What's Next (4)

 

What's Next is an awesome meme from Icey Books where I get to hear from you, the readers, about what I should read next. I have a few upcoming blog tours and book releases I'm taking part in before the end of the year, so all of these will be getting read shortly, but where should I start?

1. Shift by M. R. Merrick

Devastated by a terrible loss, Chase is trying to balance the life he’s been left with, a family he’s still getting to know, and power he never thought he’d have. He doesn’t understand why the Goddess has named him the Protector and granted him two gifts: the Mark, a tattoo that now covers his back, and the ring. But between getting interrogated by the Circle and psychic attacks from Riley, the Mark is the least of his concern. There’s a demon inside Rayna that’s fighting to be released, and it’s not her inner witch. It’s something else—a monster threatening to tear her apart.

As Chase struggles to control his magic, his enemies are closing in. Everyone has staked a claim on his ring, and destroying it may be his only chance to stop Riley. But Chase must decide if stopping him is worth risking the lives of everyone he cares about, or if protecting the ring will be enough to save his world.

2. Snow Whyte and the Queen of Mayhem by Melissa Lemon

Stuck in her family's apple orchards, Kat's got plenty of work to do and only pesky Jeremy to help. But when Jeremy convinces her to run away, Kat will discover that nothing---and no one---in her life is quite what it seems. Wonderfully reimagined, this is the magical tale of Snow White as you've never read it before!










3. 13 on Halloween by Laura A. H. Elliott

Roxie has the best night of her life until the popular kids decide they want to celebrate her birthday in a way Roxie never expects––in her attic, with a gift that’s out of this world, and a pact to never tell a living soul what happens next.

Twelve-year-old Roxie wants to be like Adrianne, the popular girl who gets everything she wants––a flock to prowl around the mall with; invitations to parties; and for Hayden, the cutest guy in the eighth grade to, you know, notice her. When Roxie invites all the eighth grade peacocks (code word : popular kids) to her first ever thirteenth birthday party on Halloween, they all come and give her a gift that’s literally out of this world. Roxie astral projects to Planet Popular where she becomes seventeen instantly and gets everything she’s always wanted, but nothing is as it seems. Being a high school peacock is complicated and Roxie will risk everything to be who she thinks she wants to be. Oh yeah, there’s Prom, doppelgangers, a mysterious map, and lots of bad peacocks too. 

4. Broken by A.E. Rought

Imagine a modern spin on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where a young couple’s undying love and the grief of a father pushed beyond sanity could spell the destruction of them all.

A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry's boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetery and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.

When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she's intrigued despite herself. He's an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely... familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel's.

The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there's something very wrong with Alex Franks. And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks' estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows

So, what's your pick?

What's Next? (3)

 

What's Next is an awesome meme from Icey Books where I get to hear from you, the readers, about what I should read next. Before I started my blog, I read a lot of epic fantasy. As part of Reading Through My Bookshelf, I have lots I need to read. Help me decide where to start (after Game of Thrones, of course).

1. The Wanderer's Tale by David Bilsborough

It has been five hundred years since the Peladanes stormed the distant stronghold of Vaagenfjord. There, the dreaded rawgr Drauglir and his supernatural minions had held sway over the mortal world, in a long, terrifying reign.

And now, the peace is broken. Rumors abound, ill omens have been seen, and a priest of the One God has had a vision. The rawgr--hideous, powerful creatures of which there were but few -- have reappeared and, from their far northern outpost, threaten to wreak vengeance on the descendants of the Peladanes who sacked their fortress centuries before.

Thus begins an epic adventure--a fabulous quest--the likes of which has never been told. David Bilsborough, a brilliant young author, has created a passionately imagined vision of Lyndormyn, a world teeming with peoples, history, cultures; a world rich with fabulous landscapes and hidden terrors; a world with compelling characters--human and other--some deadly, others merely remarkable.

In sum, his creation explores a world of wonders that will surprise and captivate readers with its masterfully woven tapestry of lives entrapped by the play of Time and Chance, Good and Evil, on a grand scale. It's a sweeping epic to fire the imagination of readers everywhere.

2. Spellfire by Ed Greenwood

The Fire That Burns
It can lay low a dragon or heal a wounded warrior.
It is the most sought-after magical power in all Faerun.
And it is in the reluctant hands of Shandril of Highmoon, a young, orphaned kitchen-lass.
Now she's on the run from half of the evil sorcerers in the land, not to mention their relentless minions. But with the help of a handsome young wizard, some rough-and-tumble Knights of Myth Drannor, and a certain old mage of Shadowdale, she just might manage to stay alive.
At least until tomorrow.
An all-new expanded version of Ed Greenwood's classic tale, including a new forward by the author.
One of Ed Greenwood's most popular novels, Spellfire is being rereleased in an all-new trade paperback edition. This version has been completely reedited and contains added text and material that bring new excitement to the story. This edition also features new cover art and is classified as the first title in the brand-new Forgotten Realms series Shandril's Saga.

3. Azure Bonds by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb

Her name is Alias, and she is in big trouble.

She is a sell-sword, a warrior-for-hire, and an adventuress. She awoke with a series of twisting, magical blue sigils inscribed on her arms and no memory of where she got them.

Determined to learn the nature of the mysterious tattoo, Alias joins forces with an unlikely group of companions: the halfling bard, Ruskettle, the southern mage, Akabar, and the oddly silent lizard-man, Dragonbait. With their help, she discovers that the symbols hold the key to her very existence.

But those responsible for the sigils aren't keen on Alias's continued good health. And if the five evil masters find her first, she may discover all too soon their hideous secret. 

What's Next (2)

 

What's Next is an awesome meme from Icey Books where I get to hear from you, the reads, about what I should read next. I've missed a few weeks, but I'm excited to start posting in What's Next on a weekly basis! This week is going to be for my signed but unread books from the Smart Chicks Kick It Tour.

1. Matched by Ally Condie 

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

2. Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone - one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship - tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming. 

3. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

Rule #3: Don't stare at invisible faeries.
Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty - especially if they learn of her Sight - and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens.

Rule #2: Don't speak to invisible faeries.
Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer.

Rule #1: Don't ever attract their attention.
But it's too late. Keenan is the Summer King, who has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost — regardless of her plans or desires.

Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working anymore, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything.

Faery intrigue, mortal love, and the clash of ancient rules and modern expectations swirl together in Melissa Marr's stunning twenty-first-century faery tale.

So, which is your pick?