Letterbox Love #5

Now, I'm having some technical difficulties at the moment - I really don't recommend spilling a glass of apple and blackcurrant all over your laptop - so I'm having to use my mum's iPad meaning that I have none of my templates or spreadsheets and I'm floundering. But, I didn't want to leave you all hanging so I'm giving this a shot! Here goes:

EDIT: All images have been added in now my laptop's alive again!



For review:

The Sound - Sarah Alderson (S&S)

He is out there, holding his breath as I hold mine. Ears pricked, eye scouring the darkness. I can sense him there waiting, just a few feet away...

When aspiring music journalist Ren Kingston takes a job nannying for a wealthy family on the exclusive island of Nantucket, playground for Boston's elite, she's hoping for a low-key summer reading books and blogging about bands. Boys are firmly off the agenda.

What she doesn't count on is falling in with a bunch of party-loving private school kids who are hiding some dark secrets; falling (possibly) in love with the local bad boy; and falling out with a dangerous serial killer...

So looking forward to this! I really loved the Lila books.

The Moon and More - Sarah Dessen (Puffin)

Emaline is spending her last summer before college in her beach town home of Colby. Everything is familiar - from working for her bossy sister Margo at the family rental company to Emaline's gorgeous (and regularly shirtless) childhood sweetheart, Luke.

But when an out-of-town brash New York filmmaker, and her young assistant Theo, come to stay at one of the beach houses, everything Emaline thought she knew about herself changes. 

But can her heart let go of a life she's loved for so long?

About bloody time!!! I worship this woman...

Invisibility - Andrea Cremer and David Levithan (Puffin)

Stephen is used to invisibility. He was born that way. Invisible. Cursed. 

Elizabeth sometimes wishes for invisibility. When you're invisible, no one can hurt you.

Then Stephen and Elizabeth meet. To Stephen's a,axe meant, she can see him. And to Elizabeth's amazement, she wants him to be able to see her - all of her. But as the two become closer, an invisible world gets in their way - a world of grudges and misfortunes, spells and curses. Elizabeth and Stephen must decide how deep into this world they're going to go - because the answer could mean the difference between love and death.

I've heard so many good things about this!
 
The Dance of the Red Death - Bethany Griffin (Indigo)

Everything is in ruins.

Betrayal, death and disease surround Araby Worth.

Her brother is dead. Her best friend could be soon. And the two boys who have stolen her heart have both betrayed her.

She can trust nobody, and as the city crumbles around her, it's time for Araby to fight back. What she decides to do may decide the fate of humanity.

The stunning, dramatic conclusion to The Masque of the Red Death.

Ah, I loved the first book so I'm intrigued to see how Araby's story concludes.

Dusk - Eve Edwards (Puffin)

The Somme, Forward Medical Station, 1 July 1916

She leaned over the next patient, another young soldier with a dressing wound to his throat. Whitworth, 1st Somerset High Infantry, Sebastian's regiment.

HELEN SANDFORD has learnt never to expect too much from life - until she meets the aristocratic artist SEBASTIAN and surprises even herself by falling in love.

All too soon they are separated by the First World War. He enlists as an officer, while she nurses the soldiers injured in the bloody trenches. But their biggest battle is yet to come, because Helen's past is filled with secrets...

The first part of an epic wartime romance.

I'm a massive fan of Eve Edwards' Tudor trilogy so I have high hopes for this.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock - Matthew Quick (Headline)

How would you spend your birthday if you knew it would be your last?

Eighteen-year-old Leonard Peacock knows exactly what he'll do. He'll say goodbye.

Not to his mum - who he calls Linda because it annoys her - who's moved out her and left him to fend for himself. Nor to his former best friend, whose torments have driven him to consider committing the unthinkable. But to his four friends: a Humphrey Bogart obsessed neighbour, a teenage violin virtuoso, a pastor's daughter and a teacher. 

Most of the time, Leonard believes he's weird and sad but these friends have made him think that maybe he's not. He wants to thank them, and say goodbye.

I've already heard fantastic things about this and I'm looking forward to seeing how the author of Silver Linings Playbook handles YA.

Weirdos and Camel Toes - Natasha Desborough (Catnip)

Adrian Mole meets Georgia Nicolson.

'I intend to leave trampoline club ASAP - especially after the horrible last term where Mei Miyahi's sanitary towel shot out of her leotard whilst she was mid-straddle jump. Amazingly, Mei didn't seem at all embarrassed by the incident, not even when the sanitary towel slapped a stunned Kirsty Mackerby across the face.'

Cursed by the initials BUM, saddled with woolly liberal-minded hippies for parents and and UNDYING love for the Proper Real-Time Hot Felix Winters, BLOSSOM UXLEY-MICHAELS is a seething mass of sexual frustration and political confusion. But when she's invited to work on the school radio, Blossom's convinced her status is about to rocket from Weirdo to Winner...

It's about time we have some new properly funny UKYA!

Writing this on the iPad was...interesting, so I'm just going to list the rest:

Gloss - Marilyn Kaye (Pan Macmillan)

Friday Brown - Vicki Wakefield (Hot Key Books)

This Northern Sky - Julia Green (Bloomsbury)

Rose Under Fire - Elizabeth Wein (Electric Monkey)

Charm and Strange - Stephanie Kuehn (Electric Monkey)

After Iris - Natasha Farrant (Faber and Faber)

Sorry for how slapdash this is and how bare (getting photos into this post seemed like more trouble than it was worth!), but hopefully I'll be properly back in business soon! However, I doubt there'll be a review up tomorrow as I've been packing up my life and moving back home over the last few days and all my time has disappeared!

Sophie

Author Interview: Ruta Sepetys

I’m honoured to welcome Ruta Sepetys, the author of Between Shades of Grey and Out of the Easy, to the blog to answer some questions today.

1. Out of the Easy present New Orleans so vividly that it’s almost a character in itself. Why is creating a strong sense of place so important to you?

A strong sense of place helps immerse the reader in the story. If they can truly see and feel the setting, the overall reading experience will be more rewarding.

2. I loved that Josie didn’t get everything that she wanted and deserved. Why did you decide to do that?

Small steps felt more realistic for Josie. She had a lot to come both emotionally and socially. She experienced such hardship growing up and I don’t think those hurdles would just suddenly disappear. The hurdles would remain, but she would become stronger, able to jump them more easily.

3. Are you working on anything at the moment? Can you share anything about it?

Yes! I’m hard at work on my third book, a novel set at the end of WWII. I’m neck deep in research right now, trying to track down bits of important information. I’ve always said that writing historical fiction is like being a detective. I love that aspect of the process!

And a few quick ones:

4. Current obsession?

Tea from Maggie Frères! I visited the tea salon in Paris last month and stocked up on a huge variety. I’ve been obsessed with tasting them all now!

5. Favourite historical era?

I don't know if I have a favorite, but I’d love to write a story set in the 1920’s or 1930’s. It’s such a rich period and I know I could dig up all sorts of delicious secrets and scandals!

6. What are you reading at the moment?

I’m reading BELLE EPOQUE by Elizabeth Ross. It will be released in the US in June and in the UK in September. Here are the two covers:

US COVER:

UK COVER:

A big thank you to Ruta for taking the time to answer my questions! I highly recommend picking up a copy of Out of the Easy and I’ll definitely be getting myself a copy of Between Shades of Grey.

Sophie

Things I learnt at university

I’m no longer a student and on July 20^th, I will become an alumni of Bath Spa University. This has been the case for just over a week now and I’m still not quite sure how I feel about it. Packing up, moving out and saying goodbye were really hard, but also so surreal that I don’t think it’s kicked in that I won’t be coming back in September. It’s all confusing and scary and exciting and intimidating.

Naturally, all this leaving three years of my life behind and being thrown into the big, wide world, I’ve been reflecting. I’ve learnt so much here, and most of it isn’t really academic.  

The first thing you will wonder when you move in to halls on that terrifying first day: how on earth am I going to sleep in this strange bed, in a strange place, in a strange city? Oh, sweet, innocent Fresher. You will learn to sleep through anything, at any time of day and through any early morning seminar or lecture. It’s a skill all students develop whether you want to or not. Enjoy it, embrace it. You’ll never get away with sleeping like that again.

Still on the whole sleep thing, getting up before 10am will be the hardest part of your week. Those 9am lectures will be the bane of your life and by the time you’re off campus and it takes more than half an hour between bed and the lecture hall, it might well be an insurmountable task. It happens. Take advantage of the fact that this is the only time you’ll get away with turning the alarm off and going back to sleep without any consequences.

You know how you always hear those clichés about how the friends you make at uni will be the best, the longest standing and probably the closest? So far, they’re right on the money. There were eight of us all pushed into L Block of Langton court on my first day at uni. In second year, we had to find somewhere else to live but we wanted to stay together. Four of moved to number 7 and the other moved to number 23, on the same road. Then in third year, one of my best friends went to study abroad for a year so the three of us moved three doors up and in with an older girl (who doesn’t like us, and we don’t like her.) I love them all to death and they know me far too well and Sara even wants to live with me after uni! Now that is friendship.

Although there’s a lot of work to be done at uni, and it’s really hard a lot of the time, you also have a ridiculous amount of time to do whatever you want. You could learn to ballroom dance, learn Italian, go travelling in your ridiculously long holidays, visit your friends all over the country. Do things that scare you as well. Basically, you’re free to do whatever you want and more often than not, your uni will have clubs and people to help you achieve these things. Take advantage of this time! You might regret it if you don’t; I do a little bit.

 You would not believe the number of TV series’ I’ve fallen in love with while I’m here, the movies I've been introduced to, the activities I would never have attempted otherwise, the people I’ve befriended that wouldn’t have gone near me in secondary school. You’ll never be exposed to such a variety of cultures, opportunities or people that your time at university so enjoy it. Have lots of firsts.

Those first few weeks are overwhelming and everything fell away. I forgot about reading, blogging and spent every waking moment with these new, exciting people who I was instantly scary-close to. My blog archive demonstrates this perfectly: there were a grand total of 17 posts on this blog between October and December 2009, and honestly, that only increased again the next February when I rose to about 11 a month. If you love reading and blogging, you’ll find a way to make it work. And if you’re lucky like I was, your new friends think it’s really cool and won’t try and distract you from reading too much. Unless you live with someone like Sean, but then you learn to ignore the poking, having your bookmark stolen and a hand appearing on your page every now and then.

Find what works for you. If you can only work at night, work at night. If you need a bottle of Pepsi Max on standby, have one on standby. If your brain only works in complete silence, find some. Maybe you like to revise in a group? Find some study-buddies. Flashcards worked at A-level? Use flashcards. Although you’re at uni to have fun, you’re paying a crap-tonne of money to be here and I wouldn’t waste that. Do what you have to do to get your work out of the way. I have to do my essays at least a week in advance, alone n my room with the perfect playlist and my housemates have to respect that. It also makes going out or watching an episode of my favourite show that much sweeter.

Everything I learnt at university seems to have turned into a tip for those of you who’ll be off there soon, but I hope you enjoyed the post nonetheless!

What did you learn at university? If you’re not at uni yet, what have you learnt at college or secondary school? Any advice of tips for anyone starting somewhere new?

Sophie

The 5th Wave - Rick Yancey

Pages: 457

Publisher: Penguin

Release Date: 7^th May 2013

Edition: UK proof, review copy

Other Titles by this Author: The Monstrumologist, The Curse of the Wendigo, The Isle of Blood, The Final Descent (10/09/13)

The 1^st Wave

Took out half a million people.

The 2^nd Wave

Put that to shame.

The 3^rd Wave?

That took a little longer,

Twelve weeks... Four billion people.

The 4^th Wave

You can’t trust that people are still people.

The 5^th Wave?

No one knows.

But it’s coming.

There’s been a crazy amount of buzz surrounding The 5^th Wave over the last few weeks, and though I really enjoyed it, it sadly didn’t blow me away like I was expecting it to.

Rick Yancey melded the post-apocalyptic and sci-fi genres really well and thinking about it, where aren’t they mixed in this way more often? An alien invasion would be the end of our world as we know it, after all. I think that jumping into the middle of take over instead of joining the characters just before was really effective and it mean that there wasn’t any jump between the genres. It was also just generally refreshing to have some background on the world to go on straight away; there was tension and fear as to what was going to happen next before I even opened the book.

The 5^th Wave surprised me with more than just the effortless blend of genres: I definitely wasn’t expecting multiple narrations. Cassie launches the novel and she’s the main character, but a few other voices pop up and then Zombie becomes a dual narrator and I was thoroughly surmised by this. Definitely in a good way, of course; you guys all know how much I love dual narration. Cassie and Zombie are very different characters and their stories complimented each other perfectly, showing very different sides to the effect of the invasion.

Rick Yancey delivers a beautifully written novel that breaks genre boundaries and makes you fall in love with his characters and yet I still didn’t fall head over heels with it like everyone else seems to have done. Maybe it’s because it took me so long to get through or maybe it just caught me at the wrong time because there is nothing I can think of to criticise about the 5^th Wave so it must be me! It’s clever and unexpected and I really wish I had fallen for it.

This is an incredibly difficult book to review and keep spoiler-free! All I can say is go and read it and discover The 5^th Wave for yourself and then join me in the wait for book two.

Thank you to Penguin for sending me a copy for review.

Sophie