Between Writing Reading

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater “There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.” It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive. Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble. But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul w...

This webseries is too great not to share. The premise: Hermione, Buffy, Katniss, Bella, Lisbeth and Michonne sharing a house in a Big Brother-esque reality show. The ladies who write and act in this are hilarious and smart and fun. Check it out now!

  The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa "In a future world, vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity."Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of "them." The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked--and given the ultimate choice. Die...or become one of the monsters. Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad. Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend--a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the r...

Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor, illustrated by Jim DiBartolo Three tales of supernatural love, each pivoting on a kiss that is no mere kiss, but an action with profound consequences for the kissers' souls: - Goblin Fruit : In Victorian times, goblin men had only to offer young girls sumptuous fruits to tempt them to sell their souls. But what does it take to tempt today's savvy girls? - Spicy Little Curses : A demon and the ambassador to Hell tussle over the soul of a beautiful English girl in India. Matters become complicated when she falls in love and decides to test her curse. - Hatchling : Six days before Esme's fourteenth birthday, her left eye turns from brown to blue. She little suspects what the change heralds, but her small safe life begins to unravel at once. What does the beautiful, fanged man want with her, and how is her fate connected to a mysterious race of demons? -Plot summary borrowed from Goodreads *Swoon!!!!!* This book is gorgeous ...

The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson The much-anticipated sequel to The Name of the Star will be released February 26th, 2013. If, like me, you're going a little crazy waiting, please enjoy this preview!! First look

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story... Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead. So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay. When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who ...

Dark Companion by Marta Acosta When foster teen Jane Williams is invited to attend elite Birch Grove Academy for Girls and escape her violent urban neighborhood, she thinks the offer is too good to be true. She's even offered her own living quarters, the groundskeeper's cottage in the center of the birch grove. Something's not quite right about the school -- or is it Jane? She thinks she sees things in the birch grove at night. She's also beginning to suspect that the elegant headmistress and her sons are hiding secrets. Lucky is the gorgeous, golden son who is especially attentive to Jane, and Jack is the sardonic puzzling brother. The school with its talented teachers and bright students is a dream for a science and math geek like Jane. She also loves her new friends, including hilarious poetry-spouting rich girl, Mary Violet. But the longer Jane stays at Birch Grove, the more questions she has about the disappearance of another scholarship girl and a m...

I read so many books, and it seems like the majority of them are the first in a series. I don't have the time, patience, or interest to read all of these series all the way through, but here are some upcoming installments in trilogies/quintets/sagas that I am excited for. Under Wildwood (Wildwood #2)- Colin Meloy I don't think I reviewed the first book, written by the lead singer of The Decemberists and illustrated by his wife, Carson Ellis, but I did love it. Talking animals, adventure, SAT words and ever so slightly morbid tendencies. Hurrah! This 560 page tome will hit shelves September 25th. The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente (Fairlyand #2) Regular readers may recall me waxing lyrical about the first book, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making . I've been waiting for this sequel since I closed that first installment. September has returned to fairyland and her friends the Wyverary (half wy...

Hey guys. I thought I'd post a preview of some of the books I'm waiting for. If anyone has read any of these so far, feel free to chime in with your thoughts! Dare Me by Megan Abbott Cheerleading. Popularity. Competition. Intrigue. Suicide. Mystery. Not my usual fare, necessarily, but who could resist that cover and reviews that call it "a fight club among cheerleaders" and that cover? I'm thinking it might be a bit more like The Basic Eight  by Daniel Handler than Pretty Little Liars , but we shall see. Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan I've loved Brennan's work on Team Human , and her contributions to anthologies like A Visitor's Guide to Mystic Falls and The Girl Who Was on Fire . Now she's got a new novel all to herself, including promising bits like a small English town named Sorry-in-the-Vale, a sinister manor complete with Strange Goings On, and a general Gothic feel. Hurray! The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater I haven't read Stiefvate...

Above by Leah Bobet Matthew has loved Ariel from the moment he found her in the tunnels, her bee’s wings falling away. They live in Safe, an underground refuge for those fleeing the city Above—like Whisper, who speaks to ghosts, and Jack Flash, who can shoot lightning from his fingers. But one terrifying night, an old enemy invades Safe with an army of shadows, and only Matthew, Ariel, and a few friends escape Above. As Matthew unravels the mystery of Safe’s history and the shadows’ attack, he realizes he must find a way to remake his home—not just for himself, but for Ariel, who needs him more than ever before. - Plot summary borrowed from Goodreads If you're into urban fantasy by authors like Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, Charles DeLint, and Laini Taylor ( Daughter of Smoke and Bone )  I would recommend you give this one a try. It has lots of elements I love from those authors- unique language, a dark/rich/strange setting filled with fairytale creatures alongside street k...

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high. Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life. - Plot summary borrowed from Goodreads I really liked this one- not quite as mu...

The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School by Alexandra Robbins When school lunchroom doors open, hungry students rush in, searching for tables where they wouldn't be outsiders. Of course, in middle school and high school, almost everyone is an outsider: the nerds, the new girls, the band geeks, the loners; even the "popular" cheerleaders.  Alexandra Robbins' The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth takes us inside the hallways of real schools to show us how shifting cliques and permanent marginalization affect children. Following individual students over the course of a year, she tracks the plight and possibilities of self-confessed nerds, freaks, punks, Goths, and weirdos. Her central message is heartening: Our increasingly homogenized society ultimately needs and welcomes the cafeteria fringe. -Plot summary borrowed from Goodreads This should be required reading for all teens, parents, and teachers. T...