Blog Tour: I Was Here Extract

Today I have the pleasure of featuring an extract of I Was Here by Gayle Forman for the UK blog tour. Enjoy!

Make sure you check out the rest of the stops on the tour!

Sophie

Letterbox Love #76

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:

All the Rage, Courtney Summers (e-proof)

The sheriff’s son, Kellan Turner, is not the golden boy everyone thinks he is, and Romy Grey knows that for a fact. Because no one wants to believe a girl from the wrong side of town, the truth about him has cost her everything – friends, family, and her community. Branded a liar and bullied relentlessly by a group of kids she used to hang out with, Romy’s only refuge is the diner where she works outside of town. No one knows her name or her past there; she can finally be anonymous. But when a girl with ties to both Romy and Kellan goes missing after a party, and news of his assaulting another girl in a town close by gets out, Romy must decide whether she wants to fight or carry the burden of knowing more girls could get hurt if she doesn’t speak up. Nobody believed her the first time – and they certainly won’t now – but the cost of her silence might be more than she can bear.

With a shocking conclusion and writing that will absolutely knock you out, All the Rage examines the shame and silence inflicted upon young women after an act of sexual violence, forcing us to ask ourselves: In a culture that refuses to protect its young girls, how can they survive?

I love Courtney Summers’ books – they are brutally awesome. Thanks NetGalley and St Martin’s Griffin.

Suzy P, Forever Me, Karen Saunders (paperbacks)

Suzy P’s made a promise that she can’t keep. Kind of a big promise. To her entire school!

Why, oh why, did she say The Drifting would be performing at the Collinsbrooke fundraiser? As if trying to sort out that mess wasn’t enough, she also needs to make sure Dad’s birthday bash isn’t a total disaster – especially as he’s already showing signs of a mid-life crisis...

Suzy has her best mates helping out, but will she be able to pull off TWO parties of a lifetime?

I’m a little behind on this series, but I really want to catch up! Look out for my stop on the Suzy P blog tour next week. Thanks Templar!

Zom B Bride, Darren Shan (hardback)

B Smith has cut a pact with Mr Dowling and is living in his filthy, blood-smeared underground lair...What sick plans does the psychotic clown have for her now?

‘What’s so different about me?’ I whisper. ‘Why does the clown care? Why has he been shadowing me for long?’

Mr Dowling shakes his head softly and his eyes start rolling madly again. He reaches up and runs a blood-drenched finger across my left cheek, drawing some sort of a pattern on it. Then he runs the fingertip across the tops of my severed years. I wince but he doesn’t withdraw. Instead he gurgles something.

‘It’s time,’ translates Kinslow.

‘Time for what?’ I squint.

Kinslow grins with sadistic relish. ‘Time to build a new Becky Smith.’

I love this series – thanks S&S!

The Accident Season, Moira Fowley-Doyle (proof)

It’s the accident season, the same time every year. Bones break, skin tears, bruises bloom.

The accident season has been part of seventeen-year-old Cara’s life for as long as she can remember. Towards the end of October, foreshadowed by the deaths of many relatives before them, Cara’s family becomes inexplicably accident-prone. They banish knives to locked drawers, cover sharp table edges with padding, switch off electrical items – but injuries follow wherever they go, and the accident season becomes an ever-growing obsession and fear.

But why are they cursed? And how can they break free?

This sounds super intriguing and it came all mysteriously packaged. Thanks RHCP!

The Bell Between Worlds, Ian Johnstone (paperback)

Half of your soul is missing.

And unless Sylas Tate fulfils his destiny, you will never be whole again.

Sylas leads a lonely existence since his mother died. But then the tolling of a giant bell draws him into another world, where he discovers not only that he has an inborn talent for magic, but also that his mother might have come from this strange parallel place.

As violence looms and the stakes get higher, Sylas embarks on an extraordinary adventure to uncover the greatest mystery of all – who he is. If he fails, the entire universe may fall...

Not usually my thing, but this sounds intriguing... Thanks Harper Collins!

From the Scholastic Blogger Feast

The Sin Eater’s Daughter, Melinda Salisbury (proof)

Seventeen-year-old Twylla lives in a castle. But although she’s engaged to the prince. Twylla isn’t exactly a member of the court. She’s the executioner. As the Goddess embodied, Twylla instantly kills anyone she touches. Each month she’s taken to the prison and forced to lay her hands on those accused of treason. No one will ever love a girl with murder in her veins. Even the prince, whose royal blood supposedly makes him immune to Twylla’s fatal touch, avoids her company.

But then a new guard arrives, a boy whose easy smile belies his deadly swordsmanship. And unlike the others, he’s able to look past Twylla’s executioner robes and see the girl, not the Goddess. Yet Twylla’s been promised to the prince, and knows what happens to people who cross the queen. However, a treasonous secret is the least of Twylla’s problems. The queen has a plan to destroy her enemies, a plan that requires a stomach-churning, unthinkable sacrifice.

Will Twylla do what it takes to prtect her kingdom? Or will she abandon her duty in favour of a doomed love?

I CANNOT WAIT to read this!

7 Days, Eve Ainsworth (paperback)

A week can change everything.

Beautiful and popular, Kez is a bully who doesn’t care who she hurts.

Overweight and awkward, Jess is an easy target.

But then Jess discovers someone who will stand up for her.

The problem?

He’s Kez’s boyfriend.

Things are about to get nasty.

This sounds like it’s going to pack a punch.

An Island of Our Own, Sally Nicholls (proof)

Siblings Jonathan, Holly and Davy have been struggling to survive since the death of her mother, and are determined to avoid being taken into care. When the family’s wealthy but eccentric Great-Aunt Irene has a stroke, they go to visit her. Unable to speak or write, she give Holly some photographs that might lead them to an inheritance that could solve all their problems. But they’re not the only ones after the treasure...

I really like Sally Nicholls’ books so I’m looking forward to this.

Thank you for a lovely event and these great books!

Sophie

Marly's Ghost, David Levithan

Pages: 175

Publisher: Electric Monkey

Release Date: 8^th January 2015

Edition: UK paperback, review copy

Other Titles by thus Author: Boy Meets Boy, The Realm of Possibility, Are We There Yet?, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist (withRachel Cohn), Wide Awake, Naomi & Eli’s No-Kiss List (with Rachel Cohn), Love is the Higher Law, Will Grayson, Will Grayson (with John Green), The Lover’s Dictionary, Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares (with Rachel Cohn), Invisibility (with Andrea Cremer), Every Day, How They Met and Other Stories, Two Boys Kissing

Love and I once had a great relationship, but I fear we’ve broken up. It cheated on me.

When Ben’s girlfriend, Marly, dies, he feels his life is over and the prospect of Valentine’s Day without her fills him with bitterness. But then Marly arrives – or at least, her ghost does – along with three other spirits. Now Ben must take a journey through valentines past, present, and future – and what he learns will change him forever.

A remix of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol with a Valentines twist and the Levithan magic.

I’ve mentioned before that I find David Levithan’s earlier stuff to be lacking what I fell in love with from his novels and Marly’s Ghost gave me that feeling too.

This is a very short novel. I read it in about two hours on a Sunday morning while still in bed. I’m not a huge Dickens fan but I love the idea behind A Christmas Carol so I was looking forward to seeing what Levithan would do to it. I liked the Valentine’s twist and the loss of someone forcing bitterness on the holiday – BBBBbkasjcbnsoldcnbBBen’s grief and need to lock down his heart and mind felt authentic.

In Levithan’s author’s note he tells the reader a little bit about how Marly’s Ghost came about and talks about how it is a remix novel. He said that he lifted a fair few lines straight from the original text and worked it over and over with his own story until it was a mixture of the two and this really clarified something for me. I kept feeling that there were certain phrases that were uncharacteristically cluncky or formal and completely out of place – it was Dickens!

Marly’s Ghost is a quick, easy read, but I’m actually more interested in the method of the novel rather than the story! Come on Levithan, I want to fall back in love with your books!

Thanks to Electric Monkey for the review copy.

Sophie

Six Years Old Today!

It’s a crazy, crazy day today – So Many Books, So Little Time is six years old!

Though I’ve had a few blogging wobbles over the last year or so, I’m so glad I’m still here! I’ve met bloggers, publicists, authors and readers that I consider close friends; I’ve discovered favourite books and authors that I never would have picked up myself; I’ve learnt skills that will help me in jobs and I’ve found something I’m pretty good at – but it’s all thanks to you guys who read what I witter on about.

THANK YOU.

Hopefully you’ll hear a slight variation on this speech on January 22^nd 2016 when I celebrate my seventh blogoversary!

Sophie xx