In My Mailbox (11)

January 22, 2012

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi over at The Story Siren. It’s awesome. Every week, we all get a chance to tell everyone what new books we’ve gotten so that we can tell you guys and we can all drool and squee together! Huzzah for squees!

I got some things this week, guys, that I am positively GIDDY over! GIDDY. Woot!

FROM NETGALLEY

This Is Not A Test, by Courtney Summers (June 19, 2012 from St. Martin’s Griffin). So. ZOMBIES. I’ve made a pledge to myself that this year I’m going to branch out and read things that I usually bypass. Zombies are perennially at the top of that list. They’re just not really my thing. But I’ve heard great things about this book–it basically sounds like a zombie-pocalypse Breakfast Club, where six kids are trying to stay alive by holing up in their high school while the zombies try to bust their way in–so I’m giving it a go. Amy + Zombies is going down, guys.

The Académie, by Susanne Dunlap (April 10, 2012 from Bloomsbury). Let me just get this right out in the open: I’m big fan of books set in boarding schools. Something about unsupervised kids running amok really appeals to me. I’m also a big nerdy fan of French history (seriously, the DRAMA is outrageous). This book combines those two things, with an added dash of Napoleonic family bickering and scheming rich girls. Sounds juicy! I really can’t wait to dig in to this one. 

Unbreak My Heart, by Melissa C. Walker (May 22, 2012 from Bloomsbury). I haven’t read anything by Melissa Walker yet, but this one sounds like a good, dramatic contemporary that also touches a little bit on the double-standard between guys who cheat and girls who cheat. That’s always good and infuriating. Also, I really love the idea of the story partially taking place on a boat. Close quarters and all, plus lots of time to spend with family and a new love interest.

Daughter of the Centaurs: Centauriad, book 1, by Kate Klimo (January 24, 2012 from Random House). This one sounds really intriguing. It’s about a girl who is a horse wrangler/hunter and the last human on earth who leads a band of horses. She’s eventually captured by centaurs and then things get down to business. All of that sounds really fresh, and I love reading about horses. (Centaurs! Firenze! This could rock my world. Can’t wait to see the mythology behind them here.) But what interests me the most about this book is that it’s actually not meant to be a fantasy, really, like you might expect. The Goodreads synopsis makes it sound dystopian, saying that the story is set in a future Earth. Really interesting. I hope this is a great start to a new series.

BOUGHT

Witch’s Brew: The Spellspinners of Melas County, book 1, by Heidi R. Kling (January 17, 2012 from Coliloquy). So THIS BOOK. I’ve been waiting and waiting for this one to come out for AGES, and it was finally released this past week. I snapped it right up. Because this isn’t just any old book. It’s kind of a choose your own path sort of story about witches and warlocks and forbidden love and prophecies. I’m reading it right now and it’s FAB. PLUS! This is only the first of TEN BOOKS in this series. Ten! It’s like hunkering down to watch all three extended Lord of the Rings movies back to back to back: I’m giddy with anticipation of the HEAPS of awesome coming my way. 

Arcania: Trial By Fire, book 1, by Liz Maverick (January 17, 2012 from Coliloquy). This is another interactive book from Coliloquy that sounds geek-fabulous. It’s a book about a young girl with “gifts” who gets sucked into this magical MMO-style game while investigating the truth behind her sister’s death. I read a snippet of this one a little while back, and it definitely whet my appetite. Looking forward to this one. 

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord: Throne of Glass, novella 1, by Sarah J. Maas (January 21, 2012 from Bloomsbury). GUYS. It’s highly possible that Sarah J. Maas’ THRONE OF GLASS is near the very top of my most anticipated reads of 2012. Every time I read about it–it’s an epic fantasy retelling of Cinderella, with our girl playing the role of an assassin who gets into a whole heap of drama trying to serve out a sentence for a crime–I just get this feeling that I’m going to love it so hard. I’m excited too that the publisher and the author are putting out two novellas this year featuring Celaena, and one of them–involving a pirate and slave trading and other assorted badassery–just came out today. I can’t WAIT to read it and get myself even more psyched for THRONE OF GLASS to come out in August. Woot!

Did you guys get anything squee-worthy in your mailboxes this week?