In My Mailbox 78

This meme was started by the fabulous Kristi who was inspired by Alea. Check out their blogs for more information. All summaries are from the book jackets.

For Review:
(no cover yet) Frankie Foster: Fizzy Pop - Jean Ure (ARC)

“Everyone seemed to think it was my fault that Rags ate the rissoles. I always get the blame for everything! Like when I encouraged one of my bet friends to try and trace her birth mother. Mum said I shouldn’t have interfered. But I wasn’t interfering! I just wanted to help.”

Frankie Foster loves fixing people’s problems. Her help might not always be welcome - and she might cause the odd total disaster - but Frankie always fixes everything… Eventually!

A surprise from Harper Collins.

The Familiars: Animal Wizardry - Adam Epstein and Andrew Jacobson (ARC)

Aldwyn the alley cat has taken refuge in a strange pet shop when Jack, a young wizard, comes to choose his familiar. The only trouble is Aldwyn’s not magical although Jack seems to think he is. Now Aldwyn just has to convince his fellow familiars that he’s the telekinetic cat he claims to be.

But when Jack and his young wizard friends are kidnapped, their familiars set out on a dangerous quest to rescue them - an epic journey that will change their lives forever…

Another surprise from Harper Collins. This sounds fantastic.

Pink - Lili Wilkinson

The pink jumper was glowing in my grey bedroom like a tiny bit of Dorothy’s Oz in boring black-and-white Kansas. Pink was for girls.

Ava Simpson is trying on a whole new image. Stripping the black dye from her hair, leaving her uber-cool girlfriend, Chloe, behind.

Ava is quickly taken under the wing of perky, popular Alexis, who insists that: a) Ava’s a perfect match for handsome Ethan; and b) she absolutely must audition for the school musical.

But while she’s busy trying to fit in - with Chloe, with Alexis and her Pastel friends, even with the misfits in the stage crew - Ava fails to notice that her shiny reinvented life is far more fragile than she imagines.

A surprise from Frances Lincoln. John green blurbed this and loved it so that’s good enough for me!

Screw Loose - Chris Wheat

From Goodreads: This laugh-out-loud, original and chaotic tale of teenagers, dolls, dogs, football, baklava, first love, new love and one helluva party is the perfect book for people who never quite go about things the right way.

Another surprise from Frances Lincoln. This looks so funny.

Boys Don’t Cry - Malorie Blackman (ARC)

From Goodreads: This is the explosively page-turning new novel for teenagers from the author of the award-winning "Noughts and Crosses" sequence. You're about to receive your A-level results and then a future of university and journalism awaits. But the day they're due to arrive your old girlfriend Kendra turns up unexpectedly ...with a baby ...You assume Kendra's helping a friend, until she nips out to buy some essentials, leaving you literally holding the baby ...Malorie's dramatic new novel will keep you on the edge of your seat right to the final page.

Big thanks to Random House for this.

Burning Secrets - Clare Chambers (ARC)

A tense, tightly-wrought mystery thriller from a burning new talent in teen fiction.

Daniel has dark secrets and a troubled past. So when his family move to the island of Wragge, a gentle backwater where local life remains undisturbed he feels he’s escaped. But outsiders aren’t always welcome and the more Daniel tries to conceal, the more he reveals about sinister goings on. Does this picture-perfect community have something even greater to hide?

A gripping mystery that tingles with brooding menace and ignites as the clue falls into place…

Another surprise from Harper Collins.

Entangled - Cat Clarke (ARC)

Drip. When was the first time? Shhh, don’t listen.
Drip. Who made the first move? It doesn’t matter.
Hush
How could they do this to me?

Grace is madly tangled with her gorgeous boyfriend Nat…

But her friendship with Sal is coming undone…
 But is she so fast in love, she can’t see what a glorious mess all three of them are in?

In Entangled Cat Clarke evokes just how it feels to be seventeen with a heart full of hope and a head full of one boy…

Yay! Cat is awesome so I’m extremely excited to read this. Thanks, Quercus.

The Monstrumologist: The Curse of the Wendigo - Rick Yancey

The monstrumologist Dr Warthrop and his assistant Will Henry are in pursuit of the ultimate predator, a creature that is neither alive nor dead, which starves even as it gorges itself on human flesh…the Wendigo.

The doctor is convinced that no such beast can possibly exist, until someone from his past convinces him a Wendigo has captured her husband, and he and Will travel to the Canadian wilderness to discover the truth.

When they finally track down the man they return with him to New York, only to see him transform into a Wendigo before their eyes. Now Dr Warthrop can no longer deny the truth behind the legend and with a Wendigo on the loose in the metropolis, it’s up to the monstrumologist and his assistant to catch the beast before it’s too late…

Thanks to S&S for this.

Spy Glass - Maria V Snyder

An undercover mission leads to dangerous adventure and an impossible choice…

After siphoning her own blood magic in the showdown at Hubal, student glass maker Opal Cowen has lost her powers. Immune to the effects of magic, Opal is now an outsider looking in, spying through the glass on those with the powers she once had. Powers that make a difference in the world.

Suddenly the beautiful pieces she makes begin to flash in the presence of magic and Opal learns that someone has stolen some of her blood. Finding it might let her regain her powers or discover that they’re lost forever…

Thanks to F at Midas for this.

Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth - Chris Priestley

Robert Harper is going back to school. It is the first railway journey h has ever made alone and it is not the usual sort of railway journey. The train stops at the mouth of a tunnel and in order to help while away the time a strange woman dressed in white tells Robert stories. But these are not the kind of stories normally told to a child. Soon Robert is both entranced and terrified by the woman in white and her macabre tales.

Prepare to be chilled to the bone as Robert discovers how frightening it can be to be alone on a train with only strangers to keep you company.

Thanks to Bloomsbury.

The Dead of Winter - Chris Priestley

A boy, a mysterious guardian and a haunted house with a terrible secret.

When Michael Vyner goes to spend the Christmas holidays with his distant and aloof guardian, he finds himself in a dark and desolate East Anglian house - a house that harbours a terrible secret which it will fight to retain. Michael’s lonely task soon becomes clear as he is haunted not just by a solitary woman in the mists but by the terrible reason behind her death.

Thanks again to Bloomsbury.

UK Blog Tours:

Infinite Days - Rebecca Maize (ARC)

I didn’t look a day over sixteen, yet - if someone had calculated - on that particular day I officially turned 592.

For more than 500 years Lenah has been a vampire - a life of seduction, blood and destruction. But she is sickened by her dark powers and longs to be human again. To feel the sun on her skin; the grass under her feet; the warm breath of a human kiss. But that requires a great sacrifice, for the soul of a vampire is not easily shed…

Thanks, Caroline. It's pretty good so far.

Bought:

Safe Haven - Nicholas Sparks

Love hurts.
There is nothing as painful as heartbreak.
But in order to learn to love again, you must learn to trust again.

When a mysterious woman named Katie appears in the small American town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet unassuming, Katie is determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships: one with Alex, a store owner; and another with her plainspoken neighbour, Jo.

Despite her reservations, Katie slowly begins to let down her guard, putting down roots in the close-knit community.

But even as Katie begins to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts her… The secret that set her on the journey to the sheltered oasis of Southport.

Eventually, though, Katie realises that a choice must be made betweena life of transient safety and one of riskier rewards…and that in the darkest hour, love is the only true safe haven.

The new Nicholas Sparks hardback is always a highlight of my bookish year. I just wish they’d stop changing the style of his covers! Argh!

Sophie