books Archives | Page 3 of 12 | Tripping Over Books

In My Mailbox (49) / Stacking the Shelves (4)

Oct 20

October 20, 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! Stacking the Shelves is another weekly meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews. They’re both awesome memes and I love meeting all of you through them!

LOTS of good stuff to shout out, friends! Some awesome-sounding contemporaries and a SUPER sounding MG. All in all, a good week for me, my dears.

NETGALLEY

Amazon | Goodreads

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (March 15, 2013 from St. Martin’s Press). A contemp set in 1986 is always going to snatch my attention right up. I was a super-cool kindergartener in 1986, so I can’t say that I was having serious talks about Bono during that school year, but grown-up Amy is still DYING to read this book. It seriously sounds amazing.

Amazon | Goodreads

Uses for Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt (January 15, 2013 from St. Martin’s Press). Another contemp that sounds pretty stellar. I am really looking forward to reading this one, about a girl with a stinky home life who befriends boys over other girls, and who suffers the brunt of that truly horrible brand of teenage judgement where kids assume a girl who likes to be around boys all the time is a slut. Subvert, Anna!

BOUGHT

Amazon | Goodreads

Lovely, Dark and Deep by Amy McNamara. Sigh. This book sounds like something right up my alley. A girl retreats to the woods (LOVE the woods) to regroup after a horrible car accident and meets a boy there who’s dealing with his own troubles and the two of them connect. Sounds deep. Also, I read the little snippet on the cover flap. Guys? THE WORDS ARE PRETTY.

Amazon | Goodreads

Justin Thyme: The Tartan of Time #1 by Panama Oxridge. Scottish time-traveling, middle grade adventure?!? STOP IT RIGHT NOW.Guys, I’m so excited that I found this book. This book has a CAST OF CHARACTERS page, featuring a Laird of Thyme named Willoughby, a butler named Peregrine Knightly, and a computer-savvy GORILLA (!) named Eliza. ALSO, it has a map/illustration of the castle where Justin, our MC, lives. I DIE A BAZILLION TIMES.

SO STOKED! Hope you guys love your hauls this week!

Filed Under: In My Mailbox, Stacking the Shelves Tagged With: books, IMM, stacking the shelves

In My Mailbox (48) / Stacking the Shelves (3)

Oct 14

October 14, 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! Stacking the Shelves is another weekly meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews. They’re both awesome memes and I love meeting all of you through them!

Got a big pile of MGs this week guys and I. AM. STOKED.

FOR REVIEW

A Thunderous Whisper by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

Amazon | Goodreads

Guys, I’m pretty jazzed about reading this middle grade, friends. It’s about a young girl living in Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. If the name Guernica sounds familiar to you, maybe that’s because Picasso has a pretty famous painting of the bombing of that town, where the town is basically destroyed and tons of people died. So…there’s that. Also, spies. And a couple of young kids who sound brave and awesome. I’m going to be reviewing and blog touring for this one over on Bookalicious.org in November.

The Invisible Tower: The Otherworld Chronicles #1 by Nils Johnson-Shelton

Amazon | Goodreads

In which an Arthurian legend-based video game COMES TO LIFE (I KNOW) and a young kid named Artie finds out that he is the modern incarnation of KING ARTHUR. Guys, there are dragons and Excalibur and Merlin in this book.

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

Amazon | Goodreads

This MG about a young Southern girl is kind of right up my alley. I LOVE books set in the South almost as much as I love books set in places that I know, and Moses LoBeau sounds like one of those sassy, smart young girls that I love to cheer on. Also, her bff is named after Dale Earnhardt. LOVE IT.

The Cloak Society by Jeramy Kraatz

Amazon | Goodreads

Umm, did someone say “elite group of supervillains”? YES PLEASE. This book is about superheroes and the villains they have defeated. That’s right. The MC, Alex, is junior bad guy in The Cloak Society who wants nothing more than to become a grown-up bad guy and use his telekinesis to do bad things. Of course, he befriends a girl from the good side–The Rangers of Justice! God, I love a good league of superheroes–and begins to question everything.

Jake and Lily by Jerry Spinelli

Amazon | Goodreads

This sounds like a super cute MG contemp about two twins, Jake and Lily, and the summer they turn 11, when they start hanging out with other people and dealing with some things. In a humorous, heartwarming way, though. I know I’ve mentioned before that I love reading about brothers and sisters, so I’m looking forward to this one for sure.

Summer of the Gypsy Moths by Sara Pennypacker

Amazon | Goodreads

Friends, give me a book set in a beach town and I’m pretty much in. The fact that this book takes place on Cape Cod is double exciting because I love Cape Cod. It’s so pretty there. This one is about a young girl named Stella who’s living with her Great Aunt while her mother “finds herself” and she befriends a girl there. I’m looking forward to this one, too.

BOUGHT

Amazon | Goodreads

Sean Griswold’s Head by Lindsey Leavitt. Guys, I’ve already read this book and adored it and the way it surprised me. So when it was the kindle daily deal yesterday, I snatched it right up. This is one of those YA contemps that is so much more than you think it will be. This cover up here is the paperback cover. Which is ok. But props for the kids actually LOOKING like the main characters, and I think it’s sweet that he’s kissing her head. ANYWAY, read this one, friends.

NETGALLEY

Amazon | Goodreads

Velvet by Mary Hooper (November 13, 2012 from Bloomsbury). Victorian historical fiction! This one is about a seamstress in Victorian London (I think) who gets hired by a famous medium. Dangerous things ensue. Sounds good!

Hope you guys love what you got in your mailboxes, too!

Filed Under: In My Mailbox, Stacking the Shelves Tagged With: books, IMM, stacking the shelves

In My Mailbox (47) / Stacking the Shelves (2)

Oct 7

October 7, 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! Stacking the Shelves is another weekly meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews. They’re both awesome memes and I love meeting all of you through them!

I’m off today to attend Oktoberfest with my family (as in, we create and host our own and it’s basically THE BOMB), but I wanted to share these goodies with you guys!! Because I’m excited.

NETGALLEY

Amazon | Goodreads

Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool (January 8, 2013 from Delacorte). I have to confess that I still have not read Clare Vanderpool’s Newbery Award-winning MOON OVER MANIFEST. But there’s not much in this book that doesn’t sound super to me, and I’m always on the lookout for great middle grades! So, after WWII, there are these two boys at a school in Maine and one of them sounds a little odd. But they become friends and wind up going on this journey on the Appalachian Trail (a portion of which runs through my town) together.

Amazon | Goodreads

Splintered by A.G. Howard (January 1, 2013 from Amulet Books). I will admit here and now that I’m not the hugest fan of Alice in Wonderland. It was always a little too weird for me. But I can appreciated oddities, friends, and SPLINTERED sounds like it takes the Alice in Wonderland business in a new direction: by keeping it in the family of the girl who inspired Alice from the books, and making her ability to hear flowers and bugs talking to her a curse that runs in her family, all the way down to Alyssa, our MC.

BOUGHT

Amazon | Goodreads

Through to You by Emily Hainsworth. Woot! So excited to have this one, friends, because I’ve been waiting on it for awhile now. It just sounds so twisty and intense and emotional: a story about a guy whose girlfriend dies, only for him to discover a parallel world in which she has not died at all. I’m looking forward to this debut for sure!

Amazon | Goodreads

The Mark of Athena: The Heroes of Olympus #3 by Rick Riordan. Friends, I adore Rick Riordan. His middle grade series about Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythologies are pretty stellar and they have given the world one of the very best heroes in children’s literature, in my opinion: Percy Jackson. This book features the reunion of Percy and his Camp Half-Blood friends, including his gf, Annabeth. The book is humungous–it’s over 600 pages long–but I have no doubt that it’s going to be full of action, heart, and drama.

Hope you guys love what you got in your mailboxes, too!

Filed Under: In My Mailbox, Stacking the Shelves Tagged With: books, IMM, stacking the shelves

Tripping Over October

Oct 1

Five Books I’m Looking Forward to in October

Guys, I LOVE October. You start to get that first hint of nip in the air, the leaves start changing colors. Fall is officially upon us. This October is all of those great things PLUS the release of these five books. I’m stoked.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There (Fairyland #2) by Catherynne M. Valente

Amazon | Goodreads

Guys, the first book in this spectacularly imaginative series was amazing. Vibrant, clever, sumptuous, and pretty much captivating. I’m looking forward to more from September and her friends in Fairyland. I have total faith that Catherynne Valente will blow me away again. (October 2, 2012 from Feiwel and Friends.)

Through to You by Emily Hainsworth

Amazon | Goodreads

I am really looking forward to this book. It’s got some science-fictiony vibes to it, with alternate universes where dead loved ones are alive. It sounds emotionally complicated and clever. (October 2, 2012 from Balzer + Bray.)

Valkyrie Rising by Ingrid Paulson

Amazon | Goodreads

Don’t even tease me with anything Norse-sounding, people. I can’t even deal with how much I love that shizz. This story about a girl visiting family in Norway where her brother is abducted and all kinds of epic mythological shenanigans ensue sounds FUN, and right up my alley. (October 9, 2012 from Harper Teen.)

The Lost Prince (The Iron Fey: The Call of the Forgotten #1) by Julie Kagawa

Amazon | Goodreads

One of these days I’m going to review the original Iron Fey series because it is, hands down, my favorite fairie series of ever. This new series centers around Meghan Chase’s now-grown brother, Ethan. Julie Kagawa can do no wrong with the fairies, friends. (October 23, 2012 from Harlequin Teen.)

The Crimson Crown (Seven Realms #4) by Cinda Williams Chima

Amazon | Goodreads

YOOOO!!! I cannot WAIT to read this book. I have only recently caught up on the first three books in Cinda Williams Chima’s series, but I am so glad that I did. Because it basically rocks my socks. Han and Raisa have a war on their doorstep, not to mention their really complicated feelings for each other. It’s going to be GOOD. I know it. (October 23, 2012 from Hyperion Children’s.)

Filed Under: Tripping Over... Tagged With: anticipation!, books, new releases

In My Mailbox (46) / Stacking the Shelves (1)

Sep 30

September 30, 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! Stacking the Shelves is another weekly meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews. They’re both awesome memes and I love meeting all of you through them!

This week was CRAZY for me, friends, so to say that I needed some good books to brighten things up is basically an understatement. THANKFULLY, I found a few solid cheapies hanging around for both my eyes AND my ears. I’m STOKED. Plus, I’m taking part in some blog tours for books that sound really great, too!

FOR REVIEW/BLOG TOUR

The Gleaning: Spellspinners of Melas County #2 by Heidi R. Kling (October 2012 from Colliloquy). I really enjoyed the first book in this series, WITCH’S BREW. It’s basically a choose-your-own story, although it doesn’t have quite as many choices. But still, AWESOME. Also, I’m a big fan of witches, especially these witches, who are all about natural magic and prophecies and danger and STEAMY TIMES between Lily and Logan. Woot!

Amazon | Goodreads

Conjure: The Hoodoo Apprentice #1 by Lea Nolan (October 16, 2012 from Entangled Publishing). WHAT HOODOO! First of all, that word ALWAYS makes me think of this song (even though they only say “hoodoo” once), which I still know all the words to. But focusing back on the book–a 2012 debut!–is all of the words in the Goodreads synopsis that set off my bells: the South, hoodoo, messages in a bottle, PIRATE BOOTY, curses, hellhounds, WAH AWESOME! So excited about this one. Blog touring this one up on November 5.

NETGALLEY

Amazon | Goodreads

The Madness Underneath: Shades of London #2 by Maureen Johnson (February 26, 2013 from Putnam Juvenile). WHOA. I just saw this on NetGalley and I HAD to request it. THE NAME OF THE STAR was one of the first books I reviewed on my blog and I loved it. I’ve been looking forward to the second book in this series ever since.

BOUGHT

Amazon | Goodreads | Audible

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. I actually just started listening to this one today and, guys? I’m totally hooked already. The narrator, Scott Holst, has a really nice voice, and I’m digging the alternate paranormal history vibe. I’m REALLY looking forward to reading more about how vamps played some major role in the Civil War. I mean, STOP IT.

Amazon | Goodreads | Audible

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy: The Gallagher Girls #2 by Ally Carter. I’m always on the lookout for good audiobooks, now that I’m a card-carrying member of the audio fan club, and I’ve heard really great things about the narrator of this series, Renee Raudman. I’ve heard great things about this series in general, and I liked the first book lots. Because SPIES. Spies, boarding school, secrets, danger, etc. Looking forward to this one, friends.

Amazon | Goodreads

The Bastard: The Kent Family Chronicles #1 by John Jakes. This is a series–the story of a bastard son of an English duke who comes to America before the Revolution and fights with the colonists for their independence–that gives me TINGLES. I will shout my love of historical fictions from Revolutionary America for ever and ever. It’s my favorite time period. So when April @ Good Books and Good Wine dropped the knowledge on me that this book is only $0.99 for kindles right now, I got on that shizz ASAP.

Amazon | Goodreads

The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle. I have been hearing OUTSTANDING things about this book! Amish + vampires = AWESOME? Who knew?! But I’m excited. I’m excited to read this book that manages to take something well-tread–vampires–and puts it in a fresh context–Amish communities.

Hope you guys love what you got in your mailboxes, too!

Filed Under: In My Mailbox, Stacking the Shelves Tagged With: books, IMM, stacking the shelves

In My Mailbox (45)

Sep 23

September 23, 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!

It’s FALL!! HUZZAH!! My favorite season of the year. The leaves are starting to turn, the air is getting crispy, and I’ve had hankerings for pumpkin bread and spiced apple cider. EXCELLENT news, guys. But the start of fall also means something else in my reading life: Maggie Stiefvater. I swear, I read her books during this season ALL THE TIME. Maybe because her books come out this time of year, it seems, but they also feel right being read now, too. I got only one book this week, which I purchased for myself.

BOUGHT

Amazon | Goodreads

The Raven Boys: The Raven Cycle # 1 by Maggie Stiefvater. So I’ve actually already read this one because I was lucky enough to get an ARC at BEA this year. Guys, it was pretty legit. Mysterious and creepy in a way that Maggie’s other books aren’t: a bunch of very different boys from a wealthy private school on the hunt for the burial place of an ancient Welsh king, and the girl daughter of psychics who helps them but is cursed to kill her true love with just one kiss. It’s totally different and really enjoyable. I’ll be reviewing it soon–and giving away my ARC to boot! HOLLA!

Also, some quick bloggy business…

So apparently there was some shizz that went down with Feedburner recently that I was unaware of until yesterday. My apologies! But I went and fixed it right quick, and set up shop at Feedblitz. Alas, even though I migrated my Feedburner feed, I lost all of my feed followers, you precious, beautiful few. I’ve updated my RSS feed link on the sidebar, or you can just click HERE to continue the goodness.

Hope you guys love what you got in your mailboxes, too!

Filed Under: In My Mailbox Tagged With: books, IMM

In My Mailbox (44)

Sep 16

September 16, 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’ve returned to NetGalley my friends. I couldn’t help it. There were good books on there!

NETGALLEY

Amazon | Goodreads

Princess of the Silver Woods: Princess # 3 by Jessica Day George (December 11, 2012 from Bloomsbury). I didn’t realize that this book is the third in a series, but they sound like companion-ish things more than sequential series books, and I’ve got some time to catch up on these fairy tale retellings (HELLO AWESOME!). This one sounds like a mash-up of Little Red Riding Hood and ROBIN HOOD, where the Merry Men are freaking werewolves. I mean…

Amazon | Goodreads

Flash Point by Nancy Kress (November 8, 2012 from Viking Juvenile). Dystopian novel about a future America after a HUMUNGOUS economic collapse where the only work the main character, Amy, can get is as a contestant on a reality TV show. Sounds good. Also a little bit closer to home than other dystopians, and I find that I like those the best. Also, AMY. I can’t resist my namesakes.

Amazon | Goodreads

Sirens: Faithful #3 by Janet Fox (November 8, 2012 from Speak). YO. So Janet Fox has written a couple of historical fictions. I haven’t read any of them yet, but even though this is listed as a series, they aren’t really. (Not that I don’t mean to read them anyway. LOVE historical fiction!) But SIRENS? Friends, 1920s New York with GANGSTERS. Historical fiction with the mob. I DIE. So excited for this one!

Thanks so much to Penguin and Bloomsbury for these books!

I’m so excited for the books I got this week! Hope you guys love what you got in your mailboxes, too!

Filed Under: In My Mailbox Tagged With: books, IMM

Books On Deck

Sep 9

So, for the first week EVER since I started participating, I have no books for In My Mailbox. I didn’t really get any books this past week (well, except for the little gem of a birthday gift at the bottom, courtesy of my sister), and to be honest with you, I kind of needed it. I’ve got LOTS of things to read already! So instead of highlighting books that I received this week, I thought I’d do a little something new and give a shout to the next couple of books on my TBR. I’m sharing partly to geek out over my reads with you all, and partly to try and keep myself on some kind of schedule-ish sort of thing. I don’t usually subscribe to the schedule method because having one will only make me want to deviate from it; I’m WAY to easily distracted by other things, and I like to pick up things that I feel like reading because I know that if I pick up a book that I would usually enjoy but am just not in the mood for, it’ll take me even longer to pick it up again and give it another shot. But, I’ll give it the old college try anyway. So without further ado, the books I’ve got on deck!

Because Tara from Hobbitsies told me I had to. And, well, basically all the other people I know and whose opinions I trust for always. A fantasy this awesome-sounding should not have lingered so long on my TBR, guys. I feel guilty.

The continuing saga of Katiya the necromancer and her life in pre-Revolutionary Russia with ALL the paranormal creatures you could possibly think of. Also, George. But Tsarist Russia? Psh. Obviously I would be in, even if the first book in this series, THE GATHERING STORM, had its issues for me.

Basically because I need to stop TALKING about this book and just read it already. It sounds amazing and different from anything else I’ve ever read, and that is really piquing my interest HARD.

I’m blog touring this one at the end of October, guys, and I’m STOKED. I just love the sound of it, with the gaming angle and the nerdiness. HOLLA, RPGs!!

A middle-grade historical fiction/fantasy with heaps of mythology-based shenanigans and other awesomeness. This is my next MG review for Bookalicious.org, and it’s got so many of the things I love the most. Fingers crossed that it’s super!

Now, for the book that I got this week…

First US Edition of HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

A quick story about this gift: I used to have one of these. My sister lent it to one of her friends a few years ago and she absconded to Virginia with it when she moved. Currently, my sister and this friend are friends no longer, but the girl STILL has my book. All of my Harry Potter books are hardcover, EXCEPT for Chamber of Secrets, which until now, has been a second-hand paperback copy that I got from a friend because she had two copies. A second-hand paperback substituting for a hardcover first edition! I DIE. But not anymore. Huzzah!

Filed Under: Fun Stuff Tagged With: books, tbr

In My Mailbox (43)

Sep 2

September 2, 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!

Yay! My birthday mailbox!! Yes, yes, today is my birthday. When you get to be my age, that loses a little bit of its luster, I have to say. But that doesn’t mean a girl doesn’t still get excited when she gets super-awesome stuff for her birthday, and for me, books have always qualified as “super-awesome.” That being said, just a few things this week, but I’m JAZZED about all of them.

NETGALLEY

Amazon | Goodreads

Shadowlands by Kate Brian (January 8, 2013 from Hyperion Books for Children). This cover…there is just something REALLY awesome about it. Hopefully it contains a book as awesome as its summary sounds: The story of a girl who goes into the witness protection program when a serial killer who tried to off her but failed escapes and is on the loose.

BOUGHT/FOR BLOG TOUR/GIFTED FROM AWESOME PEOPLE

Defiance: Defiance #1 by C.J. Redwine. (Amazon | Goodreads) Fantasy/dystopian about a society where women have legit no power whatsoever, and a young girl must go find her father, accompanied by her “protector”: a young man whom she has confessed some FEELINGS to in the past. I’m really looking forward to reading this one.

The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini (September 25, 2012 from Balzer + Bray). (Amazon | Goodreads) Friends, I’m really excited to be a part of the blog tour for this book. It sounds like a huge nerdgasm. See, this kid who loves to play RPGs finds himself actually SUCKED INTO ONE, and he has to be the hero and save the princess. It’s also a book about not letting your life pass you by while you sit on your ass by yourself, but I’m digging the gaming angle something FIERCE. My date for this tour–complete with a Ned Vizzini guest post AND a giveaway–is October 3.

Stormdancer: The Lotus War #1 by Jay Kristoff (September 18, 2012 from Thomas Dunne Books). (Amazon | Goodreads) EPIC thank you to April from Good Book and Good Wine for sending this ARC my way. I’m incredibly eager to read this Japanese-based steampunk about a young girl and an impossible quest in a dangerous and, quite frankly, gnarly-sounding world. THANK YOU, APRIL!!

I’m so excited for the books I got this week! Hope you guys love what you got in your mailboxes, too!

Filed Under: In My Mailbox Tagged With: books, IMM

Tripping Over September

Sep 1

Five Books I’m Looking Forward to in September

Ahh, September. The end of summer. The beginning of fall. Also, the month I was birthed. Lots of things going on! Not the least of which are the release of these five books, which I am particularly excited about.

The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

Amazon | Goodreads

Honestly, ever since THE SCORPIO RACES became one of my legit favorite books of ever, I’ve been dying to read Maggie Stiefvater’s next book–the first in a new series–THE RAVEN BOYS. Bazillion bonus points because it sounds like some kind of pseudo-Arthurian legend retelling and I CAN’T EVEN DEAL. I love King Arthur legends. (September 18 2012 from Scholastic.)

Hidden (Firelight #3) by Sophie Jordan

Amazon | Goodreads

So this series was my first introduction to dragons. Or, at least, dragon-like creatures. The last we saw of Jacinda and Will and and Cassian, SHIZZ was hitting the fan in the escalating violence between the draki and the hunters: drama, kidnapping, confused emotions, etc. I can’t wait to see how things wind up. (September 11, 2012 from Harper Teen.)

Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Amazon | Goodreads

Umm, teenage murder mystery? TEN sounds seriously spine-tingly good. And I don’t read nearly enough thrillers and mysteries, friends. I used to read TONS, but I feel like this is one kind of genre–a straight-up, non-paranormal mystery–that gets short-shrifted in YA, sadly. So I’m looking forward to this one. (September 18, 2012 from Balzer + Bray.)

Because It Is My Blood (Birthright #2) by Gabrielle Zevin

Amazon | Goodreads

Dystopian chocolate mafiya? Dude, I couldn’t be more in. The first book in this series–ALL THESE THINGS I’VE DONE–was really good. Not perfect, but solidly good, and absolutely engaging enough to keep me invested in the story of Anya Balanchine, daughter of a mob boss in not-too-distant future America. Guys, the Goodreads summary for the second book in this series quotes Michael effing Corleone. The mob angle in this series is so legit. (Although, why is Anya so pale on this cover?) (September 18, 2012 from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.)

Stormdancer (The Lotus War #1) by Jay Kristoff

Amazon | Goodreads

Japanese-based steampunk fantasy about a young girl who must go on a quest to find a mythic creature long believed to be extinct, only to find herself lost and alone and facing danger at every turn. Honestly. And seriously, this girl, Yukiko, must be badass. I die every time I look at that RAGINGLY AWESOME sleeve tattoo. (September 18, 2012 from Thomas Dunne Books.)

Filed Under: Tripping Over... Tagged With: anticipation!, books, new releases