Letterbox Love #89

Letterbox Love is a way to show you all of the lovely, lovely books I’ve gotten in the post, bought and everything else over the last week. Summaries are taken from the cover, or Amazon/NetGalley/Goodreads in the case of e-books, unless otherwise stated. Hosted by Narratively Speaking.

For review:

The Wolf Wilder, Katherine Rundell (proof)

Feodora and her mother live in the snow-bound woods of Russia, in a house full of food and fireplaces. Ten minutes away, in a ruined chapel, lives a pack of wolves. Feodora’s mother is a wolf wilder, and Feo is a wolf wilder in training. A wolf wilder is the opposite of an animal tamer: it is a person who teaches tamed animals to fend for themselves, and to fight and to run, and to be wary of humans.

When the simmering resentment of her neighbours turns to murderous hostility, Feo is left with no option but to go on the run. What follows is a story of survival and adventure, trust and tenacity, and the toughness that the love between mothers and daughters inspire. And, of course, wolves.

This sounds beautiful! Thanks Bloomsbury!

Those Girls, Lauren Saft (e-proof)

Some girls will always have your back, and some girls can’t help but stab you in it.

Junior year, the suburbs of Philadelphia. Alex, Mollie and Veronica are those girls. They’re the best of friends and the party girls of the school. But how well does everyone know them – and really, how well do they know one another? Alex is secretly in love with the boy next door and has joined a band – without telling anyone. Mollie suffers from a popular (and possibly sociopathic) boyfriend and a serious mean streak. And Veronica just wants to be loved – literally, figuratively, physically…she’s not particular. Will this be the year that bonds them forever or tears them apart for good?

In a debut novel that is raw, honest, hilarious and thought-provoking, Lauren Saft masterfully conveys what goes on in the mind of a teenage girl and how often even the closest of friends walk the line between love and hate.

This could be spectacularly good, or spectacularly bad, and I’m looking forward to finding out which! Thanks NetGalley and Poppy.

The Almost King, Lucy Saxon (paperback)

Runaway

Deserter

Adventurer

Dreamer

Aleks Vasin wants to be a hero in Sibrene’s famous army. But Rensav barracks is no place for heroes, let alone a 17-year-old dreamer. It’s brutal, corrupt and violent. Ithout money or powerful friends, Aleks won’t survive. In a bid for freedom, he heads far, far north, to the great city of Syvana, where skyships roam the heavens a boy who doesn’t want to be found can stay hidden – until he meets a girl, and an inventor, and then danger finds him…

Thanks Bloomsbury! Now I know how much people loved Take Back the Skies so I’ll definitely be giving this a shot – apparently it can be read as a standalone.

Won:

Sookie Stackhouse boxset 1-10 & 13, Charlaine Harris (PB and HB)

Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in a little bar in Bon Temps, a small town deep in Louisiana. She’s funny and pretty and well-mannered, but she doesn’t have that many close friends – mind you, that’s not so surprising when you consider how few people appreciate her abilities as a mind reader. It’s not a quality that has the guys beating down her door – well, unless they’re vampires or werewolves or the like…but they’re not just supernatural freaks, some of them are friends, even family…

I won this glorious lot in an Instagram giveaway from Gollancz – thank you! It’s a gorgeous boxset and I’m really looking forward to sinking my teeth in (pun intended).

Bought:

All Played Out, Cora Carmack (e-book)

First person in her family to go to college? CHECK

Straight A’s? CHECK

On track to graduate early? CHECK

Social life?..yeah, about that…

With just a few weeks until she graduates, Antonella DeLuca’s beginning to worry that she hasn’t had the full college experience. (Okay. Scratch that. She knows she hasn’t had the full college experience…).

So Nell does what a smart, dedicated girl like herself does best. She makes a “to-do” list of normal college activities.

Item #1? Hook up with a jock.

Rusk University wide receiver Mateo Torres practically wrote the playbook for normal college living. When he’s not on the field, he excels at partying, girls, and more partying. As long as he keeps things light and easy, it’s impossible to get hurt…again. But something about the quiet, shy, sexy-as-hell Nell gets under his skin, and when he learns about her list, he makes it his mission to help hr complete it.

Torres is the definition of confident (and sexy. And wild), and he opens up a side of Nell that she’s never known. But as they begin to check of each crazy, exciting, normal item, Nell finds that her frivolous list leads to more than she bargained for. And while Torres is used to taking risks on the field, he has to decide if he’s willing to take the chance when it’s more than just a game.

Together they will have to decide if what they have is just part of the experiment or a chance at something real.

I really do enjoy Cora Carmack’s books – a guilty pleasure!

Stray, Rachel Vincent (e-book)

The difference between the movies and reality?

In real life, I was the monster. Faythe Sanders looks like a normal student, but she's hiding a dark secret: she is a werecat, a powerful supernatural predator. Yet headstrong, independent Faythe resents her power, heading to college to escape her family and her overprotective ex, Marc. 

That is until a stray - a dangerous werecat without a pride or territory - catches her scent. With two werecat girls already missing, Faythe is summoned home for her own protection. But Faythe will do whatever it takes to find her kidnapped kin. She has claws - and she's not afraid to use them. 

I've wanted to read this for years so I grabbed it when the series went on Kindle Daily Deal yesterday.    

Sophie