Waiting on Wednesday (13)

Waiting on Wednesday was created by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf

It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn’s shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night.
Seven-year-old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by a tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler. Petra Gregory is Calli’s best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra or Calli has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered.
Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.

Oohhh this looks extremely good! I am so excited for this book! I will definitely pick it up the moment it is released on July 28th.

In My Mailbox (6)

First off, I want to apologize for my lack of posts. I have had a very event-filled, time-consuming, distracting (in a good way) week! But I did get a bunch of great books.

Won from The Story Siren's contest:

20 Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
According to her best friend Frankie, twenty days in Zanzibar Bay is the perfect opportunity to have a summer fling, and if they meet one boy ever day, there's a pretty good chance Anna will find her first summer romance. Anna lightheartedly agrees to the game, but there's something she hasn't told Frankie---she's already had that kind of romance, and it was with Frankie's older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death one year ago.

BookMooch:
Green Angel by Alice Hoffman
Left on her own when her family is lost in a terrible disaster, fifteen-year-old Green is haunted by her present and her past. Struggling to survive in a place where nothing seems to grow and ashes are everywhere, Green retreats into the ruined realm of her garden. When she destroys her feelings, she also destroys herself, erasing the girl she’d once been as she inks ravens and bats onto her skin. It is only through a series of mysterious encounters with a white dog and a mute boy that Green relearns the lessons of love and begins to heal as she tells her story.

Bought:

The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
Thirteen-year-old Kyra has grown up in an isolated polygamous community without questioning her father’s three wives and her twenty brothers and sisters. Or at least without questioning them much—if you don’t count her secret visits to the Mobile Library on Wheels to read forbidden books, or her meetings with the boy she hopes to choose for herself instead of having a man chosen for her. But when the Prophet decrees that Kyra must marry her 60-year-old uncle—who already has six wives—Kyra must make a desperate choice in the face of violence and her own fears of losing her family.

Sea Change by Aimee Friedman
16-year-old Miranda Merchant is great at science...and not so great with boys. After major drama with her boyfriend and (now ex) best friend, she's happy to spend the summer on small, mysterious Selkie Island, helping her mother sort out her late grandmother's estate. There, Miranda finds new friends and an island with a mysterious, mystical history, presenting her with facts her logical, scientific mind can't make sense of. She also meets Leo, who challenges everything she thought she knew about boys, friendship...and reality. Is Leo hiding something? Or is he something that she never could have imagined?

In My Mailbox was started by Kristi at The Story Siren, who was inspired by Alea at Pop Culture Junkie

Waiting on Wednesday (12)

Waiting on Wednesday was created by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Pretty Dead by Francesca Lia Block

Charlotte Emerson seems to have the perfect existence. She is enviably beautiful and lives alone in a mansion full of reasures and beautiful clothes, perched atop the cliffs of the Pacific Palisades. But Charlotte has been lonely and dead for almost a century. Now she might get a second chance at life.

I am so excited for this book! Francesca Lia Block always delivers intriguing, incredibly descriptive books. Yay! Pretty Dead will be released on September 22nd.

In My Mailbox (5)

The past two weeks have been really slow for me. I do have a lot of BookMooch books on the way, but none from this week. I am also currently low on cash and trying not to spend it all at Borders! So, here are the two books I got this week:

From the Author:

The Dark Planet (Atherton, book 3)-Patrick Carman

In the dazzling conclusion to the epic story of Atherton, Patrick Carman takes readers on the most rewarding journey of all, to the perilous realm of The Dark Planet: Earth.When Edgar discovers a way to leave the mysterious satellite world of Atherton, he couldn't have imagined the gloom that awaited him on the dark planet, where the oceans are toxic, the forests are full of mutant monsters, and children toil in darkness, controlled by ruthless maniacs. Max Harding, an orphan of the Silo, the maker of Atherton, and the last hope of a dying world, left this place behind, and now Edgar is determined to complete the mad scientist's spectacular plan, revealing Atherton's true purpose.Edgar's quest to discover Earth's dark secret leads to an out of this world adventure in the final book of the Atherton trilogy.

Pre-ordered, signed copy from author's website:

Behind Every Illusion-Christina Harner

"All creatures born of human parents must be human and therefore must be ordinary." Even the soft-spoken eighteen-year-old Tatiana Lewis wholeheartedly accepts this logic. So when she begins to experience unusual changes, she has no clue where to turn and instead keeps her new abilities a secret. But her best friend and brother, Isaac, sees past her illusions and together they explore the significance of her differences and search out the meaning behind them. Amidst tragedy, unimaginable transformations and an unexpected friendship, Tatiana has to learn to reveal the girl hidden behind her illusions and what it means to face the world in order to preserve not only the forest but her very existence. Behind Every Illusion is the first book in an exciting series about the extraordinary ways the earth has evolved in a desperate attempt to save itself from the destruction caused by humankind.

Hit and Run Lurlene McDaniel

It was an accident. But when the people involved don’t come forward, doesn’t it become a crime? Four young people whose lives intersect, who never dreamed of hurting each other. Each makes choices that cannot be changed. Each needs to take the consequences of those choices, to find love, to face reality, and to go on.

Lurlene McDaniel’s hard-hitting, heart-wrenching novel tells the story of the events surrounding the hit and run accident of high school student Analise, including how her boyfriend Jeremy copes as well as Laurie and Quin who wonder if what they hit was a deer…or a person. Hit and Run was extremely well-written and engaging, propelling the reader to keep turning the pages and see if the truth is discovered. My favorite parts where when Analise was narrating as she was caught between life and death. This was a moving, beautiful novel that has compelled me to seek out more of McDaniel’s work.

Waiting on Wednesday (11)

mY Generation: A Real Journey of Change and Hope by Josh Riebock

Y is the generation of tattoos, cell phones, social networking, and iPods. It is the generation of authenticity, social justice, racial diversity, and community. But it is also the generation of broken homes, school shootings, immense performance pressure, loneliness, self-indulgence, and insecurity. Christians have largely failed to bring restoration to this 70 million member group of young people. What are we missing? And what are the consequences if it doesn't change? Foregoing formulas, models, and snappy acronyms (which don't work), Josh James Riebock offers readers a journey deep into the soul of a generation that is slowly being transformed from within. Whether pastors, volunteers, church leaders, friends, or members of generation Y themselves, readers will value this honest and hopeful look at restoring a broken generation with the life-changing power of the Gospel.

I am so excited for this book-Josh Riebock is absolutely amazing! He is an alum of my High School whose mother was the amazing woman who used to run the Bible Department. His sister is a dance instructor at school and his brother-in-law is my History teacher! He has given many sermons at chapel and is always my favorite speaker. He relates to teenagers so well with his very raw and often hilarious stories. Everyone should read this book! It comes out on October 1st.

Here's the link to his website where you can see a book trailer: http://joshriebock.com/

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Aprilynne Pike's best-selling debut, Wings, is the first of four books about a seemingly ordinary girl named Laurel who discovers she is a faerie sent among humans to guard the gateway to Avalon. When Laurel is thrust into the midst of a centuries-old battle between faeries and trolls, she's torn between a human and a faerie love, as well as her loyalties to each world. In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.

I had really high hopes for this book, as I love all things fairy-like, but was left with mixed feelings. Pike’s take on faerie mythology is interesting, but sadly the reader only gets a peek of the world she has created as the majority of the book is filled with bland character interactions, a stereotypical love triangle, and a very slow pace. Thankfully, halfway through the book, things started to get more interesting: the characters developed more, the action picked up, and my favorite character, Tamani, entered the scene. I was disappointed when the end came just as Laurel started to get some answers regarding her life as a faerie. I the reason I didn’t fall in love with this book was because it was a little young for me. I’ve recently discovered that I need a more mature read to keep my attention. However, since the second half was good, I’ll probably read the next book in the series. Give it a try, it might be up your alley.