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2025 Bookish Books Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

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30 / 30 bookish books. 100% done!

2025 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

2025 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

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46 / 50 books. 92% done!

2025 Literary Escapes Challenge

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51 / 51 states. 100% done!

2025 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

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31 / 50 books. 62% done!

2025 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

2025 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

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37 / 50 books. 74% done!

Booklist Queen's 2025 Reading Challenge

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40 / 52 books. 77% done!

2025 52 Club Reading Challenge

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43 / 52 books. 83% done!

2025 Build Your Library Reading Challenge

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29 / 40 books. 73% done!

2025 Craving for Cozies Reading Challenge

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38 / 51 cozies. 75% done!

2025 Medical Examiner Mystery Reading Challenge

2025 Mystery Marathon Reading Challenge

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26 / 26.2 miles. 99% done!

2025 Mount TBR Reading Challenge

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33 / 100 books. 33% done!

2025 Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge

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70 / 109 books. 64% done!

2025 Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge

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57 / 62 books. 92% done!

Phase Out Your Seriesathon - My Progress


23 / 55 books. 42% done!

The 100 Most Common Last Names in the U.S. Reading Challenge

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The Life Skills Reading Challenge

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75 / 80 skills. 94% done!
Showing posts with label Michael Johnston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Johnston. Show all posts
Monday, September 30, 2013

Casinos and Secrets and Magic, Oh My!

So, you may have noticed that I've been on quite the YA dystopian kick lately.  What can I say?  It's been one of my favorite genres ever since it became a thing.  Still, a lot of the time, reading post-apocalyptic novels is kind of like watching re-runs of a show you once liked.  The concept continues to appeal, but the delivery gets old pretty darn fast.  And yet, a few recent discoveries (The Hallowed Ones and The Outside by Laura Bickle; Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis) give me hope that there's still some originality to be had in this very saturated genre.  We'll see.

In the meantime, here's one that looks promising to me:  Frozen by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston.  My ARC of the book hasn't arrived yet, so you're going to have to settle for a little teaser/spotlight thing.

If you haven't heard of Frozen, here's a quick synopsis:
Welcome to New Vegas, a city once covered in bling, now blanketed in ice.  Like much of the destroyed planet, the place knows only one temperature—freezing.  But some things never change.  The diamond in the ice desert is still a 24-hour hedonistic playground and nothing keeps the crowds away from the casino floors, never mind the rumors about sinister sorcery in its shadows.                                                                                                                                                                               At the heart of this city is Natasha Kestal, a young blackjack dealer looking for a way out.  Like many, she's heard of a mythical land simply called "The Blue."  They say it's a paradise, where the sun still shines and the waters are turquoise.  Most importantly, it's a place where Nat won't be persecuted, even if her darkest secret comes to light.                                                                                                                                                           But passage to the Blue is treacherous, if not impossible, and her only shot is to bet on a ragtag crew of mercenaries led by a cocky runner named Ryan Wesson.  Danger and deceit await on every corner, even as Nat and Wes find themselves inexorably drawn to each other.  But can true love survive the lies?  Fiery hearts collide in this fantastic tale of the evil men do and the awesome power within us all.  

Okay, yeah, it sounds a wee bit like every other YA dystopian out there.  Except it's set in a Vegas that's frozen and dead, but still alive.  That's enough to grab my interest right there.  I also like the road trip aspect as well as the deep, dark secret element.  How about a little look-see at the trailer to pique your interest even more?  Here you go:


    
Cool, right?

Here's another fun fact:  Melissa de la Cruz—the best-selling author of the Blue Bloods series as well as lots of other books for teens—and Michael Johnston are married.  To each other.  They collaborate on all their books, from rough drafts to final edit.  Fun, huh?  To promote their newest venture, they've written a series of guest posts that will appear on a handful of blogs, one of which belongs to Yours Truly.  Here's what the authors have to say about creating characters for Frozen:


One of the pleasures of writing in the young adult genre is to create characters who are young in age but wise beyond their years. In the world of Frozen, because cancer is a matter not of 'if' but 'when', the life expectancy rate is in the thirties, which means that when you are fifteen, you are middle-aged. This was partly inspired by an article we had read about the former Soviet Union, where the life expectancy rates in 2000 for males was 58.  Compare that to the life expectancy in the U.S. which is 82. Twenty years shaved off your life just for living in a different country. It's mind-boggling.

It was fun to create Ryan 'Wes' Wesson, who at sixteen is a military veteran. He's only a boy, but he's seen so much of the world, survived wars, seen devastation and cruelty, but at heart, he's a softie. The brave new cold world expects its citizens to be tough, to be selfish, to be as cruel as their new environment, but Wes keeps his humanity intact. Mike and I fell in love with him from the first time he steps on stage in our book, when he turns down a mouth-watering steak because the price to eat it (giving up his soul) is too high. We love a good steak and we know how hard it was to turn it down! J

If you want to read more from Mel and Mike, you can check out their guest posts on these fantastic blogs:



So, what do you think?  Does Frozen sound like your kind of adventure?  I'm anxious to give it a go.  How about you?

(Book image from Barnes & Noble; synopsis and guest post provided by Penguin)
Tuesday, September 17, 2013

TTT: What I'm FALLing For This Autumn


It's Tuesday again and, although I'm feeling a little under the weather, I'm excited for this week's TTT.  Especially since we've got a nice, easy topic this time around.  Sometimes, I can't think of one item that fits the weekly prompt, let alone ten, but when it comes to books I'm planning to read, that's easy as pie (although I don't even attempt to make pie because it's way too hard, so that's probably a crap analogy ... whatever).  So, without further ado (Wait! One quick ado—Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish), I give you Top Ten Books on My Fall TBR List:


1.  Monsters by Ilsa J. BickThis is the final book in Bick's dystopian Ashes trilogy.  I adored the first installment in the series, was a little less impressed by the second, and can't wait for the third.  If you like zombie novels, definitely give these a try.


2.  More Than This by Patrick Ness—Ness' Chaos Walking series is one of my very favorites, so I was excited to learn that the author published TWO new books this year.  While The Crane Wife, an adult magical realism novel, sounds interesting, it's the YA novel that really interests me.  In it, a boy who's pretty sure he drowned wakes up in a strange, alternative world that vaguely resembles the place he lived as a child.  It's up to him to figure out what in the world is going on.  Sounds good, right?


3.  Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein—Like lots of other readers, I found Code Name Verity a unique and compelling read.  The author's much-anticipated new book is another WWII thriller that's supposed to be just as amazing as her debut novel.


4.  A Spark Unseen by Sharon Cameron—I just finished The Dark Unwinding, the first novel in Cameron's YA steampunk series about a girl who discovers the strange, but intriguing world her eccentric grandfather inhabits.  The next installment sounds just as entrancing.  I can't wait to read it!


5.  Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson—I enjoyed Donaldson's debut novel, Edenbrooke, and am glad to see that her newest is getting rave reviews.  Good, clean reads are difficult to find, so I'm excited about this one.


6.  SYLO by D.J. MacHale—This one's been out for a little while now, but I haven't gotten a chance to dive into it just yet.  It's about a boy living on an isolated island who witnesses several cold-blooded murders that lead him to try to escape.  It's supposed to be a "high-octane," apocalyptic thriller—how could I not be drawn to this one?


7.  The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen Gleason—Bram Stoker's sister and Sherlock Holmes' niece team up to solve the mystery of disappearing debutantes in this YA mystery/steampunk/romance.  Sounds fun, no?


8.  Frozen by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston—I just received an invitation to be on the blog tour for this one.  This dystopian thriller is about a young blackjack dealer who risks it all to flee post-apocalyptic Las Vegas for the mythical "Blue," a place where beauty still exists—if only she can survive to see it.  Sounds a little cliché, but still intriguing.                                                  


9.  Dead Girls Don't Lie by Jennifer Shaw Wolf—I love novels about the terrible secrets that tear people apart (I'm just sadistic like that), so this one, about a girl who's trying to figure out how her friend really died, sounds like it will be right up my alley.


10.  Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller—Stories about kids raised in unique situations (cults, remote villages, etc.) trying to integrate into the "normal" world always intrigue me.  This one, about a girl who's been raised off-the-grid by the mother who kidnapped her and is released to her father after her mom is arrested, sounds super compelling.

What do you think?  Any of these sound good to you, too?  What's on your Fall TBR list?

* Book images from Barnes & Noble
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