Shadow of the Mark Cover Reveal

Okay, I know I'm a few days behind on this one. But whatever. I just saw it and immediately fell in love. Shadow of the Mark is the sequel to Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon. I'm super excited for the book, which comes out on July 9th. As far as I know, there's been no description released, yet. Oh, and if you took place in the Winter (I think it was winter) YA Scavenger Hunt, you would have gotten a one page sneak peek at the book. Let me tell you, that one page had me jumping out of my seat. Now, here's the cover.

Let's hear what you think about the cover. The author says the darker colors reflect the darker tone of the book, so I bet it's going to be good!

Sweet Peril Cover Reveal

Okay, usually I only make posts about books. But I can't help it. If you look back a little ways, you see the review of Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins. Today she revealed the cover for book two in the series, Sweet Peril. Sweet Peril comes out on April 30, 2012 and is gonna be awesome. Are you ready for the cover? It's gonna be awesome. 3... 2... 1... GO!

Awesome, right? Since the cover's been posted, I'll post the description as well. And just a note, Sweet Peril takes off six months after Sweet Evil ended.

Anna Whitt, daughter of a guardian angel and a demon, 

promised herself she’d never do the work of her father—polluting souls. 

She’d been naive to make such a claim. 

She’d been naive about a lot of things. 

Haunted by demon whisperers, Anna does whatever she can to survive, 

even if it means embracing her dark side and earning 

an unwanted reputation as her school’s party girl. 

Her life has never looked more bleak. 

And all the while there’s Kaidan Rowe, son of the Duke of Lust, 

plaguing her heart and mind.

When an unexpected lost message from the angels surfaces, 

Anna finds herself traveling the globe with Kopano, son of Wrath, 

in an attempt to gain support of fellow Nephilim 

and give them hope for the first time. 

It soon becomes clear that whatever freedoms Anna 

and the rest of the Neph are hoping to win will not be gained without a fight. 

Until then, Anna and Kaidan must put aside the issues between them, 

overcome the steamiest of temptations yet, 

and face the ultimate question: 

is loving someone worth risking their life?

Okay, I officially cannot wait for the book. I wanna hear what you think of it. Are you excited? Does it look interesting? If I had to guess, we're in for quite a ride.

Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

I loved Alice in Zombieland! It is the best zombie book ever! The cover says 'Off with their heads.' which has me laughing every time I look at it. It's a really good book that deserves a really good review.

The main character is, obviously, Alice. She suffers a great tragedy at the beginning of the book, but she wallows in self-pity so long, I find it a little hard to feel sympathetic. She deserves to be sad, but needs to live life as well. That's probably the only thing that disappointed me in this book. She's otherwise very well developed. The love triangle is simple and is destroyed quickly, which I like. I'm really sick of love triangles and when a book doesn't have one, I like it. The other characters are well-developed and her friend is very likable.

The plot is done well. I find it very funny that each chapter title plays off of a chapter title from Alice in Wonderland (ex. Down the Zombiehole, The Pool of Blood and Tears). Almost all books have some predictable aspect. This one has the regular, but nothing extra. Meaning, when there's foreshadowing, I can't predict the rest of the book. With one book I read recently, the author foreshadowed a tiny bit and I knew the whole plot. This book kept me interested and was very well written. I give it five stars.

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

Who are you and what did you do with Rick Riordan? I love every other one of your books, what happened? How was it that you wrote a boring book? The beginning was good and the end was good, but that's IT! The middle was plain dull. Maybe it's that it's just getting to many characters. Most of his books revolve around three characters or so. This one had seven. I was looking forward to a book that will entertain me, and I get a book I have to force myself to get through. I've read other books about that length in a day, why didn't this take me only a day or two? I have a very serious question. Seriously, it's the most important in the world. Who are you and what did you do with Rick Riordan.

The characters are decently developed. In his writing, you can tell he's a good writer... for elementary school students. I can feel him dumbing it down. Not the content, but the quality. It's not a good matchup. When you have stuff that borders on teen content and little kid writing, it tends to get sloppy. I couldn't get myself into this because of that. A friend of mine who's also reading it, agrees wholeheartedly. Going back a few sentences, I really don't like dumbing down. I know I'm not dumb and I want the writing to not treat me like I am. I have two quotes from a post Ally Carter made a few years ago that I think fits perfectly. "It has been my experience that you should have different expectations of teen readers than adult readers: you should expect your teen readers to be smarter." It very much fits, since Rick Riordan has written adult and child/teenish books. Another quote by Ally Carter "Teens are used to being challenged and tested and forced to think about things analytically, so do NOT write down to teens. Not if you want a career in YA literature." I think these both fit the whole, dumbing down theme.

I wish I could be kind, but in this case, I just have to go with blunt. The plot is weak. It sags in the middle. It has too much unneeded detail. I feel the need to use another Ally Carter quote. "... until you're not writing something with twelve words that could just as easily be said with seven." I love you Rick Riordan, and I'm sorry. But I give this book a two.

Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Oh my God, Pushing the Limits was AMAZING! I'd seen it on the Harlequin Teen Facebook and had decided that it was about time I read it. I picked up the book and couldn't put it down! Echo and Noah are depicted amazingly and the plot weaves so much, nothing is predictable.

The main characters are Echo and Noah. They each face their own personal battles while trying to fight for each other as well. Things work out a little to perfectly to be relatable to real life, but sometimes miracles happen. It's very interesting hearing and learning about their backstories. Often, characters lives are very-near perfect and they just don't realize it. Here, the characters lives aren't perfect, but they make the best of what they have and are stronger than many other book characters.

I adored this book. Each night, I couldn't put it down. I wouldn't have if my parents hadn't made me go to bed at 11 o'clock. I guess I have Katie McGarry to thank for so many sleepy days afterwords. It was worth it though. This book completely deserves five stars.

Whispers at Moonrise by C.C. Hunter

C.C. Hunter, are you trying to kill me? I'm serious, you end the book the way you did then say that we have to wait until an undecided date in the spring for the last book to be released. It's torture lady. I still love you though.

Whispers at Moonrise is the fourth book in the Shadow Falls series. It is by far, the best one yet. I've read so many books, most plots are predictable (like the one I'm reading now, predicted the big reveal with one foreshadowed line), but this one kept me on my toes. I still have absolutely no idea what will happen next. You can tell an author's a good writer when you don't know what will happen next. If we're going by those standards, C.C. Hunter blows all the other authors out of the water.

The main character, Kylie, is a very strong character. I love her best friends Della and Miranda (they're ALWAYS arguing-it's hilarious!). Plus, there's TWO hot guys. I still can't decide, Lucas or Derek, Derek or Lucas. I give this book five stars with all my heart.