Burning Impossibly Bright

Sorry I didn't do one of these for May, but I didn't really get around to doing much of anything in May that wasn't panicking about exams, but they're all over now so... Books read in June 1. The Truth About Forever (reread) 2. The Raven Boys 3. Diary of a Crush: French Kiss 4. Anna and the French Kiss (reread) 5. Audrey, Wait! 6. Cracked Up To Be 7. The Taming of The Tights 8. My Life Next Door 9. The Night Itself 10. The Survival Kit 11. This is What Happy Looks Like This is probably the most books I've ever read in a month before, which is pretty cool. Though that's probably because of all the contemps and french kissing. Bit of a theme for the summer, but alas, only in my reading habits. ;) Book of the Month: You know what, I can't really decide. I liked pretty much all of the books I read this month, but if I had to pick one, it'd probably be... Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway Books reviewed: The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen Unspoken by Sarah Rees Br...

The Night Itself Zoe Marriott July 4th 2013 Walker Books When fifteen year old Mio Yamato furtively sneaks the katana - an ancestral Japanese sword - out of its hiding place in her parent's attic to help liven up her Christmas party costume, she has no idea of the darkness she is about to unleash on modern day London, or the family secrets that she is going to uncover. The paralysing paranoia that descends on her before she gets to her friend's party is her first clue. The vivid and terrifying visions that nearly get her killed are a pretty good warning too. The giant nine-tailed cat demon that comes after the sword and tries to rip her throat out? Overkill. Seconds away from becoming kitty-food, Mio is saved by Shinobu, a mysterious warrior boy. But it's already too late. Mio has ruptured the veil between the mortal realm and the Underworld, and now the gods and monsters of ancient Japan stalk the streets of London, searching for her and the sword.  With the help of her be...

Title:  Zom-B City Author:  Darren Shan Series:   Zom-B, #3 Pages:   224 Publisher:  Simon and Schuster Children's Date of Publication:  14th March 2013 Source:  Publisher* Synopsis from Goodreads: How many survived the zombie apocalypse?Where do the living hide in a city of the dead? Who controls the streets of London? B Smith is setting out to explore... My Thoughts: Just as the second improved on the first, this book, Zom-B City (book three) improved yet again. It was my favourite of the three so far and I'm very much looking forward to carrying on with B's story. This book takes place after B has broken out into open air after being kept underground with the other zom heads in book two,  Zom-b Underground . As she wanders around London, it was really great to read about so many familiar places, places I've visited so many times. It just made the story even more vivid for me, to be able to really follow B around London and fol...

Cracked Up To Be Courtney Summers 23rd December 2008 St Martins Griffin When "Perfect" Parker Fadley starts drinking at school and failing her classes, all of St. Peter's High goes on alert. How has the cheerleading captain, girlfriend of the most popular guy in school, consummate teacher's pet, and future valedictorian fallen so far from grace? Parker doesn't want to talk about it. She'd just like to be left alone, to disappear, to be ignored. But her parents have placed her on suicide watch and her conselors are demanding the truth. Worse, there's a nice guy falling in love with her and he's making her feel things again when she'd really rather not be feeling anything at all. Nobody would have guessed she'd turn out like this. But nobody knows the truth. Something horrible has happened, and it just might be her fault. Cracked Up To Be was brilliant. There were very few things about it that I didn't enjoy, and I think the only thing that s...

Title:  This Is What Happy Looks Like Author:  Jennifer E. Smith Series:  Standalone Pages:   416 Publisher:  Headline Date of Publication:  4th April 2013 Source:  Publisher* Synopsis from Goodreads: If fate sent you an email, would you answer? In This is What Happy Looks Like , Jennifer E. Smith's new YA novel, perfect strangers Graham Larkin and Ellie O'Neill meet—albeit virtually—when Graham accidentally sends Ellie an email about his pet pig, Wilbur. In the tradition of romantic movies like "You've Got Mail" and "Sleepless in Seattle," the two 17-year-olds strike up an email relationship, even though they live on opposite sides of the country and don't even know each other's first names. Through a series of funny and poignant messages, Graham and Ellie make a true connection, sharing intimate details about their lives, hopes and fears. But they don't tell each other everything; Graham doesn't know the major secret hidden in Ellie...

Audrey, Wait! Robin Benway April 10th 2008 Razorbill California high school student Audrey Cuttler dumps self-involved Evan, the lead singer of a little band called The Do-Gooders. Evan writes, “Audrey, Wait!” a break-up song that’s so good it rockets up the billboard charts. And Audrey is suddenly famous! Now rabid fans are invading her school. People is running articles about her arm-warmers. The lead singer of the Lolitas wants her as his muse. (And the Internet is documenting her every move!) Audrey can't hang out with her best friend or get with her new crush without being mobbed by fans and paparazzi. Take a wild ride with Audrey as she makes headlines, has outrageous amounts of fun, confronts her ex on MTV, and gets the chance to show the world who she really is. I think I'm a little bit in love with this book. I always knew that I'd like it - it's exactly my kind of book, but I didn't think I'd get this into it or love it this much. I am about 90% certai...

Title:  The School for Good and Evil Author:  Soman Chainani Series:   The School for Good and Evil, #1 Pages:  488 Publisher:  HarperCollins Children's Books Date of Publication:  14th May 2013 Source:  Publisher, via NetGalley Synopsis from Goodreads:  “The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before. Some years it was two boys taken, some years two girls, sometimes one of each. But if at first the choices seemed random, soon the pattern became clear. One was always beautiful and good, the child every parent wanted as their own. The other was homely and odd, an outcast from birth. An opposing pair, plucked from youth and spirited away.” This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an...

Letterbox Love is the UK's version of IMM, hosted by the lovely Lynsey at  Narratively Speaking  :) For review: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey (this wasn't technically for review, but I went to his event at Penguin this week and it was really great and he was really funny and we all got signed copies there. Thank you, Penguin, for the book and for the lovely event!) The Night Itself by Zoe Marriott Flora & Ulyssess by Kate DiCamillo (Thank you Walker for both of these. I am ridiculously excited for the Night Itself Itself, and Flora & Ulyssess looks adorable and fun.) The Taming of Tights by Louise Rennison (I don't always like to admit it, but I adore these books and I read the latest installment in a day. Such fun. Thank you Harper!) Bought: My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick (I am just over halfway through this book and really enjoying it! Plus the cover is lovely.) What did you get in your letterbox this week? :)

The Raven Boys Maggie Stiefvater September 18th 2012 Scholastic Blue has spent the majority of her sixteen years being told that if she kisses her true love, he will die. When Blue meets Gansey’s spirit on the corpse road she knows there is only one reason why – either he is her true love or she has killed him. Determined to find out the truth, Blue becomes involved with the Raven Boys, four boys from the local private school (lead by Gansey) who are on a quest to discover Glendower – a lost ancient Welsh King who is buried somewhere along the Virginia ley line. Whoever finds him will be granted a supernatural favour. Never before has Blue felt such magic around her. But is Gansey her true love? She can’t imagine a time she would feel like that, and she is adamant not to be the reason for his death. Where will fate lead them? The Raven Boys was a lot better than I thought it would be. Maggie's books are great, but they can be a bit hit and miss for me, and The Scorpio Races is stil...

Letterbox Love is the UK's version of IMM, hosted by the lovely Lynsey at  Narratively Speaking  :) Bought: Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway (This book is perfect and I love it. That is all.) Diary of a Crush: French Kiss by Sarra Manning (Sarra Manning is the bomb. And I will live to regret ever calling anything 'the bomb' on the internet.) Review: Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield (sounds like a really lovely contemporary) The Savages by Matt Whyman (it's about a family of cannibals. Enough said, I think. Thank you Hot Key for these!) Goblin Secrets by William Alexander (I have never heard of this book before, but it looks pretty cool. Thank you Constable & Robin!) Won: Everything is Fine (and Other Lies I Tell Myself) by Cathy Brett Follow Me Down by Tanya Byrne This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E Smith (Thank you Raimy from Readaptor and Headline for these! I am so excited to read Follow Me Down.) What did you get in your letterbox this week? :)

The Oathbreaker's Shadow Amy McCulloch June 6th 2013 Random House Childrens Books Fifteen-year-old Raim lives in a world where you tie a knot for every promise that you make. Break that promise and you are scarred for life, and cast out into the desert. Raim has worn a simple knot around his wrist for as long as he can remember. No one knows where it came from, and which promise of his it symbolises, but he barely thinks about it at all—not since becoming the most promising young fighter ever to train for the elite Yun guard. But on the most important day of his life, when he binds his life to his best friend (and future king) Khareh, the string bursts into flames and sears a dark mark into his skin. Scarred now as an oath-breaker, Raim has two options: run, or be killed. A gripping YA action-adventure fantasy, the first part of a planned duology. The Oathbreaker's Shadow is a solid, quality piece of young adult fantasy (ooh, look at me talking like I know what I'm actually...

Unspoken Sarah Rees Brennan September 11th 2012 Random House Books (US) (I would've used the UK cover, but look at the pretty!) Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head. But all that changes when the Lynburns return. The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the u...

The Moon and More Sarah Dessen June 4th 2013 Puffin Books Luke is the perfect boyfriend: handsome, kind, fun. He and Emaline have been together all through high school in Colby, the beach town where they both grew up. But now, in the summer before college, Emaline wonders if perfect is good enough. Enter Theo, a super-ambitious outsider, a New Yorker assisting on a documentary film about a reclusive local artist. Theo's sophisticated, exciting, and, best of all, he thinks Emaline is much too smart for Colby. Emaline's mostly-absentee father, too, thinks Emaline should have a bigger life, and he's convinced that an Ivy League education is the only route to realizing her potential. Emaline is attracted to the bright future that Theo and her father promise. But she also clings to the deep roots of her loving mother, stepfather, and sisters. Can she ignore the pull of the happily familiar world of Colby? Emaline wants the moon and more, but how can she balance where she comes f...