Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Wither
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Released: March 22nd 2011
Pages: 358 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

Waiting on Wednesday (#19)

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

The Dead Girl's Dance by Rachel Caine

Title: The Dead Girl's Dance
Author: Rachel Caine
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Released: April 3rd 2007
Pages: 380 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon

Claire has her share of challenges. Like being a genius in a school that favours beauty over brains; homicidal girls in her dorm, and finding out that her college town is overrun with the living dead. On the up side, she has a new boyfriend with a vampire-hunting dad. But when a local fraternity throws the Dead Girls' Dance, hell is really going to break loose.

Book Haul (#9)

The Dead Girl's Dance by Rachel Caine (from the library)
Midnight Alley by Rachel Caine (from the library)
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin (from the library)
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (from my dad)
Pure by Julianna Baggot (from my dad)
The Glimpse by Claire Merle (from my dad)
Uglies by Scott Westerfield (bought by me)
Passion by Lauren Kate (bought by me)

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Title: The Night Circus
Author: Erin Morgenstern
Publisher: Harvill Secker
Released: September 15th 2011
Pages: 387 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazement. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. 


The challenge must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Follow Friday (#11)

Feature & Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read where you meet and follow different bloggers.

Question of the Week: Christmas in July! Someone gives you a gift card for two books (whatever the cost). What two books will you buy?

Oh my gosh! Okay, first I would get The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer, because I adore that man, and although the book isn't exactly what I usually read, I reckon I'd still enjoy it. The second would be Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter. Okay, so it isn't exactly out yet - but it will be soon, so I would just save the gift card for then.

So what would you choose?

The Vampire's Assistant by Darren Shan

Title: The Vampire's Assistant
Author: Darren Shan
Publisher: Collins
Released: May 30th 2000
Pages: 176 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon

Darren Shan was just an ordinary schoolboy - until his visit to the Cirque Du Freak. Now, as he struggles with his new life as a Vampire's Assistant, he tries desperately to resist the one temptation that sickens him, the one thing that can keep him alive. But destiny is calling... the Wolf Man is waiting.

Waiting on Wednesday (#18)

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

Cross My Heart and Hope To Spy by Ally Carter

Title: Cross My Heart and Hope To Spy
Author: All Carter
Publisher: Orchard Books
Released: October 2nd 2007
Pages: 264 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon


Cammie Morgan may have a genius IQ and attend the best school in the country, but as she starts the spring semester of her sophomore year there are a lot of things she doesn't know. Like will her ex-boyfriend even remember she exists? And how much trouble did she really get in last semester? And, most of all, exactly why is her mother acting so strangely?
All Cammie wants is a nice, normal semester, but she's about to learn her greatest lesson yet—that when you go to a school for spies, nothing is ever as it seems.

Starters by Lissa Price

Title: Starters
Author: Lissa Price
Publisher: Delacorte Books
Released: April 5th 2012
Pages: 336 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon


Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie's only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man.
He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie's head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator's grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. 

Nina's Week At Waterstones: Day 5

So since I am in Year 10, we're scheduled to do work experience for a week - and finally the week has come! I got my placement at Waterstones last September/October time, so I have been excited to start for quite a while, and I thought that considering Waterstones is all about books, why don't I write a bit of an account about it on the blog? So that is basically what this is. Have fun laughing at my life!

All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin

Title: All These Things I've Done
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Released: March 29th 2012
Pages: 352 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon

Sixteen year-old Anya becomes the head of a mafia family after her parents are both murdered by rival gangs. Although Anya is embroiled in the criminal world, she is determined to keep her brother and sister out of the mafia family, but her father’s relatives aren’t so keen to let them go. When Anya’s violent ex-boyfriend is poisoned with contaminated chocolate – chocolate that is produced illegally by Anya’s mafia family – she is arrested for attempted murder and sent to the notorious jail on Manhattan Island.

Eventually she is freed by the new D.A. in town, who believes she has been framed. But this D.A. is the father of Win, a boy at school to whom Anya feels irresistibly drawn, and her freedom comes with conditions. Win’s father wants to be mayor, and he can’t risk having his ambition jeopardized by rumors spreading that his son is seeing a member of a notorious crime family. Anya knows she risks the safety of her family by seeing Win again, but the feeling between them may be too strong to resist.

Nina's Week At Waterstones: Day 4

So since I am in Year 10, we're scheduled to do work experience for a week - and finally the week has come! I got my placement at Waterstones last September/October time, so I have been excited to start for quite a while, and I thought that considering Waterstones is all about books, why don't I write a bit of an account about it on the blog? So that is basically what this is. Have fun laughing at my life!

Nina's Week At Waterstones: Day 3

So since I am in Year 10, we're scheduled to do work experience for a week - and finally the week has come! I got my placement at Waterstones last September/October time, so I have been excited to start for quite a while, and I thought that considering Waterstones is all about books, why don't I write a bit of an account about it on the blog? So that is basically what this is. Have fun laughing at my life!

Cover Reveal (#2) Double!

So when I woke up this morning, I got a pretty awesome surprise: two equally amazing cover reveals! First, I will tell you the one I am most excited about:

Nina's Week At Waterstones: Day 2

So since I am in Year 10, we're scheduled to do work experience for a week - and finally the week has come! I got my placement at Waterstones last September/October time, so I have been excited to start for quite a while, and I thought that considering Waterstones is all about books, why don't I write a bit of an account about it on the blog? So that is basically what this is. Have fun laughing at my life!

Nina's Week at Waterstones: Day 1

So since I am in Year 10, we're scheduled to do work experience for a week - and finally the week has come! I got my placement at Waterstones last September/October time, so I have been excited to start for quite a while, and I thought that considering Waterstones is all about books, why don't I write a bit of an account about it on the blog? So that is basically what this is. Have fun laughing at my life!

Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Title: Glass Houses
Author: Rachel Caine
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Released: October 3rd 2006 (by NAL Jam)
Pages: 348 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon


It’s a small college town filled with quirky characters. But when the sun goes down, the bad comes out. Because in Morganville, there is an evil that lurks in the darkest shadows—one that will spill out into the bright light of day.

Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. The popular girls never let her forget just where she ranks on the school’s social scene: somewhere less than zero. And Claire really doesn’t have the right connections—to the undead who run the town.

When Claire heads off campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Hew new roommates don’t show many signs of life. But they’ll have Claire’s back when the town’s deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood.


Everyone has been talking about this series for ages, telling me how if I like House of Night, then I will adore this. And they were all absolutely right - I can't believe it's taken me so long to get around to it! Like vampire novels? Buy this, now!

Crossed by Ally Condie

Title: Crossed
Author: Ally Condie
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Released: November 1st 2011
Pages: 367 (Hardback)
Buy: Amazon

Chasing down an uncertain future, Cassia makes her way to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky--taken by the Society to his sure death--only to find that he has escaped into the majestic, but treacherous, canyons. On this wild frontier are glimmers of a different life and the enthralling promise of a rebellion. But even as Cassia sacrifices every thing to reunite with Ky, ingenious surprises from Xander may change the game once again.
Narrated from both Cassia's and Ky's point of view, this hotly anticipated sequel to Matched will take them both to the edge of Society, where nothing is as expected and crosses and double crosses make their path more twisted than ever.

I loved Matched. I'd heard about it at a book group I was going to at the time, and when I bought it I practically read it immediately - and fell in love with it, too. So when Crossed came out, I was super-excited and bought it within the first week or two - yet it has taken me this long to get around to it! And you know what? I like to give fair reviews, but for this novel, the wait wasn't just worth it.

Waiting on Wednesday (#17)

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

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Title: Vampire Academy
Author: Richelle Mead
Publisher: Razorbill
Released: August 16th 2007
Pages: 332 (Paperback)
Buy: Amazon

St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger...
Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi—the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires—make Lissa one of them forever.

Book Haul (#8)

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead - from the library
The Vampire's Assisstant by Darren Shan - from the library
Cross My Heart and Hope To Spy by Ally Carter - from the library
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson - from my dad
Cinder by Marissa Meyer - from my dad
Wither by Lauren DeStefano - from my dad
The Selection by Kiera Cass - from my dad
Night Circus by Erin Morgernstern - borrowed from my mum
The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde - bought by me
is 5 by e.e.cummings - from my gran (I didn't mention it because I haven't received it yet, but I'm so excited!)

What books have you gotten this week?

Book of the Month: June

This month, it is a really close call between two novels: Insurgent by Veronica Roth, and Dreamless by Josephine Angelini. But I think it has to go to Dreamless!

Why? Because it is so freaking-awesome! I loved Starcrossed, and I knew Dreamless was going to be awesome - but 'awesome' is a complete understatement. The book had everything a good novel needs: realistic characters, an epic plot, a page-turning mystery, and an author with a brilliant writing quality.

Although technically this novel is being published in the UK on 5th July, I read it this month, thanks to MKB, so that's why I'm putting it as this months BOTM rather than July's. As soon as it is released, I really recommend that you read it; you will be hooked right from the beginning. And if you're not? I will eat broccoli. (just a note: I strongly dislike broccoli.)