Letterbox Love #67

Letterbox Love all of the lovely, lovely books I’ve gotten in the post, bought and everything else. 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:

After Us, Amber Hart (e-proof)

Sometimes secrets kill. Maybe slowly, maybe painfully. Maybe all at once.

Melissa smiles. She flirts. She jokes. But she never shows her scars. Eight months after tragedy ripper her from her closest friend, Melissa is broken. Inside her grows a tumour, fed by grief, rage, and the painful memory of a forbidden kiss.

Javier has scars of his own: a bullet wound, and the memory of a cousin shot in the heart. Life in the States was supposed to be a new beginning, but a boy obsessed with vengeance has no time for the American dream. To honour his familia, Javier joins the gang who set up his cousin’s murder. The entrance price is blood. Death is the only escape.

These two broken souls could make each other whole again – or be shattered forever.

Our time will come. And we’ll be ready.

I think this’ll be pretty much the same as Before You – cheesy and effortless to read. Thanks K Teen and NetGalley!

Bought:

Something Fresh, PG Wodehouse (paperback)

This is the first Blandings novel, in which PG Wodehouse introduces us to the delightfully dotty Lord Emsworth, his bone-headed younger son, the Hon. Freddie Threepwood, his ong suffering secretary, the Efficient Baxter, and Beach the Blandings butler.

As Wodehouse wrote, ‘without at least one imposter on the premises, Blandings Castle is never itself’. In Something Fresh there are two, each with an eye on a valuable scarab which Lord Emsworth has acquired without quire realising how it came into his pocket. But of course things get a lot more complicated than this...

Frankie of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks was reading this in the novel and I loved the sound of it and the impact it had on her, so here we are!

The Island of Doctor Moreau, HG Wells (paperback)

A terrifying, prescient portrayal of a scientist trying to create a new super-breed, The Island of Doctor Moreau was described by HG Wells as an ‘exercise in youthful blasphemy’.

Edward Predick, the single survivor of a shipwreck, is rescued by a vessel carrying a menagerie of savage animals. Soon he finds himself on an uncharted island in the Pacific with the strange vivisectionist Dr Moreau, whose experiments have led him to break the laws of nature, turning beast into man with horrific results.

I read this several times for my A Levels and it was one of the few texts I came out still respecting and enjoying. I’ve wanted to reread it for a while now and I can’t resist the gorgeous Penguin English Library editions.

This Side of Salvation, Jeri Smith-Ready (hardback)

Everyone mourns differently. When his older brother was killed, David got angry. As in, fist-meets-someone-else’s-face furious. But his parents? They got religious.

Daniel’s still figuring out his relationship with a higher power, but there’s one thing he does know for sure: The closer he gets to new girl Bailey, the better, brighter, happier, more he feels.

Then his parents start cutting all their worldly ties to prepare for the Rush, the divine moment when the faithful will be whisked off to heaven...and they want David to do the same. David’s torn. There’s a big difference between living in the moment and giving up his best friend, varsity baseball, and Bailey – especially Bailey – in hope of salvation.

But when he comes home late from prom, and late for the Rush, to find that his parents have vanished, David is in more trouble than he ever could have imagined...

Now believe it or not, I found this brand new US hardback on Amazon for £1.67... I was originally waiting in hope that it’d be published over here, but I couldn’t ignore that. It MUST have been a mistake....

Sophie