All YA Love: Interview with Bryan Davis + a Winner

I have an eclectic taste in books. In the blogging world, I’ve decided to focus on YA so to get the variety I crave, I read all over the map in terms of genre. I recently had the pleasure of reading Bryan’s fantasy novel, Starlight.

The Monster Lover: Can you tell us about the book?

Bryan Davis: Starlighter is a fantasy-world adventure. One hundred years before this story begins, a dragon from the dragon planet Starlight passed through a portal to the human world (called Major 4 by humans and Darksphere by dragons). He captured several human couples and took them back to Starlight where he enslaved them, forcing them to dig for pheterone, a gas the dragons needed to survive. After the humans procreated sufficiently, he killed those he kidnapped in order to erase the memory of a home world for the humans. One human escaped and returned to Major …

Review: It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han

Format Read: HardcoverNumber of Pages: 288 pagesRelease Date: April 27, 2010Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s PublishingFormats Available: Hardcover, eBookPurchasing Info: GoodReads, Author’s Website, BookdepositoryBook Blurb:Last year, all of Belly’s dreams came true and the thought of missing a summer in Cousins Beach was inconceivable. But like the rise and fall of the ocean tide, things can change–just like that. Suddenly the time she’s always looked forward to most is something she dreads. And when Jeremiah calls to say Conrad has disappeared, Belly must decide how she will spend this summer: chasing after the boy she loves, or finally letting him go.

My Thoughts:

The sequel to The Summer I Turned Pretty, is one not to miss. It’s summer again and normally that meant heading out with her mom to Cousins Beach. But this year would be different…her …

Review: Heist Society by Ally Carter

Format read: HardcoverNumber of Pages: 287 pagesRelease Date: February 9, 2010Publisher: HyperionFormats Available: HardcoverPurchasing Info: GoodReads, Author Website, Amazon.com

Book Blurb:

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre…to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria…to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own–scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected.

Soon, Kat’s friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only …

Review: Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

Format read: HardcoverNumber of Pages: 336 pagesRelease Date: Mar 2nd, 2010Publisher: HyperionFormats Available: HardcoverPurchasing Info: GoodReads, Author Website, Bookdepository

Book Blurb:Three years ago, Sophie Mercer discovered that she was a witch. It’s gotten her into a few scrapes. Her non-gifted mother has been as supportive as possible, consulting Sophie’s estranged father–an elusive European warlock–only when necessary. But when Sophie attracts too much human attention for a prom-night spell gone horribly wrong, it’s her dad who decides her punishment: exile to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward Prodigium, a.k.a. witches, faeries, and shapeshifters.By the end of her first day among fellow freak-teens, Sophie has quite a scorecard: three powerful enemies who look like supermodels, a futile crush on a gorgeous warlock, a creepy tagalong ghost, and a new roommate who happens to be the most hated person …

Review: Hourglass by Claudia Gray

Format read: ARCNumber of Pages: 352 pagesRelease Date: Mar 9 2010Publisher: HarperteenFormats Available: HardcoverPurchasing Info: amazon.com, bookdepository.com

Book Blurb:

After escaping from Evernight Academy, the vampire boarding school where they met, Bianca and Lucas take refuge with Black Cross, a fanatical group of vampire hunters. Bianca must hide her supernatural heritage or risk certain death at their hands. But when Black Cross captures her friend-the vampire Balthazar-hiding is no longer an option.

Soon, Bianca and Lucas are on the run again, pursued not only by Black Cross, but by the powerful leaders of Evernight. Yet no matter how far they travel, Bianca can’t escape her destiny.

Bianca has always believed their love could survive anything . . . but can it survive what’s to come?

My Thoughts:

The 3rd book of the Evernight series picks up with Bianca and Lucas now hiding out with the Black Cross. Hoping this is only …

All YA Love: Interview with Y.S. Lee

Today I am honored to share an interview with Y.S. Lee. I recently had the pleasure of reading her debut A Spy In The House (The Agency #1)  and  loved this unique spin on the Victorian era.Can you tell us about the book?Spy is a novel about keeping secrets, uncovering truths, scheming women, and the Great Stink of 1858 (a disgusting heat wave that paralyzed the city of London). It’s also a zippy adventure and a lighthearted joke about mystery novels. It contains not a single vampire.

My favorite scene took place in the carriage as Mary & James talk marriage & sonnet sequences, I’m smiling just thinking about it. What was your favorite scene to write?I could write dialogue between Mary and James all day. I ended up pruning quite a lot of it because if I’d left it all in, the book …

Review: The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

Format read: ARC
Number of Pages: 336 pages
Release Date: Mar 16 2010
Publisher: Harperteen
Formats Available: Hardcover, ebook
Purchasing Info: amazon.com, bookdepository.com

Book Blurb:Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her “power” to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world . . . and the imprints that attach to their killers.Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat left for her. But now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he’s claimed haunt her daily, …

Review: Heist Society by Ally Carter

Format Read: Hardcover

Number of Pages: 304

Release Date: Feb 16, 2010

Publisher: Hyperion

Formats Available: Hardcover, Audio

Purchasing Info: Amazon.com, Book Depository

Book Blurb:

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre…to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria…to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own–scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected. Soon, Kat’s friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring her back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have …

All YA Love: Interview with Bonnie Doerr

It is our pleasure to have had an opportunity to talk with Bonnie Doerr, author of Island Sting.

Tell us a bit about ISLAND STING.

Telling about a novel I wrote should be an easy thing for me to do, right? But the book has been described so many ways by readers that I often don’t know how to approach this request. And, honestly, it’s more about what the book is to readers than what it is to me. So first I’ll use the thoughts and words of others to talk about it.

To ground the story, ISLAND STING is a contemporary adventure/mystery novel set in the Florida Keys. Though it’s often included on lists of YA reads (these days YA seems to stretch up to college age), it’s more for younger teens and tweens.

I get a kick out of stringing …

Review: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Format Read: Hardcover

Number of Pages: 480 
Release Date: March 2, 2010
Publisher: HarperCollins
Formats Available: Hardcover, eBook, Audio
Purchasing Info: Author Website, GoodReads, BookDepository

Book Blurb:What if you had only one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all—looks, popularity, the perfect boyfriend. Friday, February 12th should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it’s her last. The catch: Samantha still wakes up the next morning. In fact, she re-lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she had ever imagined.

My thoughts:One night Samantha Kingston was a typical teenager, out with friends. She was part of the ‘in’ crowd and everyone was headed to a house party. But on the …