Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Top 11 Books I am looking forward releasing in 2011

This is one of those lists that is super arbitrary. It's put together in an evening when I'm sleep deprived and a morning when I need coffee, working purely from the memory of what books I'm looking forward to. And it looks like all the writers are girls. Hum.

Demonglass, Rachel Hawkins. 
Goodreads Description.


I really enjoyed the first book, and following Ms. Hawkins' blog and twitter only reinforced the truth of the fact that she's hilarious. :D Plus Archer was one of my favourite boys of the year. Maybe because he's possibly evil? I'm not telling. ^_^
Late Eclipses, Seanan McGuire

Toby has so many circling dooms which could come to rest on her at ANY TIME. Which one will try and take her down this time? Her ancient friend with the standing promise to kill her? The old enemy who once turned her into a fish? The family with a liking for vengeance whose son she basically crippled? (Okay, he's a selkie, and he was dead at the time, and it was an accident, but still.) Her run of car luck expiring in shrapnel? 

Plus, I love the world and the characters and the plots. 

Also, Tybalt, who is up there also for best MAN of the year. As I usually read YA, he might win that little competition, actually. (No, I don't like Conner, I don't trust him. And he aims for trustworthy. Which makes me go all snakey.)

River Marked, Patricia Briggs.

So I wasn't thrilled on ALL counts by the last book. But even when Ms. Briggs is doing things to my characters (er, I mean hers, right, hers,) that make me TEAR MY HAIR AND WAIL IN DESPAIR, I still love her books. Her writing style is just about perfectly my cup of tea, and I love her world past all reason. Yes, Vampires are creepy as all get-out. *shudders at a mind-control memory* 

Plus, in this one we get into personal history, which I am always a sucker for. *beams*

Across The Universe, Beth Revis

Have I not been clear about my longing for this book? It's a teen SF mystery with a romance, but more importantly with a MURDERER on the loose. And her parents are important to the MC. Also, it's SF. Have I mentioned how deeply and passionately I feel the need for more good SF?
Possession, Elana Johnson

"Control or be Controlled."
It's Dystopian SF about mind control. Is any surprised I'm longing for it? Didn't think so.

Red Glove, Holly Black
"The cons get twistier and the stakes get higher."

The sequel to White Cat. AUGH I need it NOW NOW NOW. *grabby hands*

Divergent, Veronica Roth

This one I'm kinda taking on faith, because so many people are going gobbly about how good it is. Which hasn't worked for me for ALL books, but it did for y'know; Rosemary and Rue, White Cat, and Matched. And I know it's Dystopia, but I can stop at any time. Any time.

Okay, I'm gonna quote the whole descpription, because it is AWESOME.
In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. 

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her. 

(Also, it sounds remarkably like the stories I used to tell to the small ones. So there's that.)
(Also, virtues should be striven for more.)

Bitterblue, Kristin Cashore
There isn't a title or description up yet, but come on. It's Kristin Cashore. Fire reminded me why I read fantasy in the first place. 

Prized, Caragh O'Brien
The more Birthmarked sits in the back of my memory, the more I like it. And I want more. :D


Anna Dressed In Blood, Kendare Blake

To be honest, all I have on this one is the Goodreads description, but it certainly got me. So have a look!
Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story. . . 

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead. 

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay. 

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home. 

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.
The Name of the Star, Maureen Johnson
Here, have the Goodreads description.
A modern-day thriller about Rory, an American high-school student who enrolls at a London boarding school for her junior year. Soon after her arrival, a series of murders begins to take place across the city—on the exact dates and in the exact style of Jack the Ripper. Rory’s ties to the killer bring her in contact with a secret paranormal branch of the British police, as they attempt to stop the mysterious killer
NEED I SAY MORE? DIDN"T THINK SO. 



BONUS BOOKS BECAUSE I"M BAD AT CHOOSING.

Memento Nora, Angie Smibert


Supernaturally, Kiersten White

And now I have to go to work so I'm sure I'll weep over the books I forgot later.

3 comments:

Bahnree said...

My Patricia Briggs omnibus is still leering at me.

DITTO about Birthmarked and Prized!

Snazel said...

I"m really not sure if you'd like Patricia Briggs. I'm pretty sure there's technical issues, I just can't even tell, because it is so exactly my cup of tea. So exactly.

Bahnree said...

Yeah, I'm going to read it with an open mind, cuz otherwise I'll have all these expectations it won't fulfill and then I'll dislike it for no reason. ^_^

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