It’s been a couple of weeks since I last did one of these, so I thought it was about time to declare what books have come into the house, and hand about a couple of Bad Bloggers points.

For Review:

Forbidden by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee

The world as we know it is unrecognisable. Almost 500 years have passed since civilization’s brush with extinction. Perfect order reigns and humanity’s gretaest threats have been silenced by the ruling totalitarian government. There is no disease. No passion. No hate. No war. There is only peace.

Until one man discovers the truth hidden in a secret journal: the human heart has been stripped of all that makes it human and exists only in a kind of living death. But when Rom exposed himself to the vial of blood contained in the journal he was filled with uncontrollable emotions.

Only Rom is now truly alive, and only he has the knowledge that can reawaken humanity. But the way is dangerous and the cost staggering …the way is forbidden.

A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix

These are the three deaths of Prince Khemri. Told in his own words, we follow him as he trains to become a Prince of the Empire, an enhanced human being, equipped with biological and technological improvements that make him faster, stronger and smarter than any ordinary person. Not to mention the ultimate benefit: should he die, and be deemed worthy, he will be reborn…

Which is just as well, because no sooner has Prince Khemri graduated to full Princehood than he learns the terrible truth behind the Empire: there are a million princes, and all of them want each other dead, because there can only be one Emperor…

Unravelling by Elizabeth Norris

STOP THE COUNTDOWN. SAVE THE WORLD…

Leaving the beach, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit head on by a pickup truck.

And killed.

Then Ben Michaels, resident stoner, is leaning over her. And even though it isn’t possible, she knows Ben somehow brought her back to life…

Meanwhile, Janelle’s father, a special agent for the FBI, starts working on a case that seems strangely connected to Ben. Digging in his files, Janelle finds a mysterious device – one that seems to be counting down to something that will happen in 23 days and 10 hours time.

That something? It might just be the end of the world. And if Janelle wants to stop it, she’s going to need to uncover Ben’s secrets – and keep from falling in love with him in the process…

Casey Barnes Eponymous by E.A. Rigg

Three weeks into the school year music junkie Casey Barnes gets a second chance with the mysterious ex-boyfriend whose name she has not even been able to say. In hopes of saving studentkind from the hell that is high school, Casey has been slipping song playlists to fellow students while working in the library.

When she gets another chance with her ex, she schemes to win him back by giving him one of the lists. Her plan works, but not quite in the way she hopes, and she realizes that truly winning him back will be a lot harder than choosing some killer songs. Namely, she will need to get the attention of the whole school in a way no one has ever done before.

I don’t normally accept self-published books these days, but I received a nice email from the author who had taken the time to browse my blog before getting in contact, and I liked the sound of the story, so for once I accepted, (and it’s the ebook version so I don’t feel too guilty about costing her a fortune in postage if I don’t get on with it.)

The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda

Against all odds, 17-year-old Gene has survived in a world where humans have been eaten to near extinction by the general population. The only remaining humans, or hepers as they are known, are housed in domes on the savannah and studied at the nearby Heper Institute. Every decade there is a government sponsored hunt. When Gene is selected to be one of the combatants he must learn the art of the hunt but also elude his fellow competitors whose suspicions about his true nature are growing.

I read Crossing by Andrew Fukuda the year before last and was quite impressed by it, so when I was offered a copy of this one, it was any easy one to accept.

Bought:

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

A bewitching tale of heartbreak and hope set in 1920s Alaska.

Jack and Mabel have staked everything on making a fresh start for themselves in a homestead ‘at the world’s edge’ in the raw Alaskan wilderness. But as the days grow shorter, Jack is losing his battle to clear the land, and Mabel can no longer contain her grief for the baby she lost many years before.

The evening the first snow falls, their mood unaccountably changes. In a moment of tenderness, the pair are surprised to find themselves building a snowman – or rather a snow girl – together. The next morning, all trace of her has disappeared, and Jack can’t quite shake the notion that he glimpsed a small figure – a child? – running through the spruce trees in the dawn light. And how to explain the little but very human tracks Mabel finds at the edge of their property?

Written with the clarity and vividness of the Russian fairytale from which it takes its inspiration, The Snow Child is an instant classic – the story of a couple who take a child into their hearts, all the while knowing they can never truly call her their own.

This is one of the books I’m reading at the moment, and I’m loving it so far. Beautiful writing.

Finding Sky by Joss Sterling

You have half our gifts, I have the other . . .

When English girl Sky, catches a glimpse of bad boy Zed in her new American high school, she can’t get him out of her head. He talks to her with his thoughts. He reads her mind. He is the boy she will love for ever. Dark shadows stalk her past but a new evil threatens her future. Sky must face the dark even if it means losing her heart.

It’s Love month over on Clover’s blog Fluttering Butterflies and she talked about Finding Sky by Joss Stirling the other day in one of her posts. And I was intrigued (and I have to confess wanting to play with the new toy I also bought this week.;)) so I downloaded the ebook. (Partly my fault, but still a Bad Blogger’s point to Clover!)

Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway

All Joe Spork wants is a quiet life. He repairs clockwork and lives above his shop in a wet, unknown bit of London. The bills don’t always get paid and he’s single and has no prospects of improving his lot, but at least he’s not trying to compete with the reputation of Mathew “Tommy Gun” Spork, his infamous criminal dad.

Already Reviewed:

These books are ones I’ve already read and reviewed, but have not officially declared on an IMM post.

The Tiny Wife by Andrew Kaufman

A robber holds up a Canadian bank but instead of stealing money he takes from each person the item of most sentimental value.As time passes the loss of these items have a dramatic effect on the victims: one discovers God under her sofa, another is attacked by her lion tattoo when it comes to life, and the wife of our narrator starts to shrink.

Read my review

Fracture by Megan Miranda

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine - despite the scans that showed significant brain damage.

Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she’s far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can’t control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she’s reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy’s motives aren’t quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

This one earned Clover another Bad Blogger’s point at the time - Read my review

Eleven Minutes by Megan Miranda

Fracture is told from Delaney’s perspective, and if you’ve read the first two chapters, you know that she falls through the ice in chapter one, and she wakes up 6 days later. And what happens in between—well, that’s Decker’s story.

This is the story of those eleven minutes, and the six days that follow, from his perspective. Because while it must be terrifying to be trapped under the ice, it’s a different kind of terror seeing your best friend trapped…

Especially if it’s your fault.

Even though Clover earned the point for Fracture, it was Sarah from Feeling Fictional who pointed me in the direction of this one, and even though it was free, she earn the Bad Blogger’s point! - Read my review

The Blade Series by Tim Bowler

“So what am I going to tell you? Not much so don’t get excited. You probably want to know my name. Well, that’s a bit of a problem. I got loads. But there is one name I like. Everybody called me it in the old days. No one does now cos no one in this city knows it. And that’s fine. I don’t like to remember. But I do like the name. You can use it if you want. “

Meet Blade. But be careful. You might not like what you see. He’s dangerous. He needs to be. Because there are people who want him dead. It’s dog eat dog in his world. Win or die. He thought he was safe. But now they’ve found out where he is. And they’re coming.

I was sent the first of the new bind-ups Blade: Enemies for review, and I was that caught up in the story, I ended up buying the rest of the series! Read my Review

Kindle 4

Yep. I’ve succumbed. I’ve been pretty happy with my Sony ereader, and this definitely comes under the not needed, so much as wanted bracket. I was originally looking at the latest Sony, but in the end, the ability to sync books across it at my phone/mac was what swung it.

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