Waiting on Wednesday #1

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating.

I just finished reading Legend by Marie Lu, and I abso-friggin'-lutely loved it (the review will be up on the blog soon). Then I saw the cover of the second installment in this series, Prodigy, and I read the blurb, and I started craving for it. Just look at it, and you will understand me! *fangirl squee*

title: Prodigy (Legend #2) - Marie Lu
to be released:  January 29th 2013


The Elector Primo of the Republic has died, with his son assuming power over what’s left of the USA’s West Coast as it teeters on full-blown chaos. June and Day join up with Patriot rebels so they can rescue Day’s brother and head east for the Colonies. In order to help, though, the rebels want June and Day to kill the new Elector, who may pose an even greater threat than his father.


Love, 
Mar

Cover reveal Sever, Deep Betrayal and more

Hey everyone ^^

I decided to start doing cover reveals on my blog, so here are a few new covers I just had to share with you. Enjoy, love, fangirl, all of it :)

First of all, the most exiting one, Sever by Lauren Destefano. I absolutely love Destefano's books, and their covers are so beautiful.


title: Sever (The Chemical Garden #3) - Lauren Destefano
to be released: February 12th, 2013

What if you knew exactly when you would die? In the not-too-distant future, genetic engineering has turned every newborn into a ticking time bomb — males only live to age 25 and females only live to age 20.
In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out. When 16-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by "the Gatherers" to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Rhine has only one purpose after she has been married to her new husband, Linden: to escape and find her twin brother.
But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant to whom she is dangerously attracted, Rhine is desperate to learn the truth and protect those closest to her. But, as her sister wife Cecily keeps insisting, her role may be much bigger than that.
In the first two books of the Chemical Garden trilogy, Wither and Fever, Rhine struggles to escape the mansion and then to navigate the brutal world outside. Now in Sever, the third and final book, Rhine uncovers some shattering truths about the past that her parents never had the chance to tell her and the alarming implications regarding her own genes. She may be the one who can save the human race.

Secondly, there is the cover for Deep Betrayal, part 2 of the Lies Beneath series. I just reviewed the first part. Mermaid books are so amazing :)


title: Deep Betrayal (Lies Beneath #2) - Anne Greenwood Brown
to be released: 2013

It's been thirty days, two hours, and seventeen minutes since Calder left Lily standing on the shores of Lake Superior. Not that she's counting. And when Calder does return, it's not quite the reunion Lily hoped for. Especially after she lets her father in on a huge secret: he, like Calder, is a merman. Obsessed with his new identity, Lily's dad monopolizes Calder's time as the two of them spend every day in the water, leaving Lily behind.
Then dead bodies start washing ashore. Calder blames his mermaid sisters, but Lily fears her father has embraced the merman's natural need to kill. As the body count grows, everyone is pointing fingers. Lily doesn't know what to believe—only that whoever's responsible is sure to strike again. . . .

Then there is the cover for Ally Carter's Heist Society #3. I haven't started the series yet, but I will probably read the first (and second) book during the summer holidays.


title: Perfect Scoundrels (Heist Society #3) - Ally Carter
to be released: February 5th, 2013

Kat is a girl who is used to getting—or stealing—everything she wants. But telling the truth to the boy she likes? Now that's a cat of a different color.
When Kat's on-again off-again boyfriend, Hale, suddenly inherits his family's billion dollar company, Kat gets a tip-off that the will is a fake. Trapped between a rock and a hard place, how can she tell Hale that he might be living a lie?

What do you think about these covers. Do they give you a covergasm? :P I absolutely need Sever (Like, right now, just let me finish my time machine) and Deep Betrayal looks pretty amazing too. (although I liked the cover of lies beneath better, this one isn't bad)


Love,
Mar

Tour stop - Guest post by Ednah Walters

Today's Tour stop is for Betrayed, by Ednah Walters. She has written a great guest post on the difference between writing YA and Adult romance. Make sure to check out Betrayed! I absolutely loved it and will post my review soon.


Meet Ednah Walters, author of Betrayed, a YA paranormal romance novel.

Lil has come to terms with her life as a Guardian/demon hunter and the wielder of the Nephilim most powerful weapon. But trouble looms in the Guardian enclave. Bran is pulling away from her and her best human friend is in trouble, and it's all Lil's fault

The Difference between Writing YA and Adult romance:


Writing both YA and adult romance can be challenging but at the same time rewarding.


Is it easy? No, but the yo-yo-ing back and forth does wonders to my creativity.
The best part of writing YA is experiencing first love through the eyes of a teenager. Teens are not burdened by what the guy does for a living and the future, past relationships and the baggage that comes with them. They focus on each other and their love, which is intense and all consuming, and that is enough for them.


Try to write something similar for adult romance and the story comes across as unrealistic.


1. When writing adult, I keep the sensuality level high. The kissing scenes are more descriptive, feelings from every part of the body are described. When writing YA, I pretend that my characters are dead waist down. Heck, make that dead neck down. I absolutely do not mention blood rushing to the, uh, lower extremities or the chest.


2. When I write adult romance, I can draw from my own experience, the heartache of dealing with a difficult man, the compromises, the jaded way adults look at different situations. Writing YA, I try to get inside teenagers’ head by watching teen TV series, listening to my kids and their friends talk about high school, cliques, understanding their angst, the “I’ll absolutely die if he talks to me…or, I’ll die if he dumps me…” things that drive grownups nuts but make perfect sense to teens.


3. I keep the dialogue simple for my YA… Having a 19 and 15 year old around the house helps. I read aloud dialogues and they go, “Mom, no one talks like that.”
“I did when I was a teenager,” I retort but I always listen to them.


 5. Last, I find a way to make my YA soul mates. Why? Because they are still teenagers. They will go to college or rejoin their pack, their den, return to their parallel world or planet before they can come back to be with the hero or heroine. The bottom line is they must have their HEA but it is not going to happen when she is 16 and he’s 17 or 19. Soul mates in adult romance sounds contrived unless it is paranormal.


Happy Reading.


*disclaimer: this guest post was written by Ednah Walters, author of Betrayed. I was not paid to post this guest post.*




giveaway of some amazing stuff:
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The list of other blogs participating in this tour:

Before I die by Jenny Downham

title: Before I die
written by: Jenny Downham
series: -
genre: Young Adult, tragedy, romance
page count: 327
publication date: January 1st, 2007

Tessa has just months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, drugs with excruciating side-effects, Tessa compiles a list. It’s her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is Sex. Released from the constraints of ‘normal’ life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up. Tessa’s feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, and her new boyfriend, all are painfully crystallised in the precious weeks before Tessa’s time finally runs out.

I had been wanting to read Before I die for a long time, and then I just stumbled upon it in the library, and I just had to read it. So I did. And I loved it, and cried a lot. Just like most people who have read this book probably have. 

Before I die is not your stereotype sad story. The list made it a unique book. What would you want to do before you died? Tessa tries to do everything on the list. The list becomes her life, as far as she still has a life. But there are some things on the list that will be hard to accomplish. Love and be loved. It seems so hard. With the last power she has inside of her, Tessa completes the list. Some things are hilarious to read about, like the only-say-yes day she had, while others seemed impossible, like bring back together her parents. 

As I turned the pages of this book, I became fully aware of what was happening. Every page meant one page closer to Tessa's death. Even a miracle couldn't make her stay alive anymore. No-one should die at that age, or earlier. 

Tessa is one of the greatest characters ever. She has cancer but can still be happy, and she can still find the power to hang on to her life, even if that power is the list. Tessa was super realistic, and at one point in her process of accepting her own death she decided to stop giving a f*ck about her own life. And that's what made her so special. Then there was the YA-stereotype mean best friend. She didn't really interest me. And there was the Boyfriend, who was a-dor-able, he was so caring and protective, just like Tessa's dad. And the most amazing character from this book was Tessa's brother. He seemed to have accepted his sister's death, and was joking about it all the time, but when she was about to die he revealed his real feelings. That made me cry so much!

Jenny Downham has a great writing style, and the pace of this story was great, too. I just wished the book wasn't so short...

A recommender for every teen who likes sad tragic stories, or just wants to see how amazing his/her own life is. 

I rate this book 5/5 stars.

Love, Mar