Showing posts with label andrewsmith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label andrewsmith. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday (TTT, #30)


 Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.



This week's post is:

Top 10 Most Anticipated For the Rest of 2015

In no particular order...

Here are some releases that come out in the next half of the year that I cannot wait for! (July 2015- November 2015) :) Goodreads Blurbs below if you want to know more about these books!


Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1) - Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Expected publication: October 20th 2015 by Knopf Books for Young Readers

Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1)This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.

This afternoon, her planet was invaded.
 
The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.
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Dreamstrider  - Lindsay Smith
Expected publication: October 6th 2015 by Roaring Brook Press

DreamstriderA high-concept, fantastical espionage novel set in a world where dreams are the ultimate form of political intelligence.

Livia is a dreamstrider. She can inhabit a subject's body while they are sleeping and, for a short time, move around in their skin. She uses her talent to work as a spy for the Barstadt Empire. But her partner, Brandt, has lately become distant, and when Marez comes to join their team from a neighborhing kingdom, he offers Livia the option of a life she had never dared to imagine. Livia knows of no other dreamstriders who have survived the pull of Nightmare. So only she understands the stakes when a plot against the Empire emerges that threatens to consume both the dreaming world and the waking one with misery and rage.

A richly conceived world full of political intrigue and fantastical dream sequences, at its heart Dreamstrider is about a girl who is struggling to live up to the potential before her.
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Hunter (Hunter, #1) - Mercedes Lackey
Expected publication: September 1st 2015 by Disney-Hyperion

Hunter (Hunter, #1)Centuries ago, the barriers between our world and the Otherworld were slashed open allowing hideous fantastical monsters to wreak havoc; destroying entire cities in their wake. Now, people must live in enclosed communities, behind walls that keep them safe from the evil creatures constantly trying to break in. Only the corps of teen Hunters with lightning reflexes and magical abilities can protect the populace from the daily attacks.

Joyeaux Charmand is a mountain girl from a close knit village who comes to the big city to join the Hunters. Joy thinks she is only there to perform her civic duty and protect the capitol Cits, or civilians, but as cameras follow her every move, she soon learns that the more successful she is in her hunts, the more famous she becomes.

With millions of fans watching her on reality TV, Joy begins to realize that Apex is not all it seems. She is forced to question everything she grew up believing about the legendary Hunters and the very world she lives in. Soon she finds that her fame may be part of a deep conspiracy that threatens to upend the protective structure built to keep dark magic out. The monsters are getting in and it is up to Joy to find out why.
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A Thousand Nights - E. K. Johnston
Expected publication: October 6th 2015 by Disney Hyperion

A Thousand NightsLo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.

And so she is taken in her sister's place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin's court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time.But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.

Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.

Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.
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Con Academy  - Joe Schreiber
Expected publication: August 4th 2015 by HMH Books for Young Readers 
 
  Con Academy
 
It's his senior year and Will Shea has conned his way into one of the country's most elite prep schools. But he soon runs into Andrea, a fellow con-artist. With the school not big enough for the both of them, they make a bet that whoever can con Brandt Rush, the richest, most privileged student in the school out of $50K, gets to stay at the school. Will starts setting up his con (an online poker scam) with his uncle who's one of the best grifters in the business, but also with the unwanted help of his father.. The plot thickens as Will starts falling for fellow student Gatsby, and some of Will's lies start to catch up with him. In this twisty tale of scams, secrets, lies and deception, it hard to figure out who's conning who!
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The Body Institute - Carol Riggs
Expected publication: September 1st 2015 by Entangled: Teen

The Body InstituteMeet Morgan Dey, one of the top teen Reducers at The Body Institute.

Thanks to cutting-edge technology, Morgan can temporarily take over another girl’s body, get her in shape, and then return to her own body—leaving her client slimmer, more toned, and feeling great. Only there are a few catches…

For one, Morgan won’t remember what happens in her “Loaner” body. Once she’s done, she won’t recall walks with her new friend Matt, conversations with the super-cute Reducer she’s been text-flirting with, or the uneasy feeling she has that the director of The Body Institute is hiding something. Still, it’s all worth it in the name of science. Until the glitches start…

Suddenly, residual memories from her Loaner are cropping up in Morgan’s mind. She’s feeling less like herself and more like someone else. And when protests from an anti–Body Institute organization threaten her safety, she’ll have to decide if being a Reducer is worth the cost of her body and soul…

Are we our minds...or our bodies?
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Court of Fives (Court of Fives, #1) - Kate Elliott
Expected publication: August 18th 2015 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Court of Fives (Court of Fives, #1)In this imaginative escape into an enthralling new world, World Fantasy Award finalist Kate Elliott begins a new trilogy with her debut young adult novel, weaving an epic story of a girl struggling to do what she loves in a society suffocated by rules of class and privilege.

Jessamy's life is a balance between acting like an upper class Patron and dreaming of the freedom of the Commoners. But at night she can be whomever she wants when she sneaks out to train for The Fives, an intricate, multi-level athletic competition that offers a chance for glory to the kingdom's best competitors. Then Jes meets Kalliarkos, and an unlikely friendship between a girl of mixed race and a Patron boy causes heads to turn. When a scheming lord tears Jes's family apart, she'll have to test Kal's loyalty and risk the vengeance of a powerful clan to save her mother and sisters from certain death.
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Legacy of Kings (Blood of Gods and Royals, #1) -Eleanor Herman
Expected publication: August 25th 2015 by Harlequin Teen

Legacy of Kings (Blood of Gods and Royals, #1)Imagine a time when the gods turn a blind eye to the agony of men, when the last of the hellions roam the plains and evil stirs beyond the edges of the map. A time when cities burn, and in their ashes, empires rise.

Alexander, Macedonia’s sixteen-year-old heir, is on the brink of discovering his fated role in conquering the known world but finds himself drawn to newcomer Katerina, who must navigate the dark secrets of court life while hiding her own mission: kill the Queen. But Kat’s first love, Jacob, will go to unthinkable lengths to win her, even if it means competing for her heart with Hephaestion, a murderer sheltered by the prince. And far across the sea, Zofia, a Persian princess and Alexander’s unmet fiancĂ©e, wants to alter her destiny by seeking the famed and deadly Spirit Eaters.

Weaving fantasy with the salacious and fascinating details of real history, New York Times bestselling author Eleanor Herman reimagines the greatest emperor the world has ever known: Alexander the Great, in the first book of the Blood of Gods and Royals series.
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Stand-Off (Winger, #2) - Andrew Smith
Expected publication: September 8th 2015 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Stand-Off (Winger, #2) 
 
 
 
 
 
Stand-Off will focus on Ryan Dean's senior year, in which he becomes captain of the rugby team.
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Winter (The Lunar Chronicles, #4) - Marissa Meyer
Expected publication: November 10th 2015 by Feiwel and Friends

Winter (The Lunar Chronicles, #4)Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend–the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?
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What Are Your Picks?

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Winger (Winger, #1)


 Winger (Winger, #1)

Author: Andrew Smith
Series: Winger, #1
Pages: 439
Challenge: Goodreads Challenge 2014
Genre: Contemporary
Acquired: Simon & Schuster Pulseit
Rating: ★★★


*****

Goodreads Summary:

Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids in the Pacific Northwest. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy.

With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.

Filled with hand-drawn info-graphics and illustrations and told in a pitch-perfect voice, this realistic depiction of a teen’s experience strikes an exceptional balance of hilarious and heartbreaking.

  *****

 My Thoughts:

Ryan Dean West, also known as Winger, is definitely that kid that just doesn't fit in at his new boarding school, but maybe that's because he's two years younger than everyone in his grade. As he struggles to find his way, he learns lessons in love, friendship, and acceptance along the way.

I always root for the underdogs, and Winger is all that and more! He is a super smart 14 year old on the rugby team, and he is CRAZY and MADLY IN LOVE with his best friend Annie. I mean.... what could go wrong.... right?.... haha.... nearly everything.... and I loved every minute of it! I thought that this was well written story with a heartbreaking twist at the end that I partly saw coming. Nevertheless, I was still loved the story in its entirety!

Winger's character development: It chronicles his growth from a little, bullied kid who just wanted to get through junior year without his head stuck in a toilet.... to a boy that his peers like, respect, and in turn stick up for. I enjoyed reading about his transition especially from the perspective of Winger and how he tries to deal with the ups and downs of high school.

I would definitely say that this was different from what I expected! I had convinced myself before that I didn't want to read this book, for no real reason at all. I kept telling myself it didn't look like it was a book that I would enjoy.... DON'T judge a book by its cover guys! :) Sometimes you're pleasantly surprised.

My favorite scene was when Winger and Annie spent the weekend at her parents' house. That weekend changed EVERYTHING, it was great! I would say that what I liked most would have to be all of Winger's different friendships throughout the book, he had a way of connecting to the other characters in different ways, and I loved that he came into himself with the help of these friends. I also LOVED the cartoon aspect, it was such a unique and different way to balance out the book. I liked that although some parts of the novel were heavier and heartbreaking, the pictures incorporated with the story made for a nice balance within the funny and lighter moments. I liked least the twist at the end, but it shows the real life horrors of how far terrible and cruel individuals are willing to take their actions when all could have been avoided with acceptance.

I liked the direction Andrew Smith took this book; its storyline was well thought out and I enjoyed reading every bit of it! I tend to not pick up contemporary books because..... to be honest..... they bore me to sleep, LITERALLY, so I was naturally happy when I gave this book a chance and it kept my attention long enough to allow me to finish it and appreciate the story! I can say that I was not ecstatic about the ending as it was heartbreaking, but I was satisfied with it. This is not your average super cheesy happily-ever-after contemporary story, so if you're looking for a light, happy read, I don't this is for you.

Cover: 4/10. The man on the cover looks WAY too old to be14 year old Winger! But I love the cartoon version of him on the back.
Rating: 5/5!!! It was GREAT! Highly recommend! I thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish especially with the incorporation of the cartoons throughout added to the overall reading experience!


If you have read this book, let me know your thoughts below!!

*****