In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. The idea of IMM is bring attention to books and to encourage book bloggers to interact with other bloggers.
For Review
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love.
Cath is a Simon Snow fan.
Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .
But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.
Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?
Or will she just go on living inside somebody else’s fiction?
How to Lose Everything: A Mostly True Story by Phillip Mattheis
One summer, an incredible discovery gives Jonathan and his three closest friends many things they so desperately want – but at what cost?
Jonathan, Sam, Schulz, and Eric usually spend their summers hanging out at the park, skateboarding and dreaming about the days when they’ll finally move out of the suburbs. But one summer, the four teenagers find a small fortune hidden inside a mysterious abandoned house, and that changes everything. The dizzying thrill of money and power makes the future seem irrelevant; the only question that matters is what they should buy next. It was a dream come true, but it couldn’t last. What starts out as a blessing soon turns into a curse, as stress, drugs, criminal behavior, dwindling funds—and even death—raise serious questions about their choices, and their futures.
Won/Giveaways
Life is sweet for Katherine Langley. A freshman at the University of Virginia, she is free from the drama of her parents’ dysfunctional marriage and ready to focus on studying to become a nurse. Her brother, Ben, belongs to the hottest fraternity on campus, and her new roommate, Emma, is beautiful and charming, a party girl whose answer for a hangover is happy hour. She is also a psychopath.
When Katherine’s obsessive-compulsive overprotective brother succumbs to Emma’s charms and falls dangerously off-track, Katherine must save Ben from himself. Lives are threatened and someone disappears on New Year’s Day. The only evidence left: a single set of footprints in the snow.
From the university campus to a cozy cottage on Carter’s Creek, Virginia, Saving Ben is a haunting tale of love and loyalty, anger management, substance abuse, and betrayal.
College Collage by Scott Haworth
Nick Bowman, like most college freshman, is a terrible human being. He’s arrogant, argumentative and rude. He knows that he is smarter than all of the students and most of the professors at his school. Nick is not liked by many people despite the fact that his rants against higher education are usually accurate.
Sex, drugs and Karl Marx. Nick knows that is what the college experience is really all about. The Ohio State University is wasting his tuition money and all the other students seem to be too drunk to notice. At first the only thing that seems worse than the school’s bureaucracy are Nick’s two roommates. Drew Gaul would do much better academically if having sex and drinking were majors. Chris Dawson, a conservative Christian, appears to be Nick’s enemy in the culture war. Nick soon finds that his first impressions of his roommates are not entirely accurate. The three young men are inseparable by the end of their first quarter at OSU in the autumn of 2001. The fun times do not last for long. Nick’s roommates are on a collision course that threatens to end both a friendship and a life.
New Hope City by SunHi Mistwalker
A dark coming-of-age story set in post-apocalyptic America.
Life in economically and socially collapsed America has taught 14-year-old Sunni Brown more than a few tough lessons 1) Life sucks, 2) People suck too, and 3) You can’t trust your own flesh and blood relatives even if your ability to keep breathing, eating and living depends on them. Sunni’s move to New Hope City, a town known more for its former glory than its current corruption, is supposed to give her a fresh start. But like so many things in Sunni’s life, her fresh start is soiled by those seeking to exploit her. Corrupt cops. Ruthless gangsters. Ambitious youth with dreams of ill-gotten fortunes. They all seek to lift themselves at Sunni’s expense. It’s only Sunni’s street smarts and a strong distrust of people that keeps her one step ahead. But not without a cost. Something is brewing inside her — a bit of hate, a touch of rage and a large dose of righteous indignation. For Sunni, life in New Hope City is filled with injustice that she’s powerless to fight. But when she crosses paths with a disillusioned cop, will her growing outrage and his desire to change a rotten city transform her from helpless victim to vigilante outlaw?
Purchased
Marked (House of Night Series #1) by P. C. Cast & Kristin Cast (audiobook)
Book One in the House of Night series, this is Buffy meets Gossip Girl. Bolinda is thrilled to have this international best-selling series on its audio list.
Enter the dark, magical world of the House of Night, a world very much like our own, except here vampires have always existed.
Sixteen-year-old Zoey Redbird has just been Marked as a fledgling vampire and joins the House of Night, a school where she will train to become an adult vampire. That is, if she makes it through the Change – and not all of those who are Marked do.
It sucks to begin a new life, especially away from her friends, and on top of that, Zoey is no ordinary fledgling. She has been chosen as special by the vampire Goddess Nyx. Zoey discovers she has amazing powers, but along with her powers come bloodlust and an unfortunate ability to Imprint her human ex-boyfriend. To add to her stress, she is not the only fledgling at the House of Night with special powers. When she discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school’s most elite group, is misusing her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look deep within herself for the courage to embrace her destiny – with a little help from her new vampire friends.
Withering Tights (Misadventures of Tallulah Casey #1) by Louise Rennison (e-book)
Hilarious new series from Queen of Teen – laugh your tights off at the (VERY) amateur dramatic antics of Talullah and her bonkers mates. Boys, snogging and bad acting guaranteed!
Picture the scene: Dother Hall performing arts college somewhere Up North, surrounded by rolling dales, bearded cheesemaking villagers (male and female) and wildlife of the squirrely-type. On the whole, it’s not quite the showbiz experience Tallulah was expecting… but once her mates turn up and they start their ‘FAME! I’m gonna liiiiive foreeeeeever, I’m gonna fill my tiiiiights’ summer course things are bound to perk up.
Especially when the boys arrive. (When DO the boys arrive?)
Six weeks of parent-free freedom. BOY freedom. Freedom of expression… cos it’s the THEATRE dahling, the theatre!!
The Second Virginity of Suzy Green by Sara Hantz (e-book)
Suzy Green used to be one of the coolest nonconformist “almost-Goth” party girls in Australia. That was before her older sister Rosie died and her family moved to a new town. Not even her best friend would recognize her now. Gone are the Doc Martens and the attitude. All she wants is to be like Rosie–perfect. The new Suzy Green makes straight As, hangs with the in-crowd at her new school, and dates the hottest guy around. And since all her new friends belong to a virginity club, she joins, too. So what if she’s not technically qualified? Nobody in town knows . . . until Ryan, Suzy’s ex, turns up. As the past and present collide, Suzy struggles to find her own place in a world without her sister.
Chasing Forever Down (Dreanaline Surf #1) by Nikki Godwin (e-book)
After seventeen-year-old Haley Sullivan meets a mysterious stranger who plays by his own rules, she’s more than determined to learn every trick of the trade from the master himself. But her dream-chasing mentor disappears after that night, and according to the local newspapers, he’s been dead for years. Knowing he’s very much alive, Haley enlists best friend Linzi to join her on a scavenger-hunt-style road trip that ultimately lands them in the surf town of Crescent Cove, California. Mystery guy is no mystery here, though – he’s Colby Taylor, the west coast’s biggest professional surfer.
If Haley wants to talk to the wave rider again, she’ll have to get past his four intimidating bodyguards who are highly skilled in the business of sending starstruck fangirls back to where they belong. Haley is up for the challenge if it means chasing her dreams and escaping the perfectly corporate future that’s been planned for her. But dealing with these bodyguards isn’t exactly what Haley imagined it’d be. Sure, being thrown off a jet ski sucks, but falling in love with one of them might just be worse.
Reckless Rescue (Barren Planet Romance #1) by Rinelle Grey (e-book)
Marlee’s people are dying—the valuable anysogen gas that covers their planet is making the entire population infertile. When the council tells her she must leave her partner and choose another to improve her chances of having a baby, she’s devastated. She swears she’ll never love again—it hurts too much.
Tyris thinks he has everything he wants, despite his world suffering from overpopulation—until his wife leaves him because he is forbidden to have children.
In an attempt to convince his world, and his wife, that he’s worthwhile, Tyris goes hunting for a lost planet said to contain untold riches in the form of anysogen gas.
When he crashes on her world, Marlee and Tyris agree to pretend to live together while they try to repair his ship and escape from the planet. But as they battle the harsh winter on the planet together, keeping their distance becomes even more challenging than the snow, the council and the risks of a real relationship…
The Real Bookshelves of Room 918 