Cover Reveal #2

Like I said, yesterday was a busy day in the cover world. What I have now is the provisional (meaning the tats & other cool stuff will be added later on, so no freaking out, please! Sydney is still an Alchemist!) cover for The Indigo Spell, due to be released on Feb. 14th 2013.

Richelle has already confirmed that the girl is Sydney, and the guy on the right is Adrian. Any bets as to who the guy on the left is? Miss Mead also informed us that by the time the cover is final, we'll probably have a good idea as to who he is, so I have a pretty solid hunch. I just can't remember his name *sigh*

Cover Reveal

As promised (though one day late, so I apologise for that), here is the cover, blurb and release date for Heist Society #3 by Ally Carter.
The covers for these books have been beautiful from the start, but Perfect Scoundrels' is just stunning - plus we get a look at Hale (that's him in Kat's glasses, if you're wondering.

"Katarina Bishop and W.W. Hale the fifth were born to lead completely different lives: Kat comes from a long, proud line of loveable criminal masterminds, while Hale is the scion of one of the most seemingly perfect dynasties in the world. If their families have one thing in common, it’s that they both know how to stay under the radar while getting—or stealing—whatever they want.

No matter the risk, the Bishops can always be counted on, but in Hale’s family, all bets are off when money is on the line. When Hale unexpectedly inherits his grandmother’s billion dollar corporation, he quickly learns that there’s no place for Kat and their old heists in his new role. But Kat won’t let him go that easily, especially after she gets tipped off that his grandmother’s will might have been altered in an elaborate con to steal the company’s fortune. So instead of being the heir—this time, Hale might be the mark.

Forced to keep a level head as she and her crew fight for one of their own, Kat comes up with an ambitious and far-reaching plan that only the Bishop family would dare attempt. To pull it off, Kat is prepared to do the impossible, but first, she has to decide if she’s willing to save her boyfriend’s company if it means losing the boy."


Perfect Scoundrels is scheduled to be released on Feb. 5th, 2013
And can someone please tell me when the hell Hale became Kat's boyfriend? Because either I REALLY need to re-read these books, or something is weird here... A friend just reminded me that they 'brushed lips' in Uncommon Criminals. Sorry, but I need a more sturdy base than that to go around calling guys my boyfriend. Though, honestly, I'd jump at the slimmest chance to call Hale that, so who knows...

Sweet Evil

Title: Sweet Evil (The Sweet Trilogy #1)
Author: Wendy Higgins
Genre: YA, paranormal
Rating: 5/5
Cover: 10/10

There are books, there are good books and then there are those books that get stuck in your mind, and you catch yourself thinking about them in the most random moments. Sweet Evil was the latter for me.
Breathtaking cover notwithstanding, the story of Sweet Evil is sweetly compelling with a most decidedly evil ending. Pun very much intended.

Be ready for the ride of your life. Anna Whitt is a good girl. She doesn't steal, she doesn't drink, and she most definitely does not do drugs. But Anna isn't normal. She remembers her entire life - right down to her own birth. Her mother died in labour, and her father was arrested soon after she was born. She has been living with her aunt ever since.
When Anna turns sixteen, very little of normal remains in her life. She can see people's auras, and now there are white things following everyone around, in addition to the auras. That is also when Anna meets Kaiden, who, instead of an aura, has no colour around him, and a most decided absence of the white figure - instead, he has a black shadow around him. It doesn't take Anna long to figure out that Kaiden is a lot like her, and to ask for answers, which is how she discovers that they are both fallen angels, sons of the great demons of sin. Kaiden is the demon of lust's son, so obviously the guy is smokin'. Anna, on the other hand, is the daughter of addiction. And she is expected to corrupt humans, following in her jailbait father's footsteps.
Anna and Kaiden are that kind of couple. You know the kind. The one that, when they kiss, it's not sparks flying; it's more like a nuclear bomb went off. Which is complicated, because Anna isn't a normal fallen angel; she's the daughter of a demon with an angel. With both good and bad in her, fighting for dominance, which side will win?

The ending, though. What is it with these stories with heartbreaking endings? As far as I'm concerned, this matter is not over, and they'd better sort it out in #2, or I will not be amused.

Cover Reveal #2!

We're full of covers today! Ally Carter has promised the Heist Society #3 cover for today too, but for now, I leave you with the beautiful cover of The Chemical Garden #3, Sever by Lauren DeStefano, along with the blurb. Sever is scheduled for an early 2013 release.

"What if you knew exactly when you would die? In the not-too-distant future, genetic engineering has turned every newborn into a ticking time bomb — males only live to age 25 and females only live to age 20.

In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out. When 16-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by "the Gatherers" to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Rhine has only one purpose after she has been married to her new husband, Linden: to escape and find her twin brother.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant to whom she is dangerously attracted, Rhine is desperate to learn the truth and protect those closest to her. But, as her sister wife Cecily keeps insisting, her role may be much bigger than that.

In the first two books of the Chemical Garden trilogy, Wither and Fever, Rhine struggles to escape the mansion and then to navigate the brutal world outside. Now in Sever, the third and final book, Rhine uncovers some shattering truths about the past that her parents never had the chance to tell her and the alarming implications regarding her own genes. She may be the one who can save the human race."

Cover Reveal

The entire world has been speaking about Fifty Shades of Grey - some hate it, some love it, some are unsure. If Fifty was too BDSM for you, or if you liked the books, then everyone seems to agree: Sylvia Day's Bared to You is the perfect book to soothe your Christian Grey withdrawals. And it comes with a bonus for those who don't enjoy BDSM: it has none.
Today, Sylvia released the cover of the second Crossfire novel: Deeper in You, with publication set for October 2nd this year, here is the cover and blurb.

"Gideon Cross. As beautiful and flawless on the outside as he was damaged and tormented on the inside. He was a bright, scorching flame that singed me with the darkest of pleasures. I couldn’t stay away. I didn’t want to. He was my addiction... my every desire... mine.
My past was as violent as his, and I was just as broken. We’d never work. It was too hard, too painful... except when it was perfect. Those moments when the driving hunger and desperate love were the most exquisite insanity.
We were bound by our need. And our passion would take us beyond our limits to the sweetest, sharpest edge of obsession..."

Soulbound

Title: Soulbound (Legend of Tril #1)
Author: Heather Brewer
Genre: YA, paranormal
Rating: 5/5
Cover: 10/10


Oh there's so much goodness about Soulbound, I hardly know where to start. It's just so great when a book we've been waiting for with so much patience turns out to be everything we'd hoped it would be!
If you liked Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy, be sure you'll like Soulbound. I felt like Kaya was a crazy mash between Mia, Lissa and Rose. So yeah, she's definitely a very interesting person lol

Kaya is a Healer. She knows that her life dances on the edge of danger. Her parents, two Barrons, broke the law of the Zettai Council to get married, and if anyone were to find out where they are, Kaya would be shipped off to school, to learn how to fight in a war she has no interest in fighting in, and her parents... they would be killed. So when Kaya's best friend is murdered by a nightmare-inducing beast called Graplar, and Kaya's father kills it, the family knows it's only a matter of time before the Council finds them... and sure enough, a letter from Shadow Academy soon comes along to Kaya, requesting her presence immediately. And if she refuses, her parents will pay the price.
Told by the headmaster of Shadow Academy that her Soulbound Barron died, and forced into a fight she doesn't support, she is Bound to Trayton, a Barron who, despite being gorgeous and incredibly kind, doesn't understand Kaya's need for freedom, or her hatred of the law that says that all Healers must be submissive to their Barrons. While trying to adapt to life in the Academy, Kaya can't stop wondering what got up even more gorgeous (and King of Secrecy), fight instructor Darius's backside, who seems to hate Kaya, and finds excuses to punish her for anything and everything.
As the danger from the Graplars only grows, intrigue inside the school grows too, and Kaya is left wondering just who she can trust enough to want her alive.
But Shadow Academy has even more secrets lurking behind its' walls than Kaya could ever guess, and one of them might just change her entire life... again.

Barely Breathing

Title: Barely Breathing (The Breathing Series #2)
Author: Rebecca Donovan
Genre: YA
Rating: 500/5
Cover: 7/10

Okay, first of all, this book, and the one before it, Reason to Breathe... they are not for the faint of heart. Especially not Reason to Breathe. Yes, it's YA. Look out for f-bombs, and if you have problems with physical abuse, then go look somewhere else. Realise I said physical, not sexual. Big difference here. Now we're over the nitty-gritty stuff, let's get down to the good bit...

Holy wow. I'm still trembling a little. That's what these books do to me.
While Reason to Breathe was intense on an entirely different level - and a most disturbing one, too - Barely Breathing has left me so emotionally exhausted, it's like I was the one wrecking my life one little decision at a time. And the thing is, I can't even blame Emma. Her life has been hell, and the poor girl has never been able to trust anyone, not ever. So now that she has to, she balks. And while she's incredibly mature with most things, she's still just a seventeen year old girl trying to figure out her life. So yeah, while I yelled, cursed and screamed a lot in frustration at some of the stuff she pulled, I can see where she was coming from.
The best thing about these books is how utterly real they feel. Like in one moment, you're crying your eyes out, and in the next, you just can't stop giggling. I'm sure more than one person on the Metro thought I was delusional today, I couldn't keep that goofy grin off my face at times. I'm used to it by now, though. And that's what life is like, really - ups and downs, the goods and the bads, and then the horribles.
I'd say more, but from here, it's likely to spiral into gushing and/or moaning about the wait for the next one, so I'll take my leave by saying: READ IT! (or them, rather)

Cold Magic

Title: Cold Magic (Spiritwalker #1)
Author: Kate Elliott
Genre: YA, sci-fy
Rating 4.5/5
Cover: 8/10

Cold Magic tells the story of young Catherine Hassi Barahal, who, shortly before he twentieth birthday, is married to an arrogant cold mage, the haughty Andevai Diarisso Haranwy, who seems to regard her with as much happiness as one would a cockroach under one's shoe.
But then, why is it that, when Andevai's superiors find out that he married the wrong Hassi Barahal girl, and order him to kill her, does he refuse? Without answers, and faced with the question of who her real father is, since it would seem she has been lied to her entire life, Cat knows only this: she needs to warn her maybe-cousin, Bee, that the mage House who wants her killed is now after her cousin, to try to marry Bee off to Andevai in Cat's place.
But above all, Cat is faced with the question of whether or not she can trust her somewhat unwilling husband.
What follows is a race that will leave you biting your nails in nerves, cursing and laughing right along with Cat, Vai, Bee and Rory. Kate Elliott's world building is something to watch, it's so intricate and detailed, and, while that makes for an incredibly intricate and rich story, I found that the repetitive accounts about the story of how their world came to be the way it is tiring and unnecessary. It made the book, which is really absolutely great, drag, when it could have flowed so seamlessly, it would have been too good to express in words. On the other hand, the dialogue is so visceral, the characters so divertingly flawed, and the action scenes so good, I almost gave Cold Magic a 5/5. I can't pretend it didn't have this rather big fault, though, so 4.5/5 it is.
Cat's story is sure to ensnare you, and Cold Magic has it all: pig-headed heroins, haughty and seemingly indifferent heroes who turn out to be far too amazing for their own (and my sanity's) good, secondary characters with a depth that is quite remarkable, humour in just the right amount, family intrigue, lots of betrayals, and a romantic entanglement that makes me wish this wasn't a YA book... ;)
I other words, most highly recommended!