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Tess of the D'UrbervillesThe AwakeningSome Girls BiteGirls Like Funny BoysKissed by an Angel Collector's Edition: Kissed by an Angel; the Power of Love; SoulmatesCity of Glass

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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Waiting on Wednesday: Forget You by Jennifer Echols

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" is:

Forget You by Jennifer Echols

Release Date: July 20, 2010
Publisher: MTV
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 256

There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty-four-year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like darkly handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school. With her life about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, the perfect student, and the perfect girlfriend to ultra-popular football player Brandon.

But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day there’s one thing she can’t remember at all—the entire night before. Did she go parking with Brandon, like she planned? And if so, why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? And why is Doug—of all people—suddenly acting as if something significant happened between the two of them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck, but he keeps referring to what happened that night as if it was more, and it terrifies Zoey to admit how much is a blank to her. Controlled, meticulous Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all-important details of her life—a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug.

Ooohhh sounds so good. I absolutely loved Going to Far so I have high hopes for this book being just as good. What's your "waiting on" pick this week?


Sunday, June 27, 2010

My First Book Giveaway

Just to let everyone know I have decided that once I have 50 followers I am going to have a book giveaway (open to all) to thank everyone for reading my blog. However I'm not sure what books I should include. So I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions?

In My Mailbox #1

In My Mailbox is a meme hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren once a week which explores the weekly contents of your mailbox and books bought.

For Review:

It Started with A Dare by Lindsay Faith Rech (Graphia / September 13, 2010)

Self-proclaimed nobody CG Silverman sees her move to an upscale new school as her chance to be somebody different. Her devil-may-care attitude attracts the in-clique, and before CG realizes it, a routine game of truth or dare launches her to iconic status.

While this rebel image helps secure CG’s newfound popularity, it also propels her through a maze of unprecedented chaos, with each new lie and every dare opening doors that, in most cases, were better off left shut.

CG is on a collision course with disaster. Will she be able to keep up the façade? Or will the whole world find out she’s a fraud?


Tyger Tyger by Kersten Hamilton (Clarion Books / November 15, 2010)

Teagan Wylltson's best friend, Abby, dreams that horrifying creatures--goblins, shape-shifters, and beings of unearthly beauty but terrible cruelty--are hunting Teagan. Abby is always coming up with crazy stuff, though, so Teagan isn't worried. Her life isn't in danger. In fact, it's perfect. She's on track for a college scholarship. She has a great job. She's focused on school, work, and her future. No boys, no heartaches, no problems.

Until Finn Mac Cumhaill arrives. Finn's a bit on the unearthly beautiful side himself. He has a killer accent and a knee-weakening smile. And either he's crazy or he's been haunting Abby's dreams, because he's talking about goblins, too . . . and about being The Mac Cumhaill, born to fight all goblin-kind. Finn knows a thing or two about fighting. Which is a very good thing, because this time, Abby's right. The goblins are coming.

North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley


Release Date: February 1, 2009
Publisher: Little, Brown
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 373

Description:

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.

My Review:

Terra was born with a port wine stain birthmark on her face, because of this mark on her face she believes she is not beautiful, she is flawed in some way. In order to compensate for this perceived flaw she works out every day to have a ‘beautiful’ body. She also has a large assortment of creams in order to hide her birthmark and underwent numerous painful laser treatments in order to remove or lighten the stain all of which failed. Apart from having to deal with her birthmarked face Terra’s also has to deal with her fractured family, her mother is emotionally needy, her father is emotionally abusive and her brother’s have left her to deal with it all by herself. This is a huge burden on Terra who has a plan to escape it all, study hard and get into college, all the while not questioning what she is doing. However, her plan soon hits a stumbling block when Terra literally runs into Jacob who sees Terra for who she really is and makes her question her previous assumptions on beauty and her family.

This was such an emotional book for me, it was beautifully written and really examines the issues that are raised in the book, they are not glossed over, especially Terra’s family issues. I can’t imagine what it would be like to live in a house where a father is so emotionally abusive to his family. Terra’s father was a vile man who treated everyone with disdain, he was a man shaped by his past. Each member of Terra’s family dealt with the abuse in different ways, Terra’s mother overate, her brothers left and Terra tried to be perfect. In the end, with the help of Jacob, Terra realized that whilst she would never be perfect, because there is no such thing, she was beautiful. Apart from Terra’s growth as a character, her mother also grew from a submissive housewife at the start of the novel into a strong and assertive character. Throughout the book we not only see how the abuse affected Terra and her mother but also see how the abuse affected Terra’s brothers, particularly Merc who lives in China and buries himself in work. Throughout the book I found myself wanting to scream at him for ignoring his sister and mother. Apart from Terra’s family we are also introduced to an assortment of characters, I especially loved Jacob and his mother, Norah, they were both such great characters.

I really enjoyed the references about maps that are dispersed throughout the book, I’ve never really known that much about maps before, but I now know a little bit more. I was also introduced to geocaching (finding hidden containers) which I have never heard of before but it sounds like real fun.

North of beautiful is an important book that deals with family, peoples differing perceptions of beauty and finding yourself. I will definitely be reading more from Headley in the future. Amazing!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Giveaways! Giveaways! Oh My!

So I finished my final exam for the semester yesterday, yay! This means I now have time to browse around the book blogosphere, a favourite pastime of mine. Anyway I noticed there are a lot of great giveaways at the moment so I have compiled a list of some. All are international except for one which is only open to Australian residents. Good luck.


Eleni @ La Femme Readers in conjunction with Kari @ A Good Addiction have a great competition (for everyone!) going where you can win one of the following 6 books:

Crescendo (Hush, Hush, Book #2) by Becca Fitzpatrick
Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, Book #1) by Cassandra Clare
Last Sacrifice (Vampire Academy, Book #6) by Richelle Mead
Mockingjay (Hunger Games, Book #3) by Suzanne Collins
Nightshade (Nightshade, Book #1) by Andrea Cremer
Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

The competition runs until July 18th (International).


Eleni @ La Femme Readers has an ARC of Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler to giveaway. Entries close 7th July (International).


Eleni @ La Femme Readers has an ARC of the DUFF by Kody Keplinger to giveaway. Entries close 1st August (International).


Holly @ Good Golly Miss Holly has an amazing contest going where 20 of her readers will win. Check out the post for the list of books up for grabs. Entries close 31st July (International).


Over 30 books are up for grabs. Entries close 31st June (Australian residents only)


Alexa @ Hooked on YA Books has a massive giveaway going on, check it out. Entries close 30th June (International).


The undercover book lover has 5 ARC’s for one lucky reader. The books are:

Nightshade - Andrea Cremer
Paranormalcy - Kiersten White
The Eternal Ones - Kirsten Miller
Halo - Alexandra Adornetto
Pegasus - Robin McKinley

Entries close 15th July (International).


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About Me

Romy @ Lost.in.Stories
Greetings fellow blog readers, welcome to my blog and thank you for stopping by. Now you may be wondering who is lost.in.stories? Well lost.in.stories is also known as Romy, a 23 year old graduate student from Australia who loves to read. I read (maybe devour would be a more appropriate word) largely young adult novels, with a particular love of fantasy and paranormal novels, however I am also a sucker for a good romance.
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