read (and re-read) this whole series but I just couldn’t stop myself from borrowing it from Kati. This is one of the most mysterious books of the four in the series. It’s full of awesomeness!
Rites of Spring (Break) by Diana Peterfreund
From “witty and endearing” to “impossible to put down,” the critics have given elite marks to Diana Peterfreund’s Secret Society Girl and Under the Rose. Now, in a wildly captivating new novel, Amy “Bugaboo” Haskel and her fellow Rose & Grave knights are trading cold, gray, hyperintellectual New Haven for an annual rite of spring (well, early March) in Florida.
For Amy, a week of R&R on her secret society’s private island should be all fun in the sun—and an escape from an on-campus feud with a rival society that’s turned disturbingly personal. But along with her SPF 30 and a bikini, Amy is bringing a suitcase full of issues to remote Cavador Key. Graduation from Eli University looms, not to mention buckets of unfinished business with a former flame and—most pressing of all—the sudden, startling transformation of a mysterious Rose & Grave patriarch from sheerly evil to utterly…appealing?
Just when Amy thinks Spring Break can’t get any less relaxing, a wacky “accident” puts everyone on edge. And that’s only the beginning, as Amy starts to suspect that someone has infiltrated the island. With some major Rose & Grave secrets to be exposed, and the potential fallout enough to take down one of America’s most loathsome figureheads, what she can’t know is that the party crasher is deadly serious about making sure “Bugaboo” doesn’t get back to Eli alive….
My thoughts: This is my favorite one from the series. It is funny, a lot of epic adventures occur, and there happens to be a little romance. Oh, lala!
Tap & Gown by Diana Peterfreund
Top secret societies . . . bizarre initiation rites . . . campus love triangles . . . political shenanigans . . . Diana Peterfreund has dazzled readers and critics alike with her Ivy League novels, hailed as “impossible to put down” (Publishers Weekly) and “witty and endearing” (New York Observer). In this final installment, Eli University senior Amy “Bugaboo” Haskel and her fellow Diggers are preparing to face real life in worlds far beyond the hallowed halls of Eli University.
For Amy the countdown to graduation has begun, and suddenly the perfect ending to a perfectly iconoclastic Eli career is slipping from her grasp. Her new boyfriend’s been made an offer he just can’t refuse. Her fellowship applications haven’t even been filed. And the young woman she’s chosen to take her place in Rose & Grave—the country’s most powerful and notorious secret society—seems to come complete with a secret life already intact.
Lunging toward the finish line, Amy finds trouble around every corner, from society intrigues and unlikely stalkers to former flames and mandatory science credits. Surely it couldn’t get worse . . . until Initiation Night explodes into a terrifying scene and into a last test of wits for a young woman just trying to make it out of the Ivy League in one piece.
My thoughts: The is the last book of the series *sniffle, sniffle* but it’s so good. Just thinking about these books again makes me so excited to read them!
Won:
Steel by Carrie Vaughn
“It was a slender length of rusted steel, tapered to a point at one end and jagged at the other, as if it had broken. A thousand people would step over it and think it trash, but not her.
This was the tip of a rapier.”
Sixteen-year-old Jill has fought in dozens of fencing tournaments, but she has never held a sharpened blade. When she finds a corroded sword piece on a Caribbean beach, she is instantly intrigued and pockets it as her own personal treasure.
The broken tip holds secrets, though, and it transports Jill through time to the deck of a pirate ship. Stranded in the past and surrounded by strangers, she is forced to sign on as crew. But a pirate’s life is bloody and brief, and as Jill learns about the dark magic that brought her there, she forms a desperate scheme to get home—one that risks everything in a duel to the death with a villainous pirate captain.
Time travel, swordplay, and romance combine in an original high-seas adventure from New York Times bestseller Carrie Vaughn.
My thoughts: A huge thank you goes out to Mary at Book Hounds: Forever Young (Adult) for hosting this contest. As always, I was super excited to find out that I won. This book sounds awesome! Sword-fighting girls rock my world so I can’t wait to read this one!
