I'm in two places at once today! As well as
being here, you can find me interviewing Sangu Mandanna about her
awesome dystopian debut THE LOST GIRL over at The Lucky 13s. THE LOST GIRL released yesterday and is a gripping tale of love, loss
and life with a unique dystopian twist. I absolutely love it and I'm hoping to
have Sangu on this blog for a chat when TLG releases with Random House in the
UK early next year (publisher siblings, yay!).
I reckon it's time for some more 20 Books
for 2012 now, so here are the next three I'm adding to the list:
FROSTFIRE by Zoe Marriott
A fantasy YA about a girl who is
possessed by a demon, and when she's forced to join a band of rebel soldiers
and grows close to their two leaders, is terrified she won't be able to protect
them from her own terrible power. I just finished reading this, and thought it
was wonderful. The writing is exquisite and the heroine is brilliantly
kick-ass. And the cover is beautiful!
SECOND CHANCE SUMMER by Morgan Matson
I've always been a huge fan of Sarah
Dessen, but I reckon she now has some serious competition for the crown of
realistic romantic contemporary. I already loved Morgan's first book, AMY AND
ROGER'S EPIC DETOUR, but this one, a story about a girl whose family take one
last vacation together before a life-changing event, forcing her to face up to
the ghosts of her past, just blew me away. Warning: do NOT read this book in
public unless you don't mind total strangers seeing you flat-out bawling. And
make sure you have plenty of tissues!
THE WITNESS by James Jauncey
A gritty, near-future dystopian set in Scotland,
where conflict over who should own land in the Highlands is escalating. A teenager
witnesses a massacre and ends up on the run with the only survivor, a young
boy. Everything about this book is just breathtaking. One of my favourites of
all time.
From next week, I'm going to be AWOL (at
least from blogging) for a while. My book 2 deadline is looming ever nearer,
and I need to take time away from the blog to make sure I get the MS finished.
However, it won't be sitting in the corner of the internet gathering cobwebs.
Some of my fellow Lucky 13s are taking over, starting with a post next week
from the awesome Ellen Oh, so I hope you'll still stop by for a read.
Until then, to the writing cave… see you
again at the end of September!
