DISTRICT YA: June 2012

Saturday, 30 June 2012

Cover Reveal - SEVER By Lauren DeStefano

Not only is Lauren DeStefano's Chemical Garden series of books amazing to read, they are also STUNNING to look at. I would quite happily have the covers up on my wall as pictures, they are that beautiful and interesting. The last book 'SEVER' has had its cover reveal and once again is a treat to the eyes.

Once again the cover is full of little pieces that will all be intrinsic to the story, but you won't find out how until we read the book. It can't come soon enough!

Friday, 29 June 2012

Review - SHIFT By Em Bailey

"There were two things everyone knew about Miranda Vaile before she'd even started at our school. The first was that she had no parents - they were dead. And the second was that they were dead because Miranda had killed them."

Olive used to be the school queen-bee. But that was before her breakdown. Now she's the class loner, and can only watch as new girl Miranda latches on to Olive's ex-best friend Katie. Soon Miranda is talking like Katie, dressing like Katie - even going out with Katie's boyfriend.

And then Katie dies. Everyone seems to believe it was a tragic accident, but OIive isn't so sure. What if the wild rumours are true? What if Miranda really is a killer...?" taken from Goodreads

I was instantly intrigued when I first heard about Shift. Although the idea may have been done in a fashion before, for me it was new and the idea highly appealed to me.

The cover is fantastic and so applicable to the story. I love how the face created with the different parts kind of fit. Very clever work there!!

This is a great suspense builder of a read. Every page you read you find out a little, but never quite enough so that you aren't questioning where is the story going next.

There are constant mentions of an incident which really had me wondering what is it?? It kept me dying for more!!

What I didn't expect from the story was an element of paranormalcy. It was an inclusion that I greatly appreciated as I am a huge paranormal fan, so I was extremely happy.

About mid way through the book there is a BIG reveal - I was in complete shock by it. I didn't see it coming at all, but I have to say when I read it, everything pieced together and I saw it quite obviously.

I was seriously creeped out by the character of Miranda. She is the epitome of the nightmare person for me. And so when you read characters swarming round her I couldn't help but want to scream NO STAY AWAY!!!

I have to say with the added pieces that I didn't expect this was a very different reading experience to what I was expecting, but that made it all the more enjoyable for me, although I was left with several lingering questions. I wonder if these will ever be addressed??

This is a hugely addictive, suspenseful read that had me gripped!!

Rating 4 Out Of 5

Published In The UK By Electric Monkey

This Can Be Purchased HERE and from all good book sellers

NB - For Anyone in the South East London area SHIFT is the July Book club read for Waterstones YA Reading Group

Wednesday, 27 June 2012

Books That Make Me Go Oooooh (48) The Raven Boys By Maggie Stiefvater

Waiting On Wednesday is a brilliant book blog feature hosted by Breaking The Spine

The Raven Boys By Maggie Stiefvater
Published In The UK By Scholastic
Due For Release September 2012
Amazon LINK
Goodreads LINK

"Blue has spent the majority of her sixteen years being told that if she kisses her true love, he will die. When Blue meets Gansey's spirit on the corpse road she knows there is only one reason why - either he is her true love or she has killed him. Determined to find out the truth, Blue becomes involved with the Raven Boys, four boys from the local private school (lead by Gansey) who are on a quest to discover Glendower - a lost ancient Welsh King who is buried somewhere along the Virginia ley line. Whoever finds him will be granted a supernatural favour. Never before has Blue felt such magic around her. But is Gansey her true love? She can't imagine a time she would feel like that, and she is adamant not to be the reason for his death. Where will fate lead them" taken from Amazon

I'm sure many of you will know I am a HUGE Maggie fangirl, so the promise of new writing from her is enough to get me going Oooooh. But then with synopsis' like that I know I am in for a treat!!

Sunday, 17 June 2012

Letterbox Love (7)

Letterbox Love Is Hosted By The Fabulous Lynsey over at Narratively Speaking. Its a fun way for us to showcase our weeks new books here in the UK

Book links will take you to Amazon UK

Yippee I actually made it back on a consecutive week, I am surprised myself. I just got two books this week, but both fab surprises!!

FOR REVIEW

From Simon And Schuster

Losing Lila By Sarah Alderson

Eeeee I am SO excited for this one!! I am dying to know what happens next with Lila and Alex!!

From Atom

Snow White & The Huntsman

To be honest I wasn't that eager to get this book, but last weekend I got to see the movie (and in DBox!!) and LOVED it!! Pretty excited by this gorgeous book!! The pull out poster is fab too

HUGE Thanks to those that sent me books this week!!

Friday, 15 June 2012

Cover Reveal - FINALE By Becca Fitzpatrick

The eagerly awaited final part to the Hush Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick is set for release this year. Throughout all the books, I think its safe to say there has been a hell of a lot of cover lust and the final book is no exception. What are your thoughts??

I love that its more like Nora is taking the lead with this cover. I wonder what this means for the story??

Wednesday, 13 June 2012

Books That Make Me Go Oooooh - POLTERGEEKS By Sean Cummings

Waiting On Wednesday is a brilliant book blog feature hosted by Breaking The Spine

Poltergeeks By Sean Cummings
Published In The UK By Strange Chemistry
Due For Release 4th October 2012
Amazon LINK

15-year-old Julie Richardson is about to learn that being the daughter of a witch isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. When she and her best friend, Marcus, witness an elderly lady jettisoned out the front door of her home, it’s pretty obvious to Julie there’s a supernatural connection.

In fact, there’s a whisper of menace behind increasing levels of poltergeist activity all over town. After a large-scale paranormal assault on Julie’s high school, her mother falls victim to the spell Endless Night. Now it’s a race against time to find out who is responsible or Julie won’t just lose her mother’s soul, she’ll lose her mother’s life.

I must admit I have absolute cover lust for this one. That is just the coolest cover I have seen in some time. Thankfully the story sounds just incredible though. I can't wait to get this beauty!!!

Tuesday, 12 June 2012

SHIFT BLOG TOUR - What Makes A YA Novel A YA Novel?

When the lovely people at Electric Monkey Books asked me to be a part of the Shift blog tour I was thrilled. I'm currently reading the book and am totally addicted, desperate to know what happens next. And then getting the opportunity to have Em Bailey write something for my blog was just too awesome to pass up. Here is her fantastic post......

What makes a YA novel a YA novel?

When I was a teenager YA didn’t really exist in the way that is does today. But even then there were books that felt different somehow - ones which focused on adolescent characters who did and discussed things I’d never read about in any other books. These books had an aura of “the forbidden” about them – which of course made them all the more alluring. You hid them at the bottom of your school bag to pull out only when no one else was around and discussed them in hushed tones in the school grounds. I remember being particularly riveted by Go Ask Alice – the (supposedly) factual first person account of a teenage girl's descent into drug addiction. This book scared the life out of me as a thirteen-year-old, because the narrator seemed so normal at the start, so much like me.

And then there were the Judy Blume books – ones like Forever and Tiger Eyes where the characters actually slept together! These books remain fixed in my memory in a way that few ‘grown-up’ books have done since. They were instructional too – providing me with information that I was way too shy to actually ask anyone. Their very existence (and the fact that it took a three week wait to get them from the library) was deeply comforting. Other people clearly had the same questions that I did.

Since then of course the whole YA category has expanded dramatically, now covering seemingly topic imaginable. Even so, I didn’t really consider writing one myself until I’d already written a number of books for younger readers. And then one day a character started forming in my head – a teenage girl who could seemingly take on the appearance and personality of anyone around her – and I knew that she belonged in a YA novel.

Then I started wondering what a YA novel was exactly and how did it differ from literature for younger or older readers? Even after finishing Shift I’m still not entirely sure. In general terms I guess you could say that a YA novel is one written for teenagers and about teenagers. YA novels are often told in the first person, creating an intimate, personal feeling and the slightly pared-back language pushes the plot to centre stage. But none of these characteristics are true of all YA novels because the category is so broad and covers so many genres. Vampire romances, historical fiction, gritty realism – anything goes with YA. To be honest I’m not even sure what genre my own novel is exactly. Supernatural mystery? Psychological thriller? Luckily, YA allows for endless variations and permutations.

YA has been recently criticised for a perceived trend towards darkness (insert link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303657404576357622592697038.html). Perhaps there is an abundance of less-than-cheery themes in recent novels but I honestly believe that when most YA authors explore such topics they do it to cover issues that are pertinent to their readership. I would suggest that they also generally offer ways through the bleak times. Novels aimed specifically at adults seem to do this far less frequently and I think it’s this offering of hope and sense of solidarity that makes YA so appealing to readers – even ones who are technically not in the YA demographic.

One of the things I loved about working on Shift was how it allowed me to push things – characters, plot - much further than I could when writing a younger title. I felt almost giddy with the possibilities suddenly open to me. This is not to say that I don’t still love writing for a younger audience, because I do. But writing YA with the endless opportunities it offers – well, I can see how it could easily become an addiction.

Sunday, 10 June 2012

Letterbox Love (3 to 6)

Letterbox Love Is Hosted By The Fabulous Lynsey over at Narratively Speaking. Its a fun way for us to showcase our weeks new books here in the UK

Book links will take you to Amazon UK

Not going to lie I've not been around for quite some time. Life just got in the way for a while and for some reason I couldn't handle the thought of trying to fit in blogging. I'm now going to make a real effort to sort myself out and get back to some normality.

FOR REVIEW