In My Mailbox (50)

As always, In My Mailbox is brought to you by Kristi, AKA The Story Siren.

I just got back from Florida about 3 or 4 hours ago. When we left Orlando yesterday is was a gorgeous, sunny 74 degrees. When we drove into Kansas City tonight is was a scary, miserable, blizzardy 30 degrees. Yep....first day of spring we have a snow storm in KC. Why does this not surprise me? I felt like turning the car immediately around and heading back to Orlando. Not that I wouldn't want to do that anyway. Well, the trip was great, except for the drive home. Can't wait to go back, but that is always the case.

While I was away, my pile of envelopes was growing, taunting me from miles and miles away. I got a lot of books this week, and I mean a lot, so let's get to it.

For Review:


Thirteen Days to Midnight by Patrick Carman


Release Date: April 12, 2010 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Synopsis:

You are indestructible. Three whispered words transfer an astonishing power to Jacob Fielding that changes everything. At first, Jacob is hesitant to use the power, unsure of its implications. But there's something addictive about testing the limits of fear.

Then Ophelia James, the beautiful and daring new girl in town, suggests that they use the power to do good, to save others. But with every heroic act, the power grows into the specter of a curse. How to decide who lives and who dies?

In this nail-biting novel of mystery and dark intrigue, Jacob must walk the razor thin line between right and wrong, good and evil, and life and death. And time is running out. Because the Grim Reaper doesn't disappear. . . . He catches up.

I love, love, love Patrick Carman's books so I was totally pumped to get this one. Can't wait to read it!

Little Vampire Women by Louisa May Alcott and Lynn Messina


Release Date: May 4, 2010 from HarperTeen

Synopsis:

"Christmas won't be the same without any corpses."

The March sisters are back, and Marmee has told them to be good little women. Good little vampire women, that is. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy have grown up since you last read their tale, and now they have (much) longer loves and (much) more ravenous appetites.

With a classic as beloved and close to perfection as Little Women, what better way to improve on it than be throwing vampires into the mix? Teens will be agog and aghast at the hilarity of the sisters' transformation and will crave the bloodthirsty drama on every page.

This actually looks sort of hilarious and theirs a small add on the back touting the next release in the series, Romeo & Juliet & Vampires.

The Hidden Boy by Jon Berkeley


Release Date: Available Now from Katherine Tegen Books

Synopsis:

You are the lucky winner of a Blue Moon Once-in-a-Lifetime Adventure. It’ll be the trip of a lifetime! The tour leaves from the Blue Moon office at 11 p.m. sharp. Groups of seven only. No pets.

When the Flints win the trip to Bell Hoot, they board Captain Bontoc’s Blue Moon Mobile with the expectation of a grand holiday. Then something terrible happens: Bea Flint’s little brother, Theo, disappears on the journey, and the peculiar Ledbetter clan of Bell Hoot, who call Theo the Hidden Boy, is more desperate than even Bea and her family to find him. Bea will have to trust herself and the weird and wise words of an old man called Arkadi in order to find Theo. In her search, she’ll discover that Bell Hoot is more than a vacation destination, a wish is no good unless you give it legs, and Mumbo Jumbo is much more than nonsense—it’s hidden potential that she can find within herself.

Jon Berkeley sends readers on the adventure of a lifetime with this first installment of a saga about a mysterious place called Bell Hoot, where strange and wonderful things happen.


The Shadow Project by Herbie Brennan


Release Date: Available Now from Balzer & Bray

Synopsis:

Danny Lipman is a thief . . . until one night he robs the wrong house. He inadvertently breaks into the headquarters of the Shadow Project, a secret government organization where teenage spies are trained to leave their bodies, using astral projection to travel around the world on deadly missions.

Danny is captured, but the Project leaders quickly realize he has a special gift. And when a key operative—the director's daughter, Opal—goes missing, he is offered a choice: join the Shadow Project or go to jail.

Danny joins and is quickly sent to investigate the Project's current target: a worldwide terrorist organization known as the Sword of Wrath. But as he gets deeper in, he discovers both the Project and the Sword of Wrath are far more than they seem. Danny and his fellow operatives are caught up in an ancient supernatural conflict and will have to learn how to survive in a world without boundaries of space or time, where the wrong choice could be their last.


Tangled by Carolyn Mackler


Release Date: Available Now from HarperTeen

Synopsis:

Paradise wasn't supposed to suck.

Not the state of being, but a resort in the Caribbean.

Jena, Dakota, Skye, and Owen are all there for different reasons, but at Paradise their lives become tangled together in ways none of them can predict. Paradise will change them all.

It will change Jena, whose first brush with romance takes her that much closer to having a life, and not just reading about those infinitely cooler and more exciting.

It will change Dakota, who needs the devastating truth about his past to make him realize that he doesn't have to be a jerk just because people think he's one.

It will change Skye, a heartbreakingly beautiful actress, who must come to terms with the fact that for once she has to stop playing a role or face the consequences.

And it will change Owen, who has never risked anything before and who will take the leap from his online life to a real one all because of a girl he met at Paradise. . . .

From confused to confident and back again, one thing's certain: Four months after it all begins, none of them will ever be the same.


House of Dance by Beth Kephart


Release Date: In Paperback, March 30, 2010 from HarperTeen

Synopsis:

Rosie and her mother coexist in the same house as near strangers. Since Rosie's father abandoned them years ago, her mother has accomplished her own disappearing act, spending more time with her boss than with Rosie. Now faced with losing her grandfather too, Rosie begins to visit him every day, traveling across town to his house, where she helps him place the things that matter most to him "In Trust." As Rosie learns her grandfather's story, she discovers the role music and motion have played in it. But like colors, memories fade. When Rosie stumbles into the House of Dance, she finds a way at last to restore the source of her grandfather's greatest joy.

Eloquently told, National Book Award finalist Beth Kephart's House of Dance is a powerful celebration of life and the people we love who make it worthwhile.

The Heart is Not a Size by Beth Kephart


Release Date: March 30, 2010 from HarperTeen

Synopsis:

Georgia knows what it means to keep secrets. She knows how to ignore things. She knows that some things are better left unsaid. . . . Or are they?

When Georgia and her best friend, Riley, travel along with nine other suburban Pennsylvania kids to Anapra, a squatters' village in the heat-flattened border city of Juarez, Mexico, secrets seem to percolate and threaten both a friendship and a life. Certainties unravel. Reality changes. And Georgia is left to figure out who she is outside the world she's always known.

Beth Kephart paints a world filled with emotion, longing, and the hot Mexican sun.



Stargazer by Claudia Gray


Release Date: Available Now from HarperTeen

Synopsis:

The vampire in me was closer to the surface . . .

Bianca, born to two vampires, has always been told her destiny is to become one. But she has fallen in love with Lucas, a vampire hunter who infiltrated Evernight Academy, the exclusive vampire boarding school she attends. Bianca will do anything to be with Lucas, even if it means lying to the powerful vampires of Evernight.

Her deceit leads her to dig deep into the mysteries of the school, and Bianca discovers that even those she trusts the most have their own dark secrets. When a ghostly force begins attacking Evernight—and targeting Bianca—she learns a shocking truth about her past that will forever change her future.


Young Samurai: The Way of the Warrior by Chris Bradford


Release Date: Available Now from Hyperion Books CH

Synopsis:

Jack Fletcher is shipwrecked off the coast of Japan, his beloved father and the crew lie slaughtered by ninja pirates.

Rescued by a legendary master swordsman and brought under his wing, Jack begins the grueling physical and psychological training needed to become a samurai. Life at Samurai school is fraught with difficulty for Jack who is bullied and treated as an outcast.

With his friend the remarkable, beautiful Akiko at his side and all the courage he can muster, Jack has to prove himself. Will he be able to face deadly rivals and challenges that will test him to his very limits?


Young Samurai: The Way of the Sword by Chris Bradford


Release Date: Available Now from Hyperion Books CH

Synopsis:

After a vicious ninja attack left him orphaned and stranded in Japan, Jack Fletcher managed to complete his first year of samurai school. Still, his troubles are far from over. The prejudice of his Japanese classmates has gained him dangerous enemies within his school, and Dragon Eye – the ninja who killed his father – is still after him. Jack’s only hope of defeating them lies in surviving the Circle of Three: an ancient ritual that tests a samurai’s courage, skill, and spirit to the limit.

For most, gaining entry into the Circle means honor and glory, but for Jack it’s a matter of life or death. The winner will be trained in the Two Heavens—the formidable sword technique of the great samurai, Masamoto. Learning this secret is the only hope Jack has of protecting his father’s rutter -- the invaluable navigation guide of the world’s uncharted oceans -- from Dragon Eye.

Forced into a deadly battle, Jack’s going to have to master the Way of the Sword. And his time is running out.

Purchased:

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan