Pre-Pub Book Buzz: The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey

Oh, I love Jane Eyre. I really, really love it. As soon as I saw that Margot Livesey's The Flight of Gemma Hardy was an homage to Bronte's classic, I did a happy dance. It's a fine line, don't get me wrong. Gemma Hardy could be a wonderful read reminiscent of that tasty gothic tale, or it could be a let down because the expectations are so high. Either way, I'm excited to find out!

Here's some info from the publisher:

Fate has not been kind to Gemma Hardy. Orphaned by the age of ten, neglected by a bitter and cruel aunt, sent to a boarding school where she is both servant and student, young Gemma seems destined for a life of hardship and loneliness. Yet her bright spirit burns strong. Fiercely intelligent, singularly determined, Gemma overcomes each challenge and setback, growing stronger and more certain of her path. Now an independent young woman with dreams of the future, she accepts a position as an au pair on the remote and beautiful Orkney Islands. But Gemma’s biggest trial is about to begin . . . a journey of passion and betrayal, secrets and lies, redemption and discovery that will lead her to a life she’s never dreamed. The Flight of Gemma Hardy is a captivating tale that is both an homage and a modern variation on the enduring classic, Jane Eyre.

The Flight of Gemma Hardy hits shelves on January 24. Check out Goodreads for some early reviews.

Where's My Bookmark: The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

"Dear You, The body you are wearing used to be mine."

In the list of intriguing first lines, Daniel O'Malley's opening line from The Rook is definitely tops. And from there forward, the tale gets profoundly more intriguing and amusing.

Myfanwy Thomas opens her eyes to see a ring of bodies surrounding her and finds a letter in her pocket explaining what must be done next. She has no memory of who she is, what she does, or how she ended up in this place. The letter leads her to a safe place where she is given a choice, adopt the life she seems to have taken over, or run. Though her choice might be clear, extenuating circumstances force her to become Rook Thomas. As she reads the old Thomas's notes, explaining the organization she works for (The Checquy), what a Rook does, and all manner of strange things, the new Myfanwy takes to her life and position in a way that the old Thomas never seemed comfortable with.

This is another one of those amazingly fun books that's hard to pin down but is an absolute must read. The narrative is funny, at times laugh out loud so, the story is quirky, and I imagine the mind behind it (O'Malley) is brilliant.

The structure is interesting as well. The character has no knowledge of these things, and so the story unfolds as two tales, that of the new Myfanwy and that of the old. The new Myfanwy is our narrator and the old tells her tale through letters and notes written for her "replacement."

I have to say, as my first official 2012 read (started and finished in the new year) The Rook will go down as my first favorite of the new year as well!

The Rook officially hits shelves on Jan 11. For more on O'Malley and The Rook, visit: http://www.rookfiles.com/

New Releases 01/09/12

Some of the new titles hitting shelves this week are:

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

Gideon's Corpse by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak

Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George (Lynley #16)

The Underside of Joy by Sere Prince Halverson

American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar

The Quality of Mercy by Barry Unsworth

The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

Vulture Peak by John Burdett

The Jaguar by T. Jefferson Parker (Charlie Hood #5)

The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen by Thomas Caplan

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

A Million Suns by Beth Revis

Jessica Rules the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

New on DVD:

Moneyball

Killer Elite

What's Your Number?

New reviews at Bookbitch.com:

Kill Switch by Neal Baer and Jonathan Green

Pre-Pub Book Buzz: Partials by Dan Wells

Another adult author is jumping into the teen pool and I can't wait! Dan Wells' (author of I Am Not a Serial Killer, Mr. Monster, and I Don't Want to Kill You) new teen dystopian tale officially hits shelves on February 28. I so excited! Here's the description from Amazon:

The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by RM, a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island while the Partials have mysteriously retreated. The threat of the Partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to RM in more than a decade. Our time is running out.

Kira, a sixteen-year-old medic-in-training, is on the front lines of this battle, seeing RM ravage the community while mandatory pregnancy laws have pushed what's left of humanity to the brink of civil war, and she's not content to stand by and watch. But as she makes a desperate decision to save the last of her race, she will find that the survival of humans and Partials alike rests in her attempts to uncover the connections between them—connections that humanity has forgotten, or perhaps never even knew were there.

Dan Wells, acclaimed author of I Am Not a Serial Killer, takes readers on a pulsepounding journey into a world where the very concept of what it means to be human is in question—one where our humanity is both our greatest liability and our only hope for survival.

And if that's not enough to pique your interest, here's the brand new and very super cool book trailer:

I've said before that I am loving the dystopian trend - loving it! It's not going anywhere anytime soon!

And I also have to add that Wells' brother, Robison Wells, made his teen debut with his own teen dystopian thriller, Variant, last October.

As I mentioned, Partials isn't due out until Feb 28, but Variant IS out now, as are Wells' adult titles.

Wednesday already!

I might have mentioned a few days ago that we finally sat down and watched ALL of Game of Thrones. I may also have mentioned that I've become a bit obsessed. It's true. I'm in fantasy mode! But I've got review books stacked sky high for the next couple of weeks. Amazingly, there are some fantasy books there. Here's the first one I've dived into to satisfy the Game craving:

Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan is the first in a trilogy. Wait, that's not entirely true. Michael J. Sullivan initially self-publishing his Riyria Revelations as six individual installments. The books have since been picked up by the wonderful folks over at Orbit and combined into three volumes. So, this first volume actually includes the first two of Sullivan's stories -- The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha.

In Theft, we are introduced to Royce and Hadrian, a pair of talented thieves who call themselves Riyria. Tales of their exploits have spread across the realm and now they've been hired to break into the palace grounds to steal a sword. The job looks to be on the up and up, but the two soon find themselves the prime suspects in the King's murder.

Crown Conspiracy, the first half of Theft of Swords, serves as a setup for the rest of the book. Introducing the characters, the setting, the legends (which are pretty cool). It also makes the three volume approach really appealing since you get to move right on with the story immediately. Volume two, Rise of Empire, is out now (I've not gotten to it just yet), and volume three, Heir of Novron, is due out at the end of the month.

Orbit also recently released John R. Fultz's Seven Princes, currently warming my nightstand, and I'm doing the antsy pantsy dance in anticipation of Gail Z. Martin's Dread due out in February. I love, love, loved book one in her Fallen Kings Cycle and desperately need to read the Chronicles of the Necromancer books as well. And then there are those three honking George R. R. Martin books waiting in the wings! And in April, season 2 comes back.

Doing some genre bouncing this week as well with my bookmark currently resting in Neal Baer and Jonathan Greene's Kill Switch. So many books!

Holiday reading

Morning, folks! Believe it or not, I squandered my week off by not reading at all! Or at least not to the level I'd expected to. Putting a house in order is exhausting. No one room is finished at this point and it ate into my reading big time.

I think I literally read three and a half books and that was it. The first was a Christmas themed book. I usually avoid them (reading them anytime other than Christmas feels wrong, but there's never a guarantee I'll get to it in the right season). For Flavia de Luce, though, I decided to make an exception.

Then I read ahead a bit with Brodi Ashton's Everneath, which you may recall from this pre-pub post a while back. I have to say that I really enjoyed Everneath. It's an interesting twist on mythology. That one's due out officially on Jan 24.

My other read was Lynn Weingarten's The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers, a cute teen read with magic and heartache. Literally! It's the story of a girl who gets dumped on her first day of sophomore year. Her heart is so broken that she attracts the attention of three heartbreakers who promise that they can heal her. The twist is that in order to heal her own heart, she must break the heart of another.

It was a fun read. Very light and breezy. One that was great for such a tumultuous time (and by that I just mean the uncomfortable post move time when you can't find anything and just want to tear your hear out for all the boxes around).

But now it's time to get back on track for 2012. I was just shy of my 2011 goal at 145 books read out of 150. I'm going to aim for 150 again this year and see what happens. And the TBR grew with the wishlist gifts I received, so it's definitely time to get cracking!

Happy New Year! New releases 1/3/12

Whew, where did the time go? It's already time to get used to writing '12 on everything :)

Some of the new titles hitting shelves this week are:

Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith

The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar

A Quiet Vendetta by RJ Ellory

Seven Princes by John R. Fultz

The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi

Blind Sight by Terri Persons (reissue)

Dust of the Damned by Peter Brandvold

Gun Games by Faye Kellerman (Decker/Lazarus #20)

The Bride Wore Black Leather by Simon R. Green (Nightside)

The Confession by Charles Todd (Inspector Ian Rutledge)

Scarecrow Returns by Matthew Reilly

Sins of the Demon by Diana Rowland

Wild Wild Death by Casey Daniels (Pepper Martin #8)

The Retribution by Val McDermid

Cell 8 by Roslund & Hellstrom

The Darkening Field by William Ryan

Need You Now by James Grippando

Breakdown by Sara Paretsky (VI Warshawski)

The Hunter by John Lescroart

The Broken Land by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear

Love in a Nutshell by Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams

Bloodrose by Andrea Cremer (Nightshade book 3)

Switched by Amanda Hocking (Trylle #1)

Dreaming Awake by Gwen Hayes

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

New on DVD:

Contagion

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

Justified Season 2

I Don't Know How She Does It

Puncture

New reviews at Bookbitch.com:

The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers by Lynne Weingarten