Shiver - Maggie Stiefvater

Shiver - Maggie Stiefvater

Pages: 434
Publisher: Scholastic
Release Date: 5th October 2009

Other Titles by This Author: Lament: The Faerie Queen‘s Deception, Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie

The pack circled around me, tongues and teeth and growls.

When a local boy is killed by wolves, Grace’s small town becomes a place of fear and suspicion. But Grace can’t help being fascinated by the pack, and by one yellow-eyed wolf in particular. There’s something about him - something almost human.

Then she meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away…

A chilling love story that will have you hooked from the very first page.

I absolutely loved Shiver. It’s lyrical, beautifully written and drew me in from the very first page.

The relationship between Sam and Grace was sweet and believable. It moved at apace that fit with the restraints that were put on the story by Sam’s nature. The lyrical way that Maggie Stiefvater writes pulled me into the story and I connected with Sam and Grace instantly and Mercy Falls was also described so vividly that I could picture exactly where Sam and Grace were standing.

As those of you who read my blog regularly will know; I love books written in split narrative. Grace is a strong and likeable character and I loved reading how Sam’s view of her compared to her own. And Sam, well, what to say about him? I love him? He’s gorgeous? He’s perfect for Grace? I really liked how Maggie Stiefvater gave him such depth; there was more to him than just being a werewolf.

I don’ know that many different versions werewolf lore, but I think that Shiver’s lore is particularly clever. Being a supernatural creature usually enhances and extends life in YA fiction, but not in the case of the wolves of Mercy Falls. The control of temperature and the differences between wolf Sam and human Sam made Shiver truly individual.

I loved reading Shiver, even when it made me cry, and I can’t wait to find out what happens to Grace and Sam in Linger.

Sophie

I'd also like to say a huge thank you to everyone who follows me as I've now reached 200 followers. So thank you to all my followers and everyone who comments on my posts.

How to Be Bad - E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski and Lauren Myracle

How to Be Bad - E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski and Lauren Myracle

Pages: 321
Publisher: Harper Teen
Release Date: 1st May 2009

Vicks is the wild child whose boyfriend has gone suspiciously quiet since he left for college; Mel is the newcomer desperate to be liked; and Jesse will do anything to avoid a life-altering secret. Each one has her own reason for wanting to get out of their nowheresville town, even just for the weekend. So they climb in Jesse’s mom’s “borrowed” station wagon and head south.

Hearts will be broken, friendships will be tested, and a ridiculously hot stranger could change the course of everything.

How to Be Bad is a fun story about family, friends and an ancient stuffed alligator.

The three-way split narration told the stories of three very different girls. Vicks is bright and spunky, Jesse is very religious and a little uptight and Mel is quiet and eager to be liked. All three added different dimensions to the story with their opposing characters and backgrounds. The only one of the girls I didn’t like was Jesse. She was far too religious and preachy for me to gel to her.

With the three girls written by three distinctly different authors, every teenage girl will be able to identify with bits of all three of them. So many teenage dilemmas were faced by Vicks, Jesse and Mel. Serious illness, the need to fit in and be liked, sibling rivalry and long-distance relationships are just a few of them.

I love books about road trips. Everything about them appeals to me, from singing along to the radio to the utter freedom of it to the wacky stops you make along the way. I’d love to do one myself, New York to LA preferably! Maybe one day…

While not one of my favourites, How to Be Bad is an easy, enjoyable read from three brilliant authors.

Sophie

Crazy Beautiful - Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Crazy Beautiful - Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Pages: 193
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Release Date: 7th September 2009

Other Titles by this Author: The Sisters Eight series, Angels Choice, Secrets of My Suburban Life etc.

I would give a lot to see that smile again, directed at me. It may not be much, but I would give everything I’ve got.

In an explosion of his own making, Lucius blew his arms off. Now he has hooks. He chose hooks because they were cheaper. He chose hooks because he wouldn’t outgrow them so quickly. He chose hooks so that everyone would know he was different, so he would scare even himself.

Then he meets Aurora. The hooks don’t scare her. They don’t keep her away. In fact, they don’t make any difference at all to her.

But to Lucius, they mean everything. They remind him of the beast he is inside. Perhaps Aurora is his Beauty, destined to set his soul free from his suffering.

Or maybe she’s just a girl who needs love just like he does.

A modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Lauren Baratz-Logsted’s Crazy Beautiful strips away the original tale to get to it’s essence, revealing the truth about forgiveness, redemption, and the power of love.

Crazy Beautiful is a brilliant retelling of one of my favourite fairytales.

Aurora and Lucius were younger than I expected them to be. They were only fifteen whereas I assumed that they would be seventeen or eighteen. This gave Crazy Beautiful an innocence that lots of YA doesn’t have. It was a short, sweet story of first love perfect for younger teens.

When I began Crazy Beautiful I thought that Aurora was too perfect; beautiful, clever, kind and patient. And she was all of those things, but as more was revealed about her, I began to like her regardless. Lucius was by far my favourite character, though. He was just so interesting! His closed-off nature only intensified the mystery and intrigue surrounding him. But Lucius and Aurora together were the perfect fit; they complemented each other beautifully.

Other than the obvious, there weren’t many blatant similarities to Beauty and the Beast. the only ones that I can think of are Jessup, Crazy Beautiful’s version of Gaston, and the names Aurora Belle and Lucius Wolfe.

Crazy Beautiful is a quick, but beautifully written, book and I look forward to reading more of Lauren Baratz-Logsted’s books in the future.

Sophie

In My Mailbox 37

This meme was started by the fabulous Kristi who was inspired by Alea. If you want more information check out their blogs. All summaries are from the book jackets.

The Dresskeeper - Mary Naylus

Have you ever pretended to be someone else?

Picky Robson thought things couldn’t get any worse. Her life is a boy-free zone, she’s being bullied at school, then Mum announces she has to look after Gran every weekend for the foreseeable future. One night, unknowingly tempting fate, Picky slips into a flouncy old dress from the depths of an ancient chest and finds herself back in 17th Century London.

But she is not alone. A weirdo in a wig is trying to kill her - mistaking her for a girl called Amelia.

Who is Amelia? Can Picky change the past by exposing the murdered? And will she make it back alive?

Thanks to Prospera Publishing for sending me a review copy of this. You can see my review here.

Ice - Sarah Beth Durst

When Cassie was little, her grandmother told her stories about the Arctic…about frost and snow, and a beautiful castle made of ice, and about her mother, who made a deal with the Polar Bear King. But Cassie is older now and has no time for fairytales and talking animals, or lies about her dead mother.

But when Cassie comes face to face with a mysterious polar bear, one that defies all scientific fact or knowledge, she begins to realise that the fairytales could actually be true. Discovering that her mother may still be alive, Cassie makes her own deal with the Polar Bear King, embarking on a dangerous journey to save her. But the deal comes with consequences she never bargained for, and before her journey’s end, Cassie will discover the true meaning of family, and of loss and love.

A fantastic surprise from Simon and Schuster. I’m really looking forward to this.

Out of Shadows - Jason Wallace

From Amazon: 'If I stood you in front of a man, pressed a gun into your palm and told you to squeeze the trigger, would you do it?' 'No, sir, no way!' 'What if I then told you we'd gone back in time and his name was Adolf Hitler? Would you do it then?' Zimbabwe, 1980s The war is over, independence has been won and Robert Mugabe has come to power offering hope, land and freedom to black Africans. It is the end of the Old Way and the start of a promising new era. For Robert Jacklin, it's all new: new continent, new country, new school. And very quickly he learns that for some of his classmates, the sound of guns is still loud, and their battles rage on ...white boys who want their old country back, not this new black African government. Boys like Ivan. Clever, cunning Ivan. For him, there is still one last battle to fight, and he's taking it right to the very top.

A surprise from Anderson Press. I’m not sure if it’s really my thing but I’ll give it a go.

Wake - Lisa McMann

Not all dreams are sweet.

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people’s dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie’s seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

She can’t tell anybody about what she does - they’d never believe her, or worse, they’d think she was a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn’t want and can’t control. Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else’s twisted psyche. She is a participant…

Another surprise from Simon and Schuster. I’ve already read and reviewed the US version here.

Sophie

Featured on Friday: Sarah Ockler

Sarah Ockler lives in Upstate New York with her husband. Sarah has a degree in communication and studied Creative Writing through Denver’s Lighthouse Writers Workshop. Twenty Boy Summer is her first novel.

1. Is there a specific time or place that you do your best writing in?
I usually write in my home office on the desk that my husband built me. It's customized, shorty-style, just for me. :-) I'm pretty productive in there, but sometimes, my desk gets really messy (hmmm... how did THAT happen?) and then, when there's no non-tipping, non-sliding space to set my laptop, I migrate out to the living room couch. Either way, I'm definitely a late night writer. I just think more creatively once the sun goes down. (Yes, I'm a vampire. Are you listening, Edward Cullen?!)

2. Who were your favourite authors as a teenager? Are they different to your current favourites?
When I was a teen, I really didn't know much about YA literature. I alternated between smuggling home steamy romance novels from the library with my girlfriends and reading the collection of books left on my grandmother's shelves when she passed away. Grandma was really into horror and medical thrillers, so back then, I read a lot of Stephen King, Robin Cook, and V.C. Andrews. Some of my favorite books at that time were the Flowers in the Attic series. Creepy and awesome!

Now, my favorite authors are Jack Kerouac, Anais Nin, Tom Robbins, Sarah Dessen, Melina Marchetta, Laurie Halse Anderson, J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, Libba Bray, Laura Resau... and tons of new authors from the 2009 Debutantes at http://feastofawesome.com/. I love authors! :-)

3. If you were only allowed to take three books to a desert island, what would they be?
This changes sometimes, but currently, I'd pick:
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
And maybe The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

4. What inspired you to write Twenty Boy Summer?
I was inspired to write Twenty Boy Summer while working for the National Donor Family Council (http://www.donorfamily.org/), an organization that supports families whose loved ones died and donated organs or tissues. I wanted to share and honor the stories of the teens I met through the Council's programs and events who'd lost a brother, sister, or friend. Their courage and hope remains with me to this day, even years later. They are never far from my heart.

5. Do you have a place like Zanzibar is for Matt and Frankie that you visited every summer when you were younger ?
No -- I was more like Anna with the family who didn't travel. :-) But I did go to Myrtle Beach two summers in a row with my best friend and her family, and I traveled to places like California, Maine, and Massachusetts later in my life. All of these ocean-view places inspired the setting of Zanzibar Bay

6. Sea glass is an important element of Twenty Boy Summer. Do you collect it yourself? Why do you like it so much?
Yes, I collect it. I've always collected it -- since I was a kid. I've got jars of it all over my office and to this day I can't go to the beach without walking the shore, head down, pockets filling up. I love how each piece is a mystery -- like, what was this thing before it was broken? Who did it belong to? What did it look like? How did it get here? And I also love how sea glass is so unique and beautiful and special, even though it's no longer whole.

7. Anna and Frankie are both very different characters. Which are you most like?
Anna. I am soooo not the big sparkly butterfly type. I'm very introspective and analytical and shy in real life until I get to know someone. Anna and I have the same hair, too. :-)

8. Are you working on anything at the moment? Can you tell us anything about it?
My next novel, Fixing Delilah Hannaford, comes out in Fall 2010.

Here's a quick summary:
Stuck in Vermont all summer with her workaholic mother, a Tarot-card-reading aunt, and a childhood friend who thinks he can fix anything, sixteen-year-old Delilah Hannaford confronts her elusive family history to expose the secrets that have defined and divided the Hannafords for three generations.

Thanks for interviewing me, Sophie! :-)

Thank you very much, Sarah! You can visit Sarah at her website here and read my review of Twenty Boy Summer here.

Sophie

The Dresskeeper - Mary Naylus

The Dresskeeper - Mary Naylus

Pages: 238
Publisher: Prospera Publishing
Release Date: 30th November 2009

Have you ever pretended to be someone else?

Picky Robson thought things couldn’t get any worse. Her life is a boy-free zone, she’s being bullied at school, then Mum announces she has to look after Gran every weekend for the foreseeable future. One night, unknowingly tempting fate, Picky slips into a flouncy old dress from the depths of an ancient chest and finds herself back in 17th Century London.

But she is not alone. A weirdo in a wig is trying to kill her - mistaking her for a girl called Amelia.

Who is Amelia? Can Picky change the past by exposing the murdered? And will she make it back alive?

The Dressmaker is an enchanting historical mystery sprinkled with magic. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Picky was a lot younger than I expected her to be. I saw a lot of myself at thirteen in her actually: snappy, grumpy and fed up with homework! But it was when she annoyed me that I got worried! Her slip-ups in and reactions to 17th century society had me giggling to myself throughout.

The historical detail in The Dresskeeper is meticulous. All of the outfits were beautifully described and the sounds and smells of old London were brought back to life to the point where I could almost imagine myself riding in a Hackney carriage and picking up my court dress from my seamstress.

As well as all of the magical time-travelling, The Dresskeeper dealt with a modern teenagers worries such as bullies, self-image, broken families and money troubles. They were interweaved into the story subtly without making them the focus of the novel. A brilliant mix of fantasy and reality.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Dresskeeper and I’m looking forward to reading Mary Naylus’s second novel, The Plaguemaker, when it’s released next year.

Sophie

Paper Towns - John Green

Paper Towns - John Green

Pages: 305
Publisher: Dutton Books
Release Date: 16th October 2008

Other Titles by this Author: Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines (my review)

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life - dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge - he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues - and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew.

Printz-medalist John Green returns with the brilliant wit and searing emotional honesty that have inspired a new generation of readers.

John Green’s third novel, Paper Towns, is just as clever, witty and funny as his previous two. I loved it.

It’s no secret that I love fantastical, mythical guys in my books, but the normal ones can be pretty cool too. Q, Ben and Radar are your average senior boys whom who see everyday and exchange smiles with, but rarely actually stop to talk to. All three guys were clever, funny, and had tendencies towards being rude and a little disgusting, though strangely endearing.

The other main character in Paper Towns, Margo, is a completely different story. An absolute mystery to Q, Ben, Radar and Lacey. I loved seeing where all the clues she left for Q took the four of them and lead to the next. Her pranks and schemes were ingenious. I wish I was that cool! Though being Margo would be pretty tough. She’s not at all who anyone thinks she is.

Paper Towns was incredibly deep and thoughtful, with a suitably complex plot. There were so many messages about life and people that I agreed with, it wasn’t all preachy, however. I know I’ve said this before; but Paper Towns is so cleverly written and constructed and I really did love reading it.

I can’t wait to read John Green’s collaboration with David Levithan, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, when it’s released next April.

Sophie

In My Mailbox 36

This meme was started by the fabulous Kristi who was inspired by Alea. If you want more information check out their blogs. All summaries are from the book jackets.

My Dad went to the States last week and I asked him to get a few books for me. And he did!

Candor - Pam Bachorz

Everything is perfect in the town of Candor, Florida.

Teens respect their elders, do their chores, and enjoy homework…because they’re controlled by subliminal messages.

Oscar Banks, the son of the town’s founder, is the model of perfection: class president, top student, shining example. But it’s only a disguise. Unlike all the other Candor teens, he knows about the Messages, and he fights them with his counter programming.

Only Oscar knows how to get kids out of Candor - for a price. Nobody suspects that he smuggles the richest new kids out of town before they change. It’s risky: if Oscar were caught, he’d be sent straight to the Listening Room, where the most resistant kids are wiped clean.

When Nia moves into town, Oscar is smitten by her tart attitude and ability to see through his perfect-boy front. He can’t stand to see her changed by the Messages. Now he must decide to help Nia escape Candor and lose her forever, or keep her close and risk exposure.

Intertwined - Gena Showalter

There’s something about the new guy at Crossroads High…

Most sixteen-year-olds have friends. Aden Stone has four human souls living inside him:
One can time travel.
One can raise the dead.
One can tell the future.
And one can possess another human.

With no other family and a life spent in and out of institutions, Aden and the souls have become friends. But now they’re causing him all kinds of trouble. Like, he’ll blink and suddenly he’s a younger Aden, reliving the past. One wrong move, and he’ll change the future. Or he’ll walk past a total stranger and know how and when she’d going to die.

He’s so over it. All he wants is peace.

And then he meets a girl who quiets the voices. Well, as long as he’s near her. Why? Mary Ann Gray is his total opposite. He’s a loner; she has friends. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks; she tries to make everyone happy. And while he attracts the paranormal, she repels it. For her sake, he should step away. But it’s too late…

Somehow they share an inexplicable bond of friendship. A bond about to be tested by a werewolf shape shifter who wants Mary Ann for his own, and a vampire princess Aden can’t resist. Two romances, both forbidden. Still, the four will enter a dark underworld of intrigue and danger - but not everyone will come out alive…

Swoon - Nina Malkin

Sin is coming…
Prepare to swoon.

Torn from her native New York City and dumped in the land of cookie-cutter preps, Candice is resigned to accept her posh, dull fate. Nothing ever happens in Swoon, Connecticut…until Dice’s perfect, privileged cousin Penelope nearly dies in a fall from an old tree and her spirit intertwines with that of a ghost. His name? Sinclair Youngblood Powers. His mission? Revenge. While Pen is oblivious to the possession, Dice is all too aware of Sin. She’s intensely drawn to him - but not at all crazy about the havoc he’s wreaking.

Determined to exorcise the demon, Dice accidentally sets Sin loose, gives him flesh, makes him formidable. Now she must destroy an even more potent - and irresistible - adversary before the whole town succumbs to Sin’s will. Only trouble is, she’s in love with him.

What do you do when the boy of your dreams is too bad to be true?

I’m so am so unbelievably excited to read all three of these! I’ve been waiting to read them for a long time.

Sophie

Fallen - Lauren Kate

Fallen - Lauren Kate

Pages: 452
Publisher: Doubleday
Release Date: 17th December 2009

Other Titles by this Author: The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove (12/11/09)

Daniel’s gaze caught hers, and her breath caught in her throat. She recognised him from somewhere. But she would have remembered meeting someone like him. She would have remembered feeling as absolutely shaken up as she did right now.

But what do you do when the person you’ve spent your whole life looking for keeps slipping out of your grasp? What if the person who are meant to be with can never be yours?

Dangerously addictive and darkly romantic, Fallen is the ultimate gothic love story - a page-turning thriller about fallen angels.

Fallen is everything I like in a book: mystery, elements of the supernatural and a compelling forbidden love. It was addictive.

This book blew me away. I found myself eager to get home so that I could read more and unwilling to put it down for even a second when I did. Lauren Kate has a beautiful, fluid writing style filled with intricate descriptions that made Fallen utterly compulsive. There were some parts of the book that nothing much happened in, but it didn’t matter. I was frantically trying to add up the clues and get some answers so it didn’t feel slow at all.

Fallen was full of mystery. I wanted to know what the shadows were, what happened the night Trevor died, but mostly, what all of the characters did to get themselves stuck in reform school! Although a few of the mysteries were resolved near the end, I still have loads of questions - mostly surrounding Daniel!

I really loved Daniel. He was gorgeous, mysterious, infuriating and utterly irresistible. but the other boy in Luce’s life, Cam, was so overly nice he put me on edge. Yes, I’m paranoid like that! He just seemed a little too good to be true. Arriane and Penn were awesome. Their quirky coolness set them apart from the usual best friend characters. I want to be friends with them!

Fallen is one of the best books that I’ve read in a long time and I’m literally aching for Torment, the next book in the series.

Sophie

Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld

Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld

Pages: 434
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release Date: 6th October 2009

Other Titles by This Author: Uglies (my review), Pretties (my review), Specials (my review), Extras (my review), Parasite Positive (my review), The Last Days (my review), The Midnighters Trilogy

Two opposing forces on the brink of war.

The Clankers - who put their faith in machinery - and the Darwinists - who have begun evolving living creatures into tools.

Prince Aleksander, the would-be heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, comes from a family of Clankers, and travels the country in a walker, a heavily-fortified tank on legs.

Deryn Sharp, a girl disguised as a boy, works for the British Empire, crewing an airship made of living animals, the ultimate flying machine.

Now, as Alek runs from his own people, and Deryn crash-lands in enemy territory, their lives are about to collide…

Leviathan was everything I’ve come to expect from Scott Westerfeld’s books: original, beautifully written and utterly fantastic.

The first thing that I have to mention about Leviathan is Keith Thompson’s illustrations. They are amazing - so much detail! They really enhance the story and fill your mind with the most incredible images of the Clanker machines and the Darwinist fabrications that I know will stay with me for a very long time. When I finished Leviathan, I even flicked back through the book taking in my favourite illustrations again.

Leviathan introduced me to a whole new genre. Steampunk. I had to look it up to see what it was when I first heard Leviathan being described as a steampunk novel! I don’t think that I could have been introduced to the genre by a better author. Leviathan was a fantastic mix of the past and future; blurring the lines of history, science and fantasy. Having studied WW1 I was reasonably familiar with the historical facts, but I didn’t expect the appearance of some of the figures that popped up in Leviathan or the way that Scott Westerfeld cleverly twisted history to fit his world.

Scott Westerfeld held a subtle grip on my attention throughout. The adrenaline-fuelled fights, the revealing of monstrous machines and creatures, and the secrets. I spent most of the second half of the novel waiting for Alek to discover Deryn’s secret, Deryn to discover Alek’s secret and both of them to find out just what Dr Barlow was up to. But not in an annoying way, in an ‘I-must-read’ way!

You can probably tell that I loved Leviathan and that I’m really looking forward to reading Behemoth next year, the second in the series. I’ve got a long time to wait, though!

Sophie

The Dragon Book - edited by Jack Dunn and Gardner Zubois

The Dragon Book - edited by Jack Dunn and Gardner Dozois

Pages: 433
Publisher: Anderson Press
Release Date: 5th November 2009

From Amazon: In this unmissable collection, the biggest names in Fantasy reignite the fire of these legendary beasts with stories that will consume your imagination. Magical! "The Dragon Book" has stories from Garth Nix, Tad Williams, Jonathan Stroud, Tamora Pierce, Diana Wynne Jones, Sean Williams, Greg Maguire and many others.

The Dragon Book is a collection of dragon stories from some of the best-known and most-loved modern fantasy authors.

Before reading this, the only dragons that I’d ever read about were the ones in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire so I was surprised at the variety of dragon lore that I encountered in the stories of The Dragon Book. Some breathed fire, some spoke, some were worm-like and some were household pests. I loved reading about the dragons that most contradicted my previous ideals about them. Some of my favourite stories were Vici by Naomi Novik, The Dragon of Direfell by Liz Williams, Oakland Dragon Blues by Peter S. Beagle and Puz_le by Gregory Maguire.

Each story was so different from the last, and for some of them I found it hard to engage with the story. It felt like it took me forever to read The Dragon Book and the constant change from Ancient Rome to modern California to a made up fantasy world made me have to force myself to read it at times. I think that The Dragon Book will be best appreciated by dipping in and out of the stories so that you can value each one for their awesomeness.

The Dragon Book is a brilliant collection of tales of magic and myth, a must for fans of dragons and fantasy.

Sophie

Featured on Friday: Sarah Rees Brennan

Sarah Rees Brennan was born and raised in Ireland, but moved to New York after her degree. Now she’s back home in Ireland to write. The Demon’s Lexicon is her first novel and the sequel, The Demon’s Covenant, will be released in the UK and the US next year.

1. Is there a specific time or place that you do your best writing in?
I write really badly in the morning. I tend to need breakfast and caffeine and a nice relaxing email check before I can muster up creative energy! On the other hand, I can stay up all night writing - and have. My very favourite place to write is with other authors, so we can pause to gossip, look up and fume about a plot point, or say in agitation 'I need an evil name!' and get an answer instead of a very strange look...

2. Who were your favourite authors as a teenager? Are they different to your current favourites?
I almost never stop loving an author - I just add to an ever-expanding list. I loved Diana Wynne Jones and Margaret Mahy and Jane Austen as a kid, and I still love them, but there are so many fantastic new authors as well: Holly Black and Megan Whalen Turner, for instance. Love their books!

3. If you were only allowed to take three books to a desert island, what would they be?
I would take Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen because it is my very favourite book, and I would take A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth because I like it and because it is unholy long, which will help me on the desert island! I might also take Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia and Margi Stohl, a co-written and awesome new YA fantasy book which isn't out yet, but which I happen to have read... It is also nice and long!

4. How does it feel to know that authors such as Cassandra Clare and Scott Westerfeld have been quoted on loving your book?
Awesome, naturally! But I was extremely nervous about both of them reading it. I spent the entire time they were reading it on my fainting couch. But this was made up for by the great joy of receiving the blurbs!

5. I love both the UK and the US cover of The Demon’s Lexicon. Do you have a favourite?
Thank you! Well, my very favourite cover is my Japanese cover (http://www.sarahreesbrennan.com/japancoversmall.jpg). I like both my US and UK covers as well: the US cover is changing in paperback, actually, so I'm waiting on tenterhooks to see the new cover, and will choose the UK cover as my favourite for now - I like its dark, noir look. But the US paperback cover may beat it out! I'll have to wait and see.

6. The Goblin Market was one of my favourite elements of The Demon’s Lexicon. Understanding the reference to Christina Rossetti’s poem made me feel very clever! Why did you decide to do this?
Well, I always get very annoyed by characters having phantom incomes - spending all their time fighting crime, yet able to live in style. So I thought about having an underground magic trade that held a market every month, and once I was thinking of magic markets Christina Rossetti came irresistibly to mind. It all fell into place from there - people with good intentions who still want to make a profit, fever fruit which lower inhibitions and act something like a spell and something like a cocktail, and a place for those craving magic and adventure to belong.

7. Nick is a very cold and closed off character, yet he was my favourite. Was this something that you intended to achieve?
With Nick, my concern was to get him right: not to let him be one of those 'bad boys' who are just a little edgy, waiting to find the right girl, but someone who was genuinely troubled and had very dark impulses. So I was aware I'd be alienating some people with this furious, chilly boy, but I did hope that people would find him compelling just the same: would see something in him that makes them want to stick around. That's pretty much how the other people in the book feel about him, too!

8. Are you working on anything at the moment? Can you tell us anything about it?
I am! I'm writing the third book in the Demon's Lexicon series, The Demon's Talisman, and having a lot of fun with it. I just made up a Goblin Market lullaby. I'm also writing several short stories, one of which is called 'Peter Pan: Secret Agent' and involves ninja fairies. I'm co-writing a romantic comedy with a friend, and I'm working on another book about imaginary friends who fight crime.

Thank you very much, Sarah! You can visit Sarah at her website here and read my review of The Demon’s Lexicon here.

Sophie

If any authors would like to take part in Featured on Friday, send me an email at solittletimeforbooks@googlemail.com and we'll sort something out.

Take Me There - Susane Colasanti

Take Me There - Susane Colasanti

Pages: 290
Publisher: Speak
Release Date: 14th May 2009

Other Titles by this Author: When It Happens (my review), Waiting For You

The ups and downs of love and friendship

Rhiannon is devastated after the break up with her boyfriend and desperately wants him back. But love comes easy for Nicole. Her ex is still in the picture, pining for her, but she can’t help having a new crush. And then there’s James, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Rhiannon, who is too blind to see that their friendship can be so much more. Just when things couldn’t get more complicated, the school’s resident mean girl decides she is intent on ruining everyone’s life. James, Nicole and Rhiannon are not going to let slide, but will their desire to take down the mean girl bring these three friends exactly what they want?

I completely loved Take Me There. I have no idea why I waited so long to read it!

Susane Colasanti’s writing captures the voice of a teenager perfectly. The girly conversations, frustrations with parents and school and the general trauma of being a teen was spot on. After reading so much fantasy lately, it was so nice to be in the minds of people who weren’t in mortal danger, fighting mythical creatures, or falling in love with them.

One of the things that I loved most about Take Me There was the three-way split narration. It was done extremely cleverly and very well. Each of the three characters - Rhiannon, Nicole and James - told the story of the same four days in their lives. It didn’t feel repetitive at all, as each had separate stories and threw light on events from the other character’s stories. I really love split narration as I like to hear all sides of the story!

I think that my favourite character was James. He’s so sweet to Rhiannon and Mrs Shaffer, but not sappy and annoying; the perfect balance! Nicole intrigued me. She held everything back and everyone at arms length until the very end when she dropped a bombshell on Ree and James that explained everything. In the beginning of Take Me There, I found Rhiannon annoying and a little pathetic, but by about half-way through I began to really like her, even when she couldn’t she what was right in front of her nose (James)!

After loving Take Me There so much, I’m really looking forward to reading Waiting For You.

Sophie

Glass Houses Winner!

I had a monstrous 47 entrants and 129 entries! Thanks to everyone who entered!

And the winner of Glass Houses by Rachel Caine is...

Sara

Congrats, Sara! I'll be emailing you shortly and if you could get back to me with your mailing address I'll send it straight out.

Thanks again to everyone who entered.

Sophie

NEWS: Fade Out and Spirit Bound Covers

I know I never usually post twice in one day (or even two days in a row, for that matter!), but I found these and had to share. The UK cover for

Fade Out: The Morganville Vampires - Rachel Caine

and Spirit Bound: A Vampire Academy Novel - Richelle Mead















These are two of my favourite series and the unveiling of the covers has made me even more excited for the next instalments. And aren't these covers pretty?!

Sophie

Carpe Corpus: The Morganville Vampires - Rachel Caine

Carpe Corpus: The Morganville Vampires - Rachel Caine

Pages: 356
Publisher: Allison and Busby
Release Date: 12th October 2009

Other Titles in the Series: Glass Houses (my review), The Dead Girls' Dance (my review), Midnight Alley (my review), Feast of Fools (my review), Lord of Misrule (my review), Fade Out (04/01/10)

In the small town of Morganville, vampires and humans lived in (relative) peace - until all the rules got rewritten when the evil vampire Bishop arrived, looking for the lost book of vampire secrets. He’s kept a death grip on the town ever since. Now an underground resistance is brewing, and in order to contain it, Bishop must go to even greater lengths.

He vows to obliterate the town and all its inhabitants - the living and the undead. Claire Danvers and her friends are the only ones who stand in his way. But even if they defeat Bishop, will the vampires ever be content to go back to the old rules, after having such a taste of power?

It’s no secret that I’ve loved all of the Morganville Vampire books, and Carpe Corpus only strengthened.

Now, it’s also no secret that I love Shane, but I never really say very much about the other characters. So here we go: Eve is hilarious, feisty and a fantastic best friend, Michael is fiercely protective and quite fabulous, Sam is one of the sweetest vampires ever and I, strangely, really like Amelie. She’s strong, powerful, and does have a softer side, even if she does hide it.

As always with this series, Carpe Corpus is incredibly fast-paced and the action never stops. There’s a sense of sultry danger about these books that I absolutely adore. And if I remember correctly, Carpe Corpus is the only book in the series that has a happy ending without a cliffhanger. It felt like an ending, but I know that there’s going to be another, Fade Out, and then two more.

When I read the back cover of Carpe Corpus, I got a nice surprise; an exclusive Morganville story included for UK readers only. It was short, sweet and in the point of view of my favourite character. Shane! I loved the sneaky peek into his mind.

I really loved Carpe Corpus and I can’t wait to get my teeth stuck into Fade Out.

Sophie

In My Mailbox 35

This was started by the fabulous Kristi who was inspired by Alea. If you want more information check out their blogs. All summaries are from the book jackets.

The Dragon Book - edited by Jack Danna and Gardner Dozois

From Amazon: In this unmissable collection, the biggest names in Fantasy reignite the fire of these legendary beasts with stories that will consume your imagination. Magical! "The Dragon Book" has stories from Garth Nix, Tad Williams, Jonathan Stroud, Tamora Pierce, Diana Wynne Jones, Sean Williams, Greg Maguire and many others.

I’ve never read anything about dragons before, so I thought I’d give this a go.

The Monstrumologist: The Terror Beneath - Rick Yancey

Mon-strum-ol-o-gy n.

1. The study of life forms generally malevolent to humans and not recognised by science as actual organisms, specifically those considered products of myth and folklore.

2. The act of hunting such creatures.

In the short time Will Henry has lived with Dr Warthrop, he has grown used to mysterious visitors and dangerous business. For Warthrop is no ordinary doctor; he is a monstrumologist, a specialist in monsters.

When a grave robber calls one night, he brings a grisly delivery for Will and the doctor. It is the body of a young girl entwined with the corpse of an Anthropophagus - a monster with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth in its belly. The doctor knows the terrible truth: where there is one of these man-eating monsters, there are many. But can Will and the monstrumologist find the lair of the beasts before they kill again?

This was a complete surprise. It looks interesting!

Fallen - Lauren Kate

Daniel’s gaze caught hers, and her breath caught in her throat. She recognised him from somewhere. But she would have remembered meeting someone like him. She would have remembered feeling as absolutely shaken up as she did right now.

But what do you do when the person you’ve spent your whole life looking for keeps slipping out of your grasp? What if the person who are meant to be with can never be yours?

Dangerously addictive and darkly romantic, Fallen is the ultimate gothic love story - a page-turning thriller about fallen angels.

!!! I squealed when I opened this. I had no idea that it was coming at all.

I also got a beautiful finished copy of Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick (my review). It’s so pretty! The cover is all shiny and silvery.

Sophie

Featured on Friday: Lisa Mantchev

Lisa Mantchev grew up in Northern California but now lives in Washington with her husband, daughter and four dogs. Eyes Like Stars is her first novel.

1. Is there a specific time or place that you do your best writing in?
ANY time I have actual peace and quiet is a good time for writing! (Seriously, I have a little one and four dogs... it isn't often quiet at my house .) This usually ends up being very early in the morning or very late at night.

2. Who were your favourite authors as a teenager? Are they different to your current favourites?
As a teen, I loved the Shoes series by Noel Streatfield, the Sunfire historical romance novels, plus classics like Little Women and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

3. If you were only allowed to take three books to a desert island, what would they be?
I guess it would be cheating to take my iPod loaded up with audio books? I would probably take Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee, and something by Terry Pratchett.

4. What inspired you to write a story set in a magical theatre?

I started performing in musical theatre when I was seven, wrote and directed a play when I was in high school, then studied drama when I was in university. When I taught English (at a private elementary school) I also started the Drama After School Program. It was a pretty natural progression of "write what you know" for my first book

5. Which of your characters is your favourite? (Mine are the fairies!)
Depends on the day, honestly! I love writing the fairies' dialogue because it's my inner rude commentary on life, the universe, and everything. I have conversations with friends that end with "The fairies would so say something like that!"

6. Do you have a favourite play?
I have a LIST of favourites, but today I love Sweeney Todd because the music is so fabulous.

7. The cover of Eyes Like Stars is one of my all-time favourites. Did you have any say in the final image?
I didn't actually... Jason Chan produced that gorgeous artwork and there isn't a single thing about it that would change!

8. Are you working on anything at the moment? Can you tell us anything about it?
I just finished revisions on the second theatre book, PERCHANCE TO DREAM, as well as a yet-uncontracted Young Adult alt-history steampunk book. I'm also painting the garden fence and making my daughter's Halloween costume (with a glue gun) but that's probably less interesting.

Thank you very much, Lisa! You can visit Lisa on her website here and read my review of Eyes Like Stars here.

Sophie