Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
So this week's topic is what books I'm most anticipating in 2013. I'm not going to give you my comments on any of them because any and all comments would amount to "AORITBAOTIBUNOI GIMME BOOK NAO!" (Except on #4. I won an ARC of that last night and I'm looking forward to it.)
Also, my number one pick is the final book of a trilogy, so its blurb will be spoilery. Read it at your own risk and don't blame me.
10) Premeditated by Josin L. McQuein
A week ago, Dinah’s cousin Claire cut her wrists.
Five days ago, Dinah found Claire’s diary and discovered why.
Three days ago, Dinah stopped crying and came up with a plan.
Two days ago, she ditched her piercings and bleached the black dye from her hair.
Yesterday, knee socks and uniform plaid became a predator’s camouflage.
Today, she’ll find the boy who broke Claire.
By tomorrow, he’ll wish he were dead.
~
9) Some Quiet Place by Kelsey Sutton
Elizabeth Caldwell has
perfected the art of pretending to feel emotion, but it’s always a lie.
After a near-fatal car accident when she was a small child, Elizabeth
lost the ability to feel any emotion, but along with that loss she
gained bizarre abilities: she can see the personified Emotions she
cannot feel. Fury, Resentment, Longing—they’ve all given up on her,
because she doesn't succumb to their touch. All, that is, save one.
Fear. He’s consumed by the mystery of Elizabeth’s past, consumed by her.
And
then there are Elizabeth's cryptic, recurring dreams, in which there’s
always love, and there’s always death. Haunted by these dreams,
Elizabeth paints them, knowing that they somehow hold the key to the
mystery of her past.
But a shadowy menace is stalking Elizabeth.
Her survival depends on uncovering the truth about herself. And when
it matters most, she won’t be able to rely on Fear to save her.
~
8) Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook
Bonnie and Clyde meets
IF I STAY in this addictively heart-wrenching story of two desperate
teenagers on the run from their pasts.
They’re young. They’re in love. They’re on the run.
Zoe
wants to save Will as much as Will wants to save Zoe. When Will turns
eighteen, they decide to run away together. But they never expected
their escape to be so fraught with danger....
When the whole world is after you, sometimes it seems like you can’t run fast enough.
Nobody
But Us, told in alternating perspectives from Will and Zoe, is an
unflinching novel, in turns heartbreaking and hopeful, about survival,
choices, and love...and how having love doesn’t always mean that you get
a happy ending. Described as “beautiful, heartbreaking, and
exhilarating” by Kody Keplinger, author of The DUFF, Nobody But Us will
prove irresistible to fans of Nina Lacour, Jenny Han, and Sara Zarr.
~
7) Ink by Amanda Sun
I looked down at the paper, still touching the tip of my shoe. I reached for it, flipping the page over to look.
Scrawls of ink outlined a drawing of a girl lying on a bench.
A sick feeling started to twist in my stomach, like motion sickness.
And then the girl in the drawing turned her head, and her inky eyes glared straight into mine.
On
the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do
is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka,
Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can
barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of
taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.
Then there’s
gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did
he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer.
But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying
the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being
near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the
wrong people notice, they'll both be targets.
Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive.
~
6) Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown
Ashleigh's boyfriend,
Kaleb, is about to leave for college, and Ashleigh is worried that he'll
forget about her while he's away. So at a legendary end-of-summer pool
party, Ashleigh's friends suggest she text him a picture of herself --
sans swimsuit -- to take with him. Before she can talk herself out of
it, Ashleigh strides off to the bathroom, snaps a photo in the
full-length mirror, and hits "send."
But when Kaleb and Ashleigh
go through a bad breakup, Kaleb takes revenge by forwarding the text to
his baseball team. Soon the photo has gone viral, attracting the
attention of the school board, the local police, and the media. As her
friends and family try to distance themselves from the scandal, Ashleigh
feels completely alone -- until she meets Mack while serving her
court-ordered community service. Not only does Mack offer a fresh chance
at friendship, but he's the one person in town who received the text of
Ashleigh's photo -- and didn't look.
Acclaimed author Jennifer
Brown brings readers a gripping novel about honesty and betrayal,
redemption and friendship, attraction and integrity, as Ashleigh finds
that while a picture may be worth a thousand words . . . it doesn't
always tell the whole story.
~
5) Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson
The Bluebeard fairy tale retold. . . .
When
seventeen-year-old Sophia Petheram’s beloved father dies, she receives
an unexpected letter. An invitation—on fine ivory paper, in bold black
handwriting—from the mysterious Monsieur Bernard de Cressac, her
godfather. With no money and fewer options, Sophie accepts, leaving her
humble childhood home for the astonishingly lavish Wyndriven Abbey, in
the heart of Mississippi.
Sophie has always longed for a
comfortable life, and she finds herself both attracted to and shocked by
the charm and easy manners of her overgenerous guardian. But as she
begins to piece together the mystery of his past, it’s as if, thread by
thread, a silken net is tightening around her. And as she gathers
stories and catches whispers of his former wives—all with hair as red as
her own—in the forgotten corners of the abbey, Sophie knows she’s
trapped in the passion and danger of de Cressac’s intoxicating world.
Glowing
strands of romance, mystery, and suspense are woven into this
breathtaking debut—a thrilling retelling of the “Bluebeard” fairy tale.
~
4) Just One Day by Gayle Forman
A breathtaking journey toward self-discovery and true love, from the author of If I Stay
When sheltered American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets
laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in
England, there’s an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that
spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the
following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to
discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a
journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and
through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to
break free of those confines.
Just One Day is the first in a sweepingly romantic duet of novels. Willem’s story—Just One Year—is coming soon!
~
3) Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff
The city of Ludlow is
gripped by the hottest July on record. The asphalt is melting, the birds
are dying, petty crime is on the rise, and someone in Hannah Wagnor’s
peaceful suburban community is killing girls.
For Hannah, the
summer is a complicated one. Her best friend Lillian died six months
ago, and Hannah just wants her life to go back to normal. But how can
things be normal when Lillian’s ghost is haunting her bedroom, pushing
her to investigate the mysterious string of murders? Hannah’s just
trying to understand why her friend self-destructed, and where she fits
now that Lillian isn’t there to save her a place among the social elite.
And she must stop thinking about Finny Boone, the big, enigmatic
delinquent whose main hobbies seem to include petty larceny and
surprising acts of kindness.
With the entire city in a panic,
Hannah soon finds herself drawn into a world of ghost girls and
horrifying secrets. She realizes that only by confronting the Valentine
Killer will she be able move on with her life—and it’s up to her to put
together the pieces before he strikes again.
Paper Valentine is a hauntingly poetic tale of love and death by the New York Times bestselling author of The Replacement and The Space Between.
~
2) Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke
You stop fearing the devil when you’re holding his hand…
Nothing
much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town…until
River West comes along. River rents the guesthouse behind Violet’s
crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet
begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. Is River just a
crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he
be something more? Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the
Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps
in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery...who makes
you want to kiss back. Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t
see straight. And that’s just how River likes it.
Blending faded
decadence and the thrilling dread of gothic horror, April Genevieve
Tucholke weaves a dreamy, twisting contemporary romance, as gorgeously
told as it is terrifying—a debut to watch.
~
1) Boundless by Cynthia Hand
The past few years have
held more surprises than part-angel Clara Gardner could ever have
anticipated. Yet from the dizzying highs of first love, to the agonizing
low of losing someone close to her, the one thing she can no longer
deny is that she was never meant to live a normal life.
Since
discovering the special role she plays among the other angel-bloods,
Clara has been determined to protect Tucker Avery from the evil that
follows her . . . even if it means breaking both their hearts. Leaving
town seems like the best option, so she’s headed back to California -
and so is Christian Prescott, the irresistible boy from the vision that
started her on this journey in the first place.
As Clara makes
her way in a world that is frighteningly new, she discovers that the
fallen angel who attacked her is watching her every move. And he’s not
the only one. . . . With the battle against the Black Wings looming,
Clara knows she must finally fulfil her destiny. But it won’t come
without sacrifices and betrayal.
In the riveting finale of the Unearthly series, Clara must decide her fate once and for all.