"Waiting on" Wednesday

"Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



This week's selection is:

THE COLLECTOR
By: Victoria Scott
Published By: Entangled Teen
Release Date: April 2, 2013
Preorder the Book: Amazon

Goodreads Summary: He makes good girls...bad.

Dante Walker is flippin’ awesome, and he knows it. His good looks, killer charm, and stellar confidence have made him one of hell’s best—a soul collector. His job is simple: weed through humanity and label those round rears with a big red good or bad stamp. Old Saint Nick gets the good guys, and he gets the fun ones. Bag-and-tag.

Sealing souls is nothing personal. Dante’s an equal-opportunity collector and doesn't want it any other way. But he’ll have to adjust, because Boss Man has given him a new assignment:

Collect Charlie Cooper’s soul within ten days.

Dante doesn't know why Boss Man wants Charlie, nor does he care. This assignment means only one thing to him, and that’s a permanent ticket out of hell. But after Dante meets the quirky Nerd Alert chick he’s come to collect, he realizes this assignment will test his abilities as a collector…and uncover emotions deeply buried.



Why it's wanted:
This book has gotten some great early buzz. Besides, who can resist a bad boy?

Teaser Tuesday (73)

I'm very excited to be one of the many blogs participating in Teaser Tuesdays! TT is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. To participate:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
(Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"My voice came from his mouth, disconcerting as always. 'I could ask you the same thing. Are you here to kill me?'"


p. 31 from PARANORMALCY by Kiersten White
Please share your teasers - post them or link to your blog!

Opening Lines (14)

Opening Lines is a new feature here on Portrait of a Book that showcases the first lines of recent and/or upcoming releases. If you're looking for your next read, let these first lines help you decide!



THINGS I CAN'T FORGET
By: Miranda Kenneally
Published By: Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: March 1, 2013
Buy the Book: Amazon

Kate has always been the good girl. Too good, according to some people at school—although they have no idea the guilty secret she carries. But this summer, everything is different…

This summer she’s a counselor at Cumberland Creek summer camp, and she wants to put the past behind her. This summer Matt is back as a counselor too. He’s the first guy she ever kissed, and he’s gone from a geeky songwriter who loved The Hardy Boys to a buff lifeguard who loves to flirt…with her.

Kate used to think the world was black and white, right and wrong. Turns out, life isn’t that easy…

"Girls like me do not buy pregnancy tests."


LET THE SKY FALL
By: Shannon Messenger
Published By: Simon Pulse
Release Date: March 5, 2013
Buy the Book: Amazon

Franny's supposed to be working this summer, not flirting. But you can't blame her when guys like Alex and Harry are around. . . .

A broken past and a divided future can’t stop the electric connection of two teens in this “charged and romantic” (Becca Fitzpatrick), lush novel.

Seventeen-year-old Vane Weston has no idea how he survived the category five tornado that killed his parents. And he has no idea if the beautiful, dark-haired girl who’s swept through his dreams every night since the storm is real. But he hopes she is.

Seventeen-year-old Audra is a sylph, an air elemental. She walks on the wind, can translate its alluring songs, and can even coax it into a weapon with a simple string of commands. She’s also a guardian—Vane’s guardian—and has sworn an oath to protect Vane at all costs. Even if it means sacrificing her own life.

When a hasty mistake reveals their location to the enemy who murdered both of their families, Audra’s forced to help Vane remember who he is. He has a power to claim—the secret language of the West Wind, which only he can understand. But unlocking his heritage will also unlock the memory Audra needs him to forget. And their greatest danger is not the warriors coming to destroy them—but the forbidden romance that’s grown between them.

"I'm lucky to be alive."


UNREMEMBERED
By: Jessica Brody
Published By: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux (BYR)
Release Date: March 5, 2013
Buy the Book: Amazon

When Freedom Airlines flight 121 went down over the Pacific Ocean, no one ever expected to find survivors. Which is why the sixteen-year-old girl discovered floating among the wreckage—alive—is making headlines across the globe.

Even more strange is that her body is miraculously unharmed and she has no memories of boarding the plane. She has no memories of her life before the crash. She has no memories period. No one knows how she survived. No one knows why she wasn’t on the passenger manifest. And no one can explain why her DNA and fingerprints can’t be found in a single database in the world.

Crippled by a world she doesn’t know, plagued by abilities she doesn’t understand, and haunted by a looming threat she can’t remember, Seraphina struggles to piece together her forgotten past and discover who she really is. But with every clue only comes more questions. And she’s running out of time to answer them.

Her only hope is a strangely alluring boy who claims to know her from before the crash. Who claims they were in love. But can she really trust him? And will he be able to protect her from the people who have been making her forget?

From popular young adult author Jessica Brody comes a compelling and suspenseful new sci-fi series, set in a world where science knows no boundaries, memories are manipulated, and true love can never be forgotten.

"Today is the only day I remember."


WHEN WE WAKE
By: Karen Healey
Published By: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: March 5, 2013
Buy the Book: Amazon

My name is Tegan Oglietti, and on the last day of my first lifetime, I was so, so happy.

Sixteen-year-old Tegan is just like every other girl living in 2027--she's happiest when playing the guitar, she's falling in love for the first time, and she's joining her friends to protest the wrongs of the world: environmental collapse, social discrimination, and political injustice.

But on what should have been the best day of Tegan's life, she dies--and wakes up a hundred years in the future, locked in a government facility with no idea what happened.

Tegan is the first government guinea pig to be cryonically frozen and successfully revived, which makes her an instant celebrity--even though all she wants to do is try to rebuild some semblance of a normal life. But the future isn't all she hoped it would be, and when appalling secrets come to light, Tegan must make a choice: Does she keep her head down and survive, or fight for a better future?

Award-winning author Karen Healey has created a haunting, cautionary tale of an inspiring protagonist living in a not-so-distant future that could easily be our own.

"My name is Tegan Oglietti. One of my ancestors was a highway-man, and another was a prince."



Do any of these opening lines grab your attention? What are your favorite first lines that you've read lately?

Review and Giveaway: Notes from Ghost Town by Kate Ellison

NOTES FROM GHOST TOWN
By: Kate Ellison
Published By: Egmont USA
Release Date: Feb. 12, 2013
Series: None
Pages: 336
Genre: Mystery / Paranormal
Reading Level: Young Adult
Source: Publicist
Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads Summary: They say first love never dies...

From critically acclaimed author Kate Ellison comes a heartbreaking mystery of mental illness, unspoken love, and murder. When sixteen-year-old artist Olivia Tithe is visited by the ghost of her first love, Lucas Stern, it’s only through scattered images and notes left behind that she can unravel the mystery of his death.

There’s a catch: Olivia has gone colorblind, and there’s a good chance she’s losing her mind completely—just like her mother did. How else to explain seeing (and falling in love all over again with) someone who isn’t really there?

With the murder trial looming just nine days away, Olivia must follow her heart to the truth, no matter how painful. It’s the only way she can save herself.



I really enjoyed Kate Ellison's first novel, The Butterfly Clues. It was a mystery that really revolved around the characters, and that was the case in Notes from Ghost Town as well. Even though the mystery was present, it was Olivia's journey that made the book memorable.

"I thought that all my mourning and pining for Stern meant that there was no room for another person. But maybe the heart is an organ on constant-ready, always waiting to try again, always open to the next best thing."

Olivia Tithe never expected to lose her best friend and first love. But she did. In the aftermath of everything, Olivia fears that she's losing her mind, just like her mother did. She's going colorblind, finding herself trapped in the "Gray Space" her mother always talked about, and she's powerless to stop it, powerless to bring Stern back, powerless to help her mother. Until Stern's ghost appears to her and says that the police have the wrong killer. As Olivia works to uncover the true person behind the murder, she finds herself caught up in emotional struggles she wasn't prepared for - trying to come to terms with her father's new marriage, trying to hold on to Stern, trying to move forward like everyone tells her to, all while trying to stay sane. Time is running out, and if she isn't careful, Olivia could end up losing everything - even herself.

"I stare up with him at that same blackness, the bigness of it spinning all sorts of strange philosophies through my head. All the usual, corny stuff about how small we all are and how far the ocean goes and how getting swallowed up in the unendingness of it all is both the loneliest sensation in the world and also the most comforting."

Notes from Ghost Town left me with mixed feelings. I already knew that I enjoyed Kate Ellison's writing, and the opening of the book was so striking, that I expected to love it. However, I kept finding myself pulled out of the story by little things, even though I wanted to be engrossed in it. It was fairly easy to guess the actual murderer early on, and although I had been excited to see the ghost element incorporated, it somehow didn't turn out to be what I hoped for. Her losing her sight and her seeing Stern never seemed to be connected, and I wish that those could have been integrated more.

Beyond the mystery element, however, the story was very emotional. Olivia had an overwhelming amount of change to deal with, and I sympathized with her through everything, especially her fighting her lingering feelings for Stern with her growing crush on Austin as well as her colorblindness impacting her ability to do art. Yet Olivia was stronger than she gave herself credit for, and I appreciated this. Even though she was struggling, and even though she was tempted to push everyone away, she still wanted to help her mother when everyone said she could no longer be helped, and despite the issues she had with her stepmother-to-be, she always loved Wynn, her future stepsister. But what really made this book was the writing, the inner monologue and insights that Olivia had. When I felt myself being pulled out of the story, the more introspective moments would pull me back in again. Everything else aside, these moments alone would make the book worth reading.

"You remember that it is important to be alive because there is love, even if you cannot touch it with your hands or your lips. There is love."

Although it is a paranormal mystery, Notes from Ghost Town is, at its heart, a book about the power of love - the strength it has, the strength it gives, and the importance of giving, receiving, and allowing love into your life. Kate Ellison certainly has a memorable way with words, and I'll look forward to seeing what she writes next.






~GIVEAWAY~
I am very excited to have one hardcover copy of Notes from Ghost Town and one paperback copy of Kate Ellison's previous book, The Butterfly Clues, to give away! Please note that the book will be coming directly from the publisher; please allow ample time for the book to arrive if you win.

The contest is open to residents of the US and Canada only. Must be 13 to enter. Please see my Contest Policy for more information.

This contest will close on Friday, March 15 at 12:01 AM.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

"Waiting on" Wednesday

"Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



This week's selection is:

THE PROGRAM
By: Suzanne Young
Published By: Simon Pulse
Release Date: April 30, 2013
Preorder the Book: Amazon

Goodreads Summary: In Sloane’s world, true feelings are forbidden, teen suicide is an epidemic, and the only solution is The Program.

Sloane knows better than to cry in front of anyone. With suicide now an international epidemic, one outburst could land her in The Program, the only proven course of treatment. Sloane’s parents have already lost one child; Sloane knows they’ll do anything to keep her alive. She also knows that everyone who’s been through The Program returns as a blank slate. Because their depression is gone—but so are their memories.

Under constant surveillance at home and at school, Sloane puts on a brave face and keeps her feelings buried as deep as she can. The only person Sloane can be herself with is James. He’s promised to keep them both safe and out of treatment, and Sloane knows their love is strong enough to withstand anything. But despite the promises they made to each other, it’s getting harder to hide the truth. They are both growing weaker. Depression is setting in. And The Program is coming for them.



Why it's wanted:
I've heard great things about Suzanne Young's writing, and this book sounds really interesting. I'm curious how things work out for Sloane!

Teaser Tuesday (72)

I'm very excited to be one of the many blogs participating in Teaser Tuesdays! TT is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. To participate:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
(Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"Maybe the Chicksaw Tribe was right. Maybe this land is where heaven meets the earth.

The last things I draw before going to meet my campers are the laugh lines around Matt's eyes and mouth."


p. 81 (ARC) from THINGS I CAN'T FORGET by Miranda Kenneally
Please share your teasers - post them or link to your blog!

Snapshot Musings: A "New Adult" Perspective

One of my blogging goals for 2013 was to have more discussion posts. I've said this for a long time, but somehow never quite write them. Having Snapshot Musings will hopefully encourage me to post more than just book reviews and regular memes. Some posts may be long, some short, and some mainly asking for opinions of fellow bloggers. If there's any topic you'd like to see featured, feel free to email me with the idea!



There has been a lot of discussion about New Adult books lately, and the validity of the genre. Although I've read a few of these posts, and I fully support New Adult books, I know that it's hard to sell them. So I was surprised to stumble across Losing It stocked at Barnes and Noble yesterday when I was there. This is a New Adult book I hadn't heard of before, but after seeing it, I've added it to my to-read list. So why all of the issues with new Adult? Is New Adult just simply Young Adult with more sex? A lot of people have offered opinions, including Parajunkee, Lady With Books, and Julie at Bloggers[heart]Books. (This is by no means an exhaustive list, but just a few posts I've come across.) Even though "new adult" seems to be the current buzzword, the genre doesn't seem to be growing in popularity. But in my opinion, this "genre" is one that deserves to be developed like YA was. Here are a few of the arguments against New Adult:

• New Adult isn't new.

No, it's not. Books about twenty-somethings have been written for a long time, from Chloe Neill's Chicagoland Vampire series to Nicholas Sparks' Dear John to Tammara Webber's Easy. Technically Trish Doller's Something Like Normal is NA, and Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampire series begins with a college freshman, even if Claire is only sixteen at the time. These books have been successful with a wide audience, some teens, some adults.


• New Adult is an age category, not a genre.

I can agree with this, but at the same time, "young adult" and "middle grade" are also age categories. These classifications might imply that certain things likely will (or will not) be found there, but different genres - contemporary, paranormal, fantasy, dystopian - are found within these different age groups. Why should new adult be any different?


• New Adult has no shelving place in stores.

Neither did YA at one time. It wasn't that long ago that all children's books were lumped together in major bookstores like Barnes and Noble. It has only been recently that the teen books have been given so much of their own shelf space. In some ways, I think it's like the saying, "If you build a city, they will come." If New Adult books are shelved, they can attract readers. If the books are denied publication, they can't. As long as most NA books are limited to ebooks and not displayed, potential readers will miss them. Simple as that.


• New Adult is just YA with more sex.

Actually, there's already a genre about sex. It's called romance. (Yes, I know that not all romance books have sex, but stick with me.) NA has more sex because the possibility of having more sex is there. NA has more sex because it's realistic that college-age students could have more experience with it than high school students. NA has more sex because at that point, the characters are legal adults and so authors can't be accused of "setting a bad example." But that isn't the reason for NA, at least not for every author or every story.

But there are also some very positive things about New Adult:

• New Adult allows new stories to be told.

Some stories simply don't work with teenage characters; likewise, some don't work with middle-aged characters. With NA, authors have so much freedom. Are the characters in college? Recently graduated? A couple of years post-graduation and realizing that where they are now didn't match their five-year plan? The possibilities are endless and exciting.


• New Adult reaches a new group of people.

I love YA books. I truly do. But at the same time, I'm not in high school. I don't necessarily want to relive those memories just yet, and I still remember exactly how it felt to fall in love for the first time. Conversely, I'm not "settled." I don't have to juggle a family and a career, I'm not a mom who feels stifled by her choices, I'm not going through a divorce and trying to reclaim myself. As much as I love YA, I started reading it because it was relatable in a way general fiction was not. (The fact that I also read paranormal romance is another thing altogether.) However, if there were more NA books, I think I would read more of them. I want to read about characters going through the same thing I am - how you know that you made the right decision once you start your career, what it's like to find "the one" (because let's face it, the complete infatuation and even love that's in YA books isn't the same thing as being ready to accept a marriage proposal), or even what happens when you watch your friends get married and you're the last single holdout. Yes, I'm sure these books are out there. And if they had the same community/marketing/shelf space that YA had, I can only imagine that NA could grow in popularity over the next few years like YA has.

In short, I hope that NA continues to flourish and grows into something close to what YA has. Given the talented YA writers that are out there, I can only imagine what awesome NA stories are waiting to be told, and I know I want to be reading them.



What are your thoughts on New Adult as a genre? Have you read any New Adult books that you loved? What makes them stand out from YA or general fiction?

Opening Lines (13)

Opening Lines is a new feature here on Portrait of a Book that showcases the first lines of recent and/or upcoming releases. If you're looking for your next read, let these first lines help you decide!



ALSO KNOWN AS
By: Robin Benway
Published By: Bloomsbury Juvenile US
Release Date: Feb. 26, 2013
Buy the Book: Amazon

Being a 16-year-old safecracker and active-duty daughter of international spies has its moments, good and bad. Pros: Seeing the world one crime-solving adventure at a time. Having parents with super cool jobs. Cons: Never staying in one place long enough to have friends or a boyfriend. But for Maggie Silver, the biggest perk of all has been avoiding high school and the accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple locker combinations.

Then Maggie and her parents are sent to New York for her first solo assignment, and all of that changes. She'll need to attend a private school, avoid the temptation to hack the school's security system, and befriend one aggravatingly cute Jesse Oliver to gain the essential information she needs to crack the case . . . all while trying not to blow her cover.

"I cracked my first lock when I was three."


THE TROUBLE WITH FLIRTING
By: Claire LaZebnik
Published By: Harper Teen
Release Date: Feb. 26, 2013
Buy the Book: Amazon

Franny's supposed to be working this summer, not flirting. But you can't blame her when guys like Alex and Harry are around. . . .

Franny Pearson never dreamed she'd be attending the prestigious Mansfield Summer Theater Program. And she's not, exactly. She's working for her aunt, the resident costume designer. But sewing her fingers to the bone does give her an opportunity to spend time with her crush, Alex Braverman. If only he were as taken with the girl hemming his trousers as he is with his new leading lady.

When Harry Cartwright, a notorious flirt, shows more than a friendly interest in Franny, she figures it can't hurt to have a little fun. But as their breezy romance grows more complicated, can Franny keep pretending that Harry is just a carefree fling? And why is Alex suddenly giving her those deep, meaningful looks? In this charming tale of mixed messages and romantic near-misses, one thing is clear: Flirting might be more trouble than Franny ever expected.

"When Jasper Snowden's parents divorced, Jasper got to stay in the bedroom in the big house he'd always lived in, while his parents took turns living there with him."


DUALED
By: Elsie Chapman
Published By: Random House Books for Young Readers
Release Date: Feb. 26, 2013
Buy the Book: Amazon

You or your Alt? Only one will survive.

The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life.

Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her.

Elsie Chapman's suspenseful YA debut weaves unexpected romance into a novel full of fast-paced action and thought-provoking philosophy. When the story ends, discussions will begin about this future society where every adult is a murderer and every child knows there is another out there who just might be better.

"I've buried nearly everyone I love."


REVENGE OF THE GIRL WITH THE GREAT PERSONALITY
By: Elizabeth Eulberg
Published By: Point
Release Date: March 1, 2013
Buy the Book: Amazon

A hilarious new novel from Elizabeth Eulberg about taking the wall out of the wallflower so she can bloom.

Don't mess with a girl with a Great Personality.

Everybody loves Lexi. She's popular, smart, funny...but she's never been one of those girls, the pretty ones who get all the attention from guys. And on top of that, her seven-year-old sister, Mackenzie, is a terror in a tiara, and part of a pageant scene where she gets praised for her beauty (with the help of fake hair and tons of makeup).

Lexi's sick of it. She's sick of being the girl who hears about kisses instead of getting them. She's sick of being ignored by her longtime crush, Logan. She's sick of being taken for granted by her pageant-obsessed mom. And she's sick of having all her family's money wasted on a phony pursuit of perfection.

The time has come for Lexi to step out from the sidelines. Girls without great personalities aren't going to know what hit them. Because Lexi's going to play the beauty game - and she's in it to win it.

"Applying butt glue to my sister's backside is, without question, not the first way I'd choose to spend a weekend."



Do any of these opening lines grab your attention? What are your favorite first lines that you've read lately?

Saturday Steals

Looking for a good weekend read? Check out these deals for Kindle books. Happy reading!

For $1.99



For $2.99

Month in Review: February

February might be a short month, but it marked some firsts for me - I wrote my first discussion posts and finally started the Vampire Academy series. March is already turning into a busy month, but I'm hoping it will be filled with great reads too! But in the meantime, here's what happened in February.

Books Reviewed:

The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis
Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Stork by Wendy Delsol
Boundless by Cynthia Hand
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Smart Girls Get What They Want by Sarah Strohmeyer
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead


Snapshot Musings

This post series features discussions on a variety of topics - namely whatever bookish things are on my mind. One of my blogging goals for 2013 was to have more discussion posts, and this feature is how I'm holding myself accountable.

Instant Blogger, Just Add Coffee
Pick a Book, Any Book


Opening Lines:

This feature showcases the first lines of upcoming or recent releases each week. Hopefully it will inspire a new read!

Opening Lines 9 (Week of Feb. 3)
Opening Lines 10 (Week of Feb. 10)
Opening Lines 11 (Week of Feb. 17)
Opening Lines 12 (Week of Feb. 24)


Fast Five:

Currently Reading: Notes from Ghost Town by Kate Ellison / Wicked Nights by Gena Showalter
Favorite February Read: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Most Anticipated March Release: Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger / Lover At Last by J.R. Ward
Total Books Read This Year: 12
Reading Next: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein


What did your February look like? What books are you most excited about for March?