My Most Anticipated New Releases of 2014 (Fall/Winter)

I'm anticipating going on several book buying sprees before 2014 ends. Why? SO MANY NEW RELEASES! Many of my favorite series are releasing their latest installments, and a couple contemporary authors I love have new standalones coming out. Here are the eight books I am most looking forward to.

My Most Anticipated New Releases of 2014 (Fall/Winter)

8. AFTERWORLDS – Scott Westerfeld (September 23)

From the author of the UGLIES series, this new book follows two storylines. The first is of a girl attempting to publish her first novel, and the second is the plot of her thriller novel. The stories alternate chapter by chapter. I’m a writer and LOVE reading about characters who love to write (aka. FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell).

  

7. THE YOUNG ELITES – Marie Lu (October 7)

This is a spinoff of sorts of the Legend series and follows survivors of the blood fever that plagued the nation. Now some of the survivors seem to possess powerful gifts (and are called the Young Elites), and they are being hunted down by the king.  

6. ISLA AND THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER (Anna and the French Kiss #3) – Stephanie Perkins (TODAY, August 14!)

Okay, so this technically is a summer book and was just released today, but I had to include it! This is the third book in the Anna and the French Kiss “world” of characters and follows Isla and Josh (both characters we’ve seen before) as they navigate the tricky world of a new relationship. I read the first 50 pages that were posted as an online except and fell in love with Isla and her voice. Can’t wait to grab my own copy!

5. GLORY O’BRIEN’S HISTORY OF THE FUTURE – A.S. King (October 14)

Glory has the power to see people’s pasts and futures, and the future looks bleak: tyrannical leaders, destruction of women’s rights, civil war. She begins recording everything she sees in hopes that her notes cam somehow make a difference and change this potential future before it comes to pass.

4. I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN – Jandy Nelson (September 16)

This book is told from alternating points of view of twins, Noah and Jude, who used to be closer than close. But something has come between them. Noah narrates their earlier years, while sister Jude gets the later teenage ones. From the excerpt I read online, I can tell that these two characters have amazingly unique personalities and I can’t wait to follow their entire story! I adore THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE and am so happy Jandy Nelson finally has another book for readers to devour.

3. IN THE AFTERLIGHT (The Darkest Minds #3) – Alexandra Bracken (October 28)

I love THE DARKEST MINDS and NEVER FADE, books that follow Ruby and a bunch of other kids who were locked up by the government due to their special abilities. I have no idea how this story will be wrapped up, but I’ve enjoyed how much Ruby has grown throughout these first two books. She’s going to kick butt in this last book!

2. THE INFINITE SEA (The 5^th Wave #2) – Rick Yancey (September 16)

The world is getting worse and worse under threat of alien invasion. In book 1, we learned about the first four waves of the invasion, and now the fifth wave is upon the cast of characters. This book is going to be told from even more points of view than THE 5^th WAVE, and I love the excerpt online that follows Ringer…her voice is STRONG. I’m ready for the adventure to continue!

1. HEIR OF FIRE (Throne of Glass #3) – Sarah J. Maas (September 2)

I can barely contain my excitement for this book! Celaena Sardothian is one of my new favorite heroines, and her adventure is getting bigger and bigger. Sarah J. Maas has promised us lots of attractive guys in this installment, hooray! CROWN OF MIDNIGHT left off with a crazy cliffhanger – thank goodness I read it close to HEIR OF FIRE’S release date. I want every bit of Throne of Glass I can get my hands on. It’s one of my favorite series I’ve discovered this year.  

And there you have it! Looks like 2014 is the year of AMAZING covers...I love every single one! 

Are any of these books on your own Most Anticipated list? Any books I missed?

A big week for YA bookish news (and my emotions)!

There has been so much book-related excitement this week! In lieu of spamming everyone's Facebook and Twitter feeds with my squeals/shrieks/tears/crazy range of emotions, I thought I'd compile a list here. All of my book nerdiness in one convenient package!

As it should be, the Queen comes first: J.K. Rowling has released a new short story featuring the now-adult cast of Harry Potter on Pottermore. She's been posting a column regularly about the Quidditch World Cup (which happens to sync up with the World Cup fever the entire planet is currently experiencing), writing as Ginny, who is now a special Quidditch correspondent. But the story that's causing all the buzz is a gossip column written by Rita Skeeter, the journalist whose dramatic coverage of the Triwizard Tournament in GOBLET OF FIRE made Harry's life even more difficult.

Of course, the story isn't anywhere near long enough (anything less than a 700 page book is too short for me), but sliding back into that world was WONDERFUL. I was eight years old again for those few minutes. <3 I loved seeing what my favorite cast of characters is up to in their adult lives (and my denial of Rowling's lack of plans for another HP book grows and grows and grows).

The first fifty pages of the new Stephanie Perkins book, ISLA AND THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER, were posted online Tuesday. I admit, I'm late to the party, but I adored ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS when I read it recently. I still have to get my hands on LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR, but I read the ISLA excerpt anyway and fell in love! Isla is so relatable...she's funny and awkward and stalks people on Google. I can't wait for the book to be released on August 14th!

Rick Yancey, author of THE 5TH WAVE, was interviewed in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday and brought along the first few chapters of his sequel, THE INFINITE SEA. He talks about the series' major themes, his thought process while writing the sequel, and his involvement in the movie adaptation of THE 5TH WAVE. (Casting news was recently announced.) I don't have any thoughts/opinions on the movie yet (way too early to tell), but the excerpt of THE INFINITE SEA is fantastic. It's intense and dark and from the POV of a character whose head we haven't been in yet. September needs to get here now!

And finally, the news that had me shrieking at my desk at work, President Snow has released his second address to the citizens of Panem. This time he has Johanna (newly blond) by his side along with Peeta. If you haven't watched yet, I won't spoil anything, but WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? The teaser gave me chills, both because of its content and what I know is to come in future teasers. I'll just say that Lionsgate is handling this movie's marketing campaign perfectly, and they've adapted these books into movies that Hunger Games fans can be proud of. Also, in the article I linked above, it is pointed out that there may be as many as two more of these Capitol addresses coming. I have ideas about what I think they'll look like, and I cannot wait to see them!



Oh, my little book heart! It overflows with joy!

Book review: THE 5TH WAVE by Rick Yancey

Yes, this book is about aliens. WAIT, don’t run away yet! I was hesitant about THE 5^TH WAVE at the beginning, too. Sci-fi isn’t really my thing, and my only experience with alien books is THE HOST by Stephenie Meyer. But Rick Yancey’s THE 5^TH WAVE got great reviews on BookTube, so I gave it a try. And I’m so glad I did!

Aliens are attacking earth in waves. The first wave was an electromagnetic pulse that knocked out all power. Wave Two was an actual wave, a tsunami wave that wiped out the coasts. A plague killed 97 percent of the remaining survivors, making the third wave the deadliest yet. We meet our protagonist, Cassie, struggling to survive the fourth wave, known as Silencers, where the survivors are hunted down and picked off one at a time. Suspicion rules everyone, and no one can differentiate between aliens and humans. This paranoia infects everyone, including the readers, which is only one of the things that makes this book so fascinating.

Cassie is on her own, trying to survive the fourth wave, and she hasn’t seen a human in ages. She is searching for a way to retrieve her younger brother who she let slip through her fingers. When she meets Evan, a boy who rescues her from a Silencer attack, she thinks she may have found a way to get her brother back. But the lessons she has learned through the waves so far make her hesitate…maybe she’s safer alone, trusting no one.  

This is a bare bones synopsis, similar to the one on the book jacket, because I don’t want to spoil the reading process for anyone. I will say that Cassie is not our only narrator, which surprised me when I first began the book. It turned out to be great, and readers get to see multiple angles of this huge story. My favorite sections, however, did belong to Cassie. She is a great protagonist and acts how I hope I would act in the face of an alien invasion. She’s tough when she needs to be, but she is scared much of the time. She wants to trust people but is not blindly faithful to anyone. She hates being alone but realizes it might be safest that way. And she will do anything to get her brother back.

Like I said, this cast is bigger than the book jacket blurb lets on, but they are all linked in one way or another (similar to the way the Lunar Chronicles character threads are woven together). Cassie’s first section, I’ll admit, is a little slow because it provides a lot of world building and background on the first four waves. The book picks up smack in the middle of wave 4, and everyone is holding their breath, waiting for the 5^th. But once that world building is done, there is a ton of action to keep you flipping pages, don’t worry! The book did remind me a bit of THE HOST, since it’s the only other alien-ish book I’ve read, but THE 5^TH WAVE would totally win in a Hunger Games-style battle to the book-death. Well-rounded characters, more action-packed plot, and a better book cover. (Seriously, it’s AWESOME.)

Pick up THE 5^TH WAVE even if you’re hesitant about sci-fi. Yancey is a great writer and makes you feel the paranoia along with the characters. Just don’t go walking outside at night after finishing the book…you’ll jump at every sound! (Not that this happened to me or anything…)