Mail Call!

This week was a great week, book-wise and mail-wise! (Meme created by the always-awesome Story Siren)!

Chasing Blue by Jessica Burkhart

    Now that Sasha Silver and her horse, Charm, have proven that they're worthy competitors for the Canterwood Crest equestrian team, Sasha's psyched to get back to school...until self-proclaimed It girl, queen bee, and owner of the I'm-so-way-better-than-you-are attitude, Heather Fox, is assigned as Sasha's riding partner.

   Not. Good.

   And when Heather starts spending a little too much QT with Sasha's almost-boyfriend, Jacob, their partnership is put to the ultimate test...

I loved the first book in this series, Take the Reins, so after finishing it I immediately went to Borders and bought the second book in the series--I'm so excited to see what's next for Sasha and co!

   

Bedeviled by Shani Petroff (August 20, 2009)

  All Angel's father (aka the Devil) wants is to be a part of her life. And in return he has the power to give her anything she wants--including popularity and a date with her long-time crush, Cole Daniels. But Angel will only accept him on her terms: get out of the devil business and leave his special powers out of the equation. Is Angel condemning herself to an eternity of lunch at the losers' table? Or can she and Daddy Dearest strike some kind of deal?

Thanks to much to Shani Petroff, Yan, and TheBookworm for getting this book to me for a Traveling to Teens blog tour. I'm so excited to read it--it was my Waiting on Wednesday pick a few weeks back, and I just adore that daughter-of-the-devil concept. So cool! Plus I love the cute little devil/angel rubber duckies that came in the package. Adorable!

Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan (August 25, 2009)

   The lives of three teens--Claire, Jasper, and Peter--are altered forever on September 11, 2001. Claire, a high school junior, has to get her younger brother in his classroom. Jasper, a college sophomore from Brooklyn, wakes to his parents' frantic calls from Korea, wondering if he's okay. Peter, a classmate of Claire's, has to make his way back to school as everything happens around him.

   Here are three teens whose intertwining lives are reshaped by this catastrophic event. As each gets to know the other, their moments become wound around each other's in a way that leads to new understandings, new friendships, and new levels of awareness for the world around them and the people close by.

This book sounds quite amazing. I've never read a book by David Levithan (I know, I know) or about September 11th, but I'm really excited to read this book. It looks really cool.

Diary of a Witness by Catherine Ryan Hyde (August 25, 2009)

   Ernie doesn't have a lot of friends at school. Just Will. They have stuff in common-like fishing. But more important, they have common enemies: the school jocks, who seem to find bullying just another sport.

   For the most part, Ernie and Will take life at high school in stride. Until Will has one very bad day. Now nothing is remotely funny. Ernie finds himself a witness--to loss, to humiliation, and to Will's anger--an anger that's building each and every moment.

   Ernie doesn't want to believe his best friend is changing, but he can't deny the truth. Soon he has a choice: join or die. Or can he find another way?

Thanks to Random House for sending me a copy.  I've heard of this author before, and the book sounds interesting so I might just give it a try...I also LOVE this cover!!!

Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiani (September 1, 2009)

   I'm marooned.

   Abandoned.

   Left to rot in boarding school...

   Viola doesn't want to go to boarding school, but somehow she ends up at an all-girls school in South Bend, Indiana, far, far away from her home in Brooklyn, New York. Now Viola is stuck for a whole year in the sherbet-colored sweater capital of the world. Ick.

   There's no way Viola is going to survive the year--especially when she has to replace her best friend Andrew with three new roommates who, disturbingly, actually seem to like it there. She resorts to viewing the world (and hiding) behind the lens of her video camera.

   Boarding school, though, and her roommates and even the Midwest are nothing like she though they would be, and soon Viola realizes she may be in for the most incredible year of her life.

   But first she has to put down the camera and let the world in.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to Sarah at GreenBeanTeenQueen for picking me up an ARC at the ALA Conference! I am so thrilled to begin--I love the concept of this book and have been dying to read it! (I think Sarah deserves Nicest Blogger of the Year Award, don't you?) Thanks, Sarah!

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See you back next week! (: