Yearly Archives:: 2012

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Fresh Batch (November 25th – December 1st)

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

Flavor of the week:

City of Dark Magic
Magnus Flyte
Publication date: November 27th 2012
by Penguin Books

 

Cosmically fast-paced and wildly imaginative, this debut novel is a perfect potion of magic and suspense

Once a city of enormous wealth and culture, Prague was home to emperors, alchemists, astronomers, and, as it’s whispered, hell portals. When music student Sarah Weston lands a summer job at Prague Castle cataloging Beethoven’s manuscripts, she has no idea how dangerous her life is about to become. Prague is a threshold, Sarah is warned, and it is steeped in blood.

Soon after Sarah arrives, strange things begin to happen. She learns that her mentor, who was working at the castle, may not have committed suicide after all. Could his cryptic notes be warnings? As Sarah parses his clues about Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved,” she manages to get arrested, to have tantric sex in a public fountain, and to discover a time-warping drug. She also catches the attention of a four-hundred-year-old dwarf, the handsome Prince Max, and a powerful U.S. senator with secrets she will do anything to hide.

Read a sneak peak, here!

Magnus Flyte is a pseudonym for the writing duo of Meg Howrey and Christina Lynch. Howrey is a former dancer with the Joffrey II and the winner of an Ovation Award. She is the author of the novels The Cranes Dance and Blind Sight and lives in Los Angeles. Lynch is a television writer and former Milan correspondent for W Magazine. She lives near Sequoia National Park in California.

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

Review: Ashes of Twilight by Kassy Tayler

Posted by on 11/23/2012 • 22 Comments

Ashes of TwilightKassy TaylerSeries: Ashes Trilogy, #1Publication date: November 13th 2012by St. Martin’s Griffin

 

Wren MacAvoy works as a coal miner for a domed city that was constructed in the mid-nineteenth century to protect the royal blood line of England when astronomers spotted a comet on a collision course with Earth. Humanity would be saved by the most groundbreaking technology of the time. But after nearly 200 years of life beneath the dome, society has become complacent and the coal is running out.  Plus there are those who wonder, is there life outside the dome or is the world still consumed by fire? When one of Wren’s friends escapes the confines of the dome, he is burned alive and put on display as a warning to those seeking to…

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Review: Darkhouse by Karina Halle

Posted by on 11/22/2012 • 24 Comments

DarkhouseKarina HalleSeries: Experiment in Terror, #1Publication date: March 10th 2012by Metal Blonde Books

 

With all the vampire, werewolf and faerie books out there, it’s easy to become numb to all things supernatural. The antidote? Darkhouse introduces two real and unforgettable characters, Perry Palomino & Dex Foray, amateur ghost hunters who are “attractive, relatable and oddly heroic,” “flawed but loveable,” “slightly crazy” and just the most endearing pair to ever tackle the paranormal…just don’t call them normal. Darkhouse is a thrilling and sexy new take on concepts like Supernatural and The X-Files, bringing a breath of fresh air to a genre that has been inundated with the dead.

*A copy was provided by Karina Halle for review purposes* Coming highly recommended by so many friends, I couldn’t resist from…

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Waiting on Wednesday (62)

Posted by on 11/21/2012 • 40 Comments

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.  My pick this week:

Boy Nobody Allen Zadoff Release date: June 11th 2013 by Little, Brown & CO BYR

Boy Nobody is the perennial new kid in school, the one few notice and nobody thinks much about. He shows up in a new high school, in a new town, under a new name, makes few friends and doesn’t stay long. Just long enough for someone in his new friend’s family to die — of “natural causes.” Mission accomplished, Boy Nobody disappears, and moves on to the next target.

When his own parents died of not-so-natural causes at the age of eleven, Boy Nobody found himself under the…

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Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Posted by on 11/20/2012 • 38 Comments

CinderMarissa MeyerSeries: Lunar Chronicles #1Publication date: January 3rd 2012by Feiwel & Friends

 

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

…

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Review: Dear Teen Me

Posted by on 11/19/2012 • 21 Comments

Dear Teen Me:Authors Write Letters to Their Teen SelvesPublication date: October 30th 2012by Zest Books

 

Dear Teen Me includes advice from over 70 YA authors (including Lauren Oliver, Ellen Hopkins, and Nancy Holder, to name a few) to their teenage selves. The letters cover a wide range of topics, including physical abuse, body issues, bullying, friendship, love, and enough insecurities to fill an auditorium. So pick a page, and find out which of your favorite authors had a really bad first kiss? Who found true love at 18? Who wishes he’d had more fun in high school instead of studying so hard? Some authors write diary entries, some write letters, and a few graphic novelists turn their stories into visual art. And whether you hang out with the…

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Xpresso Weekly: Stacking the Shelves (30)

Posted by on 11/18/2012 • 50 Comments

Xpresso Weekly is my edition of Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga’s Reviews featuring the books I got this week, and I also mention blog news/happenings of the past week. This week at Xpresso Reads

Hello pretty people! I hope you’re all having a great fall and getting ready for the holidays which are fast approaching *flails*. If you were here this afternoon, you will have noticed a brand new fabulous giveaway on the blog. Another round of Cover Madness! head on over you can win some pretty gorgeous upcoming books! Earlier this week I also did a spotlight on Legend by Marie Lu with a pretty wicked prize pack giveaway!  

Reviews on the blog this week:

XPRESSO BOOK TOURS – OPEN TOURS/EVENTS

-Cover Reveal: Timespell by Diana…

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Cover Madness Giveaway: Round 2

Posted by on 11/17/2012 • 45 Comments

I’m sure a lot of you remember me and Jenni’s (Alluring Reads) epic Cover Madness giveaway a few months back!? Well we had so much fun with it that we decided to make it our thing and do it periodically when there has been a particular bout of fantastic covers. Well, I’m not sure if you have been on the net lately, but it’s been FILLED with amazeballs covers so we couldn’t pass them up!

There will be one winner at each of our blogs, and here is what’s up for grabs!

You can pick a pre-order for any of these, OR, you can chose the 1st book in the series if the cover shows is a sequel.

*If the title chosen happens to become unavailable at The Book…

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