My Weekly Book Haul: 24/05/2014

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.

I have actually had the greatest week! My cousin finally had her baby on Wednesday and I was beyond excited for her. It's the closest I'll be getting to a niece or nephew for quite some time. She had a girl, like I knew she would, and she ended up naming her Teaira, Tia for short, which is just lovely. She's a little cutie but my cousin doesn't like the idea of pics of the baby being online so I won't post any.

I've been working a lot and getting pretty fed up. It's just a bit slow at work at the minute and I wish there was more going on. I love being kept busy and having a lot to do. I need more responsibilities or something as I am going a little crazy. 

A bad week reading wise, didn't get much reading done. I did start the Lunar Chronicles finally and really enjoyed it. The hype ruined it a bit as I was expecting to be blown away and I wasn't. I love the writing and the characters but it just didn't wow me for some reason. I think my expectations were too high or something. Can't wait to continue the series though. 

Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead (Vampire Academy #3)

It’s springtime at St. Vladimir’s Academy and Rose is close to graduation, but since making her first Strigoi kills, things haven’t felt quite right. She’s having dark thoughts, behaving erratically, and worst of all... might be seeing ghosts.
Consumed by her forbidden love with her tutor Dimitri and protecting her best friend, the Moroi princess Lissa, Rose is in no state to see the deadly threat that will change her entire world—and make her choose between the two people she loves most.

Determined to start this series as soon as I can so I purchased book 3 to try and give myself the push I need to get to it. 

The Assassins Blade by Sarah J. Maas

Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan's most feared assassin. As part of the Assassin's Guild, her allegiance is to her master, Arobynn Hamel, yet Celaena listens to no one and trusts only her fellow killer-for-hire, Sam. In these action-packed novellas - together in one edition for the first time - Celaena embarks on five daring missions. They take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, where she fights to liberate slaves and seeks to avenge the tyrannous. But she is acting against Arobynn's orders and could suffer an unimaginable punishment for such treachery. Will Celaena ever be truly free? Explore the dark underworld of this kick-ass heroine to find out.

Help! Do you read that before or after book 1?

 

The Runaway King & The Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Nielson (Ascendance Trilogy #2 & #3)

GAMES OF THRONES for a younger audience. If you like the danger and sword-fighting of MERLIN, you'll love this! Jaron is now in his rightful place as king, but he knows that with traitors in his castle, and enemies at the borders, he is far from safe. He must go on a journey to discover the truth behind his family's murder. The trick will be coming back alive.

How to Keep a Boy as a Pet by Diane Messidoro

The Official Truth about dating the male human species!
Can taming a gorgeous boy really be as easy as walking a dog?
Circe Shaw is on a mission. She must transform into a fabulously sophisticated journalist and discover the amazing scientific truth about boys. Urgently.
But life is beyond complicated. Circe has to deal with a poisonous rival, her mum’s annoying ‘just friends’ men and her own Dark Past.
Can Circe’s daring investigation really teach her the facts of love? 
Will it help her finally get a boyfriend? 
Or will it break her heart…?

Taken by David Massey

A young crew of five are toughing it out together, sailing around the world on a gruelling charity challenge. They are used to being pushed to the limit, but nothing could have prepared them for being kidnapped.
When they are taken hostage by a notorious warlord and his band of child soldiers, the trip of a lifetime turns into a one-way journey into the heart of the African jungle.
When hope is all you have, survival is all you can fight for...

I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson

Jude and her brother, Noah, are incredibly close twins. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude surfs and cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and divisive ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as an unpredictable new mentor. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.  
This radiant, fully alive, sometimes very funny novel from the critically acclaimed author of The Sky Is Everywhere will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once. 

I absolutely loved The Sky is Everywhere so I was beyond

Exquisite Captive by Heather Demetrios

Forced to obey her master.
Compelled to help her enemy.
Determined to free herself. 
Nalia is a jinni of tremendous ancient power, the only survivor of a coup that killed nearly everyone she loved. Stuffed into a bottle and sold by a slave trader, she’s now in hiding on the dark caravan, the lucrative jinni slave trade between Arjinna and Earth, where jinn are forced to grant wishes and obey their human masters’ every command. She’d give almost anything to be free of the golden shackles that bind her to Malek, her handsome, cruel master, and his lavish Hollywood lifestyle.
Enter Raif, the enigmatic leader of Arjinna’s revolution and Nalia’s sworn enemy. He promises to free Nalia from her master so that she can return to her ravaged homeland and free her imprisoned brother—all for an unbearably high price. Nalia’s not sure she can trust him, but Raif’s her only hope of escape. With her enemies on the hunt, Earth has become more perilous than ever for Nalia. There’s just one catch: for Raif’s unbinding magic to work, Nalia must gain possession of her bottle…and convince the dangerously persuasive Malek that she truly loves him. Battling a dark past and harboring a terrible secret, Nalia soon realizes her freedom may come at a price too terrible to pay: but how far is she willing to go for it?
Inspired by Arabian Nights, EXQUISITE CAPTIVE brings to life a deliciously seductive world where a wish can be a curse and shadows are sometimes safer than the light.

Love the cover and the premise too. 

Forbidden by Kimberley Griffiths Little

A sweeping, epic saga of romance and hardship, set against the dramatic backdrop of ancient Mesopotamia—perfect for fans of Cleopatra's Moon or the adult bestseller The Red Tent.
In the unforgiving Mesopotamian desert where Jayden’s tribe lives, betrothal celebrations abound, and tonight it is Jayden’s turn to be honored. But while this union with Horeb, the son of her tribe’s leader, will bring a life of riches and restore her family’s position within the tribe, it will come at the price of Jayden’s heart.
Then a shadowy boy from the Southern Lands appears. Handsome and mysterious, Kadesh fills Jayden’s heart with a passion she never knew possible. But with Horeb’s increasingly violent threats haunting Jayden’s every move, she knows she must find a way to escape—or die trying.
With a forbidden romance blossoming in her heart and her family’s survival on the line, Jayden must embark on a deadly journey to save the ones she loves—and find a true love for herself.
Set against the brilliant backdrop of the sprawling desert, the story of Jayden and Kadesh will leave readers absolutely breathless as they defy the odds and risk it all to be together.

I went a little crazy on EW! 

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