Letterbox Love #92

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:

Fire Colour One, Jenny Valentine (e-proof)

A bold and brilliant novel about love, lies and redemption from award-winning author, Jenny Valentine – one of the greatest YA voices of her generation.

Iris’s father, Ernest, is at the end of his life and she hasn’t even met him. Her best friend, Thurston, is somewhere on the other side of the world.

Everything she thought she knew is up in flames.

Now her mother has declared war and means to get her hands on Ernet’s priceless art collection. But Ernest has other ideas. There are things he wants Iris to know after he’s gone. And the truth has more than one way of coming to light.

I love Jenny Valentine’s books so I’m super excited about this. Thanks Harper Collins!

Subway Love, Nora Raleigh Baskin (paperback)

Laura lives in the 1970s.

Jonas lives in the present.

They meet on the New York City subway.

Though time conspires to keep them apart, sometimes their worlds overlap.

They were meant to be together.

This sounds interesting – thanks Walker!

The Next Together, Lauren James (proof)

A compelling debut about the timelessness of first love

Teenagers Katherine and Matthew are destined to be born again and again. Each time their presence changes history for the better, and each time they fall hopelessly in love, only to be tragically separated.

But why do they keep coming back?

What else must they achieve before they can be left to live and love in peace?

Maybe the next together will be different…

Super excited for this! Thanks Walker!

Darcy Burdock: Oh, Obviously, Laura Dockrill (paperback)

My name is Darcy.

I see the extraordinary in the everyday and the wonder in the wold around me. This is my fourth book and I’m facing some of life’s biggest most important questions.

Will my horrid strict witchy granny make my life a misery for ever?

Will Pork the cat’s real owner turn up and take him away?

Will I survive wearing the world’s most TERRIBLE pyjamas to the school sleepover?

I adore Darcy so I’ll be devouring this as soon as I’ve got this posted finished and ready to go! Thanks RHCP!

Zeroes, Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti (proof)

They call themselves Zerøes.

SCAM: The voice inside him says whatever you want to hear

CRASH: Brings technology to its knees

ANON: Out of sight, out of mind

FLICKER: Can see through anyone’s eyes but her own

BELLWETHER: Focuses the energy of the group on one goal…

Finding one more Zerø.

I’m a huge fan of Scott Westerfeld so I’m seriously looking forward to this – a brilliant surprise from S&S! Thank you!

Chapter 5 Proof Party:

Dreamland, Robert L Anderson (proof)

Dreamland is a stunning debt, part fantasy and part gritty realism, about the think tissue separating our world from the world from the world of dreams and nightmares.

Dea Donahue has been able to travel through people’s dreams since she was six years old. Her mother taught her the three rules of walking: Never interfere. Never be seen. Never walk the same person’s dreams more than once. Dea has never questioned her mother, not about the rules, not about the clocks or the mirrors, not about moving from place to place to be one step ahead of the unseen monsters that Dea’s mother is certain are right behind them.

But when a mysterious new boy comes to town and Dea breaks the rules, the boundary between worlds begins to deteriorate. How can she know what’s real and what’s not?

Sounds cool, huh?

The Return, Jennifer L Armentrout (paperback)

A year ago, Seth made a deal with the gods – and pledged his life to them. Now, Apollo has a task for Seth: one which sees him playing protector over a beautigul, feisty girl who’s strictly off-limits. This assignment might be Seth’s most challenging yet.

Josie has no idea what this crazy hot guy’s deal is, but he arrives in her life just as everything she’s ever know is turned upside down. Either she’s going insane, or a nightmare straight out of ancient myth is heading her way.

Josie can’t decide which is more dangerous: an angry Titan seeking vengeance? Or the golden-eyed, secretive Seth – and the white-hot attraction developing between them.

I have a complicated relationship with Jennifer L Armentrout, but as always, I am intrigued about this.

Red Rising, Pierce Brown (paperback)

The Earth is dying. Darrow is a Red, a miner in the interior of Mars. His mission is to extract enough precious elements to one day tame the surface of the planet and allow humans to live on it. The Reds are humanity’s last hope.

Or so it appears, until the day Darrow discovers it’s all a lie. That Mars has been habitable – and inhabited – for generations, by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. A class of people who look down at Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.

Until the day Darrow, with the help of a mysterious group of rebels, disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside. But the command school is a battlefield – and Darrow isn’t the only student with an agenda.  

Sarah from Sarah’s Reviews practically threw this at me and insisted I read it. And so I will!

Curiosity House: The Shrunken Head, Lauren Oliver and HC Chester (proof)

The book is about, among other things: the strongest boy in the world, a talking cockatoo, a faulty mind reader, a beautiful bearded lady and a nervous magician, an old museum, and a shrunken head.

Blessed with extraordinary abilities, orphans Philippa, Sam and Thomas have grown up happily in Dumfrey’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders. Philippa is a powerful mentalist, Sam is the world’s strongest boy, and Thomas can squeeze himself into a space no bigger than a bread box. The children live happily with museum owner Mr Dumfrey, alongside other misfits. But when a fourth child, Max, a knife-thrower, joins the group, it sets off an unforgettable chain of events.

When the museum’s Amazonian shrunken head is stolen, the four are determined to get it back. But their search leads them to a series of murders and an explosive secret about their pasts.

This sounds like so much fun! It’s also middle-grade which seems to be amazing at the moment.

Gift:

The Dark Light, Julia Bell (paperback)

He looks toward the sky, hands raised. Against the fierce light of the fire he appears as a shadow, hair blowing across his face like strands of wool caught in the hawthorn. ‘He’s coming for his children.’

Rebekah has lived on New Canaan her whole life and has never thought to question the strange beliefs of her community or the extreme teachings of their charismatic leader. But then Alex arrives, with a dark past and a soul that needs saving ad the girls are inexplicably drawn to one another. Soon Rebekah starts to question everything she has ever known, and Alex starts to suspect that she isn’t on the island to be saved, but to be sacrificed…

Thanks lovely Debbie (Snuggling on the Sofa)! This is going to be read for the second LGBT Readathon hosted by Faye (A Daydreamer’s Thoughts) later this month.

Bought:

Air, Lisa Glass (paperback)

What if a summer romance doesn’t end in September?

Last year, one amazing summer was enough to turn Iris’s world upside down. She met the boy of her dreams, the super-talented Zeke, and they set off on a pro-surfing adventure around the globe.

Now, one week in Miami could be enough to tear her life apart.

When Iris and Zeke take a break from competitions to relax on South Beach, Iris feels more than just the draw of the surf pulling Zeke away from her. Could following her heart be the biggest mistake she’s ever made?

So excited for this as I absolutely loved Blue!

In Another Life, Laura Jarratt (paperback)

I need you.

Please come.

Hannah adores her older sister, Jenny – they are the best of friends, but different in every other way. Jenny dreams of leaving the States and flying to the UK to visit the places where their English mother grew up. But Jenny’s dreams turn to a nightmare when she vanishes without a trace.

Hannah and her father arrive in England to a big police investigation. As Hannah gets to know some of Jenny’s friends and acquaintances, she realises that families can hide the biggest secrets of all…

A captivating mix of action and romance from critically acclaimed author Laura Jarratt.

Laura writes wonderful UKYA so I can’t wait to dive into her latest.

Uprooted, Naomi Novik (hardback)

Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travellers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifices, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, ambitious wizard known only as the Dragon, to keep the Wood’s power at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman must be handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as being lost to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows – everyone knows – that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia – all the things Agnieszka isn’t – and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But no one can predict how or why the Dragon chooses a girl. And when he comes, it is not Kasia he will take with him.

My Twitter feed has been flooded with love for this so I succumbed and bought a copy. IT’S BEAUTIFUL.

Sophie