Sunday, April 15, 2012

New Releases: April 15-22 2012

The Last Echo (The Body Finder, #3)

Hardcover: 358 pages
Release date: April 17th, 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins
Goodreads Summary: In the end, all that's left is an echo...

Violet kept her morbid ability to sense dead bodies a secret from everyone except her family and her childhood-best-friend-turned-boyfriend, Jay Heaton. That is until forensic psychologist Sara Priest discovered Violet's talent and invited her to use her gift to track down murderers. Now, as she works with an eclectic group of individuals—including mysterious and dangerously attractive Rafe—it's Violet's job to help those who have been murdered by bringing their killers to justice. When Violet discovers the body of a college girl killed by "the girlfriend collector" she is determined to solve the case. But now the serial killer is on the lookout for a new "relationship" and Violet may have caught his eye....
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Hardcover: 268 pages
Release date: April 17th, 2012
Publisher: ATOM
Goodreads Summary: 
Three teenagers are going on the trip of a lifetime. Only one is coming back.

It’s been more than forty years since NASA sent the first men to the moon, and to grab some much-needed funding and attention, they decide to launch an historic international lottery in which three lucky teenagers can win a week-long trip to moon base DARLAH 2—a place that no one but top government officials even knew existed until now. The three winners, Antoine, Midori, and Mia, come from all over the world.

But just before the scheduled launch, the teenagers each experience strange, inexplicable events. Little do they know that there was a reason NASA never sent anyone back there until now—a sinister reason. But the countdown has already begun. . .
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Hardcover: 352 pages
Release date: April 17th, 2012
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Goodreads Summary: What if you forgot your identity and had to rely on other people to tell you who you were?

And what if to discover your true self, you first had to unravel a mystery so big and terrifying you were not sure you’d survive solving it?

When Marshall and Elyse wake up in each other’s arms with zero memory of how they got there or who they are, it’s the start of a long journey through their separate pasts and shared future.

Terrified by their amnesia, the two make a pact to work together to find the answers that could jog their missing memories. As they piece together clues, they discover they’re in the idyllic mountain resort town of Summer Falls, where everyone seems mysteriously happy, but as Marshall and Elyse quickly learn, darkness lurks beneath the town’s perfect facade. Not only is the town haunted by sinister ghosts, but none of its living inhabitants retain bad memories of anything—not the death of Marshall’s mom, not the hidden shame in Elyse’s family, not even the day-to-day anguish of high school.

Lonely in this world of happy zombies, Marsh and Elyse fall into an intense relationship...but the secrets they uncover could be the death of this growing love—and the death of everyone, and everything, they love in Summer Falls.
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Hardcover: 288 pages
Release date: April 17th, 2012
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Goodreads Summary: 
In the wake of the post-9/11 sniper shootings, fragile love finds a stronghold in this intense, romantic novel from the author of Break and Invincible Summer.

It's a year after 9/11. Sniper shootings throughout the D.C. area have everyone on edge and trying to make sense of these random acts of violence. Meanwhile, Craig and Lio are just trying to make sense of their lives. Craig’s crushing on quiet, distant Lio, and preoccupied with what it meant when Lio kissed him...and if he’ll do it again...and if kissing Lio will help him finally get over his ex-boyfriend, Cody.Lio feels most alive when he's with Craig. He forgets about his broken family, his dead brother, and the messed up world. But being with Craig means being vulnerable...and Lio will have to decide whether love is worth the risk.

This intense, romantic novel from the author of Break and Invincible Summer is a poignant look at what it is to feel needed, connected, and alive.
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Hardcover: 256 pages
Release date: April 17th, 2012
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Goodreads Summary: An acclaimed fantasy author navigates the world between myth and chaos in this compelling exploration of identity, told with a Caribbean lilt.Sixteen-year-old Scotch struggles to fit in—at home she’s the perfect daughter, at school she’s provocatively sassy, and thanks to her mixed heritage, she doesn’t feel she belongs with the Caribbeans, whites, or blacks. And even more troubling, lately her skin is becoming covered in a sticky black substance that can’t be removed. While trying to cope with this creepiness, she goes out with her brother—and he disappears. A mysterious bubble of light just swallows him up, and Scotch has no idea how to find him. Soon, the Chaos that has claimed her brother affects the city at large, until it seems like everyone is turning into crazy creatures. Scotch needs to get to the bottom of this supernatural situation ASAP before the Chaos consumes everything she’s ever known—and she knows that the black shadowy entity that’s begun trailing her every move is probably not going to help.
A blend of fantasy and Caribbean folklore, at its heart this tale is about identity and self acceptance—because only by acknowledging her imperfections can Scotch hope to save her brother. f
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Hardcover: 176 pages
Release date: April 17th, 2012
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Goodreads Summary: 
Some things are best left forgotten. A gripping account of espionage and loyalty from National Book Award Finalist Chris Lynch. All Daniel wants to do is spend one last summer with his grandfather before he moves away for college and his grandfather’s dementia pulls them apart. But when his dear old Da starts to let things slip about the job he used to hold—people he’s killed, countries he’s overthrown—old work “friends” show up to make sure he stays quiet. Was his grandfather really involved in a world of assassinations and coups, or are the stories just delusions of a crumbling mind? On the run from the police (and possibly something worse) before he has time to find out, Daniel may have to sacrifice everything to protect his grandfather from those who would do him harm.
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Hardcover: 330 pages
Release date: April 17th, 2012
Publisher: Clarion Books
Goodreads Summary: Based on an actual crime in 1955, this YA novel is at once a mystery and a coming-of-age story. The brutal murder of two teenage girls on the last day of Nora Cunningham's junior year in high school throws Nora into turmoil. Her certainties, friendships, religion, her prudence, her resolve to find a boyfriend taller than she is - are shaken or cast off altogether.

Most people in Elmgrove, Maryland, share the comforting conviction that Buddy Novak, who had every reason to want his ex-girlfriend dead, is responsible for the killings. Nora agrees at first, then begins to doubt Buddy's guilt, and finally comes to believe him innocent - the lone dissenting voice in Elmgrove.

Told from several different perspectives, including that of the murderer, Mister Death's Blue-Eyed Girls is a suspenseful page-turner with a powerful human drama at its core.
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Hardcover: 175 pages
Release date: April 17th, 2012
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Goodreads Summary: 
Heartbroken over the tragic death of her fiancé, seventeen-year-old Zora Stewart leaves
Baltimore for the frontier town of West Glory, Oklahoma, to help her young widowed
aunt keep her homestead going. There she discovers that she possesses the astonishing
ability to sense water under the parched earth. When her aunt hires her out as a
“springsweet” to advise other settlers where to dig their wells, Zora feels the burden of
holding the key to something so essential to survival in this unforgiving land.
Even more, she finds herself longing for love the way the prairie thirsts for water.
Maybe, in the wildness of the territories, Zora can finally move beyond simply surviving
and start living.
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Hardcover: 496 pages
Release date: April 17th, 2012
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Goodreads Summary: CONSPIRACY MURDER STEAM-POWERED ACTION
Col and Riff lead the oppressed Filthies to victory, but now the revolution on their mountain-sized juggernaut is falling apart. A saboteur strikes, and suspicion and paranoia reign.
Will Riff deny her love and brand Col a traitor? Can anyone stop the extremists taking over? And can they defeat the Imperialist juggernauts massing for war?

Liberator picks up the story three months after the revolution. The Filthies have given Worldshaker a new name—it's now Liberator. But the revolution is under threat on all sides: from a secret saboteur on board the juggernaut, from other Imperialist juggernauts that want to crush this liberated society, and from fanatical extremists who want to push the revolution into a new form of tyranny.

Col and Riff could stand against the extremists if they could stand together at all. As a member of the old elite, Col is persecuted by Riff's friends and fellow Council members, until she's embarrassed to be seen talking to him. A reign of terror, an ultimate battle —and the story of the juggernaut that was WORLDSHAKER and is now LIBERATOR drives on to its shattering conclusion.
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Hardcover: 352 pages
Release date: April 17th, 2012
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Goodreads Summary: 
Cecily’s father has ruined her life. He’s moving them to occupied Wales, where the king needs good strong Englishmen to keep down the vicious Welshmen. At least Cecily will finally be the lady of the house.

Gwenhwyfar knows all about that house. Once she dreamed of being the lady there herself, until the English destroyed the lives of everyone she knows. Now she must wait hand and foot on this bratty English girl.

While Cecily struggles to find her place amongst the snobby English landowners, Gwenhwyfar struggles just to survive. And outside the city walls, tensions are rising ever higher—until finally they must reach the breaking point.
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Everlasting Embrace (Embrace, #4)

Paperback
Release date: April 17th, 2012
Publisher: World Castle Publishing
Goodreads Summary: Sophia Pierce has walked the earth for over a century. She’s struggled, but finally found meaning to her existence. She found love, friendship and an amazing family. Now with the love of her life by her side, Sophia feels strong enough to conquer anything. Even raising a baby, born as his mother died at the hands of the Cerberus, evil Vampires. Sophia helps her best friend deal with the loss of her husband and raising their daughter. Stronger than ever, Sophia isn’t prepared for everything she’s about to learn.
Good versus evil seems like a pretty easy concept, but that’s not always true. When an Angel hunter comes for Nathanial’s friend Ben a Nephilim, Sophia and the Pierce family vow to protect him. Ben finds safety in the new Supernatural school created by the Pierce family, their shape shifter allies and the Magnificent Ones. With Caspian’s at the head of the school, things are bound to get exciting. 
Everlasting Embrace will take you on an exciting journey, of danger, love and life. When one love leaves, can another be found? Can that love return to you once they left? Sophia Pierce will learn the answers to this and so much more as she helps the ones she loves heal.
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There's so many books releasing this Tuesday! Don't forget that the Book Depository is having a sale until May 14th and you can get a 10% discount off everything. Just enter the code APMA12 at check out.

Get started by clicking the picture below that will take you to the site.
10% Discount / APMA12 Coupon Code / Book Depository
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Friday, April 13, 2012

Review: Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt


Hardcover: 360 pages
Release date: April 5th, 2011
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Goodreads Rating: 4.35
Goodreads Summary: Midwesterner Gary D. Schmidt won Newbery Honor awards for Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boys and The Wednesday Wars, two coming-of-age novels about unlikely friends finding a bond. Okay For Now, his latest novel, explores another seemingly improbable alliance, this one between new outsider in town Doug Swieteck and Lil Spicer, the savvy spitfire daughter of his deli owner boss. With her challenging assistance, Doug discovers new sides of himself. Along the way, he also readjusts his relationship with his abusive father, his school peers, and his older brother, a newly returned war victim of Vietnam.
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Every once in a while, a book that captures your attention will fare to capture your heart while reading it, and much, much long after parting with the characters and the story. I’ve never been too emotional over a book since A Monster Calls and laughed so hard since After Ever After. Yes, I’m placing it alongside two of my most favorite MG books of all time. And every once in a while, a book does something to you that made you want to hang on to every page and savor the moment while it last. OKAY FOR NOW swoops me right in to a story that will be engraved in me for a very, very long time.

What I knew before I started reading this was I am in for a quick and fun read. Since I didn’t so much as glance at the summary, I did not expect that it will be dealing with some heavier issues like abusive fathers and bullying brothers. The main character of this story, Doug Swieteck, and his family moved to Marysville, New York for his father’s new job. He didn’t anticipate to have a new friend and discover a new object of fascination in the local library. Not books but the collection of John James Audubon’s artworks. The birds enthralled him, and so the old librarian taught him to draw the birds and awaken the artist in him. Soon, he found his way around town and came to know the people in it. But Doug’s family is in a whirlwind of problems, affecting every aspect of Doug’s life. 

There’s so much more about Doug and his life than what it seems. Despite his father’s quick hands and his brother’s antagonism towards him, he tries to be a better person so he won’t turn out to be like them. He’s driven and passionate about achieving the things he wanted most. This extraordinary read took me on a roller coaster ride of emotions. One moment I’m struggling not to bawl and pull my hair out (thanks to Doug’s father), the next I’m smiling and then laughing so hard. It was one ride where every minute spent was worth it. 
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I'm completely smitten!
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Monday, April 9, 2012

Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John


Hardcover: 338 pages
Release date: November 11th, 2010
Publisher: Dial
Goodreads Summary: The Challenge: Piper has one month to get the rock band Dumb a paying gig.

The Deal: If she does it, Piper will become the band's manager and get her share of the profits.

The Catch: How can Piper possibly manage one egomaniacal pretty boy, one talentless piece of eye candy, one crush, one silent rocker, and one angry girl? And how can she do it when she's deaf?

Piper can't hear Dumb's music, but with growing self-confidence, a budding romance, and a new understanding of the decision her family made to buy a cochlear implant for her deaf baby sister, she discovers her own inner rock star and what it truly means to be a flavor of Dumb.
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Eighteen-year-old Piper becomes the manager for her classmates’ popular rock band, called Dumb, giving her the chance to prove her capabilities to her parents and others, if only she can get the band members to get along.

Even if I read a few books with a lot of music entail as a theme or a part of the story, it was still enlivening that Antony John made sure that there’ll be pieces of music info on the whole story. The way how Piper entered the world of the Dumb, was amusing. She doesn’t have idea if she’s going to make it through and oblivious how to start especially in her state of having a loss of hearing. But that reason did not scare her off, instead she used this as her strength and inspiration to make the band understand what a real band should be. 

Of course the whole story does not only exist with the band but also the problems Piper was going through with her family, the insecurities she’s been hiding and the feelings she wanted to let go. I really enjoyed seeing all the characters develop in the course of the story—especially Piper, Tash, Kallie and Piper’s parents.

I really loved how the whole story starts and how it ended. In fact, I flew through it in just a couple of hours. This will not be the last book I’m going to read by Antony John, and that’s for sure. :)

Let’s not forget the attraction with Ed and Piper! Have a peek with one of my favorite conversation of them:

“Time has passed since last I saw your face,
The memory of your touch
Your smile, your heart, your grace,
The visions that I once enjoyed have gone without a trace.”

“They’re good lyrics,” he said finally.
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”
“I’m serious. I can do something with this.”
That perked me up. “Really?”
“Really.” Ed smiled. “By tomorrow afternoon
Dumb will be performing our first love song.”

And then there was silence while we both digested those words.

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Friday, April 6, 2012

Review: This Girl Is Different by J.J. Johnson


Hardcover: 320 pages
Release date: April 1st, 2011
Publisher: Peachtree Publishers
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads Summary: Evie is different. Not just her upbringing-though that's certainly been unusual-but also her mindset. She's smart, independent, confident, opinionated, and ready to take on a new challenge: The Institution of School.

It doesn't take this homeschooled kid long to discover that high school is a whole new world, and not in the way she expected. It's also a social minefield, and Evie finds herself confronting new problems at every turn, failing to follow or even understand the rules, and proposing solutions that aren't welcome or accepted.

Not one to sit idly by, Evie sets out to make changes. Big changes. The movement she starts takes off, but before she realizes what's happening, her plan spirals out of control, forcing her to come to terms with a world she is only just beginning to comprehend.

JJ Johnson's powerful debut novel will enthrall readers as it challenges assumptions about friendship, rules, boundaries, and power.
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Evie has never been in a school she was home schooled throughout her study because of her having a no permanent address, but this time she’ll make a difference. She’s going to be on a school. Before her first day she run into Rajas and Jacinda in a forest and became her friends. It never occurred to Evie that high school life in movie has never been that easy in real life… 


Evie Morningdew—yup that’s her last name-- is definitely a different girl that even she admit, she’s living in a Dome Home, not afraid of snakes and has a gift for having such a strong intelligence that sometimes she’s uncontrollable when it comes in speaking what she feels. I love how Evie start her first day in school, most girls would be on a shy mode and will try their best not to attract attention to other students but she’s different. She’s been on the top watch list of their gym teacher for using a cell during a break which she did not let to pass. She tries to write to the SG her side of the rules she think is not right and equal for the students. Jacinda and Rajas plays a big part of Evie’s new life. Jacinda became her girl companion in the story, they had great times together even there’s a bit of things they don’t both agree and had a fight which a normal relationship will encounter. While Rajas was the love interest of Evie and soon became her boyfriend, Rajas “no-label” status has been a big problem for Evie and other trials they face throughout the story but soon passed the challenges. The romance was put fairly to make the story more engaging.The teacher-student relationship was also talked in the story, hmm…I’m not a fan of this relationship and will not abide any part of it though I have a lot to say about this topic I’ll just keep my mouth shut. 



The main thought of the story was devise from tip to toe. J.J. Johnson let us know that letting ourselves speak out and be heard is not bad but sometimes the way how we try to do it, that’s where the whole trouble might start. Evie’s not the only one whose life has change and did everything to make the mistakes that has been done be changed. Rajas, Jacinda and also their teachers Mr. Brookner and Ms. Gliss faces their own fears to change what they have to do, though some of them end up badly. The book was an enriched-lesson one that will not let you put it down until the last page.

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