August 2016 – Wrap Up

5 Most Anticipated Releases of 2015

Soon summer will be over and gone for 2015, but don’t be sad! New books are about to be released!!

And today I thought I would share five of my most anticipated releases to come this year. If you find any of them interesting you can click on the cover photo and you will be taken to their Bookdepository page.

Let’s start with the first of the lot:

The Rest of Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

Publisher: Walker Books Ltd.

Publication date: August 27th, 2015

Pages: 352 (hardback)

Synopsis by the Publisher: 

What if you aren’t the Chosen One? The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?

What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.

Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.

Even if your best friend is worshipped by mountain lions.

Why I look forward to it:

I’m not very familiar with Ness’s writing except for his book A Monster Calls (which I loved) but I’ve heard many great things about his work and this one sounded like a different and fun read.

Who doesn’t love an anti-hero story from time to time?

I’m hoping for an original and witty story.

***

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

The fourth book in the Throne of Glass series.

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Publication date: September 1st, 2015

Pages: 656 (hardback)

Synopsis by the publisher:

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she’s at last returned to the empire-for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past…

She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight.

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die just to see her again. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen’s triumphant return.

Why I look forward to it:

The Throne of Glass series captured me from the very beginning and the wait for this fourth book has been a long one. I listened to the first three (and the novella collection) on Audible and will do the same with this one. I can’t wait to dive back into this world and see what’s in stall for Celaena Sardothion this time around!

***

The Marvels by Brian Selznick

Publisher: Scholastic US

Publication date: September 15th, 2015 (October 1st for some regions)

Pages: 672 (hardback)

Synopsis by the publisher:

In this magnificent reimagining of the form he originated, two stand-alone stories — the first in nearly 400 pages of continuous pictures, the second in prose — together create a beguiling narrative puzzle.

The journey begins on a ship at sea in 1766, with a boy named Billy Marvel. After surviving a shipwreck, he finds work in a London theatre. There, his family flourishes for generations as brilliant actors until 1900, when young Leontes Marvel is banished from the stage.

Nearly a century later, Joseph Jervis runs away from school and seeks refuge with an uncle in London. Albert Nightingale’s strange, beautiful house, with its mysterious portraits and ghostly presences, captivates Joseph and leads him on a search for clues about the house, his family, and the past.

Why I look forward to it:

I’ve never read anything quite like this before. First half graphic novel and second half written novel. This is truly something new for me and I’ve heard great things about Selznick’s writing as well. People who’ve received ARC’s of this one is saying amazing things and I’m curious more than anything.

***

Illuminae bu Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

This is the first book in The Illuminae Files series.

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Publication date: October 20th, 2015

Pages: 608 (hardback)

Synopsis by the publisher:

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.

This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto one of the evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it’s clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she sworeshe’d never speak to again.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

Why I look forward to this:

I love the concept of combining the written story with snippets of documents and pictures so that it feels like you’re a more involved part of the story.

The ARC’s of this one showed up on BookTube a while ago and I was instantly intrigued by this series. I’ve also enjoyed Amie Kaufman’s writing in the Starbound series so far (third book is out December 1st!) and can’t wait how this collaboration goes.

***

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.

Publication date: November 3rd, 2015

Pages: 496 (hardback)

Synopsis by the publisher:

Since his first collection, Nightshift, published thirty-five years ago, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection he assembles, for the first time, recent stories that have never been published in a book. He introduces each with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it.

There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. “Afterlife” is about a man who died of colon cancer and keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature characters at the end of life, revisiting their crimes and misdemeanors. Other stories address what happens when someone discovers that he has supernatural powers—the columnist who kills people by writing their obituaries in “Obits;” the old judge in “The Dune” who, as a boy, canoed to a deserted island and saw names written in the sand, the names of people who then died in freak accidents. In “Morality,” King looks at how a marriage and two lives fall apart after the wife and husband enter into what seems, at first, a devil’s pact they can win.

Magnificent, eerie, utterly compelling, these stories comprise one of King’s finest gifts to his constant reader—“I made them especially for you,” says King. “Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth.”

Why I look forward to it:

Stephen King is my auto-buy author. I love his writing and every time he releases a new book I’m instantly excited! I love short fiction and especially King’s collections and this will be an interesting read and a great addition to my Stephen King collection! Can’t wait!

***

Now all I have to do is wait…….

What are your most anticipated releases of 2015?

This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner – REVIEW

This Shattered World is the second novel in the Starbound trilogy. You can read my review of These Broken Stars (the first book) HERE 🙂

In the second book we meet Jubilee “Lee” Chase, captain in the forces that was sent to the terraformed planet Avon to keep the rebellious movement under control. Lee is different from the others who comes to Avon. She has her own personal reasons for fighting the rebels and for some reason she is still sane after staying on a planet that slowly drives so many others insane. We also meet Flynn Cormac, leader of the rebels. A man who wants to find peace for his home planet without having to resolve to violence and war.

Lee and Flynn were never supposed to meet, but when their paths cross one day Flynn does the only thing that makes sense to him. He takes her as a prisoner and brings her back to the rebel base hoping to exchange her for medicine and other valuables much needed, but instead he makes a decision that changes everything. When the rebels want to execute Lee to send a message, Flynn escapes the base together with her and suddenly they find themselves caught between two sides of a senseless war.

On the run they also discover that there’s something horribly wrong with Avon.

***

The Writing:

I enjoyed the writing just as much in this one as in These Broken Stars. The fact that they shift between the perspectives of Flynn and Lee throughout the book gives us a good insight to two different sides of the same story. The short in-between chapters also adds to the mystery of the book, but felt kind of confusing in the beginning.

Kaufman and Spooner paints beautiful pictures in these books that makes you feel like you’re right there beside them on Avon.

The Characters:

Lee is a strong, independent and mysterious female lead. I enjoyed her sassiness and how she wanted to be in control of every situation that was thrown towards her. As we get to know her past and how she grew up, she really grows as a character.

Flynn had the classic rebel charm to him and I did not feel like there were as many surprises to his character as Lee’s, but I did like him a lot. He’s a rational thinker that wants peace and understanding.

They were both strong protagonists that worked well together in this story.

The Plot:

Let’s just air the frustration that so many had when we found out about the plot of This Shattered World:

No more Lilac and Tarver??!!?!?!

I was (as so many others) disappointed to read that the characters from the first novel would not be the lead characters in this one. I was very curious to find out what would happen next with them.

But do calm down, they are not left out of the trilogy even though they are not the lead characters of this novel.

The mystery of the planet I found very intriguing. Something is clearly wrong. And I was also very interested in finding out what made Jubilee different from everyone else. Why doesn’t she get the dreams that most do right before going insane? What happened to her as a child to make her into such a tough-hearted soldier?

I found the romance part of the novel to be a little too predictable. You kind of expect it from the very beginning of the story. But even though there’s a fair share of romance in This Shattered World it doesn’t have the same focus  on romance and passion as These Broken Stars. This story is much crueler and harsher in comparison, but that also made it less predictable in some ways.

***

All in all I really liked This Shattered World and I’m still very curious to see how they will wrap it all up in the third and last novel Their Fractured Light (expected publication: December 29th, 2015)

Still there was something about the second novel that did not take as strong a hold on me as the  first one did. I can’t put my finger on exactly what it was, but I just didn’t LOVE this one as much, but still I would highly recommend it!

 Want your own copy of this beautiful book? Click on the Amazon or BookDepository logo below:

  

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (REVIEW)

In These Broken Stars we meet Lilac LaRoux (daughter of the richest man in the universe) and Tarver Merendsen (a young war hero) traveling on the massive spaceliner The Icarus. 

The Icarus in mysterious ways gets yanked out of hyperspace and by coincidence Lilac and Tarver ends up in the same escape pod. They end up on an unknown planet without any form of communication. They have to learn to work together and see past all their differences if they are going to survive and get home. But there are strange things happening on the planet they landed. And why aren’t there any other people around?

Could they be stuck there forever?

***

 From the beginning of the story the attraction between Lilac and Tarver is pretty clear. Lilac however knows that her father will not approve of him so she rejects him and it is not pretty. After this Tarver sees her as a spoiled and rude rich mans daughter and tries to avoid her as much as he can.

But crash landing on the unknown planet forces them to work together.

I immediately liked Tarver. A young, handsome war hero that loves poetry! Of course he came to my liking. Lilac I had mixed feelings about in the beginning of the story. I wanted her to stand up to her father. To be more independent and to rebel more, but later on I learned that there was so much more to her character. As the story went on she showed herself as a strong female character, full of surprises.

The book is written from both Lilac and Tarver’s perspective. Shifting between them from chapter to chapter. I really enjoyed the way that Kaufman and Spooner showed two sides of the story. And I haven’t read a lot of YA literature written by a mans perspective so that definitely added to the enjoyment of this book.

I thought it was exciting, thrilling and heartbreaking. It kept me on edge throughout the whole story and I definitely recommend it!

Some of my favorite quotes:

“You don’t mention death when it’s hovering near someone you love. You don’t want t attract the reaper’s attention.”

“Abandon her? If only my duty or my conscience would let me. The galaxy would be better off, if you ask me. Who’d even know we were in the same pod? Except that I would know. And that would be enough.”

***

If you would like your own copy of These Broken Stars, click on either the Amazon or the Book Depository logo below: 

The next book in the Starbound trilogy will be out on December 23rd!

Click on the cover of This Shattered World if you want to know more about it: