Title: Blood Red Road (Dustlands, #1)
Author: Moira Young
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry, 512 Pages (June 7th 2011)
From: the Publisher/Amazon Vine Program

Synopsis: Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba's world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back.

Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she's a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.

Review: 4 Stars - Blood Red Road, by author Moira Young is one of the latest editions to the YA dystopian genre that’s taking readers by storm. The characters of Young’s dry and dusty world will stick with you long after finishing.

In the first few pages we meet Saba and her family - twin brother Lugh, little sister Emmi and their father - who live a meager life on the rim of a dying, if not pretty much dead lake. It’s a harsh life, as is any life within a dystopian world. They live day to day, waiting for rain that might not ever come.

Saba takes her strength from her brother. She follows his lead and works hard to do her part. Lugh is the golden boy – so to speak and does all he can for both of his sisters. Their father has been somewhat of a lost soul since their mother passed away years earlier. Then there’s the youngest child, Emmi, nine, who is just trying to find her way in the family.

When a big red cloud comes fast and furious across the dry lake bed, none of them could imagine what was about to happen next.

I thought that Saba was strong at the beginning of the book, but she’s a different person at the end. She was stubborn, hard headed and fiercely determined. To me, she’s the epitome of a heroine in the ever growing popularity in the dystopian genre. She faces everything with the same strength and stubbornness, but grows because of it and her family and the other people she meets along her journey.

Jack is one of those people she meets along the way. He’s a character to say the least. He challenges Saba and while the two tend to butt heads, there’s more to it than meets the eye. I loved Jack! It’s all about the push and pull to their relationship that I couldn’t get enough of. There is a bit of romance to the story, but it’s something that’s in the background.

The writing took me awhile to get use to. It wasn’t anything I’d experienced in other books to this extent. I’d have to say it was more the narrative of Saba that was a struggle at the beginning. Once I got use to it, it wasn’t anything I even noticed as much. However, it fits the characters and the world that Young has created.

All in all, Blood Red Road is filled with some amazingly strong characters in a bleak environment. Young’s story and characters are ready to take the genre by storm. I highly recommend this book to anyone, especially fans of the dystopian genre. And for me, the long wait begins for the next book in the Dustlands series. Enjoy!

FTC Disclaimer: I did NOT pay for this book, nor have I been compensated at all in any way or means for reading and writing this HONEST review.

"Just Picked" is a feature here at A Life Bound By Books. This is a place where I'll be spotlighting new (and old) childrens book or picture books for parents and new readers. It's a place to talk about books for a younger group and to try to help create a new generation of readers.

Title: Suryia & Roscoe: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship
Author: Dr. Bhagavan Antle, Barry Bland & Thea Feldman
Illustrator/Photographer: Barry Bland
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co., 32 Pages (April 26th 2011)
Age Range: 4-8
From: the Publisher, Thank You!

Synopsis: Who can imagine an orangutan being friends with a dog? Is it even possible?

With Suryia and Roscoe it is!

Dogs and orangutans rarely meet, and when they do, they are naturally shy around each other. But when Suryia the orangutan first meets Roscoe, a stray dog, they become best friends from the start.

Set on a preserve for rare animals, The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (T.I.G.E.R.S.) in South Carolina, here is a true story of a remarkable friendship between two unforgettable animals.

Review: 3 Stars - Suryia & Roscoe is filled with cute pictures and the story of an orangutan and its dog and the two look like the best of friends. Yes, you read that correctly! It’s the pictures for me that are more what the book is all about. However, the preserve that they live on is the most important part of their story. Thought it’s not mentioned much, it’s there enough to get you thinking and maybe have kids asking more questions about the world and the endangered animals in it.

My niece is a huge fan of primates anytime she visits the zoo, so this book was a big hit with her. I’m always excited to share books with the kids in our family and this cute story about friendship is just another one that we can read together.
FTC Disclaimer: I did NOT pay for this book, nor have I been compensated at all in any way or means for reading and writing this HONEST review.

Title: Across the Universe (Across the Universe, #1)
Author: Beth Revis
Publisher: Razorbill, 398 Pages (January 11th 2011)
From: Purchased on Amazon

Synopsis: A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Review: 4.5 Stars - Across the Universe by author Beth Revis was unlike anything I’ve ever read before. It’s a story set in the future, aboard a spaceship with intriguing characters looking for the truth in a world of lies and a mystery that could change the course of their future. Revis writing, setting, characters and plot ebbed and flowed to make this one of those books that sticks with you, leaving you looking for more.

Right from the beginning we are thrust into an extremely vivid world and its characters. Amy, our main female lead is given a choice and it’s a doozy! Stay with her aunt and uncle on earth, or be frozen in a cryo chamber along with her parents in order to take the long journey to what’ll become their new home. Revis has a knack for writing a scene where you feel like you’re right there with the character, so when Amy makes up her mind, to be frozen along side her parents, after watching them go through the traumatic experience you feel the true emotion of the decision.

Being awakened early was more than a jarring experience for Amy. She’s now part of the living community on Godspeed. A community that doesn’t like change or anything that’s different. They are strict and have many rules that are so far removed from all that Amy knows, it’s a wonder she was able to cope as well as she did.

Elder is one of a very small group of people who go out of their way to befriend Amy. He’s in training to become the next ruler of the people on the ship. Amy gets under his skin. She teaches him about the real world and how things should be, compared to how they are. When he starts to question more and more about what he’s been taught, they start to uncover a mystery that’s much bigger than they expected. There’s feelings flowing between the two that are only lightly touched on, but I can see this blossoming into more in the future books yet to come.

With someone out to kill the people who are frozen, it’s a race against time to try to save her parents and everyone else and find and stop the person before it’s too late.

All in all, I was shocked on more than one occasion; however it perfectly fit in this dystopian story set in space. There’s a lot going on throughout the book, its mystery on top of mystery, built on a bed of lies. With all the twists and turns, it’s a thrilling, fast paced read that had me flipping the pages well into the wee hours of the night. I loved the characters and the setting. Revis knows her way around words, using them as brush strokes and the page as her canvas. I can’t wait for more from her in the future, I’m a HUGE fan! What’s up next for the author? How about the sequel – A Million Suns out 2012! I will be waiting and excited to read the continuing Sci-Fi story.

FTC Disclaimer: I DID pay for this book, and have NOT been compensated at all in any way or means for reading this book and or writing this HONEST review.

"Waiting On" Wednesday is an event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. The purpose of this weekly event is to spotlight a soon-to-be-released book that you are very much anticipating. "Waiting On" Wednesday will also give bloggers an opportunity to share ideas for our TBR lists.

Title: Shattered Souls
Author: Mary Lindsey
Publisher: Philomel/Penguin, 336 Pages (December 8th 2011)
Preorder here: Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Noble,
The Book Depository

Synopsis: Lenzi hears voices. She also sees visions--gravestones, floods, a gorgeous guy with steel gray eyes. She knows she must be going crazy, just like her dad did. Her boyfriend, Zak, can't do anything to help, and the voices just keep getting louder, the visions more intense. But when Lenzi meets Alden, the boy from her dreams, everything makes sense.

Sort of.

He tells Lenzi that she's a reincarnated Speaker--someone who can talk to lost souls and help them move on--and that he has been her Protector for centuries. But instead of embracing her abilities, Lenzi struggles between her life as the girlfriend of a sexy musician and the life she is destined to lead with Alden. Yet time is running out; a malevolent spirit has been trying to destroy Lenzi for ages, and he will surely kill her if she doesn't make a decision soon.

Her choices are clear: Destiny or normalcy. Alden or Zak. Life or death.

Title: As I Wake
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile, 224 Pages (September 15th 2011)
Preorder here: Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Noble,
The Book Depository

Synopsis: What if you woke up and didn't know where you were?


What if you didn't know who you were?


And what if, when your memories started to come back--what if they didn't match the you that you're supposed to be?


Ava is welcomed home from the hospital by a doting mother, lively friends, and a crush finally beginning to show interest. There's only one problem: Ava can't remember any of them--and can't shake the eerie feeling that she's not who they say she is.


Ava struggles to break through her amnesiac haze as she goes through the motions of high-school life, but the memories that surface take place in a very different world, where Ava and familiar-faced friends are under constant scrutiny and no one can be trusted. Ava doesn't know what to make of these visions, or of the boy who is at the center of them all, until he reappears in her life and offers answers . . . but only in exchange for her trust.

And the amazing sounding books just keep coming. That's okay, I'm happy to add them to my wish lists. I'm excited for both of these too! Anyone else looking forward to either of these... or both?


*covers are always subject to change.
*I am not compensated at all for any of the links within this post.

Hourglass is released TODAY from Egmont!

Happy Book Birthday!!

Synopsis: One hour to rewrite the past . . .

For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.

So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson’s willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.

Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he’s around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

Interview with author Myra McEntire

How old were you when you started writing? And did you know you always wanted to be an author

Probably around eight, but seriously about thirty-mumble. And yes, I did always want to be an author.

Has time travel - or in Hourglass it’s time slip – always been something you knew you wanted to write about? And what was your inspiration?

No, it was a complete surprise to me. I just followed the story!

What was the hardest part in writing Hourglass?

Getting the ending right!

Was there something that happened throughout your road to becoming published that was a surprise to you?

I was surprised by how lovely other authors are. It’s such a giving community.

Without giving too much away, could you share with us a favorite line or two from Hourglass?

“Buttered biscuits and honey.”

Can you tell us a secret… something we might not know about one or more of your main characters? You don’t have to tell us names, maybe we could try to figure out what secret belongs to whom?

One of them LOVES bluegrass music.

Is there something you think every aspiring author should know?

No one is going to write the book for you. It’s you and the page, and when you’re serious about it, you’ll make the words come.

Lastly, what’s coming up next for you? Can you tell us anything about what we can be eagerly looking forward to?

I just turned in the sequel to HOURGLASS, and I’m playing around with a couple of new ideas. It’s all story soup right now!

Myra, thanks SO much for visiting with us today. It was great of you to take the time to stop by. I hope that you’ll be able to visit with us again soon!

THANK YOU!
MM


Find Myra Online:

Blog | Twitter | Facebook

Check out my review of Hourglass - HERE