New breath for THE CLEARING in SHADOWS OF THE HIDDEN by Anne Riley

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I am beyond stoked that Anne Riley's book, formerly titled THE CLEARING, has been given new life and a gorgeous new cover by Compass Press. SHADOWS OF THE HIDDEN now has the cover I pictured when reading it for the first time. Okay, so I didn't picture it exactly, but this was basically it. I love it!

Here's my original afterglowing review:

The short version: Just finished reading The Clearing by Anne Riley and it was a very satisfying read! The twists and emotional intensity really got me. It dealt with the reality of bereavement very well in the midst of a supernatural plot, and made me cry more than once.  

The self-indulgent version: 
*Happy sigh* 

Yeah, I liked this book that much. 

After I read the author's blog--and liked her so much I snagged her for a guest post over at The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog--I started to worry about the inevitable moment of truth: What if I read her book and didn't like it? After all, there are no guarantees about any given book, even those published by the big houses and buzzed all over the place as the next HP or Twilight! So what would I do if I didn't like THE CLEARING? This anxiety kept me from reading it at first, even when I had the lovely paperback sitting on my night stand. It waited patiently for me to grow a spine, which I did, thankfully. 

All my stress, it turns out, was for naught. In fact, Riley's debut novel is right up there with the best in the urban fantasy genre. THE CLEARING boasts a suspenseful, spooky plot and relatable, tortured characters. I thought about it for days afterward. I wished for a sequel or companion novel to continue in the unique world Anne Riley created. I cried multiple times as the protagonist Natalie dealt with such serious issues as bullying at school and her parents' deaths. The twists are sublimely surprising, and the magical escapism enchanted me. Doesn't every girl hope deep down that she's special? Especially those of us who were bullied relentlessly in school! 

And that is as specific as I'll be with the spoilers. :)  

Enjoy! It gets FIVE STARS from me. Well done, Anne! I hope to enjoy many more books with your name on them.

The new edition comes out December 10, 2012. Merry Christmas!

Visit Anne at her website/blog, on twitter, facebook, and look for her as a featured author at Operation Awesome's free, online New Year's Revisions Conference January 4-6, 2013. 

THE CAVENDISH HOME FOR BOYS AND GIRLS by Claire Legrand

THE BLURB:
Victoria hates nonsense. There is no need for it when your life is perfect. The only smudge on her pristine life is her best friend Lawrence. He is a disaster—lazy and dreamy, shirt always untucked, obsessed with his silly piano. Victoria often wonders why she ever bothered being his friend. (Lawrence does too.)

But then Lawrence goes missing. And he’s not the only one. Victoria soon discovers that The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls is not what it appears to be. Kids go in but come out…different. Or they don’t come out at all.

If anyone can sort this out, it’s Victoria—even if it means getting a little messy.



THE REVIEW:

Oh. My gosh. Y'all.

I make no secret of the fact that I love creepy things. So when I saw the CAVENDISH pitch making the rounds in various contests last year, I pretty much wanted to launch myself through the computer screen and read it right that second. And when I looked at PM one day and saw the deal announcement, I may have done a little happy dance.

I finally picked up CAVENDISH yesterday afternoon, and I am thrilled to say that it lived up to my expectations completely. The voice grabbed me from the first page, and the gradual build of dread was perfectly executed. I fell in love with Victoria and Lawrence, and couldn't wait to see what would happen to them next.

Also, as much as I love horror, I have pretty much seen it all at this point, so CAVENDISH was an extremely pleasant surprise. The horror aspects were thoroughly original and just so much fun. The visuals were just skin-crawlingly eerie and had me cackling with glee. And the titular Home... well, I won't spoil anything, so I will just say this: WELL PLAYED, MS. LEGRAND.

The Amazon page for CAVENDISH recommends it to fans of Neil Gaiman's CORALINE, and as a huge fan of CORALINE, I can confidently say that CAVENDISH will be joining it on the list of my favorite middle-grade horror novels. If you're looking for a fast-paced, atmospheric read for October, you might want to snatch this one up.

A MONSTER CALLS by Patrick Ness

My rating: 5/5

Summary from Goodreads:

The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.

But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming...

This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.

It wants the truth.

Afterglow:

Not since Walk Two Moons or The Tale of Despereaux has a MG book so healed me.

Interspersed with illustrations and unique patterns, A Monster Calls will pull tears from you throughout the book until the very end, when a cathartic downpour issues forth.

This is a book to make you brave.

To make you tell the truth.

And to make you know it's okay.

Endlessly (Paranormalcy #3) by Kiersten White

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Ta-da!! It's out!

The blurb:

Evie's paranormal past keeps coming back to haunt her. A new director at the International Paranormal Containment Agency wants to drag her back to headquarters. The Dark Faerie Queen is torturing humans in her poisonous realm. And supernatural creatures keep insisting that Evie is the only one who can save them from a mysterious, perilous fate. 

The clock is ticking on the entire paranormal world. And its fate rests solely in Evie's hands. 

So much for normal.

The Afterglow:

HarperTeen does this thing where they let people read the first seventy-or-so pages of an upcoming new release online -- in order to whet our appetites and boost sales. When I first get notice in my email about these deals, I LOVE HarperTeen.

But when I hit the end of the sample... Boo HarperTeen! It's almost torture to get so far into a story only to have to wait for release day! Because I'm such a Kiersten White fan girl, I've begun all of her books this way. So last week some time I was exactly 80 pages into Endlessly, the third and final book in the Paranormalcy trilogy, and craving more. Needless to say, when my book arrived the afternoon of July24th (Happy Pioneer Day to me!), I gobbled it up.

The first book redefined my expectations for the paranormal genre. The middle book served its purpose as a bridge, but left me wanting so much more of Lend, Reth, and Evie. But this last book...

It fulfilled all the promises of the story. It's superb! It's exciting and epic and well-crafted. I never could have imagined it would end the way it did. Somehow all the loose ends I'd been worrying about throughout the series got tied off in a gorgeous, complicated bow.


It's one of those endings that delivers exactly what you didn't know you were hoping for all along.

As in the first and second books, Evie's voice is endearing and funny. The theme of being true to yourself and not allowing yourself to be absorbed in someone else was as striking as ever as Reth - the gorgeous golden trickster - continues to guide Evie as best he can toward the choice he believes is best. In a moment of exasperation, he says, "You take a tremendous amount of leading to make the correct choices."

Reth's story arc was surprising to me, as we are given to understand the fey are eternal and changeless. Shallow, scary Jack's transformation, too, was unexpected and satisfying.

Reading this last book was for me like spending time with old friends. The humor, sarcasm, and wit in each character's unique voice made this book a pleasure, and the spot-on pacing made it unputdownable.

I highly recommend this trilogy to anyone, but especially teen readers who love all things paranormal. They'll find a feast of magic in Paranormalcy, Supernaturally, and now Endlessly.

Happy Reading!

Have you read any of this trilogy yet? Join my lovefest in the comments.


(p.s. For Operation Awesome readers, Kell Andrews just posted her COVER REVEAL for DEADWOOD!!!!!)

The Forsaken by Lisa M. Stasse

The Forsaken by Lisa M. Stasse

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Loved this book! It's sort of a cross between Hunger Games, Divergent, and Lord of the Flies. Great characters, plenty of twists, and a satisfying ending that still leaves me dying with impatience for the sequel. I didn't love the cover, and the romance in the book could have been played out a little better, but over all, it was a very enjoyable reading experience. If you liked any of the books I mentioned above, you'll enjoy The Forsaken. (Disclaimer: I received a free ARC of this book from the publisher.)

Here's the Amazon blurb:

As an obedient orphan of the U.N.A. (the super-country that was once Mexico, the U.S., and Canada), Alenna learned at an early age to blend in and be quiet—having your parents taken by the police will do that to a girl. But Alenna can’t help but stand out when she fails a test that all sixteen-year-olds have to take: The test says she has a high capacity for brutal violence, and so she is sent to The Wheel, an island where all would-be criminals end up.

The life expectancy of prisoners on The Wheel is just two years, but with dirty, violent, and chaotic conditions, the time seems a lot longer as Alenna is forced to deal with civil wars for land ownership and machines that snatch kids out of their makeshift homes. Desperate, she and the other prisoners concoct a potentially fatal plan to flee the island. Survival may seem impossible, but Alenna is determined to achieve it anyway.

Grasping at Eternity, by Karen Amanda Hooper

I just finished this book last night, so I technically can't tell you exactly how long the afterglow lasts, but I was so surprised by how much I liked this book, I wanted to write about it right away. That sounds weird, so let me clarify. Karen is a friend of mine. We blog together at YA Confidential. I went into this book knowing I would at least enjoy it a little bit, because I know Karen's a fine writer, but to be honest, I was under the assumption that I wasn't going to like it as much as her last book, Tangled Tides. I don't know why, exactly, but I expect it had to do with my own preference for Fantasy over Paranormal/Supernatural.

Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that either of these books fits neatly into those categories, because they don't, but I will admit that I started reading Grasping at Eternity with the misguided assumption that I wasn't going to like it as much as I had liked Tangled Tides.

So, now that I've gone on rambling for a few hundred words about all the hang-ups I brought into reading this book, let me just say: I really enjoyed it. I don't know what the marketing experts would call it, but they might say it's a YA Paranormal Romance, and while I wouldn't completely agree, I also wouldn't be able to prove them wrong.

What I really loved about this book was the unique scenario Karen set up to provide the utmost tension between her two main (which are also both POV) characters. I don't want to give too much away, but suffice to say both Nathan and Maryah are more than just your average human teenagers. But, the cool thing is that Karen created a dynamic in which Nathan is aware of their ... special status, and Maryah is not. I can see how this could have easily led to some cringe worthy writing (and I don't mean awkward moments between characters), but it was done so well it left me rooting for both of them the entire way.

Sure, Maryah makes some poor decisions, but you can't even begin to blame her because she is basically 95% ignorant of the truth for 80% of the book. Anyway, I could go on in more detail, but it's easier to just recommend this book as a great YA PNR.

Both Karen Hooper's novels are the first in a series, so be sure to keep an eye on her as her career continues. You can find more of Karen:

At her blog
On Twitter
At her website
On Goodreads

Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

The Blurb:

For fans of Tina Fey and David Sedaris—Internet star Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, makes her literary debut.

Jenny Lawson realized that the most mortifying moments of our lives—the ones we’d like to pretend never happened—are in fact the ones that define us. In Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson takes readers on a hilarious journey recalling her bizarre upbringing in rural Texas, her devastatingly awkward high school years, and her relationship with her long-suffering husband, Victor. Chapters include: “Stanley the Magical, Talking Squirrel”; “A Series of Angry Post-It Notes to My Husband”; “My Vagina Is Fine. Thanks for Asking”; “And Then I Snuck a Dead Cuban Alligator on an Airplane.” Pictures with captions (no one would believe these things without proof) accompany the text.

The Afterglow:

Expect unbreathable, pee a little, hysterical laughter when you open this book.

You've been warned.

Though I implore you to dig into the world of Jenny Lawson. Not many have so many weird moments in their life (without a few white lies) but I can assure you, this shit is real... or, at least I think it is. Then again she does warn you it's a 'mostly true' memoir.

I enjoyed every page of fabulous goodness that Jenny Lawson delivered and I only hope more crazy crap happens so that there is a part two to all this madness.

The Deliciousness:

If you want to see if this book is for you and don't want to make the leap of faith stop by her amazing blog... The Bloggess. You won't regret me introducing you to the INSANITY she calls a life.