Showcase Sunday (6)

Showcase Sunday is a meme hosted by Books, Biscuits, and Tea that lets bloggers highlight any books or book-related swag they received this week, whether they're from bookstores, libraries, received for review, etc.

WELL. This week has been... interesting.

Via Mara Shapiro and Penguin Canada, I received Bared to You by Sylvia Day. I just finished this yesterday, and I really, really liked it.

Title: Bared to You
Author: Sylvia Day
Series: Crossfire, #1
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Summary (via Goodreads):

Our journey began in fire... Gideon Cross came into my life like lightning in the darkness-beautiful and brilliant, jagged and white-hot. I was drawn to him as I'd never been to anything or anyone in my life. I craved his touch like a drug, even knowing it would weaken me. I was flawed and damaged, and he opened those cracks in me so easily... Gideon knew. He had demons of his own. And we would become the mirrors that reflected each other's most private wounds... and desires. The bonds of his love transformed me, even as I prayed that the torment of our pasts didn't tear us apart...

 Gollancz UK was having a week-long giveaway of this, and I won a copy! Woot:

Title: Rivers of London (Special London Edition)
Author: Ben Aaronovitch
Series: Peter Grant, #1
Publisher: Gollancz 
Summary (via Goodreads):

Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

There is a wonderful place in Niantic, CT known as the Book Barn. There's a huge section consisting of barns, as well as two shops downtown. They claim to have over 500,000 books, and I believe it.

Paperbacks are $1.00 and hardcovers range from $4-5. I shouldn't have gone, but I needed to get out of the house.

You ready?

I'm ready.

...

(apologies for the blurriness)

I'm just going to link to the Goodreads pages for each book:

Grimspace
Vampire Academy
Linger
Witches of East End
Un Lun Dun
Kraken
Elantris
The Terrorists of Irustan
Daggerspell
Acacia: The War with the Mein
American Vampire

And even though this'll keep me occupied for quite a while? After I left, I remembered, "Wait, I forgot to look for ____ ...!"

So, yes. The Niantic Book Barn. Spiffy place. :D If you're ever in the area, I HIGHLY recommend going.

Showcase Sunday (5)

Showcase Sunday is a meme hosted by Books, Biscuits, and Tea that lets bloggers highlight any books or book-related swag they received this week, whether they're from bookstores, libraries, received for review, etc.

I haven't done this in a while because I haven't been accumulating too many books, so this'll be a review of things I got in the last few weeks. Yay!

I got this lovely in the mail via a contest -- thanks, Meljean!

Title: The Iron Duke
Author: Meljean Brook
Series: The Iron Seas, #1
Publisher: Berkley UK
Summary (via Goodreads):

Steampunk adventure and seductive danger abound in the gritty world of the Iron Seas.

After the Iron Duke freed England from Horde control he instantly became a national hero. Now Rhys Trahaearn has built a merchant empire on the power - and fear - of his name. And when a dead body is dropped from an airship on to his doorstep, bringing Detective Inspector Mina Wentworth into his dangerous world, he intends to make her his next possession.

Mina can't afford his interest, however, Horde blood runs through her veins, and becoming Rhys's lover would destroy both her career and her family, yet the investigation prevents her from avoiding him . . .

But when Mina uncovers the victim's identity, she stumbles upon a conspiracy that threatens the lives of everyone in England. To save them, Mina and Rhys must race across zombie-infested wastelands and perilous oceans - and Mina discovers the danger is not only to her countrymen, as she finds herself tempted to give up everything to the Iron Duke.

Then, I ventured out into the world of e-ARCs! I received this via Angry Robot's Robot Army program, and it is positively grotesque so far. Reminds me somewhat of Joe Abercrombie:

Title: The Corpse-Rat King
Author: Lee Battersby
Publisher: Angry Robot
Release date: August 28th, 2012 (US/CAN)
Summary (via Goodreads):  

Marius dos Hellespont and his apprentice, Gerd, are professional looters of battlefields. When they stumble upon the corpse of the King of Scorby and Gerd is killed, Marius is mistaken for the monarch by one of the dead soldiers, is transported down to the Kingdom of the Dead. The dead need a King--the King is God's representative, and someone needs to remind God where they are.

Marius is banished to the surface with one message: if he wants to recover his life he must find the dead a King. Which he fully intends to do. Just as soon as he stops running.

And since this was "Read Now," I got this on NetGalley. Yes... the highly controversial...

Title: Beautiful Disaster
Author: Jamie McGuire
Series: Beautiful, #1
Publisher: Atria
Release date: August 14th, 2012
Summary (via Goodreads):

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate percentage of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance between her and the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University's Walking One-Night Stand.

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs—and wants—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

 Thoughts? What's new on your shelves/readers this week? :)

Showcase Sunday (4)

Showcase Sunday is a meme hosted by Books, Biscuits, and Tea that lets bloggers highlight any books or book-related swag they received this week, whether they're from bookstores, libraries, received for review, etc.

I got this in the mail this week! I'm about 2/3rds through it and I really like it so far.

Title: Enchanted
Author: Alethea Kontis
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Summary (via Goodreads):

It isn't easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday’s only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true.

When Sunday meets an enchanted frog who asks about her stories, the two become friends. Soon that friendship deepens into something magical. One night Sunday kisses her frog goodbye and leaves, not realizing that her love has transformed him back into Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland—and a man Sunday’s family despises.

The prince returns to his castle, intent on making Sunday fall in love with him as the man he is, not the frog he was. But Sunday is not so easy to woo. How can she feel such a strange, strong attraction for this prince she barely knows? And what twisted secrets lie hidden in his past - and hers?

And I got this from the library:

Title: The Killing Moon
Author: N. K. Jemisin
Series: Dreamblood, #1
Publisher: Orbit
Summary (via Goodreads):  

The city burned beneath the Dreaming Moon.

In the city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Along its ancient stone streets, where time is marked by the river’s floods, there is no crime or violence. Within the city’s colored shadows, priests of the dream-goddess harvest the wild power of the sleeping mind as magic, using it to heal, soothe... and kill.

But when corruption blooms at the heart of Gujaareh’s great temple, Ehiru—most famous of the city’s Gatherers—cannot defeat it alone. With the aid of his cold-eyed apprentice and a beautiful foreign spy, he must thwart a conspiracy whose roots lie in his own past. And to prevent the unleashing of deadly forbidden magic, he must somehow defeat a Gatherer’s most terrifying nemesis: the Reaper.

Thoughts? :D

Showcase Sunday (3)

Showcase Sunday is a meme hosted by Books, Biscuits, and Tea that lets bloggers highlight any books or book-related swag they received this week, whether they're from bookstores, libraries, received for review, etc.

I didn't do this last week because there wasn't much new, but this week was fairly awesome!

For book-related swag, I got a signed bookplate from Thea Harrison -- she was doing a giveaway on her blog for her birthday wherein if you donated books to her library and e-mailed her, she'd send you some swag. One lucky winner got hand-made soap. I didn't get the soap, but the bookplate was super-awesome and I stuck it into my copy of Dragon Bound.

I won a copy of Arise from @HarperTeen on Twitter, so I purchased the $0.99 version of Hereafter for my e-reader to prepare myself. I was hesitant about checking this series out, but Melissa Marr gave it a positive recommendation on Goodreads, and I trust her taste.

Title: Hereafter
Author: Tara Hudson
Series: Hereafter, #1
Publisher: HarperCollins
Summary (via Goodreads):

Can there truly be love after death?

Drifting in the dark waters of a mysterious river, the only thing Amelia knows for sure is that she's dead. With no recollection of her past life--or her actual death--she's trapped alone in a nightmarish existence. All of this changes when she tries to rescue a boy, Joshua, from drowning in her river. As a ghost, she can do nothing but "will" him to live. Yet in an unforgettable moment of connection, she helps him survive.

Amelia and Joshua grow ever closer as they begin to uncover the strange circumstances of her death and the secrets of the dark river that held her captive for so long. But even while they struggle to keep their bond hidden from the living world, a frightening spirit named Eli is doing everything in his power to destroy their newfound happiness and drag Amelia back into the ghost world . . . forever.

Thrilling and evocative, with moments of pure pleasure, "Hereafter" is a sensation you won't want to miss.

Yesterday, I went to Barnes & Noble -- my membership card is expiring at the end of the month, and I wanted to use the discount before it goes. Because I really appreciated the bookplate, I bought the next book in the Elder Races series, Storm's Heart:

Title: Storm's Heart
Author: Thea Harrison
Series: Elder Races, #2
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Summary (via Goodreads):
 
He's a Wyr warrior, a god of storms. She's the heir to the Dark Fae throne. But desire will bring both to their knees in this all-new Novel of the Elder Races.

During the rule of her murderous Dark Fae uncle, Thistle "Tricks" Periwinkle found sanctuary among the Wyr in New York. Her ethereal beauty and sparkling personality won the hearts of the public, but after her uncle's death, there are those who don't want to see her ascend to the throne.

Able to wield thunder and lightning, Wyr sentinel Tiago Black Eagle has ruled the skies for centuries. His massive build and thunderous power make him one of the Wyr's best weapons. And he's sent to protect Tricks when she's almost assassinated in Chicago.

Soon, both Tiago and Tricks will fall prey to the stormy hunger that engulfs them—a passion that will shake the very foundation of all the worlds.

I've been looking for this next book for AGES in stores, and finally found it yesterday, so I got it while I could. Loved the first one in the series, heard this one was even better, so I'm looking forward to it:

Title: The Broken Kingdoms
Author: N.K. Jemisin
Series: Inheritance, #2
Publisher: Orbit
Summary (via Goodreads):  

In the city of Shadow, beneath the World Tree, alleyways shimmer with magic and godlings live hidden among mortalkind. Oree Shoth, a blind artist, takes in a strange homeless man on an impulse. This act of kindness engulfs Oree in a nightmarish conspiracy. Someone, somehow, is murdering godlings, leaving their desecrated bodies all over the city. And Oree's guest is at the heart of it...

 What do you think? What's new on your shelves this week? :)

Showcase Sunday (2)

Showcase Sunday is a meme hosted by Books, Biscuits, and Tea that lets bloggers highlight any books or book-related swag they received this week, whether they're from bookstores, libraries, received for review, etc.

I got a few books this week! :D To start things off, I received an ARC via a Goodreads giveaway I won last week, which I'm almost finished with:

Title: Dreamless
Author: Josephine Angelini
Series: Starcrossed, #2
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release date: May 29th, 2012
Summary (via Goodreads):

Can true love be forgotten?

As the only Scion who can descend into the Underworld, Helen Hamilton has been given a nearly impossible task. By night she wanders through Hades, trying to stop the endless cycle of revenge that has cursed her family. By day she struggles to overcome the fatigue that is rapidly eroding her sanity. Without Lucas by her side, Helen is not sure she has the strength to go on.

Just as Helen is pushed to her breaking point, a mysterious new Scion comes to her rescue. Funny and brave, Orion shields her from the dangers of the Underworld. But time is running out—a ruthless foe plots against them, and the Furies’ cry for blood is growing louder.

As the ancient Greek world collides with the mortal one, Helen’s sheltered life on Nantucket descends into chaos. But the hardest task of all will be forgetting Lucas Delos.

Josephine Angelini’s compelling saga becomes ever more intricate and spellbinding as an unforgettable love triangle emerges and the eternal cycle of revenge intensifies. Eagerly awaited, this sequel to the internationally bestselling STARCROSSED delivers a gritty, action-packed love story that exceeds expectation.

I received this in the mail yesterday via a recent giveaway hosted by the author (signed + personalized, too!):

Title: The Thief-Taker's Apprentice
Author: Stephen Deas
Series: The Thief-Taker's Apprentice, #1
Publisher: Gollancz
Summary (via Goodreads):

When Berren makes the mistake of stealing a purse from a thief-taker, it should have condemned him to a short and brutal life in the slave-mines. So when the thief-taker offers to train him as an apprentice instead, he can’t believe his luck. But Berren’s new master has secrets of his own, and thief-takers and their apprentices are wont to make enemies far more readily than friends.

And I went down to the library and picked up these books:

Title: Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: Books of Faerie, #1
Publisher: Flux
Summary (via Goodreads):

Sixteen-year-old Deirdre Monaghan is a painfully shy but prodigiously gifted musician. She's about to find out she's also a cloverhand—one who can see faeries. Deirdre finds herself infatuated with a mysterious boy who enters her ordinary suburban life, seemingly out of thin air. Trouble is, the enigmatic and gorgeous Luke turns out to be a gallowglass—a soulless faerie assassin. An equally hunky—and equally dangerous—dark faerie soldier named Aodhan is also stalking Deirdre. Sworn enemies, Luke and Aodhan each have a deadly assignment from the Faerie Queen. Namely, kill Deirdre before her music captures the attention of the Fae and threatens the Queen's sovereignty. Caught in the crossfire with Deirdre is James, her wisecracking but loyal best friend. Deirdre had been wishing her life weren't so dull, but getting trapped in the middle of a centuries-old faerie war isn't exactly what she had in mind . . .

Lament is a dark faerie fantasy that features authentic Celtic faerie lore, plus cover art and interior illustrations by acclaimed faerie artist Julia Jeffrey.

Title: Out of Oz
Author: Gregory Maguire
Series: The Wicked Years, #4
Publisher: William Morrow
Summary (via Goodreads):

The marvelous land of Oz is knotted with social unrest: The Emerald City is mounting an invasion of Munchkinland, Glinda is under house arrest, and the Cowardly Lion is on the run from the law. And look who’s knocking at the door. It’s none other than Dorothy. Yes, that Dorothy.

Amid all this chaos, Elphaba’s granddaughter, the tiny green baby born at the close of Son of a Witch, has come of age. Now, Rain will take up her broom in an Oz wracked by war.

The stirring, long-awaited conclusion to the extraordinary bestselling series begun with Wicked, Out of Oz is a magical journey rife with revelations and reversals, reprisals and surprises — the hallmarks of the brilliant and unique imagination of Gregory Maguire.

Should be fun reading!

Showcase Sunday (1)

Showcase Sunday is a meme hosted by Books, Biscuits, and Tea that lets bloggers highlight any books or book-related swag they received this week, whether they're from bookstores, libraries, received for review, etc. 

I went to Books-A-Million today. I really, REALLY shouldn't have, but...

Title: Beautiful Creatures

Author(s): Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Series: Caster Chronicles, #1

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Summary (via Goodreads):

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.

We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Title: The City & the City

Author: China Miéville

Publisher: Del Rey

Summary (via Goodreads):
New York Times bestselling author China Miéville delivers his most accomplished novel yet, an existential thriller set in a city unlike any other–real or imagined.
 
When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined.  

Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own. This is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a shift in perception, a seeing of the unseen. His destination is Beszel’s equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the rich and vibrant city of Ul Qoma. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, and struggling with his own transition, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of rabid nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman’s secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them and those they care about more than their lives.  

What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities. 

Casting shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984, The City & the City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights

Title: Railsea 
Author: China Miéville
Publisher: Random House
Summary (from Goodreads):

On board the moletrain Medes, Sham Yes ap Soorap watches in awe as he witnesses his first moldywarpe hunt: the giant mole bursting from the earth, the harpoonists targeting their prey, the battle resulting in one’s death and the other’s glory. But no matter how spectacular it is, Sham can't shake the sense that there is more to life than traveling the endless rails of the railsea–even if his captain can think only of the hunt for the ivory-coloured mole she’s been chasing since it took her arm all those years ago. When they come across a wrecked train, at first it's a welcome distraction. But what Sham finds in the derelict—a series of pictures hinting at something, somewhere, that should be impossible—leads to considerably more than he'd bargained for. Soon he's hunted on all sides, by pirates, trainsfolk, monsters and salvage-scrabblers. And it might not be just Sham's life that's about to change. It could be the whole of the railsea.

From China Miéville comes a novel for readers of all ages, a gripping and brilliantly imagined take on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick that confirms his status as "the most original and talented voice to appear in several years." (Science Fiction Chronicle)

One of my friends raves over Beautiful Creatures, and I'm curious about it because of the mixed reactions among reviewers -- it was only $3.97, so I couldn't pass it up. The City & the City was only $5. Railsea was full price, but I'm SO curious about it that I decided to buy it. :D

And for review, I received:

Title: Envious of the Clouds
Author: Amy Michelle Mosier
Summary (via Lulu): 

A small collection of sonnets, triolets, rondeaux and haiku, as well as free verse poetry. In the style of Dickinson and Longfellow, it's an attempt to resurrect Victorian era poetry.

The author described it to me as poetry for people who don't normally read poetry. I do like poetry, but I haven't read it for pleasure in a while, so I look forward to getting to this. :)