In My Mailbox (7)

In My Mailbox

Week Seven

Seeing how I was taking a break last Sunday, this week's In My Mailbox will include both weeks so it's a larger than normal.

Heist Society

Ally Carter

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her to the Louvre...to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria...to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own - scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving "the life" for a normal life proves harder than she'd expected.

Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has good reason: a powerful mobster's priceless art collection has been stolen and he wants it returned. Only a master thief could have pulled off this job, and Kat's father isn't just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly encounter, Kat's dad needs her help.

For Kat there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it's a spectacularly impossible job? She's got two weeks a teenage crew, and, hopefully, just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family's (very crooked) history - and with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

First thoughts: I've picked this book up off the shelf a dozen times, debating whether or not I wanted to get it. So when I saw the library had a copy in I couldn't help myself. It sounds like an interesting plotline plus art! I'm planning on starting it this afternoon.

Uglies

Scott Westerfeld

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license - for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world - and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes change her world forever.

First Thoughts: I'm honestly not sure, at this point, whether Uglies is going to get read or not. I've heard mixed things about it and I had picked it up on a whim during my last trip to the library. If you've read it (and I'm sure some of you have) let me know what you think.

A Match Made in High School

Kristin Walker

When a mandatory course forces Fiona to "try the knot" with super-jock Todd Harding, she's convinced life couldn't get any worse. Until her crush is paired with her arch-enemy (otherwise known as Todd's obscenely hot, slightly sadistic girlfriend). But that's nothing compared to her best friend's fate - a year with the very goofy, very big Johnny Mercer

A series of hilarious pranks leaves Fiona wondering: Is there something her "best friend" hasn't told her? Could there be more to Johnny Mercer than an awesome music collection? And most intriguing, could Todd Harding have a heart beneath his pretty-boy-exterior?

First Thoughts: Another library grab (I'm broke, ok?) but one I am super excited about. I heard about this book about a month ago and I've wanted to read it ever since. It sounds cute and light and fun. After reading The Forest of Hands and Teeth earlier this week, I want something more fluffy for a change. Plus the cover is really, really cute!

Moonlight Falls

Vincent Zandri

Albany, New York, is the setting of Zandri's paranoid thriller (in the Hitchcock tradition) about Richard "Dick" Moonlight, former APD detective turned private investigator/massage therapist, who believes he killed Scarlet Montana - his illicit lover and wife of his ex-boss, Chief of Detectives Jake Montana. The problem is ... Moonlight doesn't remember what happened because he’s got a small fragment of a .22 hollow point round buried inside his brain, lodge directly up against his cerebral cortex. It's the result of a botched suicide attempt four years prior to the novel’s start, and an operation to remove the bullet fragment would be too dangerous.

But the bullet causes Moonlight lots of problems, the least of which are the occasional memory loss and his rational ability to tell right from wrong...

First Thoughts: This book came in the mail this week, which I'm excited about. I won an autographed copy from Goodreads and while the book isn't what I normally go for I think it sounds ridiculously good. I'll probably bump it up on my reading list because my best friend is already trying to steal the thing from me (she had entered the contest but didn't win a copy, so now she's trying to snag mine).

Poor Little Bitch Girl

Jackie Collins

Denver Jones is a hotshot twenty-something attorney working in L.A. Carolyn Henderson is personal assistant to a powerful and very married senator in Washington with whom she is having an affair. And Annabelle Maestro - the daughter of two movie stars - has carved out a career for herself in New York as the madam of choice for discerning famous men. The three of them went to high school together in Beverly Hills, and although Denver and Carolyn have kept in touch, Annabelle is out on her own with her cocaine-addicted boyfriend, Frankie.

Then there is Bobby Santangelo Stanislopolous, the Kennedy-esque son of Lucky Santangelo and deceased Greek shipping billionaire Dimitri Stanislopolous. Bobby owns Mood, the hottest club in New York. Back in the day, he went to high school with Denver, Carolyn, and Annabelle. And he connected with all three of them. Plus, Frankie is his best friend.

When Annabelle's beautiful movie-star mother is found shot to death in the bedroom of her Beverly Hills mansion, the five of them find themselves thrown together...and secrets from the past have a way of coming back to haunt everyone.

First Thoughts: Another library book...I know, I have a problem but I've had a hold on this forever and it finally came in. Not going to lie, it was the awesome cover that attracted me to the book but the plot sounds like the perfect guilty pleasure. And as much as I love YA, sometimes I want to step away into something that's a bit more trashy.

Seeing how I was on a break, I didn't actually get much done in the world of blogging since my last post. I put up my first return review yesterday for Hex Hall. You can check it out here.

I've finished two other books: The Forest of Hands and Teeth and the third book in the Morganville Vampire series, Midnight Alley. The reviews for those should hopefully be up later this weekend.

In My Mailbox (6)

In My Mailbox

Week Six

So this week, real-life wise, was not the most stellar for me but I did manage to get some awesome books despite everything. And nothing works better at cheering me up than a good book to snuggle up with...well okay except maybe winning the lotto. That would be pretty sweet.

But enough about me, onto the books:

Beautiful Dead
(Book 1 - Jonas)
Eden Maguire

Not alive. Not dead.
Somewhere in between lie the Beautiful Dead.

Something strange is happening in Ellerton High. Jonas, Arizona, Summer, Phoenix. All dead within a year.

Jonas Jonson is the first to die, in a motorcycle accident. But there are many unanswered questions, and the three deaths that follow are equally mysterious.

Grief-stricken Darina can't escape her heartache or visions of her dead boyfriend, Phoenix, and the others who died. And all the while, the sound of beating wings echoes inside her head...

Are the visions real? Or do the Beautiful Dead only exist in Darina's traumatized imagination?

First Thoughts: This purchase was made on a whim last weekend when I needed a book to read for a bit and wasn't able to make it back home to grab one. It had a pretty cover and the back sounds good. I did end up reading the first chapter and it's interesting so far.

Every Last One
Anna Quindlen

Mary Beth Latham is first and foremost a mother whose three teenage children come first, before her career as a landscape gardener or even her life as the wife of a doctor. Caring for her family and preserving their everyday life is paramount. An d so when one of her sons, Max, becomes depressed, Mary Beth becomes focused on him, only to be blindsided by a shocking act of violence. What happens afterward is a testament to the power of a woman's love and determination and to the invisible line of hope and healing that connects one human to another.

First Thoughts: I got this in the mail this week after winning it from goodreads. It's my first ARC and I'm a bit to excited about that. This one comes out on the 13th and I'm going to attempt to get this read and reviewed before than.

The Agency
A Spy in the House
Y.S. Lee

Orphan Mary Quinn lives on the edge. Sentenced as a thief at the age of twelve, she's rescued from the gallows by a woman posing as a prison warden. In her new home, Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls, Mary acquires a singular education, fine manners and a surprising opportunity. The school is a cover for the Agency - an elite, top secret corps of female investigators with a reputation for results - and at seventeen, Mary's about to join their ranks.

With London all but paralyzed by a noxious heat wave, Mary must work fast in the guise of a lady's companion to infiltrate a rich merchant's home with hopes of tracing his missing cargo ships. But the Thorold household is full of dangerous secrets, and people are not what they seem - least of all Mary.

First Thoughts: I'm excited to read this and was thrilled to hear my hold had finally come in at the library (figuring out how to work the hold/request system at my library was the best thing to ever happen to me).

I also bought new glasses this week that I think are super cute:

Week in Review
(click cover for review)

Finally, I put up my first Month in Review. It's crazy to think I just completed my first full month blogging. :D

This awesome meme is brought to you the story siren. Check her out.

In My Mailbox (5)

In My Mailbox
Week Five

I'm doing this a few days early, again, because I picked up some weekend shifts at work and I'm not entirely sure how much I'll be around this weekend. I wasn't actually planning on picking up any books this week because working this much overtime has seriously impacted my reading time so I'm way behind on my 'to-read' pile.

However, two of my holds from the library finally became available and I couldn't stop myself from picking them.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."

So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton - and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers - and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield. Can Elizabeth vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read.

First thoughts: I'm only about thirty pages into this but I'm really enjoying it so far. Pride and Prejudice has always had a special place in my heart so I'm loving this "version" of it. I've read the original so it's also interesting to see how he worked in the zombie elements.

Hex Hall

Rachel Hawkins

Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It's gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie's estranged father - an elusive European warlock - only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it's her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.

By the end of the her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person and only vampire on campus. Worse, Sophie soon learns that a mysterious predator has been attacking students, and her only friend is the number-one suspect.

As a series of blood-curdling mysteries starts to converge, Sophie prepares for the biggest threat of all; an ancient secret society determined to destroy all Prodigium, especially her.

First thoughts: sdfkjaskldf <- For real, I did a happy dance when I got the notice this book had arrived. I was expecting it to take a lot longer to get to my local library than it did. It's pretty much taking everything in me to finish the two books I already started (or at least one) before I start on it...and knowing me, I'll probably cave by tomorrow night.

This Weeks Reviews
(click book cover for review)

Apparently last weeks theme was covers with legs.

I also posted the super-short teaser from ABC Family for Pretty Little Liars, cause y'all know how much I adore that series. You want watch it here.

In My Mailbox is an awesome weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren so check it out.

In My Mailbox (4)

In My Mailbox
Week Four

It's been kind of a slow week for me, I worked overtime which made it pretty much impossible to hit up the library or bookstore for some casual browsing. However, I did manage to borrow these:

Glass Houses
(The Morganville Vampires, Book One)
Rachel Caine

College should be an exciting time, but for brainy 16-year-old Claire Danvers that's too mild a word. Due to advanced placement, Claire can start college early, but her parents refuse to allow her to go to the distant Ivy League school of her dreams. She goes to Texas Prairie University where she is tormented by the popular girls—but that's the least of her worries. Morganville, home of the university, is also home to vampires and vampire hunters. Claire finds protection from the horrors of the town in the Glass House with three fellow outcasts, Goth girl Eve, rebellious Shane, and Michael, who disappears during the day. Claire falls for Shane and would do anything to protect her friends, including facing down bloodthirsty vampires and dangerous bikers. (from bn.com)

The Dead Girl's Dance
(The Morganville Vampires, Book Two)
Rachel Caine

Claire has her share of challenges. Like being a genius in a school that favors beauty over brains; homicidal girls in her dorm, and finding out that her college town is overrun with the living dead. On the up side, she has a new boyfriend with a vampire-hunting dad. But when a local fraternity throws the Dead Girls' Dance, hell is really going to break loose.

Because of my crazy schedule this week I was only able to get Glass Houses reviewed (which you can read here). However, I've finished You Are So Undead to Me last night and the review for that should be up later tonight.

In My Mailbox is an awesome meme hosted over at The Story Siren. Go check it out (and if you found your way here, feel free to click that 'follow' button your right to make my dad).

In My Mailbox (3)

In My Mailbox
Week Three


What I Got:

I still have two library books left over from my trip last week to the library so I didn't make a trip there this week. However, I finally caved and picked up three books at the store this week that I've had my eye. I was doing so good to. Oh well, sometimes you just can't fight it.


The Forrest of Hands and Teeth
Carrie Ryan

In Mary's world, there are simple truths.

The sisterhood always knows best.

The Guardians will protect and serve.

The Unconsecrated will never relent.

And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village. The fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

But slowly, Mary's truths are failing her. She's learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power. And, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.

Now she must choose between her village and her future, between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death?

First Thoughts: I'd heard really good things about it. Plus, you know, zombies.

Perfect Chemistry
Simone Elkeles

At Fairfield High School, on the outskirts of Chicago, everyone knows that south siders and north siders aren't exactly compatible elements. So when head cheerleader Brittany Ellis and gang member Alex Fuentes are forced to be lab partners in chemistry class, the results are bound to be explosive. But neither teen is prepared for the most surprising chemical reaction of all - love. Can they break through the stereotypes and misconceptions that threaten to keep them apart?

First Thoughts: Basically I picked up this book because I have a thing for star crossed lovers. It's not something I can help, I just do.

And the trailer for this didn't hurt ;)

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
Seth Grahame-Smith

Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness."

"My baby boy..." she whispers before dying.

Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.

When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, "henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose..." Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 40 years.

Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.

First Thoughts: Seriously, do I even need to justify getting this book? Who wouldn't want this. Plus, it's autographed! I was checking out with Perfect Chemistry and look over to see a small stack of signed copies on sale at my book store. That kind of sealed the deal for me.

Recap of Last Week's Reviews
(Click Book for Review)

I know this is early but I picked up some extra weekend shifts, so I wasn't sure when I'd be home and available to put this up.

In My Mailbox (2)

My library doesn't have the most stellar collection of YA fiction so this week I made a trip a few towns over to a better stocked library. Here's what I got:

Dead is the New Black
Marlene Perez

Welcome to Nightshade, California; a small town full of secrets. It's home to the pyschic Giordano sisters, who have a way of getting mixed up in mysteries. During their investigations, they run across everything from pom-pom-shaking vampires to shape-shifting boyfriends to a clue-spewing jukebox. With their psychic powers and some sisterly support, they can crack any case.

Teenage girls are being mysteriously attacked all over town, including at Nightshade High School, where Daisy Giordano is a junior. When Daisy discovers that a vampire may be the culprit, she can't help but suspect head cheerleader Samantha Devereaux, who returned from summer break with a new look; Samantha appears a little . . . well, dead, and all the most popular kids at school are copying her style.

Is looking dead just another fashion trend for Samantha, or is there something more sinister going on? To find out, Daisy joins the cheerleading squad.

Dirty Laundry

Daniel Ehrenhaft

The School: The Winchester School of the Arts, nick-named "The Laundromat" because it's where better schools send their "dirty laundry." Get kicked out of Exeter, Hotch-kiss, or Choate? End up at Winchester.

The Girl: Carli, a gorgeous pigtailed Hollywood actress going undercover at Winchester to research her role.

The Boy: Fun (short for Fellini Udall Newport), an embittered senior and graffiti artist who was almost expelled - until his dad (and a lot of money) convinced the headmaster to let him work off his crime as Carli's assistant.

The Problem: Beautiful, talented senior Darcy Novak, one of the least screwed-up people at Winchester, has disappeared.

As Carli and Fun discover each other's hidden talents, there's a villain setting them up. Can they save Darcy - and themselves - or will they wash out?

You are So Undead to Me
Stacey Jay

Megan Berry is a Zombie Settler by birth, which mean she's part-time shrink to a whole bunch of semi-dead people with killer issues. All Megan wants is to go to homecoming, but when you're trailed by a bunch of slobbering corpses whenever you leave the house, it's kinda hard to score a date. Let's just say Megan's love life could use some major resuscitation.

Megan's convinced her life can't get any worse - until someone in school starts using blck magic to turn average, angsty Undead into scary, hardcore flesh-eating Zombies. Now it's up to Megan to stop the Zombie apocalypse. Her life - and more importantly, the homecoming dance - depends on it.

The Dark Divine
Bree Despain

A Prodigal Son.

A Dangerous Love.

A Deadly Secret.

Grace Divine - daughter of the local pastor - always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kallbi disappeared and her brother Jude came home covered in his own blood.

Now that Daniel's returned, Grace must choose between her growing attraction to him and her loyalty to her brother.

As Grace gets closer to Daniel, she learns the truth about that mysterious night and how to save the ones she loves, but it might cost her the one thing she cherishes the most: her soul.

Flawless
(A Pretty Little Liars Novel)
Sara Shepard

Spencer stole her sister's boyfriend. Aria is brokenhearted over her English teacher. Emily likes her new friend Maya . . . as much more than a friend. Hanna's obsession with looking flawless is making her sick. And their most horrible secret yet is so scandalous that the truth would ruin them forever.

And why shouldn't I tell? They deserve to lose it all. With every crumpled note, wicked IM, and vindictive text message I send, I'll be taking these pretty little liars down. Trust me, I've got enough dirt to bury them alive.

Read my review for Flawless here.

Perfect
(A Pretty Little Liars Novel)
Sara Shepard

In a town where gossip thrives like the ivy that clings to its mansions, where mysteries lie behind manicured hedges and skeletons hide in every walk-in closet, four perfect-looking girls aren't nearly as perfect as they seem.

Three years ago, Spencer, Aria, Emily, Hanna, and their best friend Alison were the girls at Rosewood Day School. They clicked through the halls in their Miu Miu flats, tanned in their matching Pucci bikinis, and laughed behind their freshly manicured fingernails. They were the girls everyone loved but secretly hated—especially Alison.

So when Alison mysteriously vanished one night, Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hanna's grief was tinged with . . . relief. And when Alison's body was later discovered in her own backyard, the girls were forced to unearth some ugly memories of their old friend, too. Could there be more to Alison's death than anyone realizes?

Now someone named A, someone who seems to know everything, is pointing the finger at one of them for Ali's murder. As their secrets get darker and their scandals turn deadly, A is poised to ruin their perfect little lives forever.

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by A Siren Song.

In My Mailbox (1)

I'm still working my way through a pile of books I got for Christmas, so most of the ones I picked up from the library this week are for recapping over at They Let Us Read This As Children?


Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
by Helen Fielding

A new year begins - and Bridget Jones, the globally bestselling unflinchingly self-disciplined, and definitely practically nonsmoking heroine is about to discover what happens when you have the man of your dreams actually in your flat and he hasn't been to the supermarket - not just tonight, but ever.

Lurching from the cappuccino bars of Notting Hill to the blissed-out shores of Thailand, searching for The Truth in spite of pathetically unevolved men, insane dating theories, Smug Married advice ("I'm just calling to say in the potty! In the potty! Well, do it in Daddy's hand, then!"), Bridget experiences a zeitgeist-esque Spiritual Epiphany somewhere between the pages of How to Find the Love You Want Without Seeking It (can self-help books really help self?), protective custody, and a lightly chilled Chardonnay.

I read the first book a few years back and never got around to reading it's sequel. I've heard good things about this so I figured it was time I checked it out.

Besides I needed something more adult to check out along with the following (to be recapped and snarked, with love of course, later this week):



In My Mailbox is a meme hosted by The Story Siren.