My Weekly Book Haul: 18/01/2014

Friday Finds is something that was started over on ShouldBeReading and Stacking the Shelves over at TyngaReviews, I am in love with all of these as I love finding other blogs to follow and books to read through these! So check them all out and see what you find, Stacking the Shelves has a lot of participants as well which is great. This is basically a way for me to show what books I have received, borrowed or bought each week. All book covers and their summary come from back of book or Goodreads.

My Week

Work: I have had a brilliant week as far as work goes. We are coming to the end of the finacial year, which means spending the rest of the book budget. You spend most of the year avoiding spending it in case it runs out, and then you're stuck with thousands to spend within the space of a few weeks! It's tough but so much fun. We've spent all of it and I can't wait for all the new, pretty books to come in. I've got to try to avoid bringing them all home!

Family: In December my cousin told me she and her fiance are expecting their first baby, due in May. She's nineteen and sadly her mum, and my wonderful aunt, passed away very suddenly in March, so it's nice to have some good news finally, even if it's bittersweet! I went a little crazy buying stuff, I'm going to give her a wicker basket filled with baby stuff for her baby shower - clothes, nappies and other essentials. I love the Thumper suit!

Other: I can't stop listening to Disney songs! As a write this I am listening to a Disney mix of 75 songs on YouTube. I adore Disney and just can't seem to stop at the moment.

Books: I borrowed a few from work, bought a few and received some for review. A crazy book week and I have no time to read any of them because of how many January ARCs I still need to read. I have a problem! 

The Books

Borrowed & Bought:

 

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

In a discontented kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan. He will find an impersonator of the king’s long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner’s motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword’s point. He must be chosen to play the prince, or he will certainly be killed. But as Sage moves from a rundown orphanage to the king’s sumptuous palace, layer upon layer of treachery and deceit unfold. Until, finally, a truth is revealed that may prove more dangerous than all of the lies taken together…

Someone who won a book of their choice on one of my giveaways chose this and it caught my eye too. Saw it in a 3 for £5 deal and had to get it!  Although, I don't know if I love the cover I have or not! (I've got the one with the guy on)

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Victor and Eli, due to a research project gone wrong, become ExtraOrdinaries with supernatural powers. Ten years later Victor escapes from prison,determined to get his revenge on the man who put him there, while Eli has spent the years hunting down and killing other EOs. Driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the arch-nemeses have set a course for revenge...

Recommending by someone from the Young Adult reading group I run at work.

Dearly Departed by Lia Habel

It should be game over for Nora Dearly when she is ambushed and dragged off into the night by the living dead. But this crack unit of teen zombies are the good guys, sent to protect Nora from the real monsters roaming the country and zeroing in on cities to swell their ranks.
Can Nora find a way to kill off the evil undead once and for all? Can she trust her protectors to resist their hunger for human flesh? And can she stop herself falling for the noble, sweet, surprisingly attractive, definitely-no-longer-breathing Bram...?

Saw this at work and my love of Warm Bodies made me pick it up. I really enjoyed the zombie falls in love with human storyline, so I hope this is good too.

Renegade by J. A. Souders

Since the age of three, sixteen-year-old Evelyn Winters has been trained to be Daughter of the People in the underwater utopia known as Elysium. Selected from hundreds of children for her ideal genes, all her life she’s thought that everything was perfect; her world. Her people. The Law.
But when Gavin Hunter, a Surface Dweller, accidentally stumbles into their secluded little world, she’s forced to come to a startling realization: everything she knows is a lie.
Her memories have been altered.
Her mind and body aren’t under her own control.
And the person she knows as Mother is a monster.
Together with Gavin she plans her escape, only to learn that her own mind is a ticking time bomb... and Mother has one last secret that will destroy them all.

The cover caught my eye and the story sounded interesting. 

What Goes Around by Courtney Summers

Courtney Summers fans are in for a treat! Two of her most critically acclaimed titles bound together for the price of one. In Cracked Up To Be, Perfect Parker Fadley isn’t so perfect anymore. She’s quit the cheerleading squad, she’s dumped her perfect boyfriend, and she’s failing school. Her parents are on a constant suicide watch and her counselors think she’s playing games…but what they don’t know, the real reason for this whole mess, is that a horrible thing has happened and it just might be her fault. In Some Girls Are, climbing to the top of the social ladder is hard--falling from it is even harder. Regina Afton used to be a member of the Fearsome Fivesome. And just like the other members of this all girl clique, she was both feared and revered by the students of Hallowell High... that is until vicious rumors about her and her best friend's boyfriend start going around.

Two books in one! Even more to read.

Review Copies

An Unstill Life by Kate Larkindale

Things at home are rough for fifteen-year-old Livvie Quinn. Jules, her beloved older sister is sick again after being cancer free for almost ten years. Her mom becomes more frantic and unapproachable every day. School isn’t much better. Just when she needs them most, her closest friends get boyfriends and have little time for Livvie – except to set her up on a series of disastrous blind dates.
Livvie seeks refuge in the art room and finds Bianca, the school ‘freak’. Free-spirited and confident, Bianca is everything Livvie isn’t. Shaken by her mom’s desperation, her sister’s deteriorating condition, and abandoned by her friends, Livvie finds comfort and an attraction she never felt before with Bianca.
When their relationship is discovered, Livvie and Bianca become victims of persecution and bullying. School authorities won’t help and even forbid the pair to attend the Winter Formal as a couple. If Livvie defies them and goes, she risks expulsion and further ridicule from her classmates. At home, her mother’s behavior escalates to new levels of crazy and Jules is begging for help to end the pain once and for all.
While searching for the strength to make her life her own, Livvie must decide how far she’s willing to go for the people she loves.

The author emailed me asking if I wanted to review her new book. It sounds really interesting and like it's going to make me feel way too many feels.

Relentless, Pieces of You, Bring Me Home by Cassia Leo

Claire Nixon and Adam Parker each have a painful past too heavy to carry alone. Claire once tried to push Adam away but his relentless pursuit of her heart made her walls come crumbling down, and now they know they’re much stronger together than apart.
But now Claire's attending college a hundred miles away from Adam, and the distance is forcing a crack. To add to the strain, Adam is sent to Hawaii on business, and doubts start creeping into both their hearts.
Claire’s also dealing with her ex, rock star Chris Knight, being back in her life. Chris wants Claire more than anything, and he knows just how to get her: only he has the power to mend the final missing piece of Claire's broken heart. How can Claire ever choose between taking a chance on new love, or a second chance at having a family and a home?

1. Love the authors name. 2. The covers grabbed me and I couldn't help myself! Urgh what is wrong with me?

The 57 Lives Of Alex Wayfare by M.G. Buehrlen

For as long as 17-year-old Alex Wayfare can remember, she has had visions of the past. Visions that make her feel like she’s really on a ship bound for America, living in Jamestown during the Starving Time, or riding the original Ferris wheel at the World’s Fair.
But these brushes with history pull her from her daily life without warning, sometimes leaving her with strange lasting effects and wounds she can’t explain. Trying to excuse away the aftereffects has booked her more time in the principal’s office than in any of her classes and a permanent place at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Alex is desperate to find out what her visions mean and get rid of them.
It isn’t until she meets Porter, a stranger who knows more than should be possible about her, that she learns the truth: Her visions aren’t really visions. Alex is a Descender – capable of traveling back in time by accessing Limbo, the space between Life and Afterlife. Alex is one soul with fifty-six past lives, fifty-six histories.
Fifty-six lifetimes to explore: the prospect is irresistible to Alex, especially when the same mysterious boy with soulful blue eyes keeps showing up in each of them. But the more she descends, the more it becomes apparent that someone doesn’t want Alex to travel again. Ever.
And will stop at nothing to make this life her last.

I really wanted this one, so happy I have it!

This Weeks Reviews:

The Program by Suzanne Young: Review 5/5

The Treatment by Suzanne Young: Review 3/5

Splintered by A. G. Howard: Review 3/5

Impostor by Susanne Winnacker: Review 4/5

Giveaways

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