Books I'm Stalking

Writing has not come easily today, peeps. In fact, it hasn't come at all. 

Yeah, I know all about "pushing through" and giving myself permission to write crap. But there's a wind storm outside that's blowing my yard around, my stepdaughter's room is patiently (ha!) awaiting paint, and the internet is just one click away.  

Dangerously close.

I spent a little time reading YA book reviewer blogs today and in addition to gaining appreciation for each of their insight, I amassed quite the dream list of "coming soon" books. Here's a quick run down of YA novels I'm stalking...

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Laini Taylor

Pub date: September 27, 2011

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war. Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.
When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Uh? Sign me up, please! I first read a review of this on the Reading Teen blog and have been stalking bookstores ever since - I must have it. 

Silence

Becca Fitzpatrick

Pub date: October 4, 2011

The noise between Patch and Nora is gone. 

They've overcome the secrets riddled in Patch's dark past...bridged two irreconcilable worlds...faced heart-wrenching tests of betrayal, loyalty and trust...and all for a love that will transcend the boundary between heaven and earth. 

Armed with nothing but their absolute faith in one another, Patch and Nora enter a desperate fight to stop a villain who holds the power to shatter everything they've worked for—and their love—forever.

Give me Patch over Edward ANY day! I loved Hush, Hush and Crescendo. LOVED.

The Scorpio Races

Maggie Stiefvater

Pub date: October, 2011

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die. 

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them. Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

Let's face it - Stiefvater could re-write the phone book and I'd read it. I'm not quite ready to let go of Mercy Falls, but anything with this author's name on it has my pre-stamp of approval.

Second Skin

Judith Graves

Pub date: October, 2011

With FIENDS Like Eryn…

Eryn struggles to resist the beast clawing at her soul as darkness settles over her like a second skin. She’s made a deal, and she can’t let a dead man down. Not unless she wants her friends and family to relocate – six feet under.

When Eryn and her crew each face their own demons, loyalties are tested and temptations abound. Can she share a future with the brooding, noble, human Alec – the hunter after her heart? Or will she succumb to her enemy’s son, Wade, a seductive predator as bloodthirsty as she is?

What happens when you’re both the beauty and the beast?

That's a VERY good question, Judith. Can't wait to find out!

Shatter Me

Tahereh Mafi Pub date: November 2011

Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days. The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old-girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color. The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now. Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

I thought I was immune to hype surrounding this book until I read this review. Now, I must have.

Sweetly

Jackson Pearce

Pub date: Available now!

Twelve years ago, Gretchen, her twin sister, and her brother went looking for a witch in the forest. They found something. Maybe it was a witch, maybe a monster, they aren’t sure—they were running too fast to tell. Either way, Gretchen’s twin sister was never seen again. 

Years later, after being thrown out of their house, Gretchen and Ansel find themselves in Live Oak, South Carolina, a place on the verge of becoming a ghost town. They move in with Sophia Kelly, a young and beautiful chocolatier owner who opens not only her home, but her heart to Gretchen and Ansel. Yet the witch isn’t gone—it’s here, lurking in the forests of Live Oak, preying on Live Oak girls every year after Sophia Kelly’s infamous chocolate festival. But Gretchen is determined to stop running from witches in the forest, and start fighting back. Alongside Samuel Reynolds, a boy as quick with a gun as he is a sarcastic remark, Gretchen digs deeper into the mystery of not only what the witch is, but how it chooses its victims. Yet the further she investigates, the more she finds herself wondering who the real monster is, and if love can be as deadly as it is beautiful.

Uh, what the... How have I NOT bought this book yet? *puts in call to hubby to FIND. IT*

Ok, peeps. What have I missed? If I *must* say goodbye to summer, the pain is immeasurably eased by the awesome line-up of YA books slated for this fall. Wouldn't you agree?

- Dawn