UKYA

I’ve decided to write a few of these posts every now and again, talking about the latest cover releases, book releases, and any other bookish news.

Yesterday, the cover of The Elites by Natasha Ngan was revealed and…it is GORGEOUS! I will definitely be buying this book about twenty times because, not only is the cover to die for, it sounds amazing from the summary.

‘There is a rumour that the Elites don’t bleed.’

Hundreds of years into the future, wars, riots, resource crises and rising sea-levels have destroyed the old civilisations. Only one city has survived: Neo-Babel, a city full of cultures – and racial tension. Fifteen-year-old Silver is an Elite, a citizen of Neo-Babel chosen to guard the city due to her superior DNA. She’d never dream of leaving – but then she fails to prevent the assassination of Neo Babel’s president, setting off a chain of events more shocking and devastating than she could ever have imagined. Forced to flee the city with her best friend Butterfly (a boy with genetically-enhanced wings), Silver will have to fight to find her family, uncover the truth about Neo-Babel and come to terms with her complicated feelings for Butterfly.

The second cover reveal that has happened recently is for Ally Carter’s last book in the Gallagher Girls series, United We Spy. I’ve loved the whole series so far, so I’ll definitely be reading this one.

Cammie Morgan has lost her father and her memory, but in the heart-pounding conclusion to the best-selling Gallagher Girls series, she finds her greatest mission yet. Cammie and her friends finally know why the terrorist organization called the Circle of Cavan has been hunting her. Now the spy girls and Zach must track down the Circle’s elite members to stop them before they implement a master plan that will change Cammie—and her country—forever.

I’ve recently started reading the Harry Potter series for the first time (review to come on Friday) and have whizzed through them. The next one I have to read is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which I’m hoping to start very soon.

I’ve also started After Eden by Helen Douglas, but am not through enough to comment so far. I’m optimistic though!

I’ve been asked to create a board for my English department, displaying books and things to do with reading.

I’ve decided to do a UKYA theme and so I need a few things from you.

1. I need your UKYA recommendations! Whether it be suitable for boys or girls, I need them. 

2. I need you to write a few things to do with your favourite UKYA books. Best ones will be featured!

3. I need you to spread the word. I’d love to be able to make this board the best it can possibly be because I’m trying to get people to read the books and you guys are experts. What would you like reading? 

And also, going off on a tangent, I’ve started a UKYA Goodreads group! You can join here. Do tell me if you’ve joined! 

Please tweet me or write in the comments below.

Thank you,

Lucy 

The Drowning is very different from Ward’s first trilogy, Numbers, in many ways, but it is also very similar. The thing I love the most about this author is that we know what to expect and my expectations were very high for The Drowning. Those expectations were, however, were low compared to how much I actually loved this book.

After an accident that killed his brother, Carl has been left with amnesia. This meant that the reader gets to know the world that Carl lives in at the same time he does. I’m very fond of amnesia stories for this very reason because there’s so much opportunity for world building. And world building we are given! 

I felt so sympathetic towards Carl. With his mother being an alcoholic, something I didn’t think was addressed enough in the book, his life was incredibly difficult. There are so many scenes within this novel when I just wanted to pull Carl out of the book and give him a hug. He really didn’t deserve the life he led. 

This book was so, so spooky and haunting. It made a shiver run along my spine and I kept looking over my shoulder. The supernatural twist added is something that I really liked, even if I was a little creeped out at times (that was a good thing, though!). 

I must warn you now of the following: Do not read this book in the bath or shower. You may be scarred for life. Water plays a really big part in this book, hence the name The Drowning, and so I don’t think you’ll ever see a lake in the same light again. 

I really enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes something a bit spookier than your normal light and fluffy reads. Ward has created a world that I both fear and want to go back to add the same time. 

I loved The Look. I’ve been wanting to read this since I heard that the author, Sophia Bennett, had written an new one so I was super excited when I got home one day to find it sat in my living room. There may have been squealing involved.

I’ve come to expect amazing covers from Chicken House and I definitely wasn’t disappointed with this book. Covers aren’t something I usually discuss in my reviews but I can’t not mention it in this one because, yes, it has gorgeous blue edging. I was actually a little bit sad to read it because I didn’t want to damage the cover but I did because, obviously, using my magical powers, I knew that the content inside the book would be even better than the cover, and that’s saying something.

A major theme in You Don’t Know Me is social networking and I think this is something that needs to be mentioned more in books for this age group. It’s hard to think of someone nowadays who doesn’t have access to Facebook or Twitter or any other means of social networking. I am one of those people who is constantly checking my Twitter feed- something I’m not too happy about!- and so it was nice to see the consequences of these websites laid out in front of the reader. I was appalled at some of the events that took place and, like with other books, my faith in humanity was somewhat crushed.

This was very much a character driven novel and I loved all of the characters. Written from Sasha’s point of view, it was easy to become familiar with the way that Bennett writes and Sasha was very easy to like. I did feel sorry for her; if I was her, I wouldn’t have acted the way that she did. That isn’t to say that she was unrealistic, because this book was anything but. Jodie, Nell, and Rose, Sasha’s best friends, were also extremely well-written and I couldn’t help but fall in love with them a little bit. These are four girls, counting Sasha, that I would want to be friends with if they weren’t fictional!

You Don’t Know Me has quickly become one of my favourite UKYA books. It is instantly recognisable as written by Sophia Bennett because only she could write something like this. It was a book that I thoroughly enjoyed and I’ll definitely be recommending it to all of my friends.

In this deep and heartfelt novel, Flood appeals to the readers emotions and sends them on a whirlwind journey of discovery.

When a family of travellers move into the paddock behind Iris Dancy’s farmhouse, she is immediately transfixed. Who are these people, and why does her dad hate them so much?

This book deals with tough subjects such as prejudice and discrimination and I think those subjects were dealt with in a very good manner. The hostility that was aimed towards the characters was disgusting, but very well written.

It’s very hard to read this book and not get hit by a wave of emotions. Iris, our main character, is very mature and has to deal with a lot of hard issues in this book. She was a likeable character and I really did want to read more about her.

I was expecting that there would be a heavy romance in this book but there actually wasn’t. I thought this would be something that I would hate because I love romantic novels but, instead, it was full of these incredibly sweet moments and I don’t think you could say that this is a romance novel.
This was actually a good thing because it meant that the reader was able to focus on the bigger points in the novel, which there were plenty of.

Trick was a very interesting character. I felt like we got to know him, only for him to do something which would change my opinion of him. I don’t mean that in a bad way because I liked him throughout but his character was constantly developing, which was a nice thing to see.

I read this book within a day and couldn’t put it down. It was an emotional and thrilling read and I’m looking forward to seeing more from this debut author in the future.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Page Count: 288 pages
Format: Paperback ARC
Acquired: Sent to me from Sophie from So Many Books, So Little Time
Publication Date: February 14th 2013

The Hit is all about revolution, rebellion and revolt. With its amazing premise, it’s no surprise that this was a book that I really enjoyed reading.

Death. It’s a drug that will give you the best week of your life and then kill you. So why take it? What’s the point? After a famous singer takes Death and then drops dead on stage, a rebellion starts and then people find themselves taking this lethal drug. Adam and Lizzie find themselves in the middle of the revolt and they then find that their lives are changing. But then Adam takes Death. Will he realise his mistake before it’s too late?

This book is full of twists and turns that kept me reading on. THE HIT isn’t something that I’d usually read but I was surprised to find that I really liked it.

Burgess has thrown the reader into a world where there are riots, crime and the people have had enough. One of the worrying things was that this world was not actually that far from our own. Burgess has taken the bad aspects of our world and put them altogether. The worldbuilding was one of my favourite things about this novel.

I think having this written in third person really added something because it meant that we got to see a wider part of the plot.

Adam was a really interested character and, although I didn’t agree with all of his actions, I did like him as a person. Throughout the book, we really see him mature. Some of the changes that he goes through are rather sad because they aren’t done by choice but thrown at him.
Lizzie was also a really good character and I found myself warming to her instantly. Although, just like with Adam, I didn’t agree with some of the things she did, her actions always added to the plot and kept me wanting to read on.

I really loved the ending. There were so many sub-plots so I was never sure of how it actually would end; I was really worried that I would end up crying. Luckily, I wasn’t in need of tissues but I still felt pretty emotional and a wave of relief rolled over me.

This book kept me gripped and it’s something that I would recommend to anyone who is looking for something a little different and exciting.

March has been a really good month for me and I’ve read so many amazing books. 

Here is the list of this months books:

So in total I read 19 books! I think this has been my best month yet and I’ve loved nearly every single book that I picked up. 

I’d like to thank my librarian, Tracy, for all her recommendations, Sophie from So Many Books, So Little Time for sending me Infinite Sky to read and also to Chicken House for sending me The Hit. 

Although there is a clear favourite this month, I’m going to be picking out my five favourite books because I read so many that I loved. I’ve been reading so many five star books and so it’s really not fair if I only choose one!

1. Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare- This definitely beat all of the other books by miles because it was truly amazing. It made me laugh, cry and scream in frustration which made me vulnerable to some odd looks whilst reading!

2. Skin Deep by Laura Jarratt- This was originally going to be my favourite book of the month but was overtaken by Clockwork Princess right after. I really couldn’t put this down and have since read and loved the author’s second novel, By Any Other Name, although I don’t want to add two books by the same author.

3.The Host by Stephenie Meyer- I finished this two days ago- the last day of March- and, just as above, I couldn’t put it down. I originally wasn’t going to read it but then changed my mind and I’m now waiting to see the film.

4. Nobody’s Girl by Sarra Manning- This was a fun read that I picked up one night after school and I read it within a few hours. I was completely captivated by it.

5. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas- This was my choice of book for my book club and I really enjoyed it. I’ve never read a book quite like it and loved the world that was created.

Last month I said that I wanted to reach 190 followers by the end of March and I’m actually at 185 right now. I thought that I’d be very upset by this but, actually, I’m not. I’ve eased up a little bit and have decided to take a more relaxed approach with blogging because it should be something I enjoy, rather than finding it a chore/ finding it competitive. 

So for this reason, I won’t be making any massive goals this month. 

1. Experiment a little bit- I really want to just post when I feel like posting and not worry about how many times I post each week. There may be times when I post every day, and there may be times when I post twice a week but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

2. Read ten books- I might be able to push this a little higher but lately I’ve been enjoying reading for fun and so I want to continue doing this.

3. Read more UKYA- I did read quite a bit in March but I want to start prioritising more and I think UKYA will be top of my list.

4. Have a really good blogoversary- My blogoversary is coming up on April 20th and so I’m going to start planning out this week so that I’m prepared.

Written in the voice of Molly, a typical teenage girl, this is a novel that girls will be able to relate to and enjoy. Plaja has created a fun and realistic environment in which teens can read about and escape into this world full of both hilarious and cringe-worthy moments.

Lets face it: teenagers have a hard life. The teen years are all about discovering yourself and this is what is happening to Molly. At the start of the novel we see her fuming over a fight with her best friends and this is the first hint we get at her character. Although not the most commanding person, we gradually see her confidence build and she then turns into a character that the reader feels comfortable getting to know. 

This is a story all about discovery and it becomes a major theme. Molly’s life is changing and a lot of the other, secondary characters’ as well. 

Molly lives in a shopping mall and it’s easy to conjure up the image of her surroundings. It’s a very clever idea and I’m sure many people dream of living in a place where they can walk out of there front door and come face to face with hundreds of shops. Yet Plaja has flipped these images and created a contrast where Molly begins to regret living where she does. 

This was a light-hearted and exciting novel that I greatly enjoyed. After reading I definitely felt like finding a shopping mall and seeing if I could find some of the characters for myself! Maybe not…