Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Spark
by Amy Kathleen Ryan
Release Date: July 17, 2012

From Goodreads:
Waverly and Kieran are finally reunited on the Empyrean. Kieran has led the boys safely up to this point, and now that the girls are back, their mission seems slightly less impossible: to chase down the New Horizon, and save their parents from the enemy ship. But nothing is truly as it seems…Kieran’s leadership methods have raised Seth’s hackles— and Waverly’s suspicions. Is this really her fiancé? The handsome, loving boy she was torn from just a short time before? More and more, she finds her thoughts aligned with Seth’s. But if Seth is Kieran’s Enemy No. 1, what does that make her?

In one night, a strange explosion rocks the Empyrean—shooting them off course and delaying their pursuit of the New Horizon—and Seth is mysteriously released from the brig. Seth is the most obvious suspect for the explosion, and Waverly the most obvious suspect for releasing him. As the tension reaches a boiling point, will Seth be able to find the true culprit before Kieran locks them both away—or worse? Will Waverly follow her heart, even if it puts lives at risk? With the balance of power precarious and the clock ticking, every decision counts… every step brings them closer to a new beginning, or a sudden end...

In My Mailbox...sorta kinda...

So I have obviously been missing from the blogging world for a long time. But that does not mean I have not gotten new books. I was going to sit down and do my weekly IMM but I'm undecided about whether I should do the books I have gotten just this week or since the last IMM I posted. If I do a big collective one, I am going to need to do some scouring of my house to find anything new.  They aren't all YA, but I do have some ARCs that I should feature.

What would you guys like to see? Ehhh?

On My Wishlist (7)

On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where we list all the books we desperately want but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming.

Okay, getting back into the swing of things...
I honestly haven't been able to keep up with all the exciting new books that are coming out for the YA section. So as I was browsing lists on Goodreads I was seeing some exciting things. Then I facepalmed when I realized that I have yet to do an "On My Wishlist" post for Tilt.

Tilt

by Ellen Hopkins

Release Date: September 11th, 2012

TILT is the story of three teens inter-related through their parents' family relationships and friendships. As their parents pull away, caught up in their own dilemmas, the kids' worlds tilt, through love--good and bad:
Mikayla, almost eighteen, is over-the-top in love with Dylan, who loves her back jealously. But what happens to that love when Mikayla gets pregnant the summer before their senior year, and decides to keep the baby?
Shane turns sixteen that same summer, and falls hard in love with his first boyfriend, Alex, who happens to be HIV positive. Shane has lived for four years with his little sister's impending death. Can he accept Alex's love, knowing his life, too, will be shortened?
Harley is fourteen—a good girl searching for new experiences, especially love from an older boy. She never expects to hurdle toward self-destructive extremes in order to define who she is and who she wants to be.

I loved Hopkins' first adult novel, Triangles, and this is a YA novel written about the teen characters in that book. They were great characters to read about from the parents perspective and I can't wait to see inside their heads.

While I am on the Ellen Hopkins kick, I also can't wait for Collateral. There isn't much released for it yet but it will be her second adult novel and man does it sound like a tearjerker. I first heard about it while at her signing for Perfect. All I really know is based on her tweets about how hard it is to write from the perspective of the families of the military. Can't wait to get my hands on both! 

What's on your wishlist this week?

Back in Action!

Hey everyone!

So I know I disappeared from the blogging world for about three months. Life has been insanely busy for me. I went through the exhausting process of moving while working full time. I don't think I've ever been this tired but thrilled at the same time. I am finally settling into my new house and adjusting to living with good friends and a boatload of awesome animals. I brought my cat Willow with me and now live in a house with two big dogs, ten baby chicks in the garage, six rabbits and some babies in the yard, and sixteen horses in the barn along with six barn cats. Needless to say a day is never boring around here. My days usually start at 8am with barn chores and end around midnight when I get home from work. When does reading happen? For about five minutes at night when I attempt to get through a chapter but end up waking up with a book on my face. Yup...so here are my goals for this year:

1. Sleep more. Just because.
2. Read more. I am going to actively try to set aside an hour a day to read. I would like to get back to reading about a book a week. I have a long commute to work now so I have two hours a day to listen to audiobooks so I'm on the right track! 
3. Blog more. I am working on setting up a schedule of having a post up at least every other day even if they are short tag posts. I'm hoping to get one video up every week as well.
4. Write more. I figure if I get a post, update, status or even tweet up everyday it will help me stay in the right mindset. I post on my rescue's sites a lot and if anyone is interested in following what I do with the horses I would be happy to link it.
5. Ride more. Irrelevant to the YA book blogging world, I know. And I know it is what has been taken the place of reading and blogging but it keeps me sane and happy (and sore...sorry legs).

 And for any of you who are curious this is what has been keeping me so busy:

So that's it for now, expect some book hauls coming up (I kind of bought a bunch of books recently), a lot more posts, reviews, tags, updates and pictures! Thanks for sticking by me! 

Best of 2011

All righty! 2011 is just about over and it's been a heck of a year for me. This is a quick list I put together of the books I read this year that really stuck with me. They may not have all out in 2011 but I discovered them this year. So here it goes:

Best Fantasy:

Firelight & Vanish by Sophie Jordan

Best Horror:

Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick

Best Contemporary:

Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly

Most Epic:

Eona by Alison Goodman

Most Shocking:

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

Most Artistic:

Grafitti Moon by Cath Crowley

Best Cover:

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Best Book of 2011:

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

Nook!

My nook got a new face today! Literally! Take a look...at my nook...where I read books...I hang it on a hook...okay that's enough.

Isn't it adorable now? Just felt the need to spruce him up a bit. Also for anyone who is looking into getting a cover for an ereader, I recommend ones with rounded corners like this one. I had a cover before and it had sharp corners and it made dents in my palms when reading with the cover on. Not comfy.

Yay for my nook!

Feeling Nostalgic

With how busy this time of year is for me and the cold weather, I'm always feeling the need to reread a well-loved book or series to remember good times. This year I've finally reached the point where I could reread the Sweep Series by Cate Tiernan. It is a hidden gem of a series. I don't know about anyone else who loves them but I read them to death as a kid. They were published in 2001 and that was the age where I was just starting to get really into paranormal type books. I probably read the entire series all the way through about 11 times before they got repetitive. After taking many years off from my favorite characters I finally feel the need to revisit them. Widow's Vale has come back to life in my mind again. For anyone who hasn't heard of this series, they recently re-released them with new covers, and even more recently as bind-ups. Go buy them!!


What my beloved copies look like:

What the new covers look like:

 What the bind ups look like: