Review: Life By Committee

Life by Committee Life by Whatever strangers tell me to do next because I don't have one.
Author: Corey Ann Haydu

Publication Date:  May 13th 2014        

~A copy was provided by Katherine Tegen Books in exchange for an honest review~

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some secrets are too good to keep.
Tabitha might be the only girl in the history of the world who actually gets less popular when she gets hot. But her so-called friends say she’s changed, and they’ve dropped her flat.

Now Tab has no one to tell about the best and worst thing that has ever happened to her: Joe, who spills his most intimate secrets to her in their nightly online chats. Joe, whose touch is so electric, it makes Tab wonder if she could survive an actual kiss. Joe, who has Tabitha brimming with the restless energy of falling in love. Joe, who is someone else’s boyfriend.

Just when Tab is afraid she’ll burst from keeping the secret of Joe inside, she finds Life by Committee. The rules of LBC are simple: tell a secret, receive an assignment. Complete the assignment to keep your secret safe.

Tab likes it that the assignments push her to her limits, empowering her to live boldly and go further than she’d ever go on her own.

But in the name of truth and bravery, how far is too far to go?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Secret: I want to hit this book.

Assignment: Do it.

Ohhh, there are a lot of things I have to say about Life By Committee. So, the good news or bad news first? Hmm.

The good news? It's short, and for a fraction there, you might think it has some deeper meaning.  Kudos.

Review: Cuckoo Song

Cuckoo Song
Author:  Frances Hardinge

Publication Date:  May 8th 2014 

~A copy was provided by Macmillan Children's in exchange for an honest review~

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first things to shift were the doll's eyes, the beautiful grey-green glass eyes. Slowly they swivelled, until their gaze was resting on Triss's face. Then the tiny mouth moved, opened to speak.
'What are you doing here?' It was uttered in tones of outrage and surprise, and in a voice as cold and musical as the clinking of cups. 'Who do you think you are? This is my family.'
When Triss wakes up after an accident, she knows that something is very wrong. She is insatiably hungry; her sister seems scared of her and her parents whisper behind closed doors. She looks through her diary to try to remember, but the pages have been ripped out.

Soon Triss discovers that what happened to her is more strange and terrible than she could ever have imagined, and that she is quite literally not herself. In a quest find the truth she must travel into the terrifying Underbelly of the city to meet a twisted architect who has dark designs on her family - before it's too late...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was one crazy ride my Cuckoo's.

By the synopsis you know it's going to be creepy, along with the creepy cover itself, and of course it's that kind of creepy that drew me in, because creepy is my thing. I'm going to be using creepy a lot.

Stacking the Shelves (#43) & Recap

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.

How was everybody's week? So, I had my third auto-approval last week from Hachette Childrens, and I got my first approval from Tor, which I'm super excited about because it's one I was really hoping I'd get approved for, so yay! :)

 

For Review

Edelweiss:

 

 

 

 

Behind the Scenes  and  Jackaby.

(Thanks to  Spencer Hill Contemporary, Algonquin Books and Edelweiss)

 

For Review

Netgalley:

Unwept, Sweet Unrest and Of Scars and Stardust
(Thanks to Tor books, Flux and Netgalley)



  What did you get this week? :)

   



 A recap of posts this week

• Monday I reviewed: Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly 
• Tuesday I reviewed: Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski
• Waiting on Wednesday: Very Bad Things by Susan McBride
• Thursday I reviewed: Mutant City by Steve Feasey
• Friday: DNF Round-Up: April

DNF Round-Up: April

I thought I DNF'D a lot more in April, but only three! I've been good.

 

 



 

 

 

 

•  Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong - DNF'D at 10% because zzzzzzzzz.

• Salvage by Alexandra Duncan

02/21

10.0%

"Me Tarzan. You Jane. God, I'm going back to Half Bad."

02/22

15.0%

"And we're DNF'D.

 

•  The Best Last Kiss by  Claire LaZebnik - Anna's voice annoyed the hell out of me.



Review: After the End

After the End
Author:  Amy Plum

Publication Date:  May 6th 2014  

~A copy was provided by HarperTeen and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review~

------------------------------------------------------------------------

She’s searching for answers to her past. They’re hunting her to save their future.

World War III has left the world ravaged by nuclear radiation. A lucky few escaped to the Alaskan wilderness. They've survived for the last thirty years by living off the land, being one with nature, and hiding from whoever else might still be out there.

At least, this is what Juneau has been told her entire life.

When Juneau returns from a hunting trip to discover that everyone in her clan has vanished, she sets off to find them. Leaving the boundaries of their land for the very first time, she learns something horrifying: There never was a war. Cities were never destroyed. The world is intact. Everything was a lie.

Now Juneau is adrift in a modern-day world she never knew existed. But while she's trying to find a way to rescue her friends and family, someone else is looking for her. Someone who knows the extraordinary truth about the secrets of her past.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

After The End was an average read for me, which is so disappointing because I enjoyed the Revenant series and was so looking forward to something new from Amy Plum. With the synopsis, and what you think is a pretty interesting one, and what I thought would end up being a good conspiracy story ended up being like a homeopathic 101. 

Review: Mutant City

Mutant City
Author:  Steve Feasey

Publication Date:  May 8th 2014  

~An advance readers copy was provided by Bloomsbury in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fifty years ago, the world was almost destroyed by a chemical war. Now the world is divided into the mutants and the pure. Mutants must fight for survival in a scarred landscape, while the privileged pure live out a life of disease-free perfection.

Thirteen years ago, a covert government experimental facility was shut down and its residents killed. The secrets it held died with them. But five extraordinary kids survived.

Today four teenagers are about to discover that their mutant blood brings with it special powers. They are heading straight for Mutant City with rival factions close behind. One by one, they face the enemy. Together, they must stay alive .

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Mutant City is the only book (out of all the "mutant" books I've read) that I can say I and X-Men would approve of. You know I take X-Men seriously and I do hate when anything is compared to it because sometimes it's just offensive. Especially when the mutants are more genetically enhanced with added powers but mostly look totally human and you would never guess who they were (I'm talking to you Transparent.) And while in the Mutant City, some of the mutants are exactly that, they can blend in, but there's something about them that tells them away. But, there are also the full on mutants with appearances' compared to Mystique and Beast. X-Men approves.