From The Review Pile: Pushing The Limits

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Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry

Whoops! I meant to do this yesterday. Better late than never?

This arrived the other day and while reading the press release I have to say that some parts sound great and some parts not so much. The cover doesn't grab me at all, but I've said before that I just don't like covers with people on them very much, and the tag line isn't exactly inspired but it's not awful either. I also don't like when things are described as "insert title here meets other title", it just doesn't really say anything to me.

Anyway, I'm being picky. The story itself does sound pretty interesting and I do like stories about characters from backgrounds that you don't see very often, in this case therapy. But there are some other points that I find a little lacklustre. The bad boy thing has been done so many times before and I hope that Katie McGarry puts an interesting spin on things. I know that teenage girls tend to adore the idea of bad boys but surely even they get tired of reading about them over and over again? 

It is sold as "dealing sensitively with gritty themes of loss, love and change...a deeply compelling novel which challenges readers to abandon preconceptions and reconsider what 'normal' means" which does sound really good so hopefully it lives up to expectations! I am looking forward to reading it because overall it sounds very intriguing.

From Goodreads:

"I won't tell anyone, Echo. I promise." Noah tucked a curl behind my ear. It had been so long since someone touched me like he did. Why did it have to be Noah Hutchins? His dark brown eyes shifted to my covered arms. "You didn't do that-did you? It was done to you?" No one ever asked that question. They stared. They whispered. They laughed. But they never asked.
So wrong for each other...and yet so right.
No one knows what happened the night Echo Emerson went from popular girl with jock boyfriend to gossiped-about outsider with "freaky" scars on her arms. Even Echo can't remember the whole truth of that horrible night. All she knows is that she wants everything to go back to normal. But when Noah Hutchins, the smoking-hot, girl-using loner in the black leather jacket, explodes into her life with his tough attitude and surprising understanding, Echo's world shifts in ways she could never have imagined. They should have nothing in common. And with the secrets they both keep, being together is pretty much impossible.Yet the crazy attraction between them refuses to go away. And Echo has to ask herself just how far they can push the limits and what she'll risk for the one guy who might teach her how to love again.

From The Review Pile: After The Snow

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After The Snow by S. D. Crockett

I've had After The Snow on my review pile for a while now and I still haven't got around to it because, well, I've heard some negative views that make me wonder if I'm going to enjoy it. The concept is great but there's quite a few others things that concern me, such as the voice, how it's told in dialect (but apparently not as well as The Knife of Never Letting Go) and the dog skull that the boy talks to a lot. Overall it seems to get 2 or 3 stars which isn't awful but also isn't great.

From Goodreads:

Fifteen-year-old Willo was out hunting when the trucks came and took his family away. Left alone in the snow, Willo becomes determined to find and rescue his family, and he knows just who to talk with to learn where they are. He plans to head across the mountains and make Farmer Geraint tell him where his family has gone. 

But on the way across the mountain, he finds Mary, a refugee from the city, whose father is lost and who is starving to death. The smart thing to do would be to leave her alone -- he doesn't have enough supplies for two or the time to take care of a girl -- but Willo just can't do it. However, with the world trapped in an ice age, the odds of them surviving on their own are not good. And even if he does manage to keep Mary safe, what about finding his family?

From The Review Pile: Starcrossed

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From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday.The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you've received for review (or any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven't yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

This arrived yesterday. I haven't looked into it much but it sounds a little...run of the mill? Gods seem to be the new big thing in YA. We've had vampires, we've had werewolves, we've had angels, now it's time for gods and goddesses. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm cool with trends and if it's what people want then it's what they want. It only irks me a little because whenever there's a trend there are some books that are right on the money and some that are way off base. I hope that Starcrossed is right on the money. I've seen a lot of really positive reviews for it but I've also seen some that completely run it into the ground until it's nothing but dust.

So, it should be interesting.

From Goodreads:

Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is--now it's getting harder. She's having nightmares of a desperate desert journey, visions of three women weeping tears of blood. And why is she possessed by the sudden, unstoppable urge to kill the handsome new boy in school, Lucas Delos?
A love written in the stars . . .
A feud started in ancient Greece . . .
A curse not even the gods can break.

From The Review Pile: Long Reach

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From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday.The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you've received for review (or any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven't yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

Long Reach by Peter Cocks

Well, aside from the authors unfortunate surname that makes me snicker like the immature child I am, this looks pretty awesome.

Walker launched a new range of YA fiction last year and the first of the range is Long Reach. Overall it's got great reviews (averaging 3.95 stars out of 5 on Goodreads!) so it sounds like it's going to be good. I'm not particularly into thrillers and the blurb didn't really grab me but I am sure that there are loads of people who would adore it and it's great to see new YA fiction ranges as well as books that move in a different direction to what I normally see. So, hopefully it lives up to the hype!

From Goodreads:

17-year-old Eddie Savage is shocked to learn that the body of his brother Steve has just been washed up in the Thames. But he soon discovers something even more disturbing - that Steve had actually been working undercover for the police and was probably murdered in the line of duty.

From The Review Pile: 172 Hours On The Moon

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From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday.The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you've received for review (or any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven't yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

 

172 Hours On The Moon sounds really interesting, although I'm also not completely sure that I'll like it because I don't like horror/thriller elements very much. Which is weird when you consider that I love The Walking Dead. Overall it seems to be getting positive reviews so hopefully it will live up to that! I'm also intrigued because it's set in 2019, which isn't very far in the future at all.

From Goodreads:

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. . .

From The Review Pile: Starters

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From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday.The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you've received for review (or any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven't yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

Okay first things first, the cover really creeps me out and also really others me. It just looks like a rather boring 3D model that's been left without any textures, and the hair looks too stiff. I also just can't deal with this blank face staring at me, so it's currently weighed down by a few other books.

The story itself sounds really interesting, though I've seen some less than stellar reviews of it, most of which seem to be saying that the idea is fantastic while the storytelling is lacking.

From Goodreads:

HER WORLD IS CHANGED FOREVER
Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie's only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man.
He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie's head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator's grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. . . .

From The Review Pile: The Flappers Vixen

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From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday.

The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you've received for review (or any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven't yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

The Flappers: Vixen by Jillian Larkin

I like the sound of The Flappers: Vixen, it's seems like your usual teenage novel with a twist. I also love the 20's and Prohibition Era settings so I hope it's as good as it sounds! My only issue? I'm a bit bored with bad-girl vs good-girl characters, it's a bit standard, but hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised.

From Goodreads:

Jazz . . . Booze . . . Boys . . . It’s a dangerous combination.

Every girl wants what she can’t have. Seventeen-year-old Gloria Carmody wants the flapper lifestyle—and the bobbed hair, cigarettes, and music-filled nights that go with it. Now that she’s engaged to Sebastian Grey, scion of one of Chicago’s most powerful families, Gloria’s party days are over before they’ve even begun . . . or are they?

Clara Knowles, Gloria’s goody-two-shoes cousin, has arrived to make sure the high-society wedding comes off without a hitch—but Clara isn’t as lily-white as she appears. Seems she has some dirty little secrets of her own that she’ll do anything to keep hidden. . . . 

Lorraine Dyer, Gloria’s social-climbing best friend, is tired of living in Gloria’s shadow. When Lorraine’s envy spills over into desperate spite, no one is safe. And someone’s going to be very sorry. . . . 

From debut author Jillian Larkin, VIXEN is the first novel in the sexy, dangerous, and ridiculously romantic new series set in the Roaring Twenties . . . when anything goes.

From The Review Pile: Fallen In Love

I'm shaking up the blog a little. Rather than doing Thursday Thought I'm going to be trying out From The Review Pile instead and see how it goes! Every Thursday I will be featuring a book from my review pile, because it can take a while to get around to them.

From The Review Pile

From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday.

The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you've received for review (or any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven't yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

So, on with this week's first entry!

Fallen In Love by Lauren Kate

I haven't read anything by Lauren Kate, but a friend of mine read the first book and really disliked it so I'm a little unsure. Most reviews are pretty positive, so we shall see! If any of you have read it then let me know what you thought!

From Goodreads:

Unexpected. Unrequited. Forbidden. Eternal. Everyone has their own love story.
And in a twist of fate, four extraordinary love stories combine over the course of a romantic Valentine's Day in Medieval England. Miles and Shelby find love where they
least expect it. Roland learns a painful lesson about finding-and losing love. Arianne pays the price for a love so fierce it burns. And for the first -and last- time, Daniel and Luce
will spend a night together like none other.
Lauren Kate's FALLEN IN LOVE is filled with love stories . . . the ones everyone has been waiting for.
True love never says goodbye. . .