The Memory of After is the Kindle Daily Deal! $1.99! + Chasing Before Giveaway!

If you've been waiting to snag The Memory of After on Kindle, now's your chance - it's $1.99 on amazon today (June 29th) only! (it also appears to be $1.99 on iTunes)

ETA: The price went up to $6.87 now (June 30th).

To celebrate, I'm also going to give away one early copy (ARC, signed) of the sequel, Chasing Before! This is an international giveaway that closes July 4th, so if you want to win, comment with a contact e-mail address before 11:59 pm CST.

Return of Cat Tuesday (89)

Lu really likes the caves we build for him.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Mini-Reviews: Dystopian Sequels

One of my goals this year is to finish off some series because I'm in the middle of too many. Here are three series enders I've read so far.

IN THE AGE OF LOVE AND CHOCOLATE by Gabrielle Zevin is the third book in the series that began with ALL THESE THINGS I HAVE DONE (my review) and continued with BECAUSE IT IS MY BLOOD (my review).

I've mentioned in past reviews that Anya feels like an old friend, and I genuinely enjoyed catching up with her life. This is quite a dramatic end to the series too, with an arranged wedding, a near assassination, some well-deserved revenge, and the sweetest/most romantic scene yet between Anya and Win. One of my favorite reads of the year!

IN THE AGE OF LOVE AND CHOCOLATE is available now.

FTC disclosure: Bought

REBEL by Amy Tintera. Sequel to REBOOT (my review)

REBOOT is an action novel with a intriguing character arc involving Wren attempting to reboot her humanity. That process continues in REBEL, a sequel even more action packed than its predecessor. The stand-out moments for me, though, were the quiet ones of reflection where Wren has to consider what it means to be human in a post-human world.

The driver of the plot is book two is Micah, the (superbad) leader of reboot reservation, a stronghold for the reboots that's successfully managed to repel HARC. Wren feels safe and understood for the first time since her violent death, but Callum senses trouble. This leads them into territory well worn by other books in the dystopian genre and though I didn't find it as engaging as book one, it's getting rave reviews from goodreads users.

REBEL is available now. 

FTC disclosure: Review copy via Edelweiss

DIVIDED by Elsie Chapman is the sequel to DUALED (my discussion review part 1 / part 2).

Despite its comparisons to THE HUNGER GAMES, DUALED turned out to be one of the more unique dystopians I've read, and DIVIDED continues in that vein. The world Chapman creates is very brutal, a place where kids killing kids is commonplace and accepted, and our heroine, West, would do anything to survive. In the sequel, West is thriving, and she's offered a chance to secure her future with Chord as well.

In the first book, West struggled with her own self worth, and in the second, she's questioning the society more. We get answers to many of the world building questions that lingered as well as quite a few very well executed major twists. We see how cunning a fighter West is via clever action set pieces (I especially loved the hall of mirrors), and some smoking hot scenes with Chord. Don't pass this one up!

DIVIDED is available now. 

FTC disclosure: Review copy via Netgalley

See index of all dystopian reviews on Presenting Lenore

Book Review: Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater

SINNER is loosely connected to the Wolves of Mercy Falls series that began with SHIVER in that it spins off the characters of Cole St. Clair and Isabel, but you probably don't have to have read that trilogy to enjoy this book.

The selling point for me was Cole St. Clair. He may fall under the familiar misunderstood-bad-boy-who-can-charm-your-pants off archetype, but he's always felt very real and human to me (even when he's actually a shapeshifter of the wolf-kind).

Cole left his life as lead singer of a rock band and dark past filled with sex, drugs and excess to live in utter obscurity. But now he's back in LA, under the glaring lights of fame.

Why? What does Cole want the most? Isabel. And Isabel is in LA.

What scares him the most? Himself. 

What is the worst situation he could get himself into? Signing up to play himself on a reality show known for destroying its subjects.

In many ways, Isabel is aligned with his reality show audience. Both Isabel and his audience expect the worst from him and can't believe that he could ever change. Both are programmed not to believe in happy endings. Both are unwittingly under his spell. But in Cole's eyes, Isabel and his audience are also at odds. To keep his audience, he must play Cole St. Clair: Rock Star. To keep Isabel, he must strip away his public persona, give up the wolf in him, and find the real boy he's been trying to bury.

SINNER pushes Cole and Isabel to their limits, breaking them just enough to make them realize what they really need. It's both an incisive character study and a carefully crafted redemptive romance. 

I loved every page.

SINNER comes out in hardcover on July 1, 2014. You can preorder signed copies at Fountain Bookstore. They'll come with a very cool custom book wrapper.

FTC disclosure: I received a review copy of SINNER at BEA.

BEA Recap Part 1: The Books

Book Expo America is a book lover's dream, and this year I was lucky enough to be able to attend my 5th BEA since 2009. And this year, I was not only there as press, I was also there as an author signing copies of THE MEMORY OF AFTER in the signing area (dream come true, for reals!).

Like most attendees, I had a list of "must get" books, but what I love most about BEA is the serendipity of discovering new titles. There were so many great finds this year that I ended up bringing back 37 titles with me (not including books I bought at the many bookstores I visited in the city) that I'm excited to read and cover on the blog in the months to come.  Today I'm going to spotlight some of my favorites. (NOTE: I was approved for some of the big BEA titles - such as Jandy Nelson's I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN and Scott Westerfeld's AFTERWORLDS - on Netgally and Edelweiss and so I skipped getting physical copies to save space)

Top 10 "must get" books that I snagged:

GLORY O'BRIEN'S HISTORY OF THE FUTURE by AS King (Oct 14, 2014, Little Brown) - Luckily I was invited to Little Brown's Brunch Preview where I unapologetically grabbed a copy of this before BEA even started. It's no secret I'm an AS King fangirl, so I'm super excited about GLORY.

SINNER by Maggie Stiefvater (July 1, 2014, Scholastic) - My very favorite thing about LINGER and FOREVER? Cole St. Clair. I've been saying for years that Cole needs his own novel, so when I heard about SINNER, I was struck with major book lust. I braved the galley drop at the Scholastic booth to get my hands on this pretty. I also got to chat with Maggie briefly at the Scholastic breakfast before BookCon (delicious smoothies!)

ISLA AND THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER by Stephanie Perkins (August 2014, Penguin) - this wasn't really at BEA, but it was part of a raffle of all three Stephanie Perkins books at the #YAparty. Amazingly, I won the raffle and instantly became the most hated/envied person in the room. Naturally, I couldn't wait long to read this. My teasers for you? a) It's HOT. Isla and Josh's chemistry is through the roof. b) It's my favorite of the trilogy. c) I can't wait to discuss the ending with you -- squee!

STITCHING SNOW by RC Lewis (Oct 14, 2014, Disney-Hyperion) - A sci-fi fairytale retelling? Sign me up! This debut has been on my radar for some time, and when I heard (thanks Debby!) there were stacks of it sitting in a secret room in the bowels of the Javits (in reality, left over from Book Blogger Con), I dashed over to stash this in my tote.

THE BONE CLOCKS by David Mitchell (Sept 2, 2014, Random House) - Okay, so David Mitchell was signing his newest novel at 2 pm Friday after my own 1 pm signing, so I knew I'd never make it to his line and I was pretty devastated about it. But David also had a panel as part of Book Con on Saturday, and so I went about an hour early to line up for it (making me about #50 in line). A RH publicist gave everyone at the front of the line tickets to pick up galleys at the RH booth after the panel and we trembled with excitement. (Seriously, so much trembling in that line).

The panel between David and his editor was glorious. I loved his advice to "shoplift" from the best writers and his anecdotes about his writing process. And then. After the panel, I made my way to the podium to say hi. I told David it was my birthday (it was) and he gave me a birthday handshake. Here's hoping a tiny bit of his genius rubbed off on me.

ROOMS by Lauren Oliver (Sept 23, 2014, Ecco) - I acquired Lauren's adult debut thanks to our shared agent on a visit to the agency the week before BEA and thus was able to avoid one of her monster lines (I did stand in line for PANIC, however, which turned out to be quite a fun line thanks to Marlon).

MY REAL CHILDREN by Jo Walton (available now, Tor) - I stood in a line to get the hardcover of this signed. It's an adult speculative fiction title about (possible) parallel lives, which is one of my favorite topics right now.

SAM AND DAVE DIG A HOLE by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen (Oct 14, 2014, Candlewick) - I had the pleasure of meeting Mac at the Irma Black ceremony and lunch at Bankstreet College the week before BEA (more about that in a later post), and then I stood in line to meet Jon and get an F&G of their newest collaboration. First of all, Jon is super adorable and took the time to show me a video of his cat lounging while signing my book. (!!!) And the book is adorable too. Both Daniel and I love it and the vaguely sci-fi ending.

I'M MY OWN DOG by David Ezra Stein (August 5, 2014, Candlewick) - David Ezra Stein's INTERRUPTING CHICKEN is one of my top 10 picture book favorites of all time, so I was bummed that his signing was directly after mine and I'd never make his line. But, as luck would have it, we ran into each other in the author green room after my signing, and his lovely editor gave me a front of the line pass for his signing. #authorperks! I'M MY OWN DOG is super cute and funny, too.

THE BOOK WITH NO PICTURES by BJ Novak (Sept 30, 2014, Penguin) - Yep, I was more than an hour early and the third person in line for this (behind the YA book twins), the only celebrity signing line that I attempted. Since it was at the Penguin booth, we weren't really allowed to line up early, so we just sort of hovered. I haven't actually read this yet (because only words, no pictures, ha!), but I'll report back when I do.

Top 5 serendipitous finds:

WE ALL LOOKED UP by Tommy Wallach (March 31, 2015, S&S) - Tommy and I share an editor at S&S and that editor gifted me an early copy of Tommy's debut. Then, at the #YAparty, Tommy was playing piano (he's a singer/songwriter too - check out his forthcoming album "I Meant it to be Sweet"), and we got to chat. That weekend, I went up to Bushwick where he took me to a block party. Fun! The novel looks incredibly intriguing, and I can't wait to dig in.

THE ART OF SECRETS by James Klise (available now, Algonquin) - I stopped by the Algonquin booth on Saturday and since it was so quiet, I got to chat with Editor Elise Howard for quite some time. I told her I only had room for one more book, so she pitched me several and I was won over by her pitch for this. Really all she had to say was "twists" and I was sold.

BAILEY BOAT CAT by Louise Kennedy (Sept 2, 2014, Bloomsbury) - This might have been my favorite random find at BEA. There was a small giveaway stack at the Bloomsbury booth and I was instantly smitten by this cat on a boat. Full color photos throughout of Bailey cuteness.

ONE DEATH, NINE STORIES, short story anthology (August 2014, Candlewick) - This was a booth giveaway and I was instantly attracted by the list of contributors, including AS King, Ellen Hopkins and Rita Williams-Garcia. All 9 stories are linked by the death of one 19 year old named Kevin.

EVEN IN PARADISE by Chelsey Philpot (October 14, 2014, HarperTeen) - Chelsey and I share an agent and since he has such great taste, I must read this! I got to meet her in the author green room after our signings (we were signing at the same time -- rivals!!).



If you want to see my entire book haul, check out my instagram.

The Return of Cat Tuesday (88) - Action Shot Edition

 

Book Review: Chorus by Emma Trevayne

In CODA, Anthem leads a revolution. (My review) In CHORUS, Anthem's younger sister Alpha has to deal with the fallout many years later.

During Anthem's revolution, Alpha and her twin Omega were exposed to the addictive tracking that kept all of the city's citizen's compliant. She has moved to Los Angeles to study medicine and try to find a cure. But when Anthem takes a turn for the worse, Alpha is called back to her birth city and gets embroiled in a revolution of her own.

The book takes it's time in the first half, setting up a second half that is breathless in its action and twists, like a verse leading into a chorus. Alpha's voice is methodical and melodic, creating a kind of prose that is at turns heavy and dense but can also stun you with its loveliness.

I'd recommend this series for readers who like their dystopian dark and contemplative, but with a light at the end of the tunnel.

CHORUS is now available in paperback.

FTC disclosure: Review copy from publisher

See all dystopian reviews on Presenting Lenore