Saturday, April 28, 2012

Fresh Batch (April 29th – May 5th)

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Exclusively titled for Xpresso Reads, Fresh Batch features the hottest releases of this upcoming week.

Flavor of the week:

Sweet Evil
Wendy Higgins
Release date: May 1st, 2012
by HarperTeen

Goodreads / Purchase

What if there were teens whose lives depended on being bad influences? This is life for sons and daughters of fallen angels in Sweet Evil.

Tenderhearted Southern girl, Anna Whitt, was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She’s aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but it isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage, and her will-power is put to the test. He’s the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.

A cross-country trip to meet her father forces Anna to face the reality that hope and love are not options for her kind. When she confronts her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns.

Sweet Evil book trailer


After earning a Creative Writing degree from George Mason University and a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from Radford, I taught high school English until becoming a mommy. I’ve always had a heart for teens, and writing YA stories gives me the opportunity to delve into the ambiguities of those pivotal years before adulthood.

I live in the D.C. area with my husband, daughter, and son.

 Other releases this week (click on cover for Goodreads):
*In no particular order*  *Purchase links are for Book Depository*

He was gone for three days. Sucked out to sea in a tidal wave and spit back ashore at Coney Island with no memory of what happened. Now his dreams are haunted by a terrifying silver mermaid with razor-sharp teeth.

Purchase

Lucy Bloom is broke, freshly dumped by her boyfriend, and forced to sell her house to send her nineteen-year-old son to drug rehab. Although she’s lost it all, she’s determined to start over. So when she’s offered a high-paying gig helping clear the clutter from the home of reclusive and eccentric painter Marva Meier Rios, Lucy grabs it.

Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on.

Soldier boys emerged from the darkness. Guns gleamed dully. Bullet bandoliers and scars draped their bare chests. Ugly brands scored their faces. She knew why these soldier boys had come. She knew what they sought, and she knew, too, that if they found it, her best friend would surely die.

Sara and her mom have a plan to finally escape Sara’s abusive father. But when her mom doesn’t show up as expected, Sara’s terrified. Her father says that she’s on a business trip, but Sara knows he’s lying. Her mom is missing—and her dad had something to do with it. 

Purchase

Just because Ella can burn someone to the ground with her mind doesn’t mean she should. But she wants to. For ten years—ever since she was a small child—Ella has been held prisoner on an interstellar starship. Now that she has escaped, she needs answers.

When Penna Weaver’s boyfriend goes off to Iraq, she’s left facing life without him. As summer sets in, Penna tries to distract herself with work and her art, but the not knowing is slowly driving her crazy. Especially when David stops writing.

Purchase

A series of natural disasters has decimated the earth. Cut off from the rest of the world, England is a dark place. The sun rarely shines, food is scarce, and groups of criminals roam the woods, searching for prey. The people are growing restless.

Purchase 



For the first time in her life she’s part of a family—even if it is a family of criminals. But she’s still a captive. In a desperate attempt to regain some control in her life, Naomi embarks on a dangerous plan to make one of her kidnappers think she’s falling in love with him.

Puchase

In this intensely romantic, modern recounting of the greatest love story ever told, Romeo’s original intended—Juliet’s cousin Rosaline—tells her side of the tale.

Emma’s struggle with an abusive home life came to a heart pounding conclusion in the final chapters of Reason to Breathe. Now everyone in Weslyn knows Emma’s secret, but Carol can’t hurt Emma anymore. Some are still haunted by the horror of that night, and some must face the repercussions of their choices.

The First Dragon has Ysolde de Bouchier in his sights demanding that she right past wrongs. So, with the help of some familiar friends, Ysolde sets into motion an elaborate plan that will have repercussions throughout the mortal and immortal worlds. But when a member of her family is held hostage, no one is safe from the fire of her rage…

Ostracized by her former BFs and struggling with her beloved Grams’s mental deterioration, lonely Chloe ends up hosting a call-in show that gets the station much-needed publicity and, in the end, trouble.

Purchase

It began in the graveyard. Ever since her boyfriend Nathan died in a tragic accident Emma had been coming to the graveyard at night. During the day she went through the motions at her prep school, in class, with her friends, but that’s all it was. But tonight was different. Tonight Emma and her dog were not alone in the cemetery.

With Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), in town, it’s the worst possible time for a body to show up in Eric Northman’s front yard—especially the body of a woman whose blood he just drank.

Purchase

Will and I have been looking for a solution, one that would separate me from Lily without killing her. But it’s not going well. Then, when it seems like things couldn’t get any worse, we run into Misty, my former best friend and boyfriend-stealer extraordinaire, who claims she’s being haunted…by me. Seriously?

After their long summer apart, Ally and Jake were hoping for a drama free senior year. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like things will work out that way…again. — It turns out that Chloe is pregnant and says that Jake is the father.

Purchase

Sixteen year old Jeilin leaves the ordinary behind when she’s inducted into the king’s service as a horseback riding messenger. She expects a life of adventure and freedom, but those hopes are shattered after being captured by a foreign army.
Purchase

Growing up in Africa and Latin America as the children of missionaries, London and Zach were as close as could be. And then Zach dies, and the family is gutted. London’s father is distant. Her mother won’t speak. The days are filled with what-ifs and whispers: Did Zach take his own life? Was it London’s fault?

Purchase

It’s 1912, and the Darlingtons of Wentworth Hall have more than just the extensive grounds to maintain. As one of Britain’s most elite families, they need to keep up appearances that things are as they have always been… even as their carefully constructed façade rapidly comes undone.

When the Duke of Lexington meets the mysterious Baroness von Seidlitz-Hardenberg on a transatlantic liner, he is fascinated. She’s exactly what he’s been searching for—a beautiful woman who interests and entices him. He falls hard and fast—and soon proposes marriage.

Laurel now knows the truth: Yuki is a rare Winter faerie, the most powerful—and deadly—of all, and she is working with Klea to conquer and destroy Avalon. With Tamani, David, and Chelsea by her side, Laurel prepares for a fight she never thought she would have to face.

To his shock, Charles has been approached by Edward Tulkinghorn, the shadowy and feared attorney, who offers him a handsome price to do some sleuthing for a client. Powerful financier Sir Julius Cremorne has been receiving threatening letters, and Tulkinghorn wants Charles to—discreetly—find and stop whoever is responsible.

Purchase

On her 18th birthday, Lena Mattacascar decides to search for her father, who disappeared into the northern wilderness of Scree when Lena was young. Scree is inhabited by Peculiars, people whose unusual characteristics make them unacceptable to modern society.

Purchase

At Barinkoff Academy, there’s only one rule: no students on campus after curfew. Phoenix McKay soon finds out why when she is left behind at sunset. A group calling themselves night students threaten to taste her flesh until she is saved by a mysterious, alluring boy.

In the city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Along its ancient stone streets, where time is marked by the river’s floods, there is no crime or violence. Within the city’s colored shadows, priests of the dream-goddess harvest the wild power of the sleeping mind as magic, using it to heal, soothe… and kill.

The day Brigitta accidentally flings herself into the lap of a guy she’s never met, her friend Natalie is convinced he’s Trent Yves, egotistical heartthrob-in-hiding. When the boy, who calls himself Luke, is nearly eaten by a cougar, Brigitta finds herself saving his life, being swept into his spectacular embrace and wondering if she wants Natalie’s fantasy to be true.

After years of suffocating under her boss’s scrutiny, whale biologist Zoe Morgan finally lands a job as director of a tagging project in Hervey Bay, Australia. Success Down Under all but guarantees her the promotion of a lifetime, and Zoe won’t let anything—or anyone—stand in her way.

A successful chef and single mother, Daisy Sprinkle, is on vacation with her teenage daughter, Coco, who picks up the wrong duffle bag at the airport. That situation is not improved by the note Daisy finds tucked into her carry-on, apparently from the man in 13-C. Daisy is in no mood for secret admirer notes or dinner dates. Or even men, for that matter.

Purchase

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.
Purchase 

An ancient enemy is rising, but Winter is no longer the innocent girl who was fated to die at Pilgrim’s Lament. She will not wait to be saved. She will do what she must to survive, even accept an unsavoury alliance with those who destroyed her love.

When someone targets Ansel, the Nightwalker living in Janet’s hotel, Janet and Mick find themselves caught in a fight between supernatural powers, one that could prove deadly for them both.

Kyla’s memory has been erased,
her personality wiped blank,
her memories lost for ever.

She’s been Slated.

Purchase

Aiden Nomura likes to open doors—especially using his skills as a hacker—to see what’s hidden inside. He believes everything is part of a greater system: the universe. The universe shows him the doors, and he keeps pulling until one cracks open. Aiden exposes the flaw, and the universe—or someone else—will fix it. It’s like a game.

Shawn is the guy Ronnie Bird promised her life to at the age of fourteen. He’s her soul mate. He’s more uptight every day, but it’s not his fault. His family life is stressful, and she’s adding to it. She just needs to be more understanding, and he’ll start to be the boy she fell in love with. She won’t give up on someone she’s loved for so long.

A one-word text message: That’s all Michal “Mike” Garcia needs to gather a crowd. Mike is a seventeen-year-old bookie, and Sanctuary is where she takes bets for anyone at Carson High with enough cash. Her only rule: Never participate, never place a bet for herself.

Purchase 



In Last Breath, the rain brought a new and dire threat to Morganville and its vampires… their ancient enemies, the draug. Now, the vampires are fighting a losing war, and it will fall to the residents of the Glass House: Michael, Eve, Shane and Claire, to take the fight to an enemy who threatens to destroy the town, forever.

Puchase

Emma Tupper, a young lawyer with a bright future, sets out on a journey after her mother’s death: to Africa, a place her mother always wanted to visit. But her mother’s dying gift has unexpected consequences. Emma falls ill during the trip and is just recovering when a massive earthquake hits, turning her one-month vacation into a six-month ordeal.

Mary O’Hara is a sharp and cheeky 12-year-old Dublin schoolgirl who is bravely facing the fact that her beloved Granny is dying. But Granny can’t let go of life, and when a mysterious young woman turns up in Mary’s street with a message for her Granny, Mary gets pulled into an unlikely adventure.

Purchase

On Kelari, Hell exists. It’s known as Helker. Ramien is the God of that realm. He’s beautiful, wicked, and oh, so beguiling. Within his empire are three spheres, each worse than the one before. That’s where Venus must go.

Charlotte and Oliver have been friends forever. She knows that he, Abe, and Trip consider her to be one of the guys, and she likes it that way. Char has a house full of stepsisters and a past full of backstabbing (female) ex-best friends, so for her, being friends with boys is refreshingly drama-free…until it isn’t any more.

Purchase

Tania’s film studies take her to New York City where she looks forward to getting lost in the anonymity of the big crowded bustling city. But Hell is all around and no place is safe as the Dark Angel’s relentless pursuit of dark souls continues.

He’s b-a-a-ack! Despite their best efforts, Carter and Sade Kane can’t seem to keep Apophis, the chaos snake, down. Now Apophis is threatening to plunge the world into eternal darkness, and the Kanes are faced with the impossible task of having to destroy him once and for all.

Purchase

While working at the Honeybee Bakery—named after Lucy’s cat—Katie notices that her aunt is adding mysterious herbs to her recipes. Turns out these herbal enhancements aren’t just tasty—Aunt Lucy is a witch and her recipes are actually spells!

Sixteen year old Summer Jones, who has always spent her summers with the Donovans at her Aunt Sookie’s Malibu beach house, discovers there is more to her long-time crush on one of the Donovan brothers than meets the eye, especially when Astor Fairway, the handsome television star taking her aunt’s acting coaching sessions, notices her.

Life can change in an instant, and no one understands that better than Aura. It’s been almost a year since her boyfriend tragically died. She’s finally letting go of Logan’s violet-hued ghost, but not her search to uncover the truth about her past.
Purchase

Ever since the death of her parents, Miranda has lived on Whym Island, taking comfort in the local folklore, which claims a mysterious sea witch controls the fate of all on the island and in its surrounding waters. Sometimes it’s just easier to believe things are out of your control.

Purchase

I thought last week was big, not THIS… this is big!
Who’s buying what?
Did you know that The Book Depository has a 10% off EVERYTHING? That’s pretty awesome when we have epic release weeks like this! Just use coupon code APMA12!

By using the banner below (also found on sidebar) you help support my blog! 🙂
10% Discount / APMA12 Coupon Code / Book Depository

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Giselle

Canadian blogger, wife, mother, coffee lover, and sarcastic at heart! She has had a love for all things bookish since before Amazon and eReaders existed *le gasp*. You can also find her organizing tours and other fun things at Xpresso Book Tours.

Latest posts by Giselle (see all)

29 Responses to “Fresh Batch (April 29th – May 5th)”

  1. Little Miss Becky

    OOH, I like this feature!! 😀 Very excite for many of these: Sweet Evil was AWESOME, can’t wait to grab a finished copy. Excited for Taste, Body & Soul, Vicious Deep, Peculiars…and a few more! Thanks for posting these, Giselle!

  4. margie c {the bumble girl}

    I am definitely going to have to grab When You Were Mine and Vicious Deep! Thankfully, a few people have shared their books with me for Sweet Evil and Bitterblue! and I just finished reading Elemental today – SO different and out there! I really didn’t think I was going to like it, but then I couldn’t put it down and it was really good!
    I’m going to have to add Wrecked to my list too, super cover! and Brownies and Broomsticks too – it had me at ‘Honeybee Bakery’, lol!
    Thanks again for this amazing list! Happy reading 🙂

  6. Asheley (@BookwormAsheley)

    GAH this is huge. I’m super excited for MOST of these, no doubt, but I have to admit that I’m a PAOLO BACIGALUPI fangirl! So I’m thrilled beyond measure about The Drowned Cities. Ship Breaker is one of my favorite books EVER and Paolo is one of the best world-builders EVER in my opinion in both his YA and his adult books. YAY!!!

    YES, HUGE group of books this time Giselle!

  9. Nick

    This week sounds really exciting !
    So many awesome books come out! 😀 😀

    Thanks for sharing these ! It makes it easier for us to when books are going to be released ! 🙂

  10. Danny

    Uhm … wow!!!! so many books?!?! I can’t even begin to describe how freaking excited I am about Sweet Evil!! Epic Excitement!!

    But I’m also looking forward to Wrecked! Oh and seriously I had no clue the next Sookie book comes out. I still haven’t read the last one, someone this series started to bore me…

  11. speculatef

    Wow!! Okay so this week is massive 🙂

    So I want … Bitterblue and Insurgent (who doesn’t right?). I’ve read The Peculiars, it’s good 😀 and even though I don’t usually read contemporary, This is SO not Happening looks good, it’s part of a series it seems though.

    Thanks for going through what I can only imagine to have been a gargantuan effort – your Fresh Batch is the place I go to to watch my TBR pile grow!

  14. Mel - Thedailyprophecy.

    I tried to make a little list of the books I really look forward to: but I came up with so many titles I couldn’t remember them when I wanted to type them down, hahaha. There are just AMAZING books coming out. Sweet evil particularly 😀

  15. Amy

    That is a whole lot of books coming out this week. I was actually surprised to see that my B&N had a lot of them out already and even some that come out the following week.
    I almost bought The Lost Princess because the cover is awesome in real life. I mean it sounds great too, but the cover is amazing!!
    I really want to get Taste! It sounds awesome. I loved Destined. I will be getting my pre-ordered copy for my nook though to go with the rest of the series. I sent on my physical ARC.
    I can’t wait for Insurgent. I pre-ordered it in January and I will be dropping everything to read it on Tuesday.

  17. Vickie Ramage

    Ooh, I bought Slated and When You Were Mine yesterday, I didn’t know that they were new! UK Readers, both of the ones I just emntion are £5.99 in Waterstones at the moment if you want to grab them! The DUFF is too, and a few others.

    ComaCalm’s Corner

  18. Rachel

    Wow, Giselle! There are too many to keep up with! So many on this list I want to read. I wish I didn’t require sleep so I could use that time to read as well. There are not enough hours in the day! 🙂

  19. Jackie's Little World

    Ah! Overload! 🙂 I’m obviously going to have my butt at the bookstore to buy Insurgent and Deadlocked 🙂 But there are a ton on this list that I would love to get! Sweet Evil, Slated…but I won’t repeat your whole list back at you, ha!

  20. Silverlight

    Sooo many books coming out soon!!! Dude you were BUSY. Thanks, for this amazing LIST!!

    I especially like the cover for Sparks Fly! I mean who can resist muscles, dragons, and tat’s??!! 😉

  23. Amber Hughes

    Look at all those books! I can see my TBR is going to get even bigger than it already is! LOL! So far on my list: Shine (Squee!), Sweet Evil, Inhale, Wrecked, Taste & When You Were Mine. Now onto Goodreads to add some more! 🙂

  25. Alba

    ~drops dead~ I simply cannot akjsdnfkejr bglkjt bkjn dvkñenfñvkj wtñkvj ank v
    Thanks for letting me know how many books I’ll be crying for for the next months!

  26. Kathy Ann Coleman

    Oh, man! You weren’t kidding when you said this week had a lot of books. I’ll list a few that intrigue me and why, but if you want to see all of them I’ve added a component to my weekly “what I bought” post, Shopaholic Sundays, called “What Should I Buy Next?”.

    — Insurgent: I’ll get this outta the way now. I know I’m getting this immediately. I know I’m reading this immediately. It’ll mess my whole week up but I don’t care. :p

    — The Breakaway: This has had my attention for a while and I cannot wait to check it out.

    — Beguiled: I love it when I look at the post and something I’ve never heard of before totally jumps out at me. I’ll be downloading a sample for my Kindle the minute I can.

    — Brownies and Broomsticks: Another ‘never heard of it but I want to check it out’, title. The cute cover drew me in and the blurb hooked me. I love the movie Simply Irresistible, so this might be a good fit.

    — The Vicious Deep: It involves Mermaids in some way or another and my next writing project does, too. I’ve always loved them and I am thrilled to see more fiction for them coming out.

    This is just a taste. I came away from this post with a list of TWELVE books I am interested in. So glad I’m starting a feature called Purchase or Pass? that will encourage me to read Kindle samples before I click that pesky “Add to Cart” button or my wallet would be very upset.

  27. Kelly

    Wow! This is a HUGE list of books coming out this week! I’ve had my eye on Shine and Insurgent for some time now so I’m definitely going to be buying those. 🙂 So excited!

  29. reutreads

    Um, WHOA. I’m probably most looking forward to Insurgent–I hope it’s better than the first book for me, Divergent was kind of a let down, to be honest–This is So Not Happening (which I think you would like! But it’s a series.), and wait, the new Kane Chronicles book is coming out this week? WHAT?