EXCLUSIVE: UK Cover Reveal - Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson!

Thanks to Simon & Schuster, I can exclusively present you with the ace new UK cover for Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson. I can't wait for this book to be published - I loved Morgan's debut novel!

It's published in the UK on June 7th, and here's what Morgan herself has to say about it:

I couldn’t be more excited about the Second Chance Summer cover! I love it so much, it’s been my phone background for the last two months. I think it perfectly captures the spirit of the novel, and like the Amy & Roger cover, there are lots of little details from the novel that show up in the art here. The cover just evokes the feeling of summer (and makes me really, really want a strawberry milkshake). I hope you like it too!

And here's the cover...





What do you think?

3 Year Blogoversary + UK Giveaway!

[Image from Google]

Today is my 3 year blog birthday! I started Wondrous Reads on January 17th 2009 after a random day at work bookselling at Borders, and I never imagined it would end up anything like it is today. I've met so many lovely people through blogging - fellow bloggers, readers, publicists, authors - and I'm so glad for whatever made me do it. I've also discovered some really amazing books, a giant handful of them thanks to my publisher friends, and it's definitely broadened my reading mind and made me try new authors and genres. Here's to another 3 years!

To celebrate, I have a pretty cool giveaway for all my friends in the UK. Sorry to those in the US and worldwide, but I'll hopefully have something for you guys soon. Postage is even more expensive these days!

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Here's all the details:

Courtesy of Simon & Schuster, I have a selection of new and upcoming titles to give away. They are:

• The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
• Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale
• Everneath by Brodi Ashton
• Falling Fast by Sophie McKenzie
• Smoulder by Brenna Yovanoff
• Fated by Sarah Alderson

And courtesy of Orion/Indigo, I have chosen my 3 favourite books they've published from my 3 years of blogging, which are:

• The Raven Mysteries: Flood & Fang by Marcus Sedgwick
• Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick
• My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher

Rules & info:

• One (1) winner will win ALL the books!
  
• Open to UK residents only.
  
• End date: January 31st, 2012.
  
• One entry per person.
• You do NOT have to follow my blog to enter.
  
• Books will be sent out by the very kind publishers.

Fill in the form below to enter. Good luck, and thanks for reading my blog! :)

Review: The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's
Format: Paperback
Released: January 5th, 2012
Rating: 6/10


Amazon summary:

It's 1996 and very few high school students have ever used the internet. Facebook will not be invented until several years in the future. Emma just got a computer and an America Online CD. She and her best friend Josh power it up and log on - and discover themselves on Facebook in 2011. Everybody wonders what they'll be like fifteen years in the future. Josh and Emma are about to find out.

Review:

I'd been looking forward to reading this book for months, ever since I first heard about what could only be described as an epic collaboration. While I liked it and read it super quick, I didn't love it like everyone else seems to. Something didn't quite sit right with me, and I think it comes down to the lack of explanation for why Facebook suddenly appears on Emma's new computer and how it's possible for Emma and Josh to change their futures so quickly and easily. I have no problem believing in time-travel and other such things, but here I think I needed more information to support it.

Of course, The Future of Us has many good, even excellent, aspects. The references to 1996 are almost all accurate (I don't think Leonardo DiCaprio would have been as popular as the writers make out, though - Romeo and Juliet wasn't even on anyone's radar then and he didn't hit it big until late 1997/early 1998!) and the dual narrative gets full marks from me. I do like alternating points of view, and it made this book move quickly and keep its momentum. I also liked the characters, especially Tyson and Josh. Emma got on my nerves after a while, always trying to change things and being blind to what was right in front of her. The males in the book definitely made this book for me, and I'm assuming Josh's chapters were written by Jay Asher, who is brilliant. I could be wrong, though!

The Future of Us made me think about the future and what I'd do if I could see into mine and even change things. Sometimes I think I'd love to know what will have happened by 2027, but then other times the idea freaks me out too much. I wouldn't want to know because I don't think I could change anything, and I'd live the next 15 years waiting for things, good or bad, to happen. All this is addressed in The Future of Us but, like I mentioned earlier, the ripple effects from the present that ultimately change the future weren't quite so believable. When it comes to time-travel and future-changing, I ALWAYS need a good explanation. But that's just me.

As a contemporary novel, The Future of Us is a quick, engrossing read. It's really about a journey of self-discovery and seizing the moment (that didn't work so well for Willow in Buffy, remember? Ha!), and in that respect it's a must-read for fans of the genre. It's an interesting, original concept that for me required more in-depth exploration into the why and how. It's still one to add to the to-be-read pile, though!

In My Mailbox #151: New Books This Week

In My Mailbox idea from Kristi @ The Story Siren, and all links take you to Amazon. Click images for a bigger picture!

I received some really exciting books in the post this week! (And I'm quoted on the cover of Manic Days, which was an unexpected surprise!) I'm reading Under the Never Sky at the moment (it's getting better) and I'm still debating whether to read The Fault in Our Stars. I usually stay well away from its subject matter but I want to read this one. Can anyone tell me how sad it is?

Here's what was in my mailbox this week:

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For review:

• Talina in the Tower by Michelle Lovric

• The Boy Project by Kami Kinard (US ARC)
  

• Grave Dance by Kalayna Price

• The Dead Ways by Christopher Edge

• Spell Sisters: Sophia the Flame Sister by Amber Castle

• Spell Sisters: Lily the Forest Sister by Amber Castle

• The Angel at No. 33 by Polly Williams

• Pendragon Legacy: Sword of Light by Katherine Roberts

• India Dark by Kirsty Murray

• Poppy's Hero by Rachel Billington

• Lilah May's Manic Days by Vanessa Curtis

• Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

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Bought:

• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Happy reading!

15 Days Without a Head Blog Tour: Dave Cousins Guest Post!

15 Days Without a Head is a brilliant book about two brothers and how they deal with living on their own when their alcoholic mother leaves for over two weeks. I finished reading it yesterday and it's really good - so well written and the characters are realistic and down to earth. It's also quite funny too! It's available in the UK, and I would highly recommend it.

As part of the book's blog tour, Dave has written a guest post for me about his favourite books. For more information about him and his book, visit the following links:

www.davecousins.net
www.facebook.com/DaveCousinsAuthor
Twitter: @DaveCousins9000

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Dave’s Dozen Wondrous Reads!

Robert Westall – The Machine Gunners. My favourite book by my favourite author. I’ve been collecting and reading Robert Westall since I was eleven and he never disappoints. A supreme craftsman who knows how to tell a story!

Jan Mark – Thunder and Lightnings. I read this when I had just started a new school in a new town. Being able to share some of my experience and anxieties with Andrew in the book, made those first few weeks a little easier. It was the first time I realised that stories can provide companionship and sometimes help us through difficult times in our lives. This book made me want to write, and continues to influence the kind of stories I want to tell.

Keith Gray – Creepers. When I first read Creepers I thought it was the perfect story: simple, clever, surprising and cool. I realised this was how I wanted to write. I’ve read all of Keith Gray’s books and they’re all brilliant. To have his endorsement on the cover of my debut novel makes me grin every time I see it.

Tim Bowler – Storm Catchers. Another book that had a huge influence on my writing. My wife bought it for our eldest because it sounded good; he never got around to reading it, but I did. I thought it was so great, I emailed Tim Bowler to tell him. To my delight and amazement, Tim emailed back, offering advice and best wishes for my own writing career. The fact that we now share the same publisher is something of which I am very proud.

Robert Cormier – I am the Cheese. Cormier’s books are dark, taut and edgy. I have great admiration for his writing, and the fact that he never flinches from what are often brutal truths, handling difficult, sometimes shocking subjects, with heart and honesty, never for effect.

Bill Watterson – Calvin & Hobbes. It’s an over-used term, but Bill Watterson is actually a genius. Calvin and Hobbes is as near to perfection as it is possible to get. Funny, wise and heart-felt, Watterson’s strips are beautifully drawn stories featuring two of the best characters ever created. Reading a few pages of Calvin and Hobbes never fails to inspire, enlighten and put a smile on my face.

Lucy Christopher – Stolen. A masterclass in character, setting and suspense. This beautifully crafted book is surprising, disturbing and kept me thinking, long after I finished reading.

Louis Sachar – Holes. Another perfect book. The idea and execution are sublime. Anybody serious about writing should read this book – twice. The sequel Small Steps is also excellent as is The Cardturner, which made me want to take up Bridge!

Frank Cottrell Boyce – Framed. I learned a lot from this book. Frank Cottrell Boyce is the master of understatement. Funny without being cheap, and heart-breaking without resorting to melodrama. I was lucky enough to hear him speak recently and he’s a lovely fella too!

Roger McGough – Waving at Trains. I like poetry (and song lyrics) and am often in awe of writers who can capture the essence of a moment in a few words. I love the sound of McGough’s poems, the rhythm of the lines and the way he plays with language. He can be laugh-out-loud funny and brutally dark in the same verse, and always makes me think.

William Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet. (Not strictly speaking a book, and maybe too obvious to mention, but I wanted to anyway.) I’m not a huge aficionado of Shakespeare, but his writing has the ability to move me to tears and make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. The plays were written to be performed, so I prefer watching a play, film adaptation, or listening to a sound recording, rather than reading the text. Baz Luhrmann’s film of Romeo and Juliet is brilliant. The contemporary setting shows how universal some of Shakespeare’s stories are. A great production of a superb, timeless story.

Charles Dickens – A Christmas Carol. I try to read this every Christmas and it always amazes me how modern it feels, despite the fact it was written nearly two hundred years ago. It encapsulates many of the things that Dickens was so good at: exquisite description and use of language; social commentary within the context of a great story; subtle humour, and some of the most memorable characters ever created. It’s also guaranteed to warm my humbug heart and spark the first flickering of festive feeling.

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Publisher: Puffin
Format: Paperback
Released: January 5th, 2012
Rating: 8/10


Amazon summary:

Cinder, a gifted mechanic in New Beijing, is also a cyborg. She's reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's sudden illness. But when her life becomes entwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she finds herself at the centre of a violent struggle between the desires of an evil queen - and a dangerous temptation. Cinder is caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal. Now she must uncover secrets about her mysterious past in order to protect Earth's future.

Review:

I'd heard lots of good things about Cinder before I read it: the general consensus was that it was a must-read. So I promptly forgot about my own aversion to fairytales and cracked open my pretty red copy of the book. And let me tell you, I was not disappointed! Cinder was unlike any fairytale retelling I've read before; it wasn't flowery and Disney-esque, instead it was dark and brutal. Now *that* is my kind of fairytale!

Cinder is a twist on the famous story of Cinderella. Cinder is a mechanic living in New Beijing in the future, years after a devastating war has taken place. She's part android, has two (not ugly) sisters and is basically considered to be the lowest of the low by most of her immediate family. New Beijing isn't everything it's cracked up to be, though. There's a virus called Letumosis sweeping the nation, and anyone infected will most likely die once it reaches Stage 4. There's no cure, no hope of an imminent antidote, until Cinder meets a helpful doctor, a prince called Kai and a queen who is up to no good. Things quickly spiral out of control and Cinder's life is changed beyond repair, especially when someone close to her is exposed to Letumosis...

My little plot summary there does not do this book justice. I've tried to describe its awesomeness, but it's difficult - there's so much going on and the book moves at breakneck speed. Cinder kicks ass, the romantic elements are subtle but strong and the world Meyer has created is beyond cool. Just like the back of the book says, this is a fairytale but not as you know it!

I have very little to add in the way of criticisms when talking about Cinder. My only complaint would be that I think it's a bit long - I got 350 pages in and there was *still* lots more to come! Oh, and I guessed a major plot twist very early on in the book. That doesn't usually happen to me, so either this was a one-off or I'm finally starting to think ahead when I read. Either way, I wasn't surprised when I reached the end, and I think the shock was a bit lost on me because of that.

Cinder is such a brilliant debut novel, exciting and fresh and totally unexpected. The way everything unfolds is clever, and the parallels with Cinderella are fun to spot. There are three more books coming in this Lunar Chronicles series, each centred around three other female fairytale heroes, and OMG I cannot wait to read them. If they're anything like Cinder, we are in for a real literary treat.

Fated by Sarah Alderson: Book Extract!

Sarah Alderson's new book, Fated, was published in the UK by Simon & Schuster last week, and here is a sneak peek at the book. Here's an Amazon synopsis to get you started:

What happens when you discover you aren't who you thought you were? And that the person you love is the person who will betray you? If your fate is already determined, can you fight it?

When Evie Tremain discovers that she’s the last in a long line of Demon slayers and that she’s being hunted by an elite band of assassins –Shapeshifters, Vampires and Mixen demons amongst them – she knows she can’t run. They’ll find her wherever she goes. Instead she must learn to stand and fight.

But when the half-human, half-Shadow Warrior Lucas Gray - is sent to spy on Evie and then ordered to kill her before she can fulfil a dangerous prophecy, their fates become inextricably linked. The war that has raged for one thousand years between humans and demons is about to reach a devastating and inevitable conclusion. Either one or both of them will die before this war ends.

If your life becomes bound to another’s, what will it take to sever it?

Hope you enjoy!

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Fated by Sarah Alderson – Chapter 15

Lucas kept circling the cornfield. At one point he’d had an uninterrupted view of the circle with Evie stood in the centre blindfolded. He’d watched Victor give the orders and the others
converge. He knew Victor, of course, and he had heard about Earl, a long-standing member of the Hunters, recognised him by the baldness and the crossed swords on his back. The older red-headed lady, Jocelyn, lived in town. She was the one he had to avoid every day on his way to the Del Rey ranch. The fourth one, a girl called Risper, was an unknown. He didn’t think even Tristan knew of her. And clearly she was not a fan of Evie’s.
He decided to follow her, keeping his distance. He didn’t want to give himself away but they were all concentrating so hard on sneaking up on Evie in the centre of the circle that they weren’t paying any attention to their own instincts or the fact that an Unhuman was stalking them. But he didn’t want to throw Evie’s instincts – as delicately balanced as they were – she needed them all focused on Risper’s whereabouts.
Because he didn’t want to distract her, he had pulled back, just far enough to see the attack – Risper springing out of the corn straight at Evie, Evie ducking and rolling blind, spinning out of Risper’s way, narrowly avoiding a roundhouse kick to the ribs and firing a dart blind but hitting Risper’s arm.
He had smiled despite himself but now he was stalking Risper, who was stalking Evie, and his eyes were on the metal circles she was holding between her thumb and forefinger. He had no doubt that Risper intended to use them, no matter what Victor’s warnings had been, and his curiosity was piqued. Someone else with vengeance on their mind? Or was there some other drive? Either way it was strange for Victor to have her in the field. Mind you, it would save the Brotherhood a job if he just sat back and let her get on with it.
He felt Earl to his left – the man was light-footed for his size, but the sound of him unsheathing his swords was a dead giveaway. Luckily Evie heard it too. She froze and he watched her close her eyes and take a deep breath. When she let it out she started running full tilt and he had to sprint to keep pace with her, running a parallel course, getting flashes of her dark hair flying. At one point she came to a skidding stop, her blue eyes darting towards him, and he realised that she could sense him. Could she even see him? He had dived backwards well out of range, almost to the edge of the field, and waited until finally he heard a bullet crack and Earl shout, ‘I’m hit.’
Lucas couldn’t stop from smiling this time. Good hit. He wished he could have seen it. He edged further into the field, still anxious to keep an eye on Risper. It was easier to find Evie, he knew her scent by now, the strong smell of the lavender shampoo she used and the softer, more subtle scent of her skin. She was running at a crouch now, weaving in-between stalks but on a clear path, as though she was being drawn somewhere. He saw the wire on the ground a split second before she did and had to stop from yelling at her to jump. He didn’t need to. She saw it in time and leapt over it, diving onto her back with the gun pointed into the air. When she saw no one there she looked confused. And that’s when the red-haired woman stepped out from behind her, and tapped her on the back of the neck with
the tip of an arrow.
Silently she bent down and offered her hand to Evie and helped her up. Then she took Evie’s gun and fired it at the ground, making sure she got the wet paint on her shoe. ‘I’m out,’ she yelled, her eyes not leaving Evie’s the whole time. She then pointed with her arrow into the corn and whispered, ‘Watch your back.’
Evie nodded silently and moved off. Lucas followed.
Risper was almost as silent as he was. Almost as undetectable.
Almost.
Lucas picked her up first. She was stalking them, circling around Evie to come at her from behind. Lucas dropped back and hovered just out of range but Risper was like a panther, focused only on dropping her prey and not on the Unhuman right beside her that could drop her at any moment if he chose. He found his breathing was running rapid, his hands reaching for his father’s blade, and he had to force himself to hold back. There would be another time. Not right here. He wouldn’t stand a chance if he blew his cover taking out a girl who wasn’t even his target.
Risper was about ten metres to Evie’s left when he caught the circle of silver glinting in the sun. Evie paused too, as though suddenly alert to the danger, and Lucas watched as Risper drew back her arm.
He had to choose. And in the instant that Risper brought her arm forward, Lucas chose. He ran straight at Risper, knocking the wind out of her, managing to jolt her arm as she let the disc fly. She tore around, her eyes desperately searching for whatever had bumped her, but he was gone before she could piece it together. Her reaction would be panic, her senses screaming at her that there was an Unhuman out there, but maybe there was doubt too. No Unhuman would be stupid enough to enter a space with that many Hunters in it – would they? He tracked back to Evie, who was crouched down, her eyes fixed on the disc lying on the ground by her side.
An ear of corn lay next to it. She picked up the disc and turned it over, seeming to realise that it had been a kill shot but not understanding fully how she had avoided it. She got to her feet and started running, silently. She reached the clearing and dropped to her knees, her head bowed, her eyes shut.
Lucas felt himself tense, his ears tuned to the sound of Risper heading this way. What was Evie doing? He took a step towards her, instinctively wanting to shield her, realised what he was doing and stepped back into the shadows. Evie’s eyes suddenly flew
open. She was staring right at him but then she frowned before screwing her eyes shut again. He melted backwards and when she opened her eyes again he saw the confusion as she stared at the empty space around her.
And then in a move he couldn’t have foreseen she hurled the circular blade right at him. It grazed the air a millimetre to his left. Damn it. She was aware of him. She was feeling him. And he was endangering her more than Risper by being here.
And then he saw Risper stepping into the circle between him and Evie, levelling the blade and hurling it with force. He felt the wind still and heard the single whisper of steel cutting air and it felt like he was waiting for it to slice into him.
‘Hit!’ Risper yelled.
He stepped forward into the circle of light, saw his shadow fall ahead of him, announcing him. He heard the footsteps of the others running full tilt towards them and he stepped back into the shadows as they burst into the clearing.
And then he turned and vanished.

For more information, visit www.sarahalderson.com and follow Sarah on Twitter at @sarahalderson.