Waiting on Wednesday (63)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine where book bloggers devote a post to an upcoming book release they are particularly looking forward to.

THIS WEEK'S PICK:

ALL THE BROKEN PIECES BY CINDI MADSEN

What if your life wasn't your own?

Liv comes out of a coma with no memory of her past and two distinct, warring voices inside her head. Nothing, not even her reflection, seems familiar. As she stumbles through her junior year, the voices get louder, insisting she please the popular group while simultaneously despising them. But when Liv starts hanging around with Spencer, whose own mysterious past also has him on the fringe, life feels complete for the first time in, well, as long as she can remember.

Liv knows the details of the car accident that put her in the coma, but as the voices invade her dreams, and her dreams start feeling like memories, she and Spencer seek out answers. Yet the deeper they dig, the less things make sense. Can Liv rebuilt the pieces of her broken past, when it means questioning not just who she is, but what she is?

I was part of the cover reveal for All the Broken Pieces back in June and the cover and synopsis had really grabbed my attention. Now a few months later, some changes have been made to the cover but it still grabs my attention and the synopsis intrigues me. I can't wait to be able to read this book!

All the Broken Pieces by Cindi Madsen will be published December 11, 2012 by Entangled Teen.

Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Title: Confessions of a Murder Suspect (Teen Detective Series #1)

Author: James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Publisher: Little, Brown

Release Date: September 24, 2012

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository

James Patterson returns to the genre that made him famous with a thrilling teen detective series about the mysterious and magnificently wealthy Angel family…and the dark secrets they're keeping from one another.

On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, Tandy Angel knows just three things: 1) She was the last person to see her parents alive. 2) The police have no suspects besides Tandy and her three siblings. 3) She can't trust anyone--maybe not even herself. Having grown up under Malcolm and Maud's intense perfectionist demands, no child comes away undamaged. Tandy decides that she will have to clear the family name, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs is a dangerous--and revealing--game. Who knows what the Angels are truly capable of?

I am a sucker for a good mystery story and there have definitely been some really good ones in the YA world this year. James Patterson and Maxine Paetro's Confessions of a Murder Suspect definitely followed that trend. It drew me right in and, like the characters, I wanted to find out who the killer was.

On the surface, the Angel family looked perfect, but everything is not always as it seems. When Tandy Angel hears knocking at her front door in the middle of the night, the last thing she expected was for the police to storm in to her family's appartement. And for them to tell her that her parents have been murdered. Now Tandy is determined to find out who killed her parents. Except her only suspects, and the police's, are her three brother and herself. But that's not going to stop her. Tandy knows some things the police don't, and she's hoping to get to her parents' killer before the police does.

Live I've already said multiple times, I am a major sucker for any story that has a mystery in some form or another in it. There have definitely been a lot of those in YA this year so I'm always a little worried they're going to start sounding the same. But I shouldn't have been worried about that happening with Confessions of a Murder Suspect. The story was different from all the other murder mysteries. I loved how every so often there would be a break from the story and you would get a "confession" that would help explain some of the back store. Those just made me want to read on. The most interesting thing about the story was the way it was told. Instead of the narrator just telling her story, she was openly addressing the reading. It was definitely different, but it was a great way to get the reader engaged in the story.

So the Angel family. They were definitely interesting and different. On the surface they looked pretty normal, but the more I read the more I couldn't help but think that normal wasn't quite the right word to describe them. Each member of the family had something about them that made them stand out from what is considered "normal". For a long time, Tandy didn't really show a wide range of emotions. On the flip side you had Harry who was almost too in touch with his emotions. Hugo had above average physical strength, especially when you take into consideration that he was only 10 years old. Matthew's athletic prowess was way above average, even for a professional athlete. But those little things are what made the characters interesting to read about. It was great seeing them sort of break out of what their parents had moulded them to be. But they still had a long way to go before they reached "normal".

Confessions of a Murder Suspect was exactly what I was looking for. I knew all along that James Patterson was an expert on mystery or detective novels, but I wasn't sure how successful he would be doing that in YA. But I shouldn't have been worried because he and Maxine Paetro wrote a book I am excited to recommend to others.

For more information on the book, be sure to check out the HBG website.

Stacking the Shelves (16)

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga of Tynga's Reviews. It's a weekly post where book bloggers showcase the books they received throughout the week.

This week was a pretty good week. I've pretty much put myself on a book buying ban except for a few books that I've decided ahead of time I can buy. And those are the only ones I'm allowing myself to buy. We'll see how long this actually lasts. But at any rate, this was a great week so here's what I got.

Review:

- Who I Kissed by Janet Gurtler - I have yet to read any of Janet Gurtler's books, but the summary for this one really caught my attention and so I'm really looking forward to reading it.

- Blaze (or Love in the Time of Supervillains) by Laurie Boyle Crompton - This one doesn't come out for a while which is maybe why I hadn't really heard about it. But it definitely sounds interesting and I'm looking forward to reading it close to the release date.

- Scarlet by Marissa Meyer - So I talked about this one last week, so all I'm going to say is that I am unbelievably excited about this one. And now that I have my own copy I can take my time reading it.

- The Kingmakers by Clay Griffin & Susan Griffin - I read the first one in this series over the summer and was really surprised by it. I still have to read the second, but as soon as I do I will be reading this one.

Purchased:

- Eve & Adam by Katherine Applegate & Michael Grant - This was one of the books on my list that I'm allowed to buy. I've been pining for this one for quite some time so I'm really happy to now have a copy.

So that's it for me this week. I will now be going back to cooking Thanksgiving dinner, so for all you Canadians, have a happy Thanksgiving and enjoy your long weekend. And as usual, leave me a comment and I'll try to stop by and see what you got!

Breakaway by Michael Betcherman

Title: Breakaway

Author: Michael Betcherman

Publisher: Razorbill Canada

Release Date: September 25, 2012

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon.ca / Chapters Indigo

Sixteen-year-old Nick Macklin's life has been divided in two. Before and After. Before his father when to jail, and After.

Before, he was an A student and a talented hockey player who loved his girlfriend, Sherry, and had the greatest dad in the world--a man who not only was there for him after his mom died of cancer, but who was also a star player for the Vancouver Canucks. Then the bottom fell out. His father was convicted of murder and given a life sentence for a crime Nick is convinced he didn't commit.

Now living with his dad's agent, Nick is motivated solely by a burning desire to seek justice for his father. Who framed him? And why? Drifting further away from everything and everyone who matters, he spends his days roaming the city, looking for a bald man with a limp--the man his father swears planted the evidence that led to his conviction. Finding him is like looking for a needle in a haystack--until Nick stumbles on a very real clue, an eye-opening revelation that just might get his father out of jail forever.

In all honesty, I hadn't heard of Breakaway by Michael Betcherman until I was offered the chance to be part of the blog tour for the release of the book. The summary caught my attention, especially since it's more of a boy book, which in my opinion there just aren't enough of in YA. All that to say that once I started reading, I read the entire book in one sitting. It was that good.

Nick Macklin thought he had a great life. At least that was until his father was accused of a crime he didn't commit and was sentenced to life in prison. Now Nick doesn't care about anything but finding the one person who could prove his father's innocence. But finding a bald, limping man in Vancouver might as well be the same thing as looking for a needle in a haystack. At his father's request, Nick stops his search and stats focusing once more on school and rejoins his hockey team. And just when he's not looking anymore, Nick might be on the verge of finding out just who framed his father for murder.

I honestly had no expectations when I started reading Michael Betcherman's Breakaway since all I had to go off was the synopsis on the back of the book. Despite that I was still looking forward to reading the book, mainly because the entire story focused on a boy and was told from his perspective even if it was in the third person. There's just not enough "boy" books in YA and whenever I find one I just kind of jump on it and read it. Ultimately, Breakaway did not end up disappointing me. Once I started reading, I just couldn't put the book down. I just had to find out who had framed Nick's father. All along I had my suspicions but I was dying to know if I was right. Beyond that, the story itself was captivating, it drew me in right from the start. It also helps that I'm a sucker for any story that has mystery or revolves around crime in one way or another. All that to say that I pretty much loved this book. 

I loved Nick. He was a great character and I loved getting to know him better as the story moved forward. I could definitely some sort of evolution in his character. When the story first started, Nick was solely focused on finding who had framed his father, not really caring about anything else and thinking that doing that would solve all his problems. But eventually he understood that there might be more to life than just proving his dad's innocence, no matter how important that was. But Nick wasn't the only interesting character in this book. Granted he was kind of integral to the story, I loved that a parent was actually part of the story and played an important role. Nick's dad took me by surprise. I loved finding out about him in the flashbacks Nick had. He just wasn't what I expected and I really appreciated that about him. And Nick's friends of course were interesting just because they were all so different from one another--I'm not going to lie, I smiled when I saw that one of them would be going to my university.

Michael Betcherman's Breakaway was a fantastic read. It took me completely by surprise and it is one of those books that I will definitely be recommending in the future. And if you're looking to find a book for a boy, then I strongly recommend you send Breakaway their way.

Blackwood by Gwenda Bond

Title: Blackwood

Author: Gwenda Bond

Publisher: Strange Chemistry

Release Date: September 4, 2012

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository

On Roanoke Island, the legend of the 114 people who mysteriously vanished from the Lost Colony hundreds of years ago is just a story for the tourists. But when the island faces the sudden disappearance of 114 people right now, an unlikely pair of 17 year-olds may be the only hope of bringing them back.

Miranda, a misfit girl from the island's most infamous family, and Phillips, an exiled teen criminal who hears the voices of the dead, must dodge everyone from federal agents to long-dead alchemists as they work to uncover the secrets of the new Lost Colony. The one thing they can't dodge is each other. 

When I first heard about Blackwood by Gwenda Bond I knew it was the kind of story I would want to read. I am a sucker for any type of mystery and if there's history involved there's very little that's going to stop me from read a book. This one didn't disappoint and it wasn't too long before I found myself completely sucked in to the mystery of it all.

Everyone on Roanoke Island knows the story of the 114 colonists who mysteriously disappeared hundreds of years ago. They have even made a play about it in order to attract the tourists in the summer. But now 114 people mysteriously disappear and everyone can't help but make a link with the Lost Colony. But then how is that even possible? That's the mystery Miranda and Phillips are trying to solve. Brought together by the disappearances, Miranda and Phillips are an unlikely pair but together, they may be able to save everyone and save themselves in the process.

I remember being really excited when Strange Chemistry first started announcing some of the titles it was going to be publishing this fall, and Blackwood by Gwenda Bond was one that immediately caught my eye. The sense of mystery you get from the synopsis and the fact that it's bringing in historical events were enough to get me reading the book. And I didn't end up disappointed. From the start I was sucked into the story, wanting to find out more about everything that was happening, trying to figure out what had happened to all those who disappeared. Wanting to know how Miranda and Phillips were tied to this whole thing. There were so many questions and I couldn't get to the answers fast enough. But eventually all was answered and I loved seeing how everything just sort of came together.

The best part about the book was definitely the characters. I loved seeing Miranda and Phillips grow and develop as the story progressed. When they first came together, I wasn't really sure how everything would work out, but I didn't care, I was rooting for them. But as individuals they were also pretty fantastic. They both had their own story and you could so easily tell that both of them hadn't had that easy a time in the past few years. They just worked well together, romantically and platonically (if that makes sense). Both Miranda and Phillips were just great people and characters. I just wish I could see more of them even though the story ended.

Gwenda Bond's Blackwood was a fantastic debut both from the author and new publisher, Strange Chemisty. It was exactly the kind of book I hoped it would be and it made me turn page after page.