The Crown of Embers, Rae Carson

My entourage of guards struggles to keep pace as I fly down the corridors of my palace. 

"In the sequel to the acclaimed The Girl of Fire and Thorns, a seventeen-year-old princess turned war queen faces sorcery, adventure, untold power, and romance as she fulfills her epic destiny. Elisa is the hero of her country. She led her people to victory against a terrifying enemy, and now she is their queen. But she is only seventeen years old. Her rivals may have simply retreated, choosing stealth over battle. And no one within her court trusts her-except Hector, the commander of the royal guard, and her companions. As the country begins to crumble beneath her and her enemies emerge from the shadows, Elisa will take another journey. With a one-eyed warrior, a loyal friend, an enemy defector, and the man she is falling in love with, Elisa crosses the ocean in search of the perilous, uncharted, and mythical source of the Godstone's power. That is not all she finds."

*Spoilers for the first book will of course be inevitable, and I think there might be a few little ones about this book* The sequel to the excellent Girl of Fire and Thorns started off a little abruptly, but it was a good second book. There were a lot of events independent to the first one, whole new problems for Elisa to deal with, and new challenges within herself that she must come to terms with. Oddly enough, even though I just read the first book, I had a little bit of trouble falling back into the world and absorbing myself. At about 90 pages in, I was enjoying the book, but I didn't feel immersed in it, if that makes sense. Still, eventually I got into the book and really enjoyed it. 

The romance was so transparently obvious, it was almost funny. After maybe just a few pages, I knew that the "man she is falling in love with" would be Hector, her guard. It's just odd that it didn't happen before. I think the romance of this series is really interesting; in the first book, there was perhaps a triangle of sorts, but both Alejandro and Humberto died in the book. In this one, there is also kind of a triangle (although not a romantic one really), but I'm not going to tell you if they die. The series is way less stereotypically, annoyingly YA than other fantasy and science fiction series like it, and for that I am eternally grateful. For once, the entire story does not center on the main character going back and forth between two men. The world is developed, there is war, and there are way more important things going on. 

What Elisa did to the kitchen staff after the poisoning incident was very, very unnerving. She has them flogged even though most of them are innocent. I realize that it's a show of strength, but these are innocent people who she causes so much pain to. She was almost as bad as the General, although not quite as extreme. That part made me really uneasy, even if Elisa did feel very bad about it. 

The religion is developed more in The Crown of Embers, and I was glad of that. It's quite interesting, and as I have remarked before, I think it odd that all the characters just take it for granted that God exists in their world. What if the Godstone could be explained with science? That would be a twist, wouldn't it? But I think it's pretty clear that in this world, God certainly exists. It's one of the basic building blocks of the fantasy land.  Still, the so-called Godstone could just be a genetic mutation, couldn't it? 

The Crown of Embers wasn't as compelling or well-plotted as the first book. But it was still very good, and very suspenseful. I raced through it, much faster I think than the first book, which was odd. It was slightly shorter. 

Despite how obvious the romance was, I really, really liked it. I also liked the character of Tristan, one of Elisa's suitors. But he's not part of the romance. Still, I really liked how awesome he was. There were a lot of great new characters in The Crown of Embers, and I would most definitely recommend it if you liked the first book.  I can't wait for the final book in the trilogy, The Bitter Kingdom, which is coming out this month. 

410 pages. 

Rating: ****

The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins

This is the story of what a Woman's patience can endure, and what a Man's resolution can achieve. 

"The Woman in White famously opens with Walter Hartright's eerie encounter on a moonlit London road. Engaged as a drawing master to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, Walter becomes embroiled in the sinister intrigues of Sir Percival Glyde and his 'charming' friend Count Fosco, who has a taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons, and poison. Pursuing questions of identity and insanity along the paths and corridors of English country houses and the madhouse, The Woman in White is the first and most influential of the Victorian genre that combined Gothic horror with pyschological realism."

I loved The Woman in White; it's an excellent 19th century mystery that's not too overwritten. I'll admit that I was expecting it to be really overwritten, but it wasn't at all. Well, that's an exaggeration; it was a little bit by modern standards. But I was quickly drawn into the chilling story, and couldn't put it down at times. It was truly a thrilling book, masterfully created. I don't remember much about The Moonstone, but I'm pretty sure that The Woman in White was much, much better, in plot and in writing. Wilkie Collins does use the same technique of having the characters take turns narrating the story, which is effective. 

The beginning of the book is tinged with unease; Walter Hartright encounters a mysterious woman in white in London, and then goes to teach at the very house to which she is connected! He meets (and of course, falls in love with) Laura Fairlie, and becomes good friends with her mannish half-sister. Speaking of that, I loved how the somewhat masculine woman is one of the best characters, unlike in The Old Curiosity Shop, in which the lawyer Sally Brass is really evil. 

The plot of The Woman in White was amazing, and it's one of the most entertaining 19th century novels I've read in a while. It kept me interested for many, many pages. Also, many 19th century British novels are littered with obsolete cultural references and require pages and pages of notes; The Woman in White certainly had some, but not as much as a lot of other novels, like Vanity Fair. It's not always necessary to read the notes either. 

The characters, especially that of the sinister Sir Percival Glyde, are all superbly portrayed; when Glyde first arrives, he is the appearance of politeness and reason; yet Miss Fairlie's little greyhound is frightened to death of him. That struck me as very, very ominous. Anne Catherick, the woman in white herself, annoyed me a bit. After all, she flees Limmeridge before she can fully explain her side of the story. After about 140 pages, I was very annoyed by that. Rather than staying and sticking up for herself, she just runs away, leaving Glyde to charm everyone and make explanations that make perfect sense but that the reader knows are untrue. 

I will say that the very beginning of the middle section annoyed me a bit. The characters keep debating whether Miss Fairlie should marry Sir Glyde or not; shouldn't she know whether she wants to marry him, whether she loves him? It's not like Miss Fairlie needs money; she has plenty of that, and yet she was so unsure and so annoyingly timid about everything. I kind of wished that she would make up her mind already, rather than dithering here and there. Later she clearly doesn't want to marry him, but she doesn't break off the engagement! It was so infuriating, because Miss Fairlie could have very easily done so. She actually calls the marriage the "evil day". God, it was the worst thing ever! Why couldn't she have called it off? 

The portrayal of marriage made me very uneasy; the part of the story dealing with the arrangements of Glyde's and Miss Fairlie's marriage is narrated by a lawyer, and the whole of it consists of who's going to get Miss Fairlie's money (20,000 pounds) when she dies. That's very important, but what about what marriage is founded upon? What about love? Wilkie Collins doesn't talk about that at all. The marriage in this case, is of course an ill-fated one, but marriage should be a joyful thing. Yes, there is the dry legal aspect to it, but there are so many more important things about marriage besides who gets the money when one of the spouses dies. There was no discussion of any of that at all. 

Still, despite these annoyances, The Woman in White was superbly written and plotted, and letting myself go with the events, I loved it. 

627 pages. 

Rating: *****

Rereading Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (spoilers)

The road that led to Treegap had been trod out long before by a herd of cows who were, to say the least, relaxed. It wandered along in curves and easy angles, swayed off and up in a pleasant tangent to the top of a small hill, ambled down again between fringes of bee-hung clover, and then cut sidewise across a meadow. 

*SPOILER CONTAINING REVIEW* "Doomed to—or blessed with—eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can. When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret, the Tucks take her home and explain why living forever at one age is less a blessing that it might seem. Complications arise when Winnie is followed by a stranger who wants to market the spring water for a fortune."

I was read this book in elementary school, and while I didn't remember much about it, I remember enjoying it. In fact, the only things I did remember were the spring, the character of Winnie Foster, and the mysterious man in the yellow suit who comes one day to the Foster's touch-me-not cottage inquiring after a certain family by the name of Tuck. He's one of the most interesting characters, because for much of the book, the reader doesn't know who he's working for, whether he's completely evil or not, and why exactly he's there. 

First published in 1975, the story of Tuck Everlasting is still a great one, and very entertaining. But I had problems with the writing. It was almost too quaint and folksy for my tastes. The writing wasn't folksy like Scumble was; it was just the language that was very country-style, and that was okay, but the writing could have been a lot better. Still, the story was very good. 

One of my favorite scenes at the beginning of the book was when Winnie first ventures out into the wood. She had intended to run away that morning, but rather than doing that, she decides to slip out for a little bit and explore the forest that belongs to her family. She's never been inside before because as Babbitt says earlier, "Nothing ever seems interesting when it belongs to you - only when it doesn't." (pg. 7). And she realizes that it's quite nice "with great surprise. For the wood was full of light, entirely different from the light she was used to. It was green and amber and alive, quivering in splotches on the padded ground, fanning into sturdy stripes between the tree trunks. There were little flowers she did not recognize, white and palest blue; and endless tangled vines; and here and there a fallen log, half rotted but soft with patches of sweet green-velvet moss. And there were creatures everywhere..." (pg. 24). That also gives you some idea of the sometimes ungrammatical writing and the poor word choice. Splotches? Really? Also in the second-to-last sentence there are lots of semi-colons in the wrong place; this is how you're supposed to use a semi-colon, not like that. 

Still, there are lessons to be learned and stories to be enjoyed from Tuck Everlasting. If one looked for a theme, it would perhaps be that everyone has to go in the end, and staying the same, on the same part of the circle of life, would be a terrible thing to do. As Carolyn S. suggests in her review on Goodreads, "all things are meant to die...and being stuck in the same spot on the wheel of life might not be as great as you'd think.' 

Tuck Everlasting is a story full of wonder and magic, but it's also a story filled with unease. Because the man with the yellow suit has arrived, and he's very, very nosy. What's worse is that when the Tucks tell their story to Winnie, he "had crept up to the bushes by the stream and heard it all, the whole fantastic story." Nor do they notice that "he was following now, beside the road far behind, his mouth, above the thin, gray beard, turned ever so slightly toward a smile." (pg. 45). More ungrammatical writing, but as I read it, I got very uneasy, and needed to read more.

The ending of Tuck Everlasting is quite sad, even though it's the best ending that could possibly be. But still, it makes my heart ache to think of Winnie Forster from the ages of ten until seventy-eight, never seeing the Tucks. 

Tuck Everlasting is a most entertaining and thought-provoking children's story. The writing was not very good, but the story itself was simply marvelous. It's great for fourth or fifth graders. 

139 pages. 

Rating: ****

Rereading Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

The servants called them malenchki, little ghosts, because they were the smallest and the youngest, and because they haunted the Duke's house like giggling phantoms, darting in and out of rooms, hiding in cupboards to eavesdrop, sneaking into the kitchen to steal the last of the summer peaches.

Here is what I said in my original review of Shadow and Bone: "Shadow and Bone is an interesting fantasy novel set in a world called Ravka similar to Russia in terms of language, climate, and landscape. Alina Starkov is the main character, a foot soldier in the wars with her friend Mal. They're sent on a mission into the Fold, a swath of unnatural darkness that cuts across the land, which is filled with monsters. But Alina reveals a strange power that she did know about: she conjures a mysterious beam of light in the Fold which drives away all the monsters. She is whisked away to become a Grisha, one of the magical elite led by the enigmatic Darkling. He believes that only she can destroy the Fold. But there are many secrets that Alina will discover-dangerous secrets.

I've got mixed feelings about this fantasy novel. I loved the world it's set in; the Grisha are interesting and I liked that it was like Russia. Shadow and Bone took a surprising turn though, one that I didn't expect at all. It was certainly an intriguing twist, but I must say, I was totally shocked. Really. I didn't expect it at all.

And there's the love triangle (of course.) I did not like it that much. First Alina loves Mal, then she falls (stupidly) in love with the Darkling, and then Mal again, and so on. But I enjoyed Bardugo's writing style a lot, and managed to get past that. I'm even tempted to give it 5 stars, but I think it gets 4.5 stars.

I did enjoy the rest of the book, which was pretty suspenseful, and I look forward to reading the sequel, which I'm sure will have an equal number of surprising turns. You can read Veronica Roth's endorsement of it here (her blurb is on the cover), and Becky's review here." 

I wanted to reread Shadow and Bone, because despite what I said in my review, I didn't like it as much as I was expecting to. I think I was just trying to convince myself that I really liked it, because I had bought it. Anyway, I put Shadow and Bone on the YA-disappointment shelf in my mind. But then, I joined Goodreads, and I noticed that all of my Goodreads friends seemed to be raving about the book. I must have missed something; perhaps I was just not in the mood for YA when I read it. 

All that leading up to: I really enjoyed it this time. As I said, I love the compelling Russia-like world that Shadow and Bone is set in. It could be developed more, but Shadow and Bone is only the first book, and I'm sure it will be more explored in Siege and Storm, but as it is, the world is lush and beautifully described, even if it does draw very heavily off of Russian culture. 

Reading it again, I realized that there isn't really a love triangle at all. There are two men, but they're never really competing with one another; after all, Mal and the Darkling have few scenes together. I  like all three of the main characters: Alina, Mal, the Darkling. I really like the Darkling still, despite what is eventually revealed about him. He's a fascinating character. I hope I'm not giving too much away. Alina herself is a great heroine; she's by no means perfect in any respect, but she's smart and fairly determined. She also has kind of come to terms with her appearance; she strongly objects towards the beginning when Genya wants to make her look better. Alina is aware that she is not particularly pretty, but she's for the most part fine with it. 

I'm really not sure why I didn't like Shadow and Bone as much before. I think it was mainly the huge twist in the book. I was not expecting at all, and I didn't like it. The second time around, I was expecting it, and was able to appreciate it more. The first time, I was just shocked and outraged. I didn't want the person it pertained to to turn out evil. 

Shadow and Bone is suspenseful, well written, and highly recommended. Realizing that there isn't actually much of a love triangle made me fully ready to give this book an actual 4.5 stars. Now I'm really looking forward to reading the sequel, Siege & Storm. Hopefully there won't be a love triangle in that.  

356 pages. 

Rating: 4.5 stars.

Rereading Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

Miri woke to the sleepy bleating of a goat. The world was as dark as eyes closed, but perhaps the goats could smell dawn seeping through the cracks in the house's stone walls. 

"Miri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Then word comes that the king's priests have divined her small village the home of the future princess. In a year's time, the prince himself will come and choose his bride from among the girls of the village. The king's ministers set up an academy on the mountain, and every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess. Miri soon finds herself confronted with a harsh academy mistress, bitter competition among the girls, and her own conflicting desires to be chosen and win the heart of her childhood best friend. But when bandits seek out the academy to kidnap the future princess, Miri must rally the girls together and use a power unique to the mountain dwellers to save herself and her classmates."

Princess Academy is one of those really easy middle grade books that I still enjoy, time after time. Despite its simplicity, it's a beautiful story well-told. The world it's set in is entertaining to read about, the story is interesting, and I loved reading again about how Miri changes and grows throughout the story. 

The premise is perhaps a typical one; girls competing to marry the prince. It's echoed in The Selection, albeit in a more annoyingly YA and science fiction world. Really, there's no comparing the two books. They're so different. Anyway, Miri and the other girls from the mountain journey to the academy, where things are not very enjoyable. Eventually, Miri makes peace with most of the girls, but there are still more challenges to be faced. 

Interestingly enough, I remembered a lot about the beginning of Princess Academy, but not much about the ending besides who eventually becomes the princess and the plot twist. I read the sequel recently, and was able to enjoy despite not remembering specific events. So I was certainly glad to reread Princess Academy, and revisit all of the characters. 

There is perhaps a lack of description in Princess Academy, but the reader is still immersed in the compelling world. The quarry-speech that the mountain dwellers share is so unique and imaginative. And it is Miri who figures out many of the secrets of it; before it was used only to communicate in the quarry, but she realizes that there's more to it than that. 

I absolutely love almost everything about Princess Academy; I love all of the characters, good and bad, and I love the way that Miri deals with her problems. She has so many insecurities because she's small and scrawny, but she's also highly intelligent, even before she goes to the academy and learns a lot of new things. Miri is a compelling heroine.

Princess Academy is, for the most part, an entertainment, but although it's not exactly literary, Shannon Hale does at least attempt to provide some "lessons" or "morals". Miri gradually gains confidence in her own abilities throughout the novel, and she learns a lot, as do the intended middle grade readers.

I love how the characters all have good and bad sides. There are very few truly evil characters in Princess Academy; even snobbish Katar, who we've come to dislike intensely throughout the book, has a good side. She's just lonely and she hates the mountain. She realizes that becoming the princess may be one of the only ways to get out of there, and she needs that.

Princess Academy is compelling, absorbing, entertaining, and fairly suspenseful. There are several twists, and it's definitely a very enjoyable read which I would highly recommend. It's not the most thought-provoking of reads, perhaps, but it's not necessarily mindless entertainment either. 

314 pages. 

Rating: *****

The Girl with Glass Feet, Ali Shaw

That winter there were reports in the newspaper of an iceberg the shape of a galleon floating in creaking majesty past St. Hauda's Land's cliffs, of a snuffling hog leading lost hill walkers out of the crags beneath Lomdendol Tor, of a dumb-founded ornithologist counting five albino crows in a flock of two hundred. 

"Strange things are happening on the remote and snowbound archipelago of St. Hauda’s Land. Magical winged creatures flit around the icy bogland, albino animals hide themselves in the snow-glazed woods, and Ida Maclaird is slowly turning into glass. Ida is an outsider in these parts who has only visited the islands once before. Yet during that one fateful visit the glass transformation began to take hold, and now she has returned in search of a cure. Midas Crook is a young loner who has lived on the islands his entire life. When he meets Ida, something about her sad, defiant spirit pierces his emotional defenses. As Midas helps Ida come to terms with her affliction, she gradually unpicks the knots of his heart. Love must be paid in precious hours and, as the glass encroaches, time is slipping away fast. Will they find a way to stave off the spread of the glass?"

As I mentioned in my Cover Love post, this book wasn't as great as the cover. But I did really enjoy it. The writing, although not brilliant, was fine, and I absolutely loved the story idea (see the above summary). The strange St. Hauda's Land was well portrayed. Shrouded in mystery, tourists who visit seldom break the surface and see the real place - all except Ida, due to a strange encounter. The idea of one's feet turning to glass is really chilling. 

The Girl with Glass Feet was simply gorgeous, in more ways than one. There was mystery and romance, and there were strange creatures. Like The Night Circus, it's a combination of all the most delicious elements in fantasy. It certainly wasn't as good as The Night Circus in its execution, but the idea was just as amazing.

I liked the two main characters, I loved the story, and I loved the world. The Girl with Glass Feet really was an enchanting novel. It was just the writing that sadly wasn't as good as it could have been. There were also perhaps too many dark pasts in the book; all of the characters seem to have deep, dark secrets that they're struggling to come to terms with, and sometimes it was just too much. There were also way too many flashbacks, and they sometimes were seemingly unconnected to what the person was doing at the time. The characters would just randomly remember something relevant to the story. There were so many flashbacks, and they started to get really, really annoying as the book went on. 

Still, I really enjoyed The Girl with Glass Feet in spite of my high expectations. Often when I'm really excited about a book it falls flat; it did a little bit in this case, but not too much. The book wasn't great, but it was certainly very good. The descriptions were pretty good, and the story itself, as I said, was brilliantly conceived. 

The Girl with Glass Feet was such a strange mix of dark fantasy and realism. It is set in the real world (although I think St. Hauda's Land is fictional), and the characters have real issues like abusive parents, but of course, there are so many fantastical creatures: ones which turn everything they gaze at white, moth-winged bulls, and the slow, inexorable glass which is creeping up Ida's feet. 

I loved the characters (although Midas annoyed me at times) and their relationships and the world, which is "crafted with elegance and swept by passionate magic and the yearning for connection", it is a "lovely fable" and it is a "rare pleasure", as Katherine Dunn puts it. Publishers' Weekly also said that "Shaw's novel flows gracefully and is wonderfully dreamlike, with the danger of the islands matched by the characters' dark pasts." It's a magic-tinged debut in the great tradition of European fairy tales, and it's definitely worth reading, as the story is beautiful. Goodreads recommended it to me based on the fact that I loved The Night Circus, and I must say, their recommendations are in general pretty great. 

287 pages. 

Rating: ****

Waiting on Wednesday on Thursday

                                                      

Waiting on Wednesday is a book meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine 
that spotlights upcoming releases that we're all eagerly anticipating.
Please follow the link to visit her site!

I was going to publish this yesterday, but I forgot. So, Waiting on Wednesday is on Thursday. Rather than just doing one book for this, I'm going to do several, because there are a whole bunch of books that I'm really, really excited for. All of them except for one are  interestingly enough, YA. They are listed in order of when they're coming out, from soonest to latest.  

Title: Jane Austen's England

Authors: Lesley Adkins and Roy Adkins

Genre: history/nonfiction

Release Date: August 15, 2013

Publisher: Viking 

Pages: 448

                                                             

Plot Summary: "Jane Austen, arguably the greatest novelist of the English language, wrote brilliantly about the gentry and aristocracy of two centuries ago in her accounts of young women looking for love. Jane Austen’s Englandexplores the customs and culture of the real England of her everyday existence depicted in her classic novels as well as those by Byron, Keats, and Shelley. Drawing upon a rich array of contemporary sources, including many previously unpublished manuscripts, diaries, and personal letters, Roy and Lesley Adkins vividly portray the daily lives of ordinary people, discussing topics as diverse as birth, marriage,  religion, sexual practices, hygiene, highwaymen, and superstitions.

From chores like fetching water to healing with  medicinal leeches, from selling wives in the marketplace to buying smuggled gin, from the hardships faced by young boys and girls in the mines to the familiar sight of corpses swinging on gibbets, Jane Austen’s England offers an authoritative and gripping account that is sometimes humorous, often shocking, but always entertaining." 

I really want to learn more about Jane Austen's time period, so this book looks perfect. Plus, it's beautiful looking; the cover looks stitched. Hopefully it'll be entertaining and informative. I won the Goodreads giveaway, and I hope that the book will be there when I get back from my trip.

Title: Crown of Midnight

Author: Sarah Maas

Genre: YA fantasy

Release Date: August 27, 2013

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Pages: 432

Plot Summary: "After a year of hard labor in the Salt Mines of Endovier, eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien has won the king's contest to become the new royal assassin. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown – a secret she hides from even her most intimate confidantes.

Keeping up the deadly charade—while pretending to do the king's bidding—will test her in frightening new ways, especially when she's given a task that could jeopardize everything she's come to care for. And there are far more dangerous forces gathering on the horizon -- forces that threaten to destroy her entire world, and will surely force Celaena to make a choice. "

I loved Throne of Glass, and I'm so, so excited for the sequel. This is kind of a guilty pleasure series for me; it's entertainment. I sadly didn't win the Goodreads giveaway, and I've looked at a bunch of other giveaways for it on other sites that are all...CLOSED. So frustrating!!! August 27 isn't that far away, but I would like to get it sooner if I can.

Title: The Bitter Kingdom

Author: Rae Carson

Genre: YA fantasy

Release Date: August 27, 2013

Publisher: Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins)

Pages: 433 

"The epic and deeply satisfying conclusion to Rae Carson's Fire and Thorns trilogy. The seventeen-year-old sorcerer-queen will travel into the unknown realm of the enemy to win back her true love, save her country, and uncover the final secrets of her destiny. 

Elisa is a fugitive in her own country. Her enemies have stolen the man she loves in order to lure her to the gate of darkness. As she and her daring companions take one last quest into unknown enemy territory to save Hector, Elisa will face hardships she's never imagined. And she will discover secrets about herself and her world that could change the course of history. She must rise up as champion-a champion to those who have hated her most. Riveting, surprising, and achingly romantic, Rae Carson has spun a bold and powerful conclusion to her extraordinary trilogy."

I loved the first book, and really enjoyed the second, so I am super excited for the concluding book in the trilogy. Although I'll probably get it from the library since I don't own the first two books. 

Title: Rose Under Fire

Author: Elizabeth Wein

Genre: Historical fiction (YA)

Release Date: September 10, 2013

Publisher: Hyperion

Pages: 368

Plot summary: "While flying an Allied fighter plane from Paris to England, American ATA pilot and amateur poet, Rose Justice, is captured by the Nazis and sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious women's concentration camp. Trapped in horrific circumstances, Rose finds hope in the impossible through the loyalty, bravery and friendship of her fellow prisoners. But will that be enough to endure the fate that’s in store for her?

Elizabeth Wein, author of the critically-acclaimed and best-selling Code Name Verity, delivers another stunning WWII thriller. The unforgettable story of Rose Justice is forged from heart-wrenching courage, resolve, and the slim, bright chance of survival."

Code Name Verity was so good; this book's set eight months after it, and it looks amazing....If you got an ARC, I am envious; any idea how to get a physical galley? I can't find an email address for Hyperion.

Title: The Chaos of Stars

Author: Kiersten White

Genre: Fantasy/Mythology (YA)

Release Date: September 10, 2013

Publisher: Harper Teen

Pages: 288

"Isadora’s family is seriously screwed up.

Of course, as the human daughter of Egyptian gods, that pretty much comes with the territory. She’s also stuck with parents who barely notice her, and a house full of relatives who can’t be bothered to remember her name. After all, they are going to be around forever—and she’s a mere mortal.

Isadora’s sick of living a life where she’s only worthy of a passing glance, and when she has the chance to move to San Diego with her brother, she jumps on it. But Isadora’s quickly finding that a “normal” life comes with plenty of its own epic complications—and that there’s no such thing as a clean break when it comes to family. Much as she wants to leave her past behind, she can’t shake the ominous dreams that foretell destruction for her entire family. When it turns out there may be truth in her nightmares, Isadora has to decide whether she can abandon her divine heritage after all."

I'll admit that part of the reason I want to read this novel is that the cover is gorgeous (I love the combination of blue and gold!) and it doesn't feature an annoying teenage model. It's so beautiful, and the story sounds pretty good too.

Title: Across a Star-Swept Sea

Author: Diana Peterfreund

Genre: YA dystopian/science fiction

Release Date: October 15, 2013

Publisher: Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins)

Pages: 464 pages

"Centuries after wars nearly destroyed civilization, the two islands of New Pacifica stand alone, a terraformed paradise where even the Reduction—the devastating brain disorder that sparked the wars—is a distant memory. Yet on the isle of Galatea, an uprising against the ruling aristocrats has turned deadly. The revolutionaries’ weapon is a drug that damages their enemies’ brains, and the only hope is rescue by a mysterious spy known as the Wild Poppy.

On the neighboring island of Albion, no one suspects that the Wild Poppy is actually famously frivolous aristocrat Persis Blake. The teenager uses her shallow, socialite trappings to hide her true purpose: her gossipy flutternotes are encrypted plans, her pampered sea mink is genetically engineered for spying, and her well-publicized new romance with handsome Galatean medic Justen Helo… is her most dangerous mission ever.

Though Persis is falling for Justen, she can’t risk showing him her true self, especially once she learns he’s hiding far more than simply his disenchantment with his country’s revolution and his undeniable attraction to the silly socialite he’s pretending to love. His darkest secret could plunge both islands into a new dark age, and Persis realizes that when it comes to Justen Helo, she’s not only risking her heart, she’s risking the world she’s sworn to protect.

In this thrilling adventure inspired by The Scarlet Pimpernel, Diana Peterfreund creates an exquisitely rendered world where nothing is as it seems and two teens with very different pasts fight for a future only they dare to imagine." 

I'll probably check this one out of the library since I don't own For Darkness Shows the Stars, but it will hopefully be pretty good. 

                                                       

Title: Allegiant

Author: Veronica Roth!!!!

Genre: YA dystopia/science fiction

Release Date: October 22, 2013

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins)

Pages: 544

"What if your whole world was a lie?

What if a single revelation—like a single choice—changed everything?
What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?

The explosive conclusion to Veronica Roth’s #1 New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy reveals the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent."

The final book in the trilogy is sure to be awesome. I need to reread Divergent and Insurgent in preparation. 

So that's the roundup: seven great looking books coming out this summer and fall. I'm looking forward to them all.