Good morning readers! How has your Sunday been? I just watched the movie One For The Money (based on the book by the same name by Janet Evanovich). Whilst Katherine Heigl wasn’t my first choice to play Stephanie Plum, I will admit she grew on me throughout the movie. Morelli was cast really well also. I enjoyed it! It was never going to be anything but light entertainment (much like the book), and it succeeded at doing that!

As always In My Mailbox is a weekly meme bought to you by the lovely Kristi at The Story Siren. I had a quieter week than last weeks IMM, but still some really good books that I am excited about.

BZRK (BZRK #1) - Michael Grant

I own the first three books of Michael Grant’s Gone Series, but I am yet to read it. The cover of this book immediately demanded my attention in the book store, even though I hadn’t heard anything about it before hand. Once I knew this was a new series, I bought a copy. It has some really strong science-fiction themes to it, but also sounds quite grisly and action packed, so I am keen to check this one out!

Brother / Sister - Sean Olin

This book was released a while ago with a bit of hype that grabbed my attention. It sounds quite confronting.

Will and Asheley have a troubled past. Their father left them when they were little, and their mother has just been carted off to an alcohol treatment center. Now, they have the house to themselves, and an endless California summer stretching out before them. Through alternating perspectives, they tell the story of how and why their lives spun violently out of control - right up to the impossibly shocking conclusion you’ll have to read for yourself to believe.

Lone Wolf - Jodi Picoult

It’s here!!!! I know Jodi Picoult isn’t exactly a YA author (Although Nineteen Minutes and The Pact have been quite popular with older teens), but she is my favourite author of all time. I’ve read most of her books (I admit, there’s still a few left that I’m to read)… and I knew there was a new one coming out! I happened to be at Dymocks the day after the came out, and I nearly left the store before bumping into the stand. I am reading this now and true to all of her other books, it’s instantly engaging and captivating.

So that is all from me this week, what’s in your mailbox? Let me know - leave your links in the comments section below!

Published: March 13th 2012

Synopsis: Olivia Bean knows trivia. She watches Jeopardy! every night and usually beats at least one of the contestants. If she were better at geography, she would try out for the show’s kids’ week. Not only could she win bundles of money, she’d get to go to the taping in California, where her dad, who left two years ago and who Olivia misses like crazy, lives with his new family.

One day Olivia’s friend-turned-nemesis, Tucker, offers to help her bulk up her geography knowledge. Before Olivia knows it, she’s getting help from all sorts of unexpected sources: her almost-stepdad, superannoying Neil; her genius little brother, Charlie; even her stressed-out mom. Soon she has breezed through the audition rounds and is headed for Hollywood! But will the one person she wants to impress more than anyone else show up to support her?

Review: This is truly a book that will make you smile. Olivia Bean knows a lot of trivia for her age… more than most adults even know for that matter. Her favourite TV show is Jeopardy!, which is her obsession. When Jeopardy! announces it’s Kid’s Week on the show, she just HAS to be a part of it!

The really endearing part of this book is that whilst it seems cute on the surface, there’s really some bigger sub plots at hand. For instance, Olivia’s parents are divorced. Her father cheated on her mother with the mother of Oliva’s best friend (are you still with me?) and then moved all the way to the other side of the country taking Oliva’s best friend with them. He never calls Oliva or her adorable younger brother Charlie when he says he’s going to, and honestly, he is too busy with gambling his money away to even care about them. When Olivia calls him, she’s nothing more than an inconvenience to him.

To make matters worse, her mother has been acting strange lately, locking herself up in her room and crying all the time. Her mother’s boyfriend is doing the best he can but Olivia’s not even sure if she likes him or not.

And at school she’s tormented by her arch-nemesis Tucker, the boy next door, who is smarter than her at geography.

Determined not to let this get the best of her though, she pours herself into trivia, and Jeopardy! each night. Can she pass the auditions for Kids Week?

Whilst this is an easy read, I definitely wouldn’t pass this off as a light read. Whilst there are some really awesome trivia facts scattered throughout the book, and the chapters are all written in the format of Jeopardy! style answers, don’t pass this book over as just a cute read. It definitely offers more!

I really adored Olivia’s brother Charlie, who looks up to Olivia so much and really just wants to be like her. He is only 5 but he is already an advanced reader and a collecter of “gross” trivia. He has some really fantastic moments throughout this book that do lighten things up at times.

Overall a really unique contemporary style YA novel that I think really anyone over the age of maybe 12 would love. I am really far outside the teen realm at my age, and I still really enjoyed this book!

Rating: 4 out of 5

Katie Alender! She is pretty amazing and her books really haven’t seemed to get that much hype, but she’s a fantastic writer!

Q: Have you ever looked at book’s cover and thought, This is going to horrible? But, was instead pleasantly surprised? Show us the cover and tell us about the book.

This is the US cover of All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin. The Australian cover was different… it at least had colour, but it wasn’t too much better IMO. But the story really kicked ass. Like, I loved it. And I wish they’d have done a better job on the cover, because if the cover matched how amazing the story was, so many more people would have snatched it off the shelves when it came out! I was lucky to have received a copy from the publisher direct and I knew a bit about the book before hand, so I ignored the cover - lucky!

It’s Wednesday! Which means it’s time to tell you what I have been up to for the last week! W..W..W.. Wednesdays is a weekly meme bought to you by MizB from Should Be Reading.

What are you currently reading?

I am reading Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver (EEEEEEEEE!). It’s really great so far!!!

What did you recently finish reading?

I finished reading Supergirl Mixtapes, the review will be coming closer to the release date!

What do you think you’ll read next?

I would love to read Fever by Lauren De Stefano next!

What is everyone out there reading at the moment?

Good morning readers! I hope you’re having a great Sunday! I am going to the movies a bit later today to see The Devil Inside… for anyone that likes horror movies, this one looks pretty good!

On to IMM this week! As always In My Mailbox is a weekly meme bought to you by the lovely Kristi at The Story Siren. I had a pretty HUGE week for books, and some really long awaited books also that I am excited to talk about!

Fever (Wither #2) - Lauren De Stefano

O.M.G! Honestly this has been one of the most anticipated books of mine for 2012, and I finally have a copy! The only other books I am waiting this bad for are Insurgent and of course Pandemonium. So I did the happy dance when this arrived for me! Unfortunately I’m not going to be able to read it immediately, but it will be like the next book I read once I have finished some ARC’s. :D I need to know what happens to Rhine and Gabriel!! And Fever sounds a bit carny as well which is creepy as!

Hana: A Delirium Short Story (Delirium #1.5) - Lauren Oliver

I didn’t even realise there WAS a short story until I was browsing Amazon for Pandemonium and saw it. For $3.28 there was no way I wasn’t going to buy it! And I have actually read this already (it’s a VERY short story). It was fantastic, it tells Hana’s story running concurrent to the time Lena meets Alex, this is Hana’s side of the story. The story converges with Delirium at the point where Hana meets Alex at the back of Lena’s work. I love these types of novellas, that fill in some of the blanks. Excellent!

Pandemonium (Delirium #2) - Lauren Oliver

One of my other most awaited books of 2012!! It’s almost mean releasing this book and Fever so closely together because there’s no way I could read both concurrently. I have started Pandemonium though, because I just couldn’t resist. And so far it’s amazing. Lena is in the Wilds, without Alex, and we meet a whole new cast of characters. I’m not even a third of the way through it yet, but I am really seeing so many possibilities!

Truth (XVI #2) - Julia Karr

Another sequel!! This is really the IMM of sequels so far! I truly loved XVI, it was truly a different type of dystopian to many others I have read, and one of my favourite dystopians of 2011. I have SO many unanswered questions from where XVI left off, so I have been really looking forward to the release of Truth. She discovered the resistance in the original story after finding out the truth about her father. I have a feeling Truth may be quite action packed as it all comes to a head!

Hunting Lila (Hunting Lila #1) - Sarah Alderson

I am so intrigued by this book! Firstly, how amazing is the cover?! It says a lot about the story line of the book as the protagonist is on the run. It’s received some brilliant reviews - each of them fairly similar when they talk about how action packed this YA book is, described as having “tons of heart-pounding action, toe-curling romance and a fast moving plot”. Definitely the kind of book I think I want to be reading sometime soon! I am keen to review this one also.Keep an eye on this space!

Heaven - Christoph Marzi

I’ll be honest. I bought this book because of the absolutely stunning cover. It’s just gorgeous. It makes me want to know more about the book. The back of the book is fairly vague but intruiging: “The night that Heaven lost her heart was cold and moonless. But the black that sliced it out was warm with her dark blood.” Described as an urban fantasy fairy tale where love, death and the stars collide. I like it already!

Partials (Partials #1) - Dan Wells

I really like Dan Well’s writing style. I enjoyed “I Am Not A Serial Killer” last year when I read it, and so I am expecting I will like this also. The plot sounds awesome - an end of the world story - engineered organic beings called Partials that look the same as humans are responsible for decimating the population, however there is a group of survivors trying to save what is left of their race. They discover that the survival of both humans and partials rests in their attempts to answer questions of the war’s origin that they never knew to ask.

So that is all from me this week, what’s in your mailbox? Let me know - leave your links in the comments section below!

Synopsis: Godspeed was once fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos. It’s been three months. In that time, Amy has learned to hide who she is. Elder is trying to be the leader he’s always wanted to be. But as the ship gets more and more out of control, only one thing is certain: They have to get off the ship.

Review: Usually I find the middle book in a trilogy more often than not to be the “filler” book. The book that bridges the exciting first and third books together but isn’t always entirely satisfying. That is exactly what A Million Suns was NOT. This book was possibly even better than the first book, it was action packed from the very start right through to the last page.

A Million Suns really just picks up where Across The Universe leaves us. I cannot say enough about how I love the world that Beth Revis has created. She is so visual with her descriptions that there really was no need for the map of the ship that we’ve seen before. Really this was more as a courtesy to the reader, but not needed!

A Million Suns has an element of mystery to it. Where Across The Universe really was setting the scene of how Godspeed was before Amy came along, A Million Suns changes direction in a massive way, as Amy is left some clues from Orion about the ship, and about a huge decision that she is told she needs to make.

Elder’s rulership has come into doubt as the ship is reaching a mutany now that the residents of Godspeed have been taken off Phydus and can think for themselves. There are more murders and suicides, acts of violence and rebellion. The people are not working any more and there is a major food crisis. And Godspeed itself has bigger issues. The engines aren’t running, and Elder is faced with some huge decisions to keep everyone under control.

I really enjoyed the fact that whilst we have a romance in Elder and Amy, it’s not overt. They don’t get too destracted with each other, and they realise that there are bigger issues at hand than their blossoming relationship. That being said there are some completely endearing and sweet moments that they share together through this book, and it’s obvious that they are really starting to fall hard for each other.

That being said, there’s not really much else I can say without spoiling the book for people. But overall, definitely an action packed, faced paced story. I loved the developments in both the storyline as well as the relationships (with ALL of the characters, not just Amy and Elder). I am really, truly, looking forward to Shades of Earth which will be the next book in the series expected to be released in 2013.

Rating: 5 out of 5

FAQ With Beth Revis:

Wow!!!!!! This cover is for the third and final book in the Matched triology by Ally Condie, and it’s DEFINITELY my new favourite cover of the series! I love the three covers - they tell a story without even having to read the book.

What do y0u think? Love it or hate it?

I wasn’t sure what books to giveaway this month! And then I had a bit of a think about it… I have already read some amazing books in 2012. So I thought my March giveaway would be around 4 of the best reads I’ve enjoyed in 2012. I am giving ONE (1) lucky winner a copy of one of the books below of their choice!

The winner will be able to choose from one of the following:

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood
Article 5 by Kristen Simmons
A Million Suns (Across The Universe #2) by Beth Revis

I will contact the winner once the competition is over to see which one you wanted! And this month, same as last month I am sticking with Rafflecopter as it was so easy to use! I think it’s an easier way for you all to enter my giveaways, and easier for me to pick a winner at the end of the month also!

Please make sure you read the terms and conditions before entering!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hey readers,

In the interest of not being dodgy, I have re-drawn the winners of Touch Of Power by Maria V Snyder, and am sharing this with you. People, if the terms and conditions of the competition states you need to live in Australia or New Zealand only, those are the rules. :( It makes it really awkward for me when I have to email the winner all excited, only to have to email them back and go… oh you’re outside of those countries. :/ I feel bad about that. But those are the terms from the publisher as they are so graciously posting the books out for me.

So the two new winners are……

Katrina & Shirley!

Hopefully you both live in Aus or NZ… LOL!! :)