Release Date: October 13, 2015
Source: BEA
Published by: Katherine Tegen

Newt's Emerald - Garth Nix | Goodreads

Lady Truthful will inherit her family’s most valued heirloom on her eighteenth birthday. Until the Newington Emerald is stolen.

Lady Truthful, nicknamed “Newt” by her boy cousins, discovers that to her horror, the people closest to her have been framed for the theft. But Newt won’t let their reputations be damaged by rumors from a false accusation. Her plan is simple: go to London to recover the missing jewel. Despite her best intentions, a young lady travelling alone is frankly unacceptable behavior. So Newt and her aunt devise another plan…one that entails men’s clothing and a mustache.

While in disguise, Truthful encounters the handsome but shrewd major Harnett, who to her amazement volunteers to help find the missing emerald under the assumption that she is a man, Henri de Vienne. But once she and her unsuspecting ally are caught up in a dangerous adventure, Truthful realizes something else is afoot: the beating of her heart.

Truthful has far more than romantic complications to worry about. The stolen emerald is no ordinary heirloom-it is the source of the family’s luck and has the power to yield vast magic. It would be completely disastrous if it fell into the wrong hands. The fate of England depends on Truthful securing the emerald.

A good comparison title is Illusions of Fate by Kiersten White. Although Illusions of Fate is an alternative historical fantasy -- England is never named; the main countries are Albion and Melei -- it feels inspired by a historical England. A similar combination of wit, magic, adventure, and romance are mixed together in this novel as they are with Illusions of Fate, so if you enjoyed one, you may well enjoy the other. Gail Carriger has also blurbed Newt's Emerald, but I regret that I have yet to read her YA spin-off of the Parasol Protectorate, and don't know whether any differences I've noted from Soulless to Newt's Emerald are due to audience alone.

Lady Truthful is a fierce heroine who will stop at nothing to get back her emerald, the family heirloom, and help reassure her father. People will discourage her, remind her that she's a woman and that her reputation cannot be compromised, and still she will fight harder to recover what's rightfully hers. There's an element of cross-dressing that remains realistic (and true to the world) while providing humor and more plot opportunities, and Truthful's aunt is a particular delight as a side character in helping Truthful with her illusion. If you enjoy hate-turned-love romances, you may also enjoy the encounters between Lady Truthful and her love interest, Charles. This book is light fun and easy to read. If all of the above appeals to you, feel free to enter the giveaway below. It's INT and ends 08/07/15.

RAFFLECOPTER FORM IS AT ORIGINAL LINK; sorry!

Hey, everyone! Since I already posted my March / half of April recap, I figured that I'd post a book haul covering what I received for the last half of April and discuss what I've been reading in this latter half. I've received a bunch of books, and I know that I won't be able to read them anytime soon, so I'm passing them onto anyone who's interested in this giveaway.

So my book haul for the latter half of April!

The Orphan Queen - Jodi Meadows | Goodreads
Release Date: March 10, 2015
Published by: Katherine Tegen Books

Wilhelmina has a hundred identities.

She is a princess. When the Indigo Kingdom conquered her homeland, Wilhelmina and other orphaned children of nobility were taken to Skyvale, the Indigo Kingdom’s capital. Ten years later, they are the Ospreys, experts at stealth and theft. With them, Wilhelmina means to take back her throne.

She is a spy. Wil and her best friend, Melanie, infiltrate Skyvale Palace to study their foes. They assume the identities of nobles from a wraith-fallen kingdom, but enemies fill the palace, and Melanie’s behavior grows suspicious. With Osprey missions becoming increasingly dangerous and their leader more unstable, Wil can’t trust anyone.

She is a threat. Wraith is the toxic by-product of magic, and for a century using magic has been forbidden. Still the wraith pours across the continent, reshaping the land and animals into fresh horrors. Soon it will reach the Indigo Kingdom. Wilhelmina’s magic might be the key to stopping the wraith, but if the vigilante Black Knife discovers Wil’s magic, she will vanish like all the others.

Jodi Meadows introduces a vivid new fantasy full of intrigue, romance, dangerous magic, and one girl’s battle to reclaim her place in the world.

• Really enjoyed reading this! I see now why all the reviews mentioned an evil cliffhanger, though I figure the cliffhanger will be less evil than otherwise currently deemed. It's got a nice blend of adventure + spirited heroine + mysterious magic + love/hate romance. I like that they're doing that whole novella prior to sequel marketing thing (was this first introduced with Sarah J. Maas, or is it that I only remember the trend as far as Maas?). I'm interested in knowing more about the character highlighted in the novella, and Jodi Meadows plotted the book so that there's never a moment spent waiting. The very first chapter enables the plotline described in the summary and from there, it's all action. So, it doesn't surprise me that this book is super popular, though I may still like Incarnate more thanThe Orphan Queen because of the philosophical components of Meadows's debut.

City Love - Susane Colasanti | Goodreads
Release Date: April 21, 2015
Published by: Katherine Tegen

Sadie, Darcy, and Rosanna are living together in New York City the summer before their freshman year of college begins. With no parents, no rules, and an entire city to explore, these three girls are on the verge of the best summer of their lives.

Sadie is a native New Yorker. She is hopeful, romantic, and an eternal optimist who is ready to find her soul mate. Then she meets her dream boy: cute, funny, and quirky in all the right ways. The chemistry between them is unreal. Could he be the one?

Darcy is a free spirit from SoCal with rebellious tendencies and unlimited financial resources. Moving to New York City is just another adventure for her. Darcy wants this summer to be all about boy adventures—nothing serious. But how much fun is too much?

Rosanna leaves Chicago for NYC so she can put her past behind her and reinvent herself. The only thing standing in her way is the grand total of seventy-three cents she has saved. Then she meets a guy who wants to show her the glamorous side of New York—a side that she would never get to experience on her own. If Rosanna doesn't resist, she may find herself in city love.

Told from alternating points of view, City Love captures the moments in each girl's life when everything is thrilling, amazing, and terrifying all at once . . . in a way it will never be again.

*Pretty sure I kept mispronouncing her name during this video. Whoops, sorry!

Etherworld - Claudia Gabel and Cheryl Klam | Goodreads
Release Date: March 31, 2015
Published by: Katherine Tegen

In this sequel to Elusion, three teens fight a virtual reality program that threatens to destroy their minds. Dangerous secrets and lies add up to a thrilling futuristic fantasy with an Inception-inspired twist.

Elusion was hailed as an exciting leap in technology—until users began to disappear amid rumors of addiction. Regan’s search for the truth led her and her new love interest, Josh, to Etherworld. Etherworld is a dimension hidden deep beyond Elusion's firewall, where players can hide, and ultimately fight back. Regan's father and others are here working to destroy Etherworld, but the longer they stay the less likely they'll be able to return to the real world alive.

Escape means attacking Elusion from within the program. It's dangerous and it’s a puzzle. And even if they manage it, how will they be able to stop Orexis from distributing Elusion to the masses when the people who run it are corrupt?

Invincible - Amy Reed | Goodreads
Release Date: April 28, 2015
Published by: Katherine Tegen

The Fault in Our Stars meets Go Ask Alice in this dramatic romance about a teenage girl who survives a terminal cancer diagnosis, only to get trapped in the deadly spiral of addiction. Fans of Gayle Forman and Sara Zarr will be swept away by this gritty romance, the first in a duology.

Evie is living on borrowed time. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer several months ago and told that by now she'd be dead. Evie is grateful for every extra day she gets, but she knows that soon this disease will kill her. Until, miraculously, she may have a second chance to live.

All Evie had wanted was her life back, but now that she has it, she feels like there's no place for her in it--at least, not for the girl she is now. Her friends and her parents still see her as Cancer Girl, and her boyfriend's constant, doting attention is suddenly nothing short of suffocating.

Then Evie meets Marcus. She knows that he's trouble, but she can't help falling for him. Being near him makes her feel truly, fully alive. It's better than a drug. His kiss makes her feel invincible--but she may be at the beginning of the biggest free fall of her life.

Wrong about the Guy - Claire LaZebnik | Goodreads
Release Date: April 21, 2015
Published by: Harper Teen

Claire LaZebnik's latest twist on a beloved classic asks the age old question: Could the girl who knows everything be wrong about the guy?

As the stepdaughter of a TV star, Ellie Withers has it all: an amazing house in LA, a devoted friend who loved her before she even knew who Ellie’s stepfather was, and a burgeoning romance with handsome Aaron Marquand. But Ellie isn't the kind of person who’s content with simply having it all—the people in her life have to be equally happy. And, of course, she knows exactly what they need.

When Ellie’s plans for her family, her friends, and even her love life don’t turn out the way she imagined, she begins to wonder if maybe she could stand to learn a thing or two after all. Most surprising, though, is that the perfect person to teach her is the last person she'd expect.

With her signature witty narration and swoon-worthy romance, Claire LaZebnik (the author of fan favorites Epic Fail, The Trouble with Flirting, and The Last Best Kiss) once again breathes new life into a perennially popular love story: Jane Austen’s Emma.

Everything That Makes You - Moriah McStay | Goodreads
Release Date: March 17, 2015
Published by: Katherine Tegen

One girl. Two stories. Meet Fiona Doyle. The thick ridges of scar tissue on her face are from an accident twelve years ago. Fiona has notebooks full of songs she’s written about her frustrations, her dreams, and about her massive crush on beautiful uber-jock Trent McKinnon. If she can’t even find the courage to look Trent straight in his beautiful blue eyes, she sure isn’t brave enough to play or sing any of her songs in public. But something’s changing in Fiona. She can’t be defined by her scars anymore.

And what if there hadn’t been an accident? Meet Fi Doyle. Fi is the top-rated female high school lacrosse player in the state, heading straight to Northwestern on a full ride. She’s got more important things to deal with than her best friend Trent McKinnon, who’s been different ever since the kiss. When her luck goes south, even lacrosse can’t define her anymore. When you’ve always been the best at something, one dumb move can screw everything up. Can Fi fight back?

Hasn’t everyone wondered what if? In this daring debut novel, Moriah McStay gives us the rare opportunity to see what might have happened if things were different. Maybe luck determines our paths. But maybe it’s who we are that determines our luck.

Encore to an Empty Room - Kevin Emerson | Goodreads
Release Date: April 28, 2015
Published by: Katherine Tegen

Summer always wanted Dangerheart—the band of talented exiles she manages—to find success. Now that they've become an overnight sensation, her hard work is really starting to pay off.

So how come her life seems to be snapping like an old guitar string?

Maybe it's because part of her knows that college applications are due soon, but another part of her can't imagine leaving her life behind—especially when the band is on the verge of a record deal and her relationship is becoming something more than she ever dreamed of. And especially when there's a chance of finding another missing song written by the famous dead rocker who is also Caleb's father.

But are Caleb, the band's future, and the lost songs more important than college? Summer will have to decide. It's time to choose who she wants to be, even if that might mean kissing Caleb good-bye.

Filled with infectious music, mystery, and romance, this electrifying sequel to Kevin Emerson's Exile doesn't miss a beat.

Drive Me Crazy - Terra Elan McVoy | Goodreads
Release Date: April 28, 2015
Published by: Katherine Tegen

Buckle up…

Lana and Cassie have met only once before, at the wedding of Lana’s Grandpa Howe and Cassie’s Grandma Tess two months ago. They didn’t exactly hit it off—in fact, depending on who you ask, that first meeting was either an embarrassment or a disaster—but they’re about to spend an entire week together, just the two of them and their honeymooning grandparents, road-tripping in Cassie’s grandmother’s Subaru.

Lana thinks a summer road trip sounds like fun, but the backseat is a crowded place for two tween girls with two huge secrets to hide, and this bumpy road to friendship is full of unexpected twists and turns. Like it or not, they’re in this together, full speed ahead on the adventure of a lifetime.

And I'm currently reading:

BLACK IRIS - Leah Raeder | Goodreads
Release Date: April 28, 2015
Published by: Atria

The next dark and sexy romantic suspense novel from the USA Today bestselling author of Unteachable.

It only took one moment of weakness for Laney Keating’s world to fall apart. One stupid gesture for a hopeless crush. Then the rumors began. Slut, they called her. Queer. Psycho. Mentally ill, messed up, so messed up even her own mother decided she wasn't worth sticking around for.

If Laney could erase that whole year, she would. College is her chance to start with a clean slate.

She's not looking for new friends, but they find her: charming, handsome Armin, the only guy patient enough to work through her thorny defenses—and fiery, filterless Blythe, the bad girl and partner in crime who has thorns of her own.

But Laney knows nothing good ever lasts. When a ghost from her past resurfaces—the bully who broke her down completely—she decides it's time to live up to her own legend. And Armin and Blythe are going to help.

Which was the plan all along.

Because the rumors are true. Every single one. And Laney is going to show them just how true.

She's going to show them all.

If you're at all interested in BLACK IRIS, you should definitely watch the above video! In it, I read the first chapter -- and hey maybe I'm not the best reader, but you can definitely see what a beautiful writer Leah Raeder is even within those first six pages. If you're not hooked, I don't know what to tell you. I'm about 80 pages in and generally very much in awe of Leah Raeder's talent.

But anyway, as to the HarperCollins books, I won't have that much time to read this month :(. Aside from Black Iris, and the other two books I've pre-ordered, I don't think that I can read and review those titles. Even if I could, I still feel that they should be in the hands of someone who's anticipating them more than I am... so giveaway time!

All the above titles -- except for Black Iris and The Orphan Queen -- are up for grabs. INT, ends 05/31. I think that this time, I'm going to only choose one winner and try and shove all those books into one box rather than individually selecting a winner per book. If I can't fit all the books in one box, then I'll do two winners and randomly put books in each box. Sounds fair? Cool!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Release Date: September 23, 2014
Source: Edelweiss
Published by: Katherine Tegen

In a Handful of Dust - Mindy McGinnis | Goodreads

The only thing bigger than the world is fear.

Lucy’s life by the pond has always been full. She has water and friends, laughter and the love of her adoptive mother, Lynn, who has made sure that Lucy’s childhood was very different from her own. Yet it seems Lucy’s future is settled already—a house, a man, children, and a water source—and anything beyond their life by the pond is beyond reach.

When disease burns through their community, the once life-saving water of the pond might be the source of what’s killing them now. Rumors of desalinization plants in California have lingered in Lynn’s mind, and the prospect of a “normal” life for Lucy sets the two of them on an epic journey west to face new dangers: hunger, mountains, deserts, betrayal, and the perils of a world so vast that Lucy fears she could be lost forever, only to disappear in a handful of dust.

In this companion to Not a Drop to Drink, Mindy McGinnis thrillingly combines the heart-swelling hope of a journey, the challenges of establishing your own place in the world, and the gripping physical danger of nature in a futuristic frontier.

Ha, ok, so you're going to notice a bunch of books pubbed around July-August-September that'll get reviews now. I'm catching up, so bear with me :).

In a Handful of Dust is the companion sequel to Not a Drop to Drink. Uniting the books is the world: a futuristic dystopia in which people fight over the scarce supply of water. The world reminds me a lot of a YA The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I was a huge fan of Not a Drop to Drink because of its harshness and the prose, the evocative setting and eerie realism: what if deadly diseases and high medicinal costs make water that scarce? A good part of the world already experiences the reality of unclean, unavailable water. The frightening world is made more real through McGinnis's prose.

In a Handful of Dust takes everything that was awesome about Not a Drop to Drink and amplifies those elements. Though Lucy is a gentler protagonist than Lynn was, Lynn is still quite present in In a Handful of Dust. I saw a few reviews of Not a Drop to Drink which indicated that the reviewers were not pleased with child Lucy/didn't understand Lynn's bond with her; but here that issue is solved - Lucy is no longer a child - and personally, I rather like Lucy and Lynn's mother/daughter/sister/best friend relationship, and how Lucy softens Lynn's edges. The relationship gets further explored in this novel, which makes In a Handful of Dust a brilliant companion to its predecessor.

In IaHoD, there's more action: Lynn fought to defend to her pond thoroughly in Not a Drop to Drink, but that's not half the danger they encounter while road tripping across the United States. There's more of that same frightening world: It's really wonderful to read more about the harsh landscapes and medical concerns (Mindy McGinnis has a.) done a lot of research; b.) made me wonder what's going on in her mind, ha). When I said that it reminded me of a YA The Road, that's because there is some seriously twisted stuff in this book. Creepy desperation made palpable through the water shortage. While The Road is all about the symbolism of the father/son relationship, In a Handful of Dust is about the reality that a post-apocalyptic family would indeed face during such a journey. The stakes of what it means to survive and what you have to do survive are very much increased in this companion novel. With the stakes raised, the character growth feels natural and very much well developed. Plus, Lucy is gentler than Lynn. Some of her inner conflict is different from some of Lynn's concerns in Not a Drop to Drink. These novels still feel rather unconventional in the YA dystopia crowd for their focus on day-to-day survival, and include their own humor to lighten some of the darker edges.

However, the issue I had with Not a Drop to Drink - the pacing - still remains present here. The pacing is perfect for the type of story being told (road trip/post-apocalyptic/bloody/action/dystopia) but again, it was still slow for me personally to read in between the segments of action, where the story was more focused on the smaller elements of the road trip. Also, there's less romance in In a Handful of Dust, which is unfortunate (for me), because I love romance and I particularly liked what Mindy McGinnis had done in Not a Drop to Drink on the romance front.

Hello, everyone! I hope this Monday finds you well. Are you anticipating the release of Stone in the Sky by Cecil Castellucci? You should be! Here are my initial thoughts about the book, and stay tuned for my review next month :). In addition to giving away my ARC of the second Tin Star book, I'm giving away hardcovers of Willowgrove (Hemlock #3) by Kathleen Peacockand Twisted Fate by Norah Olson, which I received from the publisher but which I personally will not have time to read and which y'all should get excited for! YAY FOR MORE BOOKS.

Follow link for giveaway!

WHAAAAAAAAT. My brain feels like it's going to explode after that mindfuck of a climax and cliffhanger. Okay, first things first. This book seems to be very polarizing in the blogging community in the way that Mind Games was and that, to me, is because they're written in similar ways. First person present, sharp writing (except in Elusion, you get more description of the surrounding world, Escapes, etc. because it is more heavily world-building focused than MG is). Huge focus on the thriller aspects, so the plot has to move at a fast pace and there's not much focus on the characters. What backstory you're given for the characters is to provide their motivations in the plot - the only one whose character arc I discerned was Regan, who goes from never wanting to enter Elusion again after her father's death to looking into the very heart of the program so to speak. (Maybe the mom too who stops being as grief-stricken, but she doesn't get much focus). And yet, as with Mind Games, one character relationship is at the forefront: instead of the sister relationship, it is the relationship between father and daughter.

Where Elusion distinguishes itself from other thrillers is in its world-building. As the summary states, Elusion is basically a virtual reality program that Regan's father creates because the world is dying (e.g. acid rain, depletion of oxygen levels, etc.). First off, I really like this idea. Many dystopians focus on how we've destroyed the earth and that's why things are so terrible; there is some element of this in Elusion, but since the father/daughter relationship is at the forefront, it fits that this idea - creating a program to honor the Earth as it once was - runs parallel to Regan honoring her father's memory. This is also an unspecified future - it may even be like an alternate reality type of future, since some elements of the world (e.g. file extensions like WAV) and plot twists (e.g. world-is-addictive; this is easy to see in our lives now with iPhones and certain tech, etc.) are familiar to our every day lives. A future with an Aesop maybe? At any rate, there are a lot, a lot of tech and future oriented terms (e.g. instant communication via smart walls, the transportation, O2 masks, etc.). I was a bit overwhelmed in the beginning, though it got better, and it's obvious how much these authors have thought about this world. Well-researched too. It's a meld of programming and neuroscience, and I actually wasn't bothered by the neuroscience explanations because *science* itself was not portrayed as magical (despite the alternate reality aspect - the addiction aspect counteracts that & also the fact that the authors pinpoint *specific* mechanisms within the body like serotonin release, brain waves, etc. grounds it in a way that some other far-reaching science fiction tales I've read do not) or inherently evil. I don't know much about programming, so though some reviews have brought that up as an issue, I can't say that those elements bothered me. Though they weren't as future oriented as the rest of the world (would file extensions change? I have no idea.), that seemed to fit with Elusion's blend of alternate reality/addiction/future/reality.

As for the plot, there are some plot holes (e.g. we find out information from random people a lot. Like a couple on an elevator, a saleswoman, etc.). The timeline of the story is what confused me the most because at one point, a love interest says that it's only been a week since they've known each other and I literally startled when I read that. I'd been wondering how much time had elapsed but was going along with the story anyway, and the knowledge of only a week felt strange - how did everything happen all at once? I could have also done without the love triangle. There's minimal waffling between romantic interests, but it's always really hard for me to believe in the best-friend-lusting-for-more scenario. At least with regards to the MC not noticing. Just a personal preference. BUT the plot was suspenseful and unpredictable and full of tension in a good way, making me eager to turn the pages because I was actually curious about what would come next -- nothing, of course, like what I had thought, as things were turned on their head, especially in the climax.

If I were to describe the plot and premise, it'd be something akin to "Matched meets These Broken Stars meets Under the Never Sky meets Crewel." Do I think that this book is really like all of those comparisons? No, I am just trying to decide what audience fits this book. The cover designer seems to have been inspired by Matched, certainly, and some of the plot elements are similar. It's got the basic premise of the seemingly ordinary girl uncovering the illusions of her seemingly perfect society. You know how in Matched, it's obvious that there's something wrong with the society? Same thing here. And the love triangle dynamic is similar, though here there's less waffling. The comparison to These Broken Stars comes from the character backstories - the rich girl who's privileged thanks to her father and the poorer military-esque guy uncover a mystery together except privilege doesn't get addressed as much here as it does in TBS. Under the Never Sky: the dangerous effects of virtual reality realms, though here you get to explore the Escapes for yourself more in depth than you do in UtNS. Crewel because the climax and some of the elements about the MC's powers reminded me of this story, and I'm being vague about that reference so I don't spoil anything. So, if you enjoyed those aspects of those books, you may enjoy Elusion. And if you'd want something like Mind Games in a futuristic science fiction setting, you may also enjoy Elusion.

I've been in the mood to write mini reviews, but as always, my reviews never end up remaining as "mini" as I think they will be.