Meridian by Amber Kizer

Half-human, half-angel, Meridian Sozu has a dark responsibility.
Sixteen-year-old Meridian has been surrounded by death ever since she can remember. As a child, insects, mice, and salamanders would burrow into her bedclothes and die. At her elementary school, she was blamed for a classmate’s tragic accident. And on her sixteenth birthday, a car crashes in front of her family home—and Meridian’s body explodes in pain. 
Before she can fully recover, Meridian is told that she’s a danger to her family and hustled off to her great-aunt’s house in Revelation, Colorado. It’s there that she learns that she is a Fenestra—the half-angel, half-human link between the living and the dead. But Meridian and her sworn protector and love, Tens, face great danger from the Aternocti, a band of dark forces who capture vulnerable souls on the brink of death and cause chaos.

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Publication Date: August 11, 2012
Publisher: Delacorte Books 
ISBN:  0385736681
Original Language: English
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Adventure/Supernatural/Romance
Source: Library
Buy the Book: Amazon
Lootability: There's room but keep looking.

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

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Publication Date: September 1st, 2010
Publisher: HarperTeen
ISBN: 0061985848
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal/Supernatural
Source: My bookshelf
Lootability: ***

Weird as it is working for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, Evie’s always thought of herself as normal. Sure, her best friend is a mermaid, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she's falling for a shape-shifter, and she's the only person who can see through paranormals' glamours, but still. Normal.
Only now paranormals are dying, and Evie's dreams are filled with haunting voices and mysterious prophecies. She soon realizes that there may be a link between her abilities and the sudden rash of deaths. Not only that, but she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

Could White have made her main character, Evie, anymore pink and sparkly in her new paranormal novel for YAs, Paranormalcy? For a girl separated from other teens, brought up surrounded by vampires, mermaids and other scary supernatural critters, she is the stereotype of a teenage girl. If she were a comic character her speech bubbles would be pink and glittery.

What I Liked: White produced an interesting view of paranormal creatures and methods for their containment. For example, Vampires are tagged with a leg tracker that will dose them with a lethal amount of holy water if they feast on human blood.
The International Paranormal Containment Agency is the ruthless guiding hand of the world's paranormals, determined to keep them under control by any means necessary.

What I Didn't Like: Evie was Vampire Hunter Barbie. The girl took down a vampire (cool, right?) with a pink rhinestone covered taser. Shouldn't there be some kind of OH&S rule about impairing the quality of your weapon? You know, maintain the dignity and usability of your weapon?
Her taser - cleverly and creatively named Tasie - is the perfect example of her creepy Barbie ways (what with matching her knee high high heeled boots and zebra print dress...)
But mostly the problem with Evie is a a problem that thrives in YA literature. A few morons once said, "OMG, like, OMG, seriously?" a few too many times and have tainted an entire generation. I'm not sure if its an American thing but I've been there, I have friends who live there and no one seemed to be a completely hollow headed moron with a speech impediment.
So here's a call out to all YA authors, please stop portraying all teenagers as mindless chimps in pink pumps.

#RantOver

Reading primarily YA novels, it gets annoying to see every character being based on stereotypes and I've taken that frustration out on my rating of this book. However, Evie does have some redeeming qualities, when she isn't muttering inanities or flashing her rhinestones (seriously though, am I the only one who fines rhinestones completely hideous?), that make her an easily likable protagonist. I would be her friend if she'd let me train the Barbie out of her.

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Cover Conversations: I want to live in that dress forever and always (see I do like some pink!). The cover model looks poised and elegant, if only every other mention of fashion hadn't been so...

Rilla of Ingleside by L.M.Montgomery

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Publication Date: First published in 1921
Publisher: McClelland & Steward
ISBN:  0553269224
Age Group: YA/Adult
Genre: Romance/Historical/War
Source: My Bookshelf
Lootability: ****

Anne's children were almost grown up, except for pretty, high-spirited Rilla. No one could resist her bright hazel eyes and dazzling smile. Rilla, almost fifteen, can't think any further ahead than going to her very first dance at the Four Winds lighthouse and getting her first kiss from handsome Kenneth Ford. But undreamed-of challenges await the irrepressible Rilla when the world of Ingleside becomes endangered by a far-off war. Her brothers go off to fight, and Rilla brings home an orphaned newborn in a soup tureen. She is swept into a drama that tests her courage and leaves her changed forever.

In My Mailbox (6)

I'm still moving through my NetGalley books from last week but I spent some time at the library today.

Pegasus by Robin McKinly
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A Brief History of Montmoray by Michelle Cooper
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A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce
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Just One of the Guys by Kristan Higgins

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Publication Date: August 1st, 2008
Publisher: Harlequin Books
ISBN:  0373772998
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Romance

Lootability: ***

Being one of the guys isn't all it's cracked up to be...So when journalist Chastity O'Neill returns to her hometown, she decides it's time to start working on some of those feminine wiles. Two tiny problems: #1--she's five feet eleven inches of rock-solid girl power, and #2--she's cursed with four alpha male older brothers.While doing a story on local heroes, she meets a hunky doctor and things start to look up. Now there's only one problem: Trevor Meade, her first love and the one man she's never quite gotten over--although he seems to have gotten over her just fine.Yet the more time she spends with Dr. Perfect, the better Trevor looks. But even with the in-your-face competition, the irresistible Trevor just can't seem to see Chastity as anything more than just one of the guys....

Hereafter by Tara Hudson

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.

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Publication Date: 7th June, 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN:  0062026771 
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Romance/Paranormal
Source: Library
Lootability: ***

Illuminate by Aimee Agresti

Haven Terra is a brainy, shy high school outcast. But everything begins to change when she turns sixteen. Along with her best friend Dante and their quiet and brilliant classmate Lance, she is awarded a prestigious internship in the big city— Chicago—and is sent to live and work at a swanky and stylish hotel under the watchful eyes of a group of gorgeous and shockingly young-looking strangers: powerful and alluring hotel owner Aurelia Brown; her second-in-command, the dashing Lucian Grove; and their stunning but aloof staff of glamazons called The Outfit.As Haven begins falling for Lucian, she discovers that these beautiful people are not quite what they seem. With the help of a mysterious book, she uncovers a network of secret passageways from the hotel’s jazz-age past that leads her to the heart of the evil agenda of Aurelia and company: they’re in the business of buying souls. Will they succeed in wooing Haven to join them in their recruitment efforts, or will she be able to thwart this devilish set’s plans to take the souls of her classmates on prom night at the hotel?

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Publication Date: March 6th, 2012
Publisher: Harcourt's Children Books
ISBN:  0547626142
Original Language: English
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Supernatural/Thriller/Romance
Source: From the publisher via NetGalley
Buy the Book: Amazon
Lootability: Grab it and go!

Waiting On Wednesday (4)

The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long
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The trees swallowed her brother whole. And Jenny was there to see it. Years later, when she returns to the woods where Tom was taken to say good-bye at last, she finds herself lured into a world where stunning beauty masks the most treacherous of evils, and strange and dangerous creatures await—creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with allegiances that shift as much as his moods. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack’s help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where nothing is what it seems, no one is who they say, and she’s faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice—and not just her own

Shadow of the Night by Deborah Harkness
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Shortly after Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont timewalk to London, 1590, they discover that the past may not provide a safe haven after all. Reclaiming his former identity as poet and spy Matthew Roydon, the vampire falls back in step with a group of radicals known as the School of Night who share dangerous ideas about God, science, and man. Many of his friends are unruly daemonsn - the creative minds of the age who walk the fine line between genius and madness - including playwright Christopher Marlowe and mathematician Thomas Harriot. Matthew, himself, is expected to continue to spy for Queen Elizabeth, which puts him in close contact with London's cutthroat underworld. 
Together, Matthew and Diana scour the bookstalls and alchemical laboratories of London where they follow the elusive trail of Ashmole 782 - and search for the witch who will teach Diana to control her powers.

February Book of the Month: Poison Study

Poison Study was the first of Maria V Snyder's books that I have read. It ended up being the first of six, and I have plans to get my hands on her dystopian series Inside Out and Inside In. The reason Poison Study became Feb's Book of the Month was the intriguing way Snyder rethought the classic heroine and drew out the series. In truth, it was Snyder's Study series that gave Poison Study it's title, but the first book of the trilogy is still my favourite.

It had close competition in Matthew Reilly's Ice Station but Reilly can't claim the same sense of mystery that Poison Study gave me. Ice Station will always be one of my favourites, but this month Poison Study really stood out for me.

February's recommendation is Poison Study by Maria V Snyder. Expect a review this week.

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