THIS WEEK’S GIVEAWAY
This week’s giveaway is VERY special. I have an ARC of WHAT’S LEFT OF ME by Kat Zhang that I’m going to have to pry out of my hands to slip into the envelope. This book is truly remarkable. While the characters are fascinating and the action doesn’t let up, in the end, it is the premise and the world that I keep thinking about. What is a soul? What defines it and how much of our personality does it define? What happens to it when it is disconnected from the body? What would it be like to have no control over your actions or future? Kat Zhang took everything I thought I knew and made me reexamine it, all while I was immersed in her beautiful writing and turning pages as fast as I could. This is a book you won’t want to miss!
To enter this week’s giveaway, please complete the form at the bottom of the page. We’ll announce the winners on 8/3, so please enter by midnight on 8/2. U.S. and Canadian entries only, please!
Happy Reading,
Martina
Eva and Addie started out the same way as everyone else—two souls woven together in one body, taking turns controlling their movements as they learned how to walk, how to sing, how to dance. But as they grew, so did the worried whispers. Why aren’t they settling? Why isn’t one of them fading? The doctors ran tests, the neighbors shied away, and their parents begged for more time. Finally Addie was pronounced healthy and Eva was declared gone. Except, she wasn’t…
For the past three years, Eva has clung to the remnants of her life. Only Addie knows she’s still there, trapped inside their body. Then one day, they discover there may be a way for Eva to move again. The risks are unimaginable–hybrids are considered a threat to society, so if they are caught, Addie and Eva will be locked away with the others. And yet…for a chance to smile, to twirl, to speak, Eva will do anything.
LAST WEEK’S GIVEAWAY WINNERS
Skylark by Meagan Spooner: WINNER — DAWN MALONE
Sixteen year-old Lark Ainsley has never seen the sky.Her world ends at the edge of the vast domed barrier of energy enclosing all that’s left of humanity. For two hundred years the city has sustained this barrier by harvesting its children’s innate magical energy when they reach adolescence. When it’s Lark’s turn to be harvested, she finds herself trapped in a nightmarish web of experiments and learns she is something out of legend itself: a Renewable, able to regenerate her own power after it’s been stripped.
Forced to flee the only home she knows to avoid life as a human battery, Lark must fight her way through the terrible wilderness beyond the edge of the world. With the city’s clockwork creations close on her heels and a strange wild boy stalking her in the countryside, she must move quickly if she is to have any hope of survival. She’s heard the stories that somewhere to the west are others like her, hidden in secret – but can she stay alive long enough to find them?
You Can’t Have My Planet, But Take My Brother, Please
by James Mihaley — WINNER JANAE VANDERWOUDE
Thirteen-year-old Giles is the last person anyone would expect to save the planet. he’s not as charming as his little sister, and not as brainy as his goody-goody older brother. But when Giles witnesses an alien realtor showing Earth to possible new tenants, he knows he’d better do something.
With the help of an alien “attorney” and the maddest scientist in middle-grade fiction, Giles just might save humans from eviction from Earth. Let’s hope so. The alternatives are…not so hospitable.
No Boyz Allowed by Ni-Ni Simone
True story: I’m Gem, G-E-M, like a precious jewel, and my life has been nothing like my name. I’ve been on my own since I was nine and now I’m sixteen. But so what. I’m good, and so is my little brother. So why the state won’t let us do our own thing is beyond me. Instead, we’ve been forced to live with a foster family who wants to love us, but I’m not beat—I’m just trying to do me.
To make matters worse, I’ve been checking for this guy, Ny’eem. But my new clique has an unbreakable rule—no boyz allowed to come between our friendship—which is forcing me to keep my relationship with Ny’eem a secret. Though not for long. . .because in high school secrets are always exposed, scandals always rewrite the rules, and friendships are never what they seem. . .
Destiny by Gillian Shields
Everything is connected. We weave in and out of one another’s lives, like circles within circles, and everything is for a purpose.
Helen has always been the “crazy” one among the girls of Wyldcliffe, scarred by her bleak past and her troubled relationship with her mother, the former headmistress and leader of the Wyldcliffe coven, Mrs. Hartle.
But Miss Scratton promised Helen that a love “beyond the confines of this world” is waiting for her. Could this be Lynton, the mysterious music student who visits Wyldcliffe for his lessons? And what about the brooch her mother gave her–what can the Seal reveal about Helen’s past and future?
Now that Miss Scratton is gone, life at Wyldcliffe takes an even darker turn. An unexpected threat arrives in the form of a new high master, whom Helen remembers from her unhappy childhood. Can Helen, Evie, and Sarah finally overcome Wyldcliffe’s darkness? Will Lady Agnes come to their aid? And what sacrifices must they make to fulfill their destiny?
“Destiny” is the stunning conclusion to this gripping series about sisterhood, the circles of time, and love
(Frontier Magic)
My friends and I used to play lying games.
Now my twin sister is living one.
When I was alive, my family seemed picture-perfect. My adoptive parents adored me, and my little sister, Laurel, copied my every move. But now that my long-lost twin, Emma, has taken my place to solve my murder, we’re both learning just how flawed my family really is.
Laurel is shooting Emma nasty looks and sneaking around with my ex-boyfriend. And it turns out my parents are keeping a huge secret–could it be the reason I’m dead?
How far would they go to keep the truth buried? No one can harm me now, but Emma is still fair game. And if she’s not careful, she’ll end up buried, too. . . .
From Sara Shepard, the #1 “New York Times” bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars books, comes a riveting series about secrets, lies, and killer consequences.
A Templar’s Destiny by Kat Black
(The Book of Tormod)
The final book in Kat Black’s historical fantasy trilogy!Tormod MacLeod’s brother, Torquil, has been captured and locked in a dungeon hidden in the depths of the French royal castle. Tormod and Aine journey to France, hoping to save him, but the search is proving more difficult than they ever imagined–and getting out alive seems impossible. Meanwhile, they must stop the wicked plot that King Philippe le Bel has put in motion to destroy the Knights Templar from within. Their journey takes them all the way to the French court, where they meet the enchanting Princess Isabella. She has her eye on Tormod, and Aine notices. Their chances of accomplishing all they’ve set out to do while keeping the power of the Holy Vessel from being exposed to the world are slim, and in the end, Tormod has a devastating decision to make
The Invisible World by Suzanne Weyn
Suzanne Weyn brings her trademark mix of history, romance, and the supernatural to the Salem Witch Trials.
For 15-year-old Sarah Owen, having a scientist father is a blessing and a curse. He doesn’t bat an eye at her pyschic abilities, since he researches them; and she knows more about the invisible worlds of microbes, electricity, and gravity than most girls in the 17th Century.
But when Sarah travels to the Americas with her father to do more research, she’s shipwrecked and lands for a time on the Gullah Islands. Later, when the plantation owners find her and send her north to Salem, Massachusetts, her abilities get her into trouble. Can Sarah save herself when she’s accused of witchcraft? Or will she and the rest of the innocents she’s accused with be found guilty…and sentenced to hanging?
A ballerina tale with a thoroughly modern twist!
Casey Quinn has got more grace in her pinkie toe than all those prissy ballet-school girls put together, even if you’d never guess it from the looks of her too-long legs and dirty high-top sneakers. It’s 1959, and freckle-faced Casey lives in the red-dust countryside of South Carolina. She’s a farm girl: Her family can’t afford ballet lessons. But Casey’s dream is to dance in New York City. And if anyone tries to stand in her way, she’s going to pirouette and jeté right over them!
Casey’s got the grit, and Casey’s got the grace: Is that enough to make it in Manhattan someday? Or might the Big Apple have something even better in mind? When she meets a visionary choreographer she calls “Miss Martha,” Casey’s ballerina dream takes a thoroughly, thrillingly modern twist!
(The Book of Tormod)
Bluford High freshman Harold Davis is trapped. Medical bills for his sick grandmother are piling up, and a social worker has threatened to put him in a foster home. Desperate for money, he reluctantly agrees to work for Londell James, a neighborhood drug dealer. The choice leads him into a world of dangerous streets where no one is safe. Will Harold escape the violence that surrounds him, or will he become its next victim?
The Far West by Patricia C. Wrede
(Frontier Magic)
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia C. Wrede, the fantastic conclusion to her tale of magic on the western frontier.Eff is an unlucky thirteenth child…but also the seventh daughter in her family. Her twin brother, Lan, is a powerful double seventh son. Her life at the edge of the Great Barrier Spell is different from anyone else’s that she knows.When the government forms an expedition to map the Far West, Eff has the opportunity to travel farther than anyone in the world. With Lan, William, Professor Torgeson, Wash, and Professor Ochiba, Eff finds that nothing on the wild frontier is as they expected. There are strange findings in their research, a long prarie winter spent in too-close quarters, and more new species, magical and otherwise, dangerous and benign, than they ever expected to find. And then spring comes, and the explorers realize how tenuous life near the Great Barrier Spell may be if they don’t find a way to stop a magical flood in a hurry. Eff’s unique way of viewing magic has saved the settlers time and again, but this time all of Columbia is at stake if she should fail.(
Hatchet meets Lost in this modern-day adventure tale of one girl’s reawakening
Jane is on a plane on her way home to Montclair, New Jersey, from a mental hospital. She is about to kill herself. Just before she can swallow a lethal dose of pills, the plane hits turbulence and everything goes black. Jane wakes up amidst piles of wreckage and charred bodies on a snowy mountaintop. There is only one other survivor: a boy named Paul, who inspires Jane to want to fight for her life for the first time.
Jane and Paul scale icy slopes and huddle together for warmth at night, forging an intense emotional bond. But the wilderness is a vast and lethal force, and only one of them will survive.
The Waiting Sky by Lara Zielin
One summer chasing tornadoes could finally change Jane’s life for the better
Seventeen-year-old Jane McAllister can’t quite admit her mother’s alcoholism is spiraling dangerously out of control until she drives drunk, nearly killing them and Jane’s best friend.
Jane has only one place to turn: her older brother Ethan, who left the problems at home years ago for college. A summer with him and his tornado-chasing buddies may just provide the time and space Jane needs to figure out her life and whether it still includes her mother. But she struggles with her anger at Ethan for leaving home and feels guilty–is she also abandoning her mom just when she needs Jane most? The carefree trip turned journey of self-discovery quickly becomes more than Jane bargained for, especially when the devilishly handsome Max steps into the picture
