Review: The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

Title:The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

Author: Sangu Mandanna

Published:August 28th 2012 by Balzer + Bray

Book Description:
Eva's life is not her own. She is a creation, an abomination--an echo. She was made by the Weavers as a copy of someone else, expected to replace a girl named Amarra, her "other," if she ever died. Eva spends every day studying that girl from far away, learning what Amarra does, what she eats, what it's like to kiss her boyfriend, Ray. So when Amarra is killed in a car crash, Eva should be ready.

But sixteen years of studying never prepared her for this.

Now she must abandon everything and everyone she's ever known--the guardians who raised her, the boy she's forbidden to love--to move to India and convince the world that Amarra is still alive.

What Eva finds is a grief-stricken family; parents unsure how to handle this echo they thought they wanted; and Ray, who knew every detail, every contour of Amarra. And when Eva is unexpectedly dealt a fatal blow that will change her existence forever, she is forced to choose: Stay and live out her years as a copy or leave and risk it all for the freedom to be an original. To be Eva.

From debut novelist Sangu Mandanna comes the dazzling story of a girl who was always told what she had to be--until she found the strength to decide for herself

Cover Reveal: Everything Breaks by Vicki Grove (Plus a Giveaway)

Expected publication: October 3rd 2013 by Putnam Juvenile
 Book Description:  

Tucker was supposed to be the designated driver. But there was something about the beauty of that last true summer night, that made him want to feel out-of-control just once. He drank so much and so quickly that he was instantly sick. That left Trey to drive. "I'll catch up to you later," were the last words Tucker would ever say to his friends as he heaved by the side of the road. It was the last time Tucker would ever see them alive.

Tucker’s grief and guilt are just about unbearable and he wonders how he can continue living himself. When he meets the Ferryman who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers that divide the world of the living from the world of the dead, Tucker gets a chance to decide: live or die. The temptation to join his three best friends on the other side may be too much for Tucker to overcome.   A gripping, haunting and emotional read.

                     Goodreads  Website  

  

                                                                              

   Vicki Grove

Interview:

1.Describe your book in 2 sentences.

 When he is the only survivor in a drunk driving accident that kills his three best friends, Tucker is so broken emotionally, physically, and mentally that he attracts the Ferryman who, in Greek mythology, takes souls across the River Acheron to the land of the dead.  Now it's up to Tuck to decide what living really means and to fight his way back from the edge of a different dimension to his home in good old Oklahoma.

2. What inspired you to write, Everything Breaks?
 always use writing as a way of figuring things out, Dannielle, you know?   I've done that ever since third grade, when I learned cursive and the power of writing stories.   My parents died within a few months of each other about three years ago, and I was of course heartbroken.   I know one big reason I began writing this book was to figure for myself out what lasts after death, what remains when everything breaks.   Tucker has to put his friends in place in his heart, just as I've had to do while grieving for my parents.  In fact, I based a main character, Tuck's step-grandfather Bud, on my dad.   There were other things that went into my decision to take on a story like this.  After all, I'd never done a supernatural book before.  But I think that was the compelling reason, to grieve for my parents and to try and figure out how to let them go and somehow keep them as well.

3. Book/s you look forward to read this year?
have a pile of books I'm looking forward to reading, like I'll bet you do, too.  I love character-driven stories, both adult and YA.  I love to sleep with books spread around on the bed~ they're comforting!  My husband can't get into that little habit of mine, though, so I'm trying to reform and keep my current reads on the bedside stand.   One of the books I'm reading at the moment is a biography of Chopin, because after a lifetime of putting it off I finally started taking piano lessons last year!  Usually, though, I go for fiction.  Everything I know I've learned from fiction, reading it or writing it!

Flash Questions:

Guilty pleasure?

You'll laugh at my guilty pleasure.  I live in the woods and I love to pick up rocks, especially ones with holes in them.  I bring them home and string them up with beads and feathers and stuff like that then I hang them from the ceiling.  Told you you'd laugh.

Favorite ice cream flavor? I adore jamoca almond fudge ice cream

Coffee of tea? I gotta have my coffee!   Bring it on and keep it coming!

Win a copy!

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Review: Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil

                                     

Title: Life in Outer Space

Author: Melissa Keil 

Published: February 1st 2013 by Hardie Grant Egmont 
Format: ARC

Book Description:
Full of energy, wit and tenderness; this is one big-hearted and unique book.’ - Leanne Hall

Sam Kinnison is a geek, and he’s totally fine with that. He has his horror movies, his nerdy friends, World of Warcraft – and until Princess Leia turns up in his bedroom, he doesn’t have to worry about girls.

Then Sam meets Camilla. She’s beautiful, friendly and completely irrelevant to his life. Sam is determined to ignore her, except that Camilla has a life of her own – and she’s decided that he’s going to be part of it.

Sam believes that everything he needs to know he can learn from the movies ... but now it looks like he’s been watching the wrong ones.

‘Hilarious and heartfelt.’ - Sally Rippin

Want to win a copy?

PH only
Giveaway
Here 
 

Book Signing Event: Peter Lerangis in Manila

 

 Join New York Times bestselling author Peter Lerangis for a book signing event on May 4, 2013

 4 pm, at National Book Store, Glorietta 1.

 Registration starts at 11 am.

See ya there :D

Review: Breaking Point (Article 5) Kristen Simmons

 Title: Breaking Point (Article 5 #2)

Author: Kristen Simmons 

Published: February 12th 2013 by Tor Teen

Book Description:
The second installment in Kristen Simmons's fast-paced, gripping YA dystopian series.

After faking their deaths to escape from prison, Ember Miller and Chase Jennings have only one goal: to lay low until the Federal Bureau of Reformation forgets they ever existed.

Near-celebrities now for the increasingly sensationalized tales of their struggles with the government, Ember and Chase are recognized and taken in by the Resistance—an underground organization working to systematically take down the government. At headquarters, all eyes are on the sniper, an anonymous assassin taking out FBR soldiers one by one. Rumors are flying about the sniper’s true identity, and Ember and Chase welcome the diversion….

Until the government posts its most-wanted list, and their number one suspect is Ember herself.

Orders are shoot to kill, and soldiers are cleared to fire on suspicion alone. Suddenly Ember can’t even step onto the street without fear of being recognized, and “laying low” is a joke. Even members of the Resistance are starting to look at her sideways.

With Chase urging her to run, Ember must decide: Go into hiding…or fight back?

Spotlight: The Sound by Sarah Alderson

   Book Description:  

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...

The gripping new stand-alone novel from the author of Hunting Lila. Out August 2013

 Goodreads Twitter  Website  

  

                                                                             Sarah Alderson

   Interview:

1.Describe your book in 5 words

Gossip Girl meets The Killing

2. What inspired you to write, The Sound?

When I was 17 I nannied on the island of Nantucket, just off the coast from Boston. I had a very fun time - hanging out with lots of private school kids going to beach parties and also meeting some locals. My memories inspired the location and some of the characters. I write thrillers with lots of steamy romance but this was my first contemporary novel (no people with special powers and no demons in this one) so I started it off with some deep dark secrets and then threw in a serial killer just to really keep readers on their toes and to up the ante.

3. Favorite scene to write?

Ren the main character is one of my favourites. I think readers will really love her. She's a music blogger and her Englishness is the perfect contrast to the preppy prepster types she starts to hang around with. She's more Topshop / Thriftstore than Ralph Lauren and she's very down to earth and endearing. I have two favourite scenes. The first is the scene where Ren first meets Jesse, the local bad boy who works in the bike shop and who plays guitar like a god. And the second was the epilogue which made me laugh out loud and grin from ear to ear when I read it back.

4. Most anticipated book/s to read this year?

I so wish it was the third Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but I hear that won't be out until 2014 alas. So I'll say Dark Triumph by Robin LeFevers. I loved Grave Mercy. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9943270-dark-triump

  5. Favorite Ice cream flavor?
My daughter and I sneak off regularly to our favourite ice cream shop in the whole of Bali (Gaya), sometimes even for breakfast. It's proper Italian gelato and we always get the passionfruit sorbet and the chocolate. 

Goddess Offerings #15 (Stacking the Shelves , In My Mailbox)

For Review

Close My Eyes by Sophie Mckenzie

Phoenix (Black City #2) by Elizabeth Richards

 Bought

Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices #3) by Cassandra Clare

ARC Tour

Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil
 

 

Check our our fellow Blogger, JP

His YouTube channel 

 here

 "Unboxing John Green's box set"

"Special thanks to Elizabeth Richards and Simon&Schuster UK"

Goddess Offerings is a meme hosted by Amaterasureads 

This will showcase the books we bought, received or borrowed!

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Review: Ten by Gretchen McNeil

 

Title:Ten

Author: Gretchen McNeil

Published:September 18th 2012 by Balzer + Bray

Book Description:

SHHHH!
Don't spread the word!
Three-day weekend. Party at White Rock House on Henry Island.
You do NOT want to miss it.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?