I want to read that...

Hereafter by Tara Hudson

From Goodreads:  Can there truly be love after death?

Drifting in the dark waters of a mysterious river, the only thing Amelia knows for sure is that she's dead. With no recollection of her past life—or her actual death—she's trapped alone in a nightmarish existence. All of this changes when she tries to rescue a boy, Joshua, from drowning in her river. As a ghost, she can do nothing but will him to live. Yet in an unforgettable moment of connection, she helps him survive.

Amelia and Joshua grow ever closer as they begin to uncover the strange circumstances of her death and the secrets of the dark river that held her captive for so long. But even while they struggle to keep their bond hidden from the living world, a frightening spirit named Eli is doing everything in his power to destroy their newfound happiness and drag Amelia back into the ghost world . . . forever.

I'm really liking the sound of this one - and I adore the cover!

It's published June 2011 by Harper Collins.

Win a signed copy of The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan (UK only)

From Goodreads: Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper. His best friend is a kid named Leo, and they’re all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for “bad kids”, as Leo puts it. What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea — except that everything seems very wrong.

Piper has a secret. Her father, a famous actor, has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he’s in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn’t recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?

Leo has a way with tools. His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What’s troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper’s gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all—including Leo—related to a god.

Sound good?  Well, thanks to Just So I have one signed copy to giveaway! 

• The contest is open to UK only.
• Closing date is 5 February 2011
• You don't need to be a follower of my blog to enter.
• I will need to forward the winner's details on to my contact with Just So - so please only enter if you are happy for me to do so.

Just fill in the form below - Good Luck:)

This giveaway is now closed.

Entangled by Cat Clarke

From Goodreads:
The same questions whirl round and round in my head:
What does he want from me?
How could I have let this happen?
AM I GOING TO DIE?

17-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with a table, pens and paper - and no clue how she got here.

As Grace pours her tangled life onto the page, she is forced to remember everything she's tried to forget. There's falling hopelessly in love with the gorgeous Nat, and the unravelling of her relationship with her best friend Sal. But there's something missing. As hard as she's trying to remember, is there something she just can't see?

Grace must face the most important question of all. Why is she here?

A story of dark secrets, intense friendship and electrifying attraction.

I devoured this book.  I started it at 9am in the morning and didn't move until I had finished it - yes it was that good!  I really,  really loved it!

The story begins with Grace held captive in a white room. She has no idea how she got there or why she is there.  Only that there is paper and pens and she is supposed to write.  So she does, and this forces her to remember -  to remember things she has been trying to forget...

I absolutely adored Grace.  Her voice was the driving force of this novel and I loved how her story unfolded.  I found myself completely immersed in it, desperately wanted to know what had happened but also savouring every moment.  Grace is such a complex character and it really works.  She's not always the nicest person to those around her but underneath that you really sense 'her' and I just wanted to hug her.  Nat and Sal were also great characters.  I loved that all three of them weren't perfect - that they all made mistakes.  It made it more honest and real, and something I could completely invest in.

I loved the whole mystery aspect as well.  Who was Ethan?  Why was she there?  But also in the story Grace tells.  You know something must have happened because of the place she was in at the beginning of the story - she tells you that much - but you don't know what happened.  I really enjoyed the pace at which we found out all the details - and what they were.  There is something very honest about it - it all makes sense in retrospect and everything just falls into place.

Not everything in this novel is answered.  As the reader we are left to make up our own minds about certain things and I found that really refreshing.  I still find myself thinking about Grace and I read Entangled weeks ago.  I just can't seem to get her out of my head.  I can honestly say I can't wait to read whatever Cat Clarke writes next!  An awesome debut!

Cover Wars: Pretty Bad Things

UK / US

I am so in love with the US cover for this one! It really caught my eye when I saw it and it took me a few minutes to process it was the same book as the UK one.  I love the sunglasses and the boy in the background - and the way the title/author looks like it's taped on!

What do you think?

The Book of Luke by Jenny O'connell

From Goodreads:  From the bestselling author of Plan B comes a funny and touching new novel about a girl, a boy, and a notebook that could ruin everything.

Emily Abbott has always been considered the Girl Most Likely to Be Nice — but lately being nice hasn't done her any good. Her parents have decided to move the family from Chicago back to their hometown of Boston in the middle of Emily's senior year. Only Emily's first real boyfriend, Sean, is in Chicago, and so is her shot at class valedictorian and early admission to the Ivy League. What's a nice girl to do?

Then Sean dumps Emily on moving day and her father announces he's staying behind in Chicago "to tie up loose ends," and Emily decides that what a nice girl needs to do is to stop being nice.

She reconnects with her best friends in Boston, Josie and Lucy, only to discover that they too have been on the receiving end of some glaring Guy Don'ts. So when the girls have to come up with something to put in the senior class time capsule, they know exactly what to do. They'll create a not-so-nice reference guide for future generations of guys — an instruction book that teaches them the right way to treat girls.

But when her friends draft Emily to test out their tips on Luke Preston — the hottest, most popular guy in school, who just broke up with Josie by email — Emily soon finds that Luke is the trickiest of test subjects . . . and that even a nice girl like Emily has a few things to learn about love.

When we first meet Emily she is being forced to move back to Boston, her boyfriend dumps her and it turns out her father is not coming with them!  But being back in Boston is not all bad. She reconnects with her old best friends, Josie and Lucy,  and together they come up with a perfect idea for their senior time capsule:  an instruction book for guys teaching them the right way to treat girls.  Of course, they decide they should test it out and who better to test it on than Luke Preston - Josie's ex boyfriend who dumped her by email!  Determined not to be a nice girl anymore Emily launches herself into the plan with gusto - but things don't go according to plan...

This was a fun read.  I like Jenny O'Connell's  writing style - she always creates really interesting characters.  I really liked Emily despite the fact that what she was doing was really mean.  And there is no way round that - the three friends are being incredibly mean.  But you can see why they do it which makes it work.  Also you get a good insight into Emily and her home life - and you take the journey with her as she learns that not all things are black and white.

I really loved Luke.  I liked how Jenny O'Connell made him three dimensional.  He wasn't just another hot guy but came across as a real person with flaws.  He hasn't always done the right thing but he's not being  intentionally mean.  And I loved the scenes with him and Emily.  They really seemed to connect - they told each other things they hadn't told anyone else.

My favourite aspect of the story though was Emily and her father and I was a bit disappointed this wasn't explored a bit more.  I would also have liked more on Emily reconnecting with her friends and looking at her relationship with her friends back in Chicago.   I would rather have had the 'test out the guide' plot end a bit sooner and have these elements become the focus but overall I enjoyed the book. And I'm definitely interested in reading whatever Jenny O'Connell writes next.