Hello, hello!
It is that time of month again where I talk about the books that I absolutely must have, that are coming out in the month of June! I’ve had a great month of reading since I had a semester break, so you can bet I gobbled some books up. Granted, I didn’t follow my original May TBR, I’m glad I actually picked up some of the books that have been laying on my shelf for a million years! So, in the month of May, I’ve read a total of 5 1/2 books, all of which I’ve done a review on. Come to think of it, typing that out…I feel kind of pathetic, HAHA. I could’ve done so much better than 5, I think, but I really took my time with ‘Last Sacrifice’, which could’ve been the reason why my number was so low. So basically when I say I had a “great month” of reading, I didn’t mean by the numbers, but instead on how much I loved all the books I managed to read!
Moving on…I finally have a wide range of YA books in this list…okay, maybe not perfect but at least it’s not heavily centred around contemporaries like the last two ‘Anticipatin’ & Waitin’! I think I’ve had a huge dose of them this month, and when I read ‘Unearthly’, I just remembered how much I loved the urban fantasy/paranormal genre…so here I am, BRANCHING OUT on my long lost loves!
5. #scandal by Sarah Ockler (June 17th 2014, Simon Pulse)
Synopsis provided by Goodreads: Lucy’s learned some important lessons from tabloid darling Jayla Heart’s all-too-public blunders: Avoid the spotlight, don’t feed the Internet trolls, and keep your secrets secret. The policy has served Lucy well all through high school, so when her best friend Ellie gets sick before prom and begs her to step in as Cole’s date, she accepts with a smile, silencing about ten different reservations. Like the one where she’d rather stay home shredding online zombies. And the one where she hates playing dress-up. Andespecially the one where she’s been secretly in love with Cole since the dawn of time.
When Cole surprises her at the after party with a kiss under the stars, it’s everything Lucy has ever dreamed of… and the biggest BFF deal-breaker ever. Despite Cole’s lingering sweetness, Lucy knows they’ll have to ’fess up to Ellie. But before they get the chance, Lucy’s own Facebook profile mysteriously explodes with compromising pics of her and Cole, along with tons of other students’ party indiscretions. Tagged. Liked. And furiously viral.
By Monday morning, Lucy’s been branded a slut, a backstabber, and a narc, mired in a tabloid-worthy scandal just weeks before graduation.
Lucy’s been battling undead masses online long enough to know there’s only one way to survive a disaster of this magnitude: Stand up and fight. Game plan? Uncover and expose the Facebook hacker, win back her best friend’s trust, and graduate with a clean slate.
There’s just one snag—Cole. Turns out Lucy’s not the only one who’s been harboring unrequited love…
I have read all of Sarah Ockler’s previous books and needless to say, this lady has a knack for contemporary writing. I love, love, love all the stories she’s written, especially her debut, ‘Twenty Boy Summer’ which made me bawl like a baby, 20 pages in. If an author can do that to you, you know she’s a keeper. However, I’ve decided to approach this book warily…and not because I don’t think I’ll like it, but because it deals centrally with infidelity. I hate infidelity, and almost never read about it, because of all the books I’ve read dealing with it, the execution just never sat well with me. But I have faith that Sarah Ockler will kick her new contemporary right out of the park, because DUH! She’s Sarah Ockler!
4. The Girl Who Never Was by Skylar Dorset (June 1st 2014, Sourcebooks Fire)
Synopsis provided by Goodreads: THE GIRL WHO NEVER WAS is the story of Selkie Stewart, who thinks she’s a totally normal teenager growing up in Boston. Sure, her father is in an insane asylum, her mother left her on his doorstep—literally—when she was a baby, and she’s being raised by two ancient aunts who spend their time hunting gnomes in their Beacon Hill townhouse. But other than that her life is totally normal! She’s got an adventurous best friend who’s always got her back and an unrequited crush on an older boy named Ben. Just like any other teenager, right?
When Selkie goes in search of the mother she’s never known, she gets more than she bargained for. It turns out that her mother is faerie royalty, which would make Selkie a faerie princess—except for the part where her father is an ogre, which makes her only half of anything. Even more confusing, there’s a prophecy that Selkie is going to destroy the tyrannical Seelie Court, which is why her mother actually wants to kill her. Selkie has been kept hidden all her life by her adoring aunts, with the help of a Salem wizard named Will. And Ben. Because the boy she thinks she’s in love with turns out to be a faerie whose enchantment has kept her alive, but also kept her in the dark about her own life.
Now, with enchantments dissolved and prophecies swinging into action, Selkie finds herself on a series of mad quests to save the people she’s always loved and a life she’s learning to love. But in a supernatural world of increasingly complex alliances and distressingly complicated deceptions, it’s so hard to know who to trust. Does her mother really wish to kill her? Would Will sacrifice her for the sake of the prophecy? And does Ben really love her or is it all an elaborate ruse? In order to survive, Selkie realizes that the key is learning—and accepting—who she really is.
Doesn’t the synopsis sound fantastic? I love, love, love fae mythology and especially in a urban fantasy setting?! Sign me up. This book sounds like a lot of fun what with the magical parents, a mother who wants to *GASP* kill her and of course, a cute fae boy! 😉 This totally reminds me of Puck’s affection for Meg in the Iron Fey series which I absolutely already ADORE (even when I’m only on Book 3!). Also, can we please just take a seat and think about how a fairy and an ogre did a deed? LOL. This sounds like a really promising new fantasy series and I can’t wait to get my hands on it!
3. Inland by Kat Rosenfield (June 12th 2014, Dutton Juvenile)
Synopsis provided by Goodreads: Callie Morgan has long lived choked by the failure of her own lungs, the result of an elusive pulmonary illness that has plagued her since childhood. A childhood marked early by the drowning death of her mother—a death to which Callie was the sole witness. Her father has moved them inland, away from the memories of the California coast her mother loved so much and toward promises of recovery—and the escape of denial—in arid, landlocked air.
But after years of running away, the promise of a life-changing job for her father brings Callie and him back to the coast, to Florida, where Callie’s symptoms miraculously disappear. For once, life seems delightfully normal. But the ocean’s edge offers more than healing air … it holds a magnetic pull, drawing Callie closer and closer to the chilly, watery embrace that claimed her mother. Returned to the ocean, Callie comes of age and comes into a family destiny that holds generations of secrets and very few happy endings.
I don’t know about you, but this synopsis just enchanted me. I’m still confused about what the entire book is truly about, but the suspense…Good lord, I want it NOW. I really don’t know how to categorise this book, seeing as it sounds a little like a contemporary and then all of a sudden: paranormal/psychological thriller. Could this book touch a little on the possibility of mermaids? Although the premise is not the same, this book gives me a ‘Please Ignore Vera Dietz’ vibe, which I’m so happy for, because I like it 20% more already. Can we also appreciate the beautiful, eerie cover? I’m so hoping my local bookstore will stock this in the month of June (they’re usually two months late!)!
2. The Merciless by Danielle Vega (June 12th 2014, Razorbill)
Synopsis provided by Goodreads: Forgive us, Father, for we have sinned
Brooklyn Stevens sits in a pool of her own blood, tied up and gagged. No one outside of these dank basement walls knows she’s here. No one can hear her scream.
Sofia Flores knows she shouldn’t have gotten involved. When she befriended Riley, Grace, and Alexis on her first day at school, she admired them, with their perfect hair and their good-girl ways. They said they wanted to save Brooklyn. They wanted to help her. Sofia didn’t realize they believed Brooklyn was possessed.
Now, Riley and the girls are performing an exorcism on Brooklyn—but their idea of an exorcism is closer to torture than salvation. All Sofia wants is to get out of this house. But there is no way out. Sofia can’t go against the other girls . . . unless she wants to be next. . . .
In this chilling debut, Danielle Vega delivers blood-curdling suspense and terror on every page. By the shockingly twisted end, readers will be faced with the most haunting question of all: Is there evil in all of us?
Oh my god. If you didn’t get goosebumps from that description…are you human? This, I can tell, is not for the weak of heart. And I know this because a few book-tubers received review copies and the emblazoned on the first page: NOT FOR THE WEAK OF HEART. This is like The Exorcism plus Mean Girls and I want it SO BAD. I admit, I hate horror movies and gore. I have a weak stomach and I suffer from this weird thing where the skin connecting my ankle to the heel of my foot as well as my wrist are incredibly vulnerable at times where I’m sick to my stomach. And from that, you can probably tell I diagnosed myself. Even after all that, I still want to read this because not only is the book cover amazingly designed (hats off to the irony), but I’m so intrigued to find out how it’ll all end. Also, I hear that Marlene King of ‘Pretty Little Liars’ is already adapting this to go on the big screen! That was quick!
1. The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu (June 3rd 2014, Roaring Brook Press)
Synopsis provided by Goodreads: Everyone has a lot to say about Alice Franklin, and it’s stopped mattering whether it’s true. The rumors started at a party when Alice supposedly had sex with two guys in one night. When school starts everyone almost forgets about Alice until one of those guys, super-popular Brandon, dies in a car wreck that was allegedly all Alice’s fault. Now the only friend she has is a boy who may be the only other person who knows the truth, but is too afraid to admit it. Told from the perspectives of popular girl Elaine, football star Josh, former outcast Kelsie, and shy genius Kurt, we see how everyone has a motive to bring – and keep – Alice down.
Do you notice a trend? Yes? Yeah, me too. I know this book is going to wreck me (maybe less so) than ‘The Merciless’, because let’s be real… Any story to do with bullying in highschool? It gets me, EVERY TIME. I especially love darker contemporaries touching base and I know this is right up my alley as it sounds like it will touch base on slut-shaming and public perception and I’ve yet to read one told in this particular way. The book will be in the perspective of four people which always intrigues me because I feel that this is an amazing way to provide so many dimensions to characters–whether it be Alice or one of the four. Not only is the cover so beautiful (cover lust to the max!), but I really love that it gives a little bit of insight on what the book is about–with the girl’s silhouette looking down, ashamed, maybe? I’m so eager to get my hands on this book and I already have a feeling that I will absolutely love it, with all the early glowing reviews!
So these are all the books I’m anticipating in the month of June! What are the books you’re looking forward to?! 🙂
reviews & rambles 