Weekly Highlights: the 'Two Week' edition

Weekly Highlights is a feature borrowed from Faye of A Daydreamer's Thoughts, where I get to highlight my posts of the week, show you my new books and talk about bookish things! 

I might have forgotten last week (read: too lazy) so this entry is rather full. I got some great books this week that I can't wait to read but some I'm going to have to because they don't come out til August! In other news, nothing much to report. We Englanders were surprised by some sunshine and had almost forgotten what blue sky looked like and guess what - I actually managed to read outside! For five minutes before the sun clouded over and the wind picked up, but still!

On The Blog

Review of Heart-Shaped Bruise by Tanya Byrne (5 stars)
Review of Rock War by Robert Muchamore (4 stars)
Review of Up From The Grave by Jeaniene Frost (5 stars)
Discussion: Travelling Books
Review of Quantum Drop by Saci Lloyd (3 stars)

Currently Reading

Where The Rock Splits The Sky by Philip Webb, very gripping and only just started it!

On My Bookshelf

Fire And Flood by Victoria Scott
Tella's brother is dying. He's got cancer, and Tella is helpless to save him. Or so she thought. When an invitation arrives for Tella to compete in the Brimstone Bleed, a deadly competition that will lead her through treacherous jungle and scorching desert, she doesn't think twice. Because the prize is a cure to any illness. But Tella will be facing more than just the elements.


Some surprise post from Chicken House - actually got this last week so I've already read it and it was amazing!

The End Of The World As We Know It by Iva-Marie Palmer
They wanted to party like it was their last night on earth. They just might get their wish….
Meet the four most unlikely heroes ever:
Teena McAuley: Queen Bee, first-class problem solver, resident heartbreaker.
Leo Starnick: UFO conspirator, pizza delivery boy, all-around slacker.
Evan Brighton: Baseball all-star, extreme virgin, Teena-worshipper.
Sarabeth Lewis: Straight-A student, weekend hermit, enemy of the color pink.

When Teena locks Leo, Evan, and Sarabeth in the basement during her biggest party of the year, she doesn’t plan on getting trapped in the Loser Dungeon herself. She can barely imagine a night with these dweebs—let alone a lifetime. But when an alien invasion destroys their entire Midwestern suburb, it looks like these unlikely friends are the last people on earth. Now, it’s up to them to save the world…

How cool does this sound? A party to end all parties, then the morning after the world has ended? How do you miss that?! Thank you Hot Key!

The Devil In The Corner by Patrica Elliott

Penniless, and escaping the horrors of life as a governess to brutal households, Maud seeks refuge with the cousin-by-marriage she never knew. But Juliana quashes Maud's emerging friendships with the staff and locals - especially John, the artist commissioned to restore the sinister Doom in the local church. John, however, is smitten with Maud and makes every effort to woo her.

Maud, isolated and thwarted at every turn, continues to take the laudanum which was her only solace in London. Soon she becomes dependent on the drug - so is this the cause of her fresh anxieties? Or is someone - or something - plotting her demise?

Is the devil in the corner of the Doom a reality, or a figment of her imagination?
 
I am all over this Victorian Gothic - sounds a bit scary but I'm sure I'll love it anyway. Thank you Hachette!

Between The Lives by Jessica Shirvington

For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she Shifts to her ′other′ life - a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she′s a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she′s considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other.

With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments which bring her dangerously close to the life she′s always wanted... But just what - and who - is she really risking?

A girl with parallel lives? God, I hope there's an explanation for that, because it sounds incredible! Thank you Hachette!

The Moment Collector by Jodi Lynn Anderson

There's a ghost haunting 208 Water Street. She doesn't know who she was, or why she's still here. She does know that she is drawn to Maggie, the new girl in town, and her friends - beautiful, carefree Pauline and Liam, the boy who loves her. But the ghost isn't all that's lurking in Gill Creek... Someone is killing young girls all across the country. Can the ghost keep these three friends safe? Or does she have another purpose?

This sounds amazingly beautiful, and I loved Tiger Lily by the same author, so high hopes for this one. Thank you Hachette!