"Waiting On" Wednesday #10

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating.


Right now what I really want to read is:



Struck 

Mia Price is a lightning addict. She’s survived countless strikes, but her craving to connect to the energy in storms endangers her life and the lives of those around her. 

Monument 14

Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong. A huge store isn’t the worst place to be stranded. There’s food and water, bedding and books. But what if it’s not safe to leave? Emmy Laybourne had us from the get-go with her utterly fresh and fast-paced debut. 

______________________


Can you say D-Y-S-T-O-P-I-A F-E-V-E-R? ;)


They both sound soooo good!!! They are now available for request on Netgalley, so... fingers crossed! *-*


What are you desperately waiting on?

Teaser Tuesday #10

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along, just do as following:

• Grab your current read

       • Open to a random page
      • Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
      • Be careful not to include any spoilers so as not to ruin the book for others.

Make sure to share the title and the author so other TT participants can add the book to their TBR piles.

"Maybe it was only goblin women who were restless and wanted to see the world. She didn't know."


"Maybe being brave was not highly desireable  in women. Normal women would have fled, like Pansy."


The Peculiars is better than I thought. :) Lots of girl power there. LOL. I just had to share these two quotes with you.

What's your teaser this week?

Review: Revealing Eden (Save the Pearls #1) by Victoria Foyt

Revealing Eden
(Save the Pearls #1)

Victoria Foyt

Eden Newman must mate before her 18th birthday in six months or she'll be left outside to die in a burning world. But who will pick up her mate-option when she's cursed with white skin and a tragically low mate-rate of 15%? In a post-apocalyptic, totalitarian, underground world where class and beauty are defined by resistance to an overheated environment, Eden's coloring brands her as a member of the lowest class, a weak and ugly Pearl. If only she can mate with a dark-skinned Coal from the ruling class, she'll be safe. Just maybe one Coal sees the Real Eden and will be her salvation her co-worker Jamal has begun secretly dating her. But when Eden unwittingly compromises her father's secret biological experiment, she finds herself in the eye of a storm and thrown into the last area of rainforest, a strange and dangerous land. Eden must fight to save her father, who may be humanity's last hope, while standing up to a powerful beast-man she believes is her enemy, despite her overwhelming attraction. Eden must change to survive but only if she can redefine her ideas of beauty and of love, along with a little help from her "adopted aunt" Emily Dickinson.

Reading Level: Young Adult

Publication Date: January 2012

Publisher: Sand Dollar Press

Pages: 307

Series: yes

Acquisition: received a copy for review

Heroine: Slim, light skinned, blond and blue-eyed

Hero: Tall, dark skinned, dark hair and dark eyes

__________________________________________________

My Review

Eden Newman is seventeen years old and a Pearl. Pearl is the racist term for the fair-skinned minority.

She lives in a post-apocalypctic world ruled by the Coals, people with darker skin. In this world, to show white skin is an insult so big that gives the Coals an excuse to finish you., so Eden is forced to use a dark coating to hide her skin color. She also has to paint her blond hair black and use brown contact lenses over her blue eyes.

It's very difficult for her to believe that a million years ago she would be considered beautiful. In this new Earth, she is nothing. Eden hates the Coals and everything they represent, but at the same time she wishes she was just like them, as beautiful and safe.

But if there is one thing she is not, is safe. As she approaches her eighteenth birthday, she gets more and more nervous, because she still has no mating option. If she doesn't mate by her birthday, she will lose her Basic Resources. No more food, the relative safety of her miserable job and all her oxy, the calming drug administered by the government. But who would want a Pearl? The only thing worse than being a Pearl is being a Cotton (albino), who are now supposedly extinct. (Any carriers of the recessive gene are forbidded by the Government to breed. Light skin is already quite unacceptable, but having no melanin at all is seen as an abomination that should cease to be.).

The civilization has long moved underground, hiding from the deadly levels of radiation, that causes The Heat (a terrible mutation of skin cancer that spreads very quickly). Coals possess higher levels of melanin on their skin, which protects them from most of the radiation. And because of that higher protection, they were the majority to survive after The Great Meltdown. Due to that, they considered themselves superior to the other surviving races and took control over them.

One of Eden's worse fears is that she might perish from The Heat like her mother (called a Pink Pearl, with red hair) did seven years ago. Her other fears lie in being killed by an angry mob of Coals for the smallest infraction or, even worse, being taken in by the FFP (Federation of Free People), that are the equivalent of Ku Klux Klan to white people.

I was really getting into the book, starting to get mad and desperate over the injustice of this world, liking the characters, the setting and the situations... but then, BAM. All of a sudden it was like a whole new book was inserted in the middle of the one I started. Out comes the dystopian race war and my hopes for some kind of revolution, in comes the Beast man and the Amazonian jungle, indians and wild animals.

I really didn't see it coming. O.o Not that it was bad, you see, but it was weird. It was like the author had changed her mind on what the book should be about after already starting it. It was interesting to see how Eden and the Jaguar Man (that's how the indians called the Coal who received DNA from three different animals in an experiment to try and get more resistance to radiation. He looked like a wild, mixed creation. Half-man, half-animal) got involved. The sexual tension was sizzling, but secrets and disappointments kept coming up to keep them apart.

In a nutshell, the whole thing was nothing like what I expected, but it wasn't bad. Just very different. I wanted to have seen more of their society, some sort of rebellion and change... I don't know, maybe in the enxt volumes?

The beginning Revealing Eden reminded me of Malorie Blackman's Noughts & Crosses, what with the african american supremacy. I found it fascinating to see how things would be if it was the other way around. If white people were the ones on the receiving end of all the prejudice that black people have to deal with nowadays. 

If you are open minded, like crazy science fiction books with dystopian touches, jungle settings, mystery and romance, give this one a try. ;)

*I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

In My Mailbox #10

In My Mailbox is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Story Siren.


This week I got:

(sorry for the horrible pic)

I swapped a couple of my old books for these pretties here. :)

I still have to read Ink Exchange, but Fragile Eternity sounds really great! 

And Demon From the Dark will be my first title by Kresley Cole. I hope I'll enjoy it. :)

What did you get this week?

Manga Rec #10 : Butterflies, Flowers, vol.1 by Yuki Yoshihara

Butterflies, Flowers, vol.1 (Butterflies, Flowers #1)

by Yuki Yoshihara

A hilarious office romance!

Choko Kuze is the sensible daughter of a venerable family who went bankrupt. She joins a real estate company as an entry-level office worker, but her eccentric boss is harder on her than anyone else in the company! After hearing him inadvertently call her "milady," she realizes he was the young servant boy she knew as a child. At work he's a tyrant, but after hours he insists on treating her like a lady of the nobility. Is romance even possible for a couple locked in such a crazy role reversal?

__________________________

I have been anxiously waiting for some publisher to translate Yuki Yoshihara's work. You can't possibly imagine how happy I was when I found out that VIZ Media was going to start this series!!! *-* (Even if it's not my favorite series of hers, it's till her work anyway. LOL).

Masayuki worked as a servant for Choko's family when she was a kid... so when he become the boss in the company she now works, things start to get weird. He's very conflicted.

 Sometimes he treats her badly, like a very demanding boss would. 

Other times, he's very sweet and caring, almost like a babysitter or white knight.

Choko gets very confused... and starts to fall for him.

This manga is so preposterous it's hilarious. There are certain situations that make this an adult manga, but nothing actually happens for a long time. :P

All in all, Butterflies, Flowers is sure to make you laugh. The drawings and the characters expressions are remarkably funny.

There's no way you won't fall in love with Masayuki. He's such a dear! And Choko is unbelievably amusing.

Need some fun and are tired of reading about teenagers?

Give this one a try and let me know what you think. ;)

On My Wishlist #

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


My list this week contains already published books.




I can't keep up with my poor TBR list. :)

What's on your wishlist?

Early Review: Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard

Wanderlove

by Kirsten Hubbard


Expected publication: March 13th 2012 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers

It all begins with a stupid question: Are you a Global Vagabond? No, but 18-year-old Bria Sandoval wants to be. In a quest for independence, her neglected art, and no-strings-attached hookups, she signs up for a guided tour of Central America—the wrong one. Middle-aged tourists with fanny packs are hardly the key to self-rediscovery. When Bria meets Rowan, devoted backpacker and dive instructor, and his outspokenly humanitarian sister Starling, she seizes the chance to ditch her group and join them off the beaten path. 

Bria's a good girl trying to go bad. Rowan's a bad boy trying to stay good. As they travel across a panorama of Mayan villages, remote Belizean islands, and hostels plagued with jungle beasties, they discover what they've got in common: both seek to leave behind the old versions of themselves. And the secret to escaping the past, Rowan’s found, is to keep moving forward. 

But Bria comes to realize she can't run forever, no matter what Rowan says. If she ever wants the courage to fall for someone worthwhile, she has to start looking back. Kirsten Hubbard lends her artistry into this ultimate backpacker novel, weaving her drawings into the text. Her career as a travel writer and her experiences as a real-life vagabond backpacking Central America are deeply seeded in this inspiring story.

Reading Level: Young Adult

Publication Date: March 2012

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Pages: 352

Series: no

Acquisition: received a copy for review

Heroine: Slim, short dark hair and eyes

Hero: Tall, swimmer's build, longish dark hair and blue eyes

______________________________

My Review

Bria Sandoval loves to draw. Ever since she was kid she would draw in every surface with anything available, and have the time of her life doing it. On her senior year she met the guy who looked perfect for her. An artist. Toby went to fancy art classes, knew secret drawing techniques and dreamt of going to SCAA, a big, famous arts school. And he made her want to go, too. They studied together, improved their skills and applied. 

Bria got in. But Toby didn't... he was jealous and bitter, so he dumped her.

Bria was completely crushed. After moping around for weeks, she decides to travel to Europe with her friends, just like she and Toby planned to do once they went to college together... but her friends end up not being able to go, and she can't possibly go alone to a place like Europe, right? Well, she certainly can, but not to a place that would make her think of him all the time.

She's going to Guatemala. To see the Mayan Ruins. With the Global Vagabonds, adventurous youngsters looking for knowledge and fun... At least that's what the pamphlet said. But when she gets to the Guatemala airport, all she sees are middle-aged people. And all they do is stick to safe places, seeing only what the travel plan states they should see, and for how long they should see it. 

Bria starts to regret the trip until she sees a beautiful kind of creature wondering along the boring tourists. A backpacker. A tall, bronzed-skin, ponytailed backpacker. Who invites her over for dinner on an island that is not on her travel guide. When she gets there, she remembers she doesn't know his name, but ends up finding more beautiful, tanned creatures like him. And one of them is Starling, an outspoken humanitarian. She explains to Bria that the 'ponytail guy' is her half-brother, a reformed troublemaker called Rowan, who teaches scuba diving. 

When Starling invites her to join them on their trip, she's scared, but very excited. After all, this whole thing was supposed to make her more independent, but the Global Vagabonds obviously weren't helping her with that cause... so she takes the risk, gives up two thirds of her suitcase's content and becomes a brand new backpacker. Rowan isn't exactly thrilled with the tag-along, but he accepts her well enough... until Starling up and leaves for a job in a small town called Flores, without even saying goodbye to her brother. Because, like she told Bria before leaving, they don't do goodbyes, they're just too painful. Rowan is even more not thrilled when he finds his sister gone and himself as the 'babysitter', but Bria starts to show him how great a companion she can be. How great a friend.

Bria learns that backpackers do things cheap. And saving money means giving up on comfort. And life luxuries, such as showers, hot water and cold drinks. But they also see the most amazing things that ordinary travelers always miss out on. They see hidden natural beauty, they see the reality of life in Central America, they learn and they grow as they travel. They ake new friends and they fall in love.

I have to admit that at the beginning there were a few times the book was a bit boring, but I'm glad I endured it, LOL, because then it gets crazy good! I stayed up late just to finish it! I didn't want to wait to see what happened. Bria is a an excellent artist, and her drawings fill the book, making it so much more... personal (author Kirsten Hubbard was also the artist). You can literally picture what's happening, what she's seeing and feeling. And it's a beautiful addition to such a great story. She finds herself, her art, her heart. And helps Rowan finds himself and his purpose, too. It's truly touching.

If you enjoy realistic fiction young adult books with a lot of travel, growing up, romance and drama, grab Wanderlove right now. :)

* I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

#FF: Feature&Follow #9

Follow Friday is hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee's View.

Q: Define what characteristics your favorite books share. Do they all have a kick ass heroine or is the hot love interest the Alpha Male?

Well.... my heroines are usually pretty strong and opinionated, they make people respect them. No weak willed, silly girls for me (but I do give them a chance to grow a backbone before giving the book up). My heroes are generally strong, too, yes, but they'd never try to force themselves or their will on their heroines. They respect each other, they're equals. They are a team. And they have lots of fun teasing each other.

But it's not unheard of for me to favorite a book just because I like the hero better than I do the heroine. LOL

:P

What about you?

If you follow, please leave a link so I can follow back. ;)

Dirty Little Secret #8

Dirty Little Secret is a weekly meme hosted by us at Under the Covers. Every Thursday we get to know other bloggers and our readers more intimately by asking them a question hoping to reveal their dirty little secrets. We hope that you will all join us!


This week's question: 

If you could travel back in time, what era would you like to find yourself in and why?

I would love to be back in the time of Sparta (around 600BC). Spartan women enjoyed considerably more rights and equality to men than elsewhere in the classical world, so lots of girl power there. :) 

Spartan women could own property, were encouraged to develop their intellect and had a reputation for boldness and licentiousness that other Greeks found unseemly. 
Oh, and Plutarch wrote that “the men of Sparta always obeyed their wives.” 

But even there, things weren't perfect... still, if I had to go back in time, I would prefer to at least have some rights and respect. Not to mention the opportunity to see the yummy warriors, all strong and sweaty. :P (Remember 300, anyone?). 

Living with vikings would be interesting, too, but their women were treated like rubish, so... maybe not. O.o

You can read more about Spartan women here.

What time period would you prefer?

"Waiting On" Wednesday #9

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating.


Right now what I really want to read is:

After the Snow

S.D. Crockett

2059. The snow begins to fall. Only the few are prepared. A new ice-age has begun. Born after the snows, fifteen-year-old straggler kid Willo Blake has never known a life outside hunting and trapping in the hills. When his family mysteriously disappears, leaving him alone on a freezing mountain, Willo sets off into the unknown to find them. Meanwhile, across Britain, outlawed followers of survivalist John Blovyn are planning an escape to the fabled Islands talked of in a revolutionary book. When Willo meets an abandoned girl on his trek across the hills, his world collides with outlaws and halfmen on an epic journey that leads him to the new world of the city - a place where the dog spirit inside his head cannot help him. It is a journey of betrayal and violence. A journey of awakening love and humanity. A journey that changes everything he ever thought he knew.

_______________________

Yup, I'm very into dystopian books now. :) I think I just really like the Post-Apocalyptic scenarios, how people have to learn to survive, no mater what the conditions thrown at them. It's fascinating... if a bit terrifying.

What are you waiting on?