2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge

After doing J.Kaye's YA challenge this year and reading some fantastic YA fiction, many being favourite reads of 2009, I couldn't resist joining the 2010 Young Adult Challenge @ J. Kaye's Book Blog.

I think I might aim for the Stepping It Up level – Read 50 Young Adult novels, but I'll leave that open til the start of next year and see how big my challenge list is :-)

There are four levels:

--The Mini YA Reading Challenge – Read 12 Young Adult novels.

--Just My Size YA Reading Challenge – Read 25 Young Adult novels.

--Stepping It Up YA Reading Challenge – Read 50 Young Adult novels.

--Super Size Me YA Reading Challenge – Read 75 Young Adult novels.

Challenge begins January 1st thru December, 2010.

Click on this link to take you to J.Kaye's blog to sign up for the challenge.

This month on The Eclectic Reader one lucky reader can win The Running Vixen OR Shadowland OR Captive of Sin. Check this blog post for details. International entrants welcome.

Teaser Tuesday

MizB of Should Be Reading hosts this cool weekly event. Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share (2) “teaser” sentences from that page. Share the title & author of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR list if they like your teaser. Please avoid spoilers!

"If you tell me he didn't plant a big yummy one on you back there, I'm going to call you a liar."

"I don't understand why you ..." Stupid, Emma told herself, and reached for the flower foam. "How do you know?"

page 134 Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts
Book two of the Bride Quartet

  

This month on The Eclectic Reader one lucky reader can win The Running Vixen OR Shadowland OR Captive of Sin. Check this blog post for details. International entrants welcome.

Mailbox Monday

Thank you to Marcia at The Printed Page for hosting Mailbox Monday every week. It's been a couple of weeks since I participated in this meme as my mailbox has been empty. Last week 2 books came, how about you?

Life After 187 by Wade J. Halverson

(from the author for review)

Sentenced to life in prison when he executes the men who murdered his wife, Kane Silver is singled out by the warden for his fighting ability. Along with inmates Valentino Lopez and Si’Ling Lee, Kane is drafted into service and forced to fight for money in high-stakes tournaments. But when the three friends escape during a New Year’s Eve match in Lake Tahoe—saving the warden’s life in the process—their situation becomes more complicated.

Their status undetermined, they vanish underground and sign on to help a young woman whose parents are being held by an Argentinean drug kingpin. Follow Kane and his friends as they compete and grow closer while rediscovering what it means to be free. From Lake Tahoe and the western United States to Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, and Thailand, Life After 187 takes readers on an exhilarating ride filled with big money, intense action, justice, and the pursuit of honor.

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley

I've wanted this book for a while, ever since seeing a wonderful review at Staci's blog Life In The Thumb, so after winning an amazon voucher at True Crime Book Reviews, thanks so much Yvette ...  I am now the pleased owner of North of Beautiful.

Born with a port-wine stain birthmark covering her entire right cheek, Terra Rose Cooper is ready to leave her stifling, small Washington town where everyone knows her for her face. With her critical, reproachful father and an obese mother who turns to food to deflect her father's verbal attacks, home life for Terra isn't so great either. Fueled by her artistic desires, she plans to escape to an East Coast college, thinking this is her true path. When her father intercepts her acceptance letter, Terra is pushed off-course, and she is forced to confront her deepest insecurities.

After an ironically fortuitous car accident, Terra meets Jacob, a handsome but odd goth Chinese boy who was adopted from China as a toddler. Jacob immediately understands Terra's battle with feeling different. When Terra's older brother invites her and her mother to visit him in Shanghai, Jacob and his mother also join them on their journey, where they all not only confront the truth about themselves, but also realize their own true beauty. North of Beautiful is the engaging third YA novel by Justina Chen Headley. This is a gorgeously-written, compelling book featuring universal themes of defining true beauty, family bonds, personal strength, and love



This month on The Eclectic Reader one lucky reader can win The Running Vixen OR Shadowland OR Captive of Sin. Check this blog post for details. International entrants welcome.

Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg

Genre: General Fiction
Copyright: September 2009
Pages: 260
Book Source: Library borrow

Elizabeth Berg weaves a beautifully written and richly resonant story of a mother and daughter in emotional transit. Helen Ames–recently widowed, coping with grief, unable to do the work that has always sustained her–is beginning to depend too much on her twenty-seven-year-old daughter, Tessa, meddling in her life and offering unsolicited advice. Then Helen is shocked to discover that her mild-mannered and seemingly loyal husband was apparently leading a double life. When a phone call from a stranger sets Helen on a surprising path of discovery, both mother and daughter reassess what they thought they knew about each other, themselves, and what really makes a home and a family.

This was my first Elizabeth Berg novel and while I enjoyed much of it, I can't say I was captivated. I'd heard such good things about the author's work, that I can only assume Home Safe wasn't her best?

When Helen's husband suddenly dies, the 59 year old writer finds herself ill-equipped to cope with day-to-day life; she has been completely dependent on Dan for everything from paying bills to changing a lightbulb and her writing has ground to a halt while she deals with her grief. Helen's relationship with her daughter Tessa is not one I can identify with but it was nice to see the growth and change in both these characters by the end of the novel. The character I  liked the most was actually Helen's best friend Midge, her insight and honesty with Helen was a refreshing and necessary inclusion, providing some comic relief.

When Helen takes a job teaching a writing class to a diverse group of people, her sense of helplessness begins to subside (making her a little more likeable) and via her students the reader experiences the interesting stories within this story. This is actually the part of the book I enjoyed the most. My observations here may seem a little harsh, I certainly understand grief on a personal level and how incapacitating it can be, but when the 'successful writer' calls police for a leak in her ceiling, empathy for the character dissolved along with plausability.

This was certainly a quick, easy read and I'm not adverse to trying another book by this author, any suggestions? There were some lovely quotes about books, like this one "Books don't take time away from us, ... they give it back" and a particularly beautiful paragraph that will stay with me. I might leave you with it:

She sits down and puts her hand to her chest and rocks. Thinks of all she has lost and will lose. All she has had and will have. It seems to her that life is like gathering berries into an apron with a hole. Why do we keep on? Because the berries are beautiful, and we must eat to survive. We catch what we can. We walk past what we lose for the promise of more, just ahead.

Visit Elizabeth Berg's website to find out more about the author and her work.

This month on The Eclectic Reader one lucky reader can win The Running Vixen OR Shadowland OR Captive of Sin. Check this blog post for details. International entrants welcome.

Hanging Out For: Cold Justice & Linger

Just thought I'd share a couple of books I'm hanging out for in 2010.

Cold Justice by Katherine Howell
Release Date: 1st February 2010

A teenage girl stumbles across the body of her classmate, Tim Pieters, hidden amongst the bushes. His family is devastated, the killer is never found.

Eighteen years later, political pressure sees the murder investigation reopened. Detective Ella Marconi tracks down Georgie Riley, the student who found the body, and who is now a paramedic. Georgie seems to be telling the truth, so then why does Ella receive an anonymous phone call insisting that Georgie knows more? And is it mere coincidence that her ambulance partner, Freya, also went to the same high school?

Ella's confusion increases when Tim's mother, once so willing to get the police involved, suddenly turns her back on the investigation. Meanwhile, Tim's cousin, the MP whose influence reopened the case, can't seem to do enough to help.

The more Ella digs into the past, the more the buried secrets and lies are brought to light. Can she track down the killer before more people are hurt?

Cold Justice has received some wonderful author quotes from Michael Robotham & Tess Gerritsen which is pretty darn awesome -

"A MURDER, A SECRET AND A DETECTIVE WHO WON'T LET GO . . . THIS IS KATHERINE HOWELL'S BEST BOOK TO DATE"

"COLD JUSTICE RACES LIKE A SPEEDING AMBULANCE . . . THIS WAS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR!"

Katherine Howell is a former ambulance officer, she is currently working on her fourth novel featuring Detective Ella Marconi. Visit Katherine's website to find out more about this Aussie author.

If you want to check out more of Katherine's work click on the titles to see my reviews of her nail-biting first two novels, Frantic and The Darkest Hour.

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

The Wolves of Mercy Falls, Book 2

Release Date: 20th July 2010

Summary:

Continues the story of the wolves of Mercy Falls. . .

It's about after. What happens after you discover there are werewolves in the wood, after you've fallen in love for the first time, after you've lost what you think you can't live without, after you've become someone you can't live with.

Excerpt: (just a  little teaser)

...Grace...

This is the story of a boy who used to be a wolf and a girl who was becoming one.

Just a few months ago, it was Sam who was the mythical creature. His was the disease we couldn't cure. His was the good-bye that meant the most. He had the body that was a mystery, too strange and wonderful and terrifying to comprehend.

But now it is spring. With the heat, the remaining wolves will soon be falling out of their wolf pelts and back into their human bodies. Sam stays Sam, and Cole stays Cole, and it's only me who's not firmly in my own skin.

Isn't the cover beautiful!! Having just finished and loved Shiver, July seems such a long way away *sigh*.

You can check out my review of Shiver here and stay up to date with all Maggie's news by visiting her website or blog.

 

This month on The Eclectic Reader one lucky reader can win The Running Vixen OR Shadowland OR Captive of Sin. Check this blog post for details. International entrants welcome.

We Have A Winner

The lucky winner of Once Upon A Nightmare by Lee Moylan is:

Razlover's Book Blog

Thanks to everyone who entered, with over 60 entries

it looks like a lot of us love to be scared half to death by a great story.

Notification email has been sent to the winner,

please email your address details ASAP.

Your copy of Once Upon A Nightmare will be posted to you

directly from the author.

Hope you're ready for a "poop your pants" scary read!!

This month on The Eclectic Reader one lucky reader can win The Running Vixen OR Shadowland OR Captive of Sin. Check this blog post for details. International entrants welcome.

At Grave's End by Jeaniene Frost

Series: Night Huntress Book 3
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Copyright: 2008
Pages: 342
Book Source: Own purchase

It should be the best time of half-vampire Cat Crawfield's life. With her undead lover Bones at her side, she's successfully protected mortals from the rogue undead. But though Cat's worn disguise after disguise to keep her true identity a secret from the brazen bloodsuckers, her cover's finally been blown, placing her in terrible danger.

As if that wasn't enough, a woman from Bones's past is determined to bury him once and for all. Caught in the crosshairs of a vengeful vamp, yet determined to help Bones stop a lethal magic from being unleashed, Cat's about to learn the true meaning of bad blood. And the tricks she's learned as a special agent won't help her. She will need to fully embrace her vampire instincts in order to save herself - and Bones - from a fate worse than the grave.

Just let me catch my breath ... WOW, this one was an adrenaline rush, a heart-stopping action packed, electrifying read; it was Cat & Bones on speed! But this aside, I actually had a little tantrum and removed a star rating for the lack of "set the sheets on fire horizontal action", then I relented and replaced half a star for the surprise emotional twist that started a tear-fest. Seriously though I did miss the sizzling passion and the opportunity to add some new Bones & Cat sexcapades to my mental library *grin*

Jeaniene Frost takes the vamp/ghoul world to a whole new level in At Grave's End. Powerful enemies come out of the woodwork, Bones forms an alliance with his grandsire Mencheres and a full scale war keeps the whole team a little on the busy side. Bones is, as always, 'smokin' hot, Cat is put through the wringer in this installment, Tate is an emotional wreck, Justina (Cat's mum) and Rodney had me snorting with laughter, Vlad aka Dracula is a cool addition to the cast of characters and there's enough gore, havoc, magic and mayhem to satisfy the biggest action junkie. 

I don't want to give any spoilers away for those of you who haven't started the series so this review is short and sweet but I do want to say ... What are you waiting for??? Hooked from book 1, this fan is here to stay. Destined For An Early Grave (book 4) is calling me and I can't wait to get my next Cat & Bones fix!


Visit Jeaniene Frost's terrific website & blog to find out more about this author and her work.

See my reviews for the first two books in the Night Huntress series  - Halfway to the Grave  & One Foot In The Grave - both 5 stars.

This month on The Eclectic Reader one lucky reader can win The Running Vixen OR Shadowland OR Captive of Sin. Check this blog post for details. International entrants welcome.

Teaser Tuesday

MizB of Should Be Reading hosts this cool weekly event. Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share (2) “teaser” sentences from that page. Share the title & author of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR list if they like your teaser. Please avoid spoilers!

Something tender caught in her breath at the sight of him. And then he raised his eyes and looked at her, and she saw what she had not seen before. She gasped.

Page 229 Graceling by Kristen Cashore

This month on The Eclectic Reader one lucky reader can win The Running Vixen OR Shadowland OR Captive of Sin. Check this blog post for details. International entrants welcome.