The Brothers Torres

I really liked the way that this book handled its mood--more like a stage play than a novel. It starts out playful and quirky, with little details giving you the hint of things to come. Then, in "act three" the air thinkens and there's nothing playful or funny anymore. V.L.

Brothers Torres
By Coert Voorhees

Growing up in small border town in New Mexico, Frankie Torres has always lived in the shadow of his older brother Steve. Steve is worshipped as a soccer hero by his fellow high school students and adored as a perfect son by his parents. Frankie is neither a sports superstar, nor an A student, nor a social favorite.

He is, however, a good friend and a dependable worker at his family's Mexican restaurant while his brother is constantly off at games and practices. What Frankie practices is blowing things up in the desert with his best friend and different ways to eventually, when he gets the courage, ask Rebecca Sanchez to the homecoming dance.

But now Steve is courting a tough crowd of cholos, staying out late and lying about it. Frankie loyally helps his brother keep their parents in the dark. He gets it that Steve is experimenting with the respect and masculine power that the local gangs command, but he is scared. When Frankie awkwardly gets into a confrontation over Rebecca with the wealthiest kid in town, Steve & his new friends step in to defend him.

At the turn of a page the story turns from humorous to dangerous. The violence escalates as both sides retaliate. Debts of loyalty accrue and the very air becomes flammable with the flaring testosterone. It may be up to little brother Frankie to be the hero and douse the big macho flames.

Reviewed by Vivian

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can join. Here are the rules
(1) Grab your current read
(2) Open to a random page
(3) Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
(4) BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!
(5) Share the title & author, too, so that other other participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

This week I'm reading Crazy beautiful by Lauren Barayz-Logsted. And oh, I like it.
Here's my teaser:

If I'd known then what I Know now...
I'd have touched everything in sight, everything I could get my hands on. I'd have grabbed the nearest girl I could find and, not caring how crazy she thought me, touched my hands to her face just to know what that feels like.
Is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all?
I, never having loved before, have no real answer to the question.

It's so good so far.

Strange Angels by Lili St Crow - Review

Sixteen-year-old Dru has a sixth sense for sensing paranormal activity – ghosts, suckers, werewulfen, and the like. She moves from town to town with her father hunting them down. It’s not an easy life and she’s a tough girl. But is she tough enough to survive the night when her father does not make it back from a mission?

Dru teams up with Graves, a homeless goth boy, to survive. But he has his own problems – a werewulfen bite of all things. Can Dru still trust him? And then there’s Christopher, who keeps turning up in the most unexpected places. Who is he and what side is he on? And who else is hunting Dru? And why?

This is a different look at the paranormal world and monster hunting in general. It’s a dark, creepy, and sinister world to live in, and Dru and her friends are very well drawn. It’s an action-packed adventure that is as unusual as it is tense and scary.

One complaint: I didn’t like the constant inner monologue and think it would have worked far better if cut drastically. But it didn’t keep me from enjoying this start to an interesting new series.

In My Mailbox

Time to talk about the books I acquired this week again and how excited I am to read them. And I'm always excited to talk about the new books I get. Again thanks to the very creative Story Siren and Alea of Pop Culture Junkie, the blogs where this meme started. Last week I was over the moon because I got a copy of Blood Promise. And it was so good. I've been struggling a bit to write a review because I don't want to give it away and it is just filled with twists and turns. But I'm working on it. Until then, know that this is very much Rose and Dimitri's book and the choices they make.

Now to this week's books - and what a week. Three fabulous books - all three I really, really wanted.

1. Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater.
Everyone must know what a fan I am of Maggie's writing. I loved Lament and this is the sequel to Lament. And I think James was probably my favorite character in Lament so I just can't wait to start it. (Of course I also loved Shiver and would kill for that sequel too...)

From the back: In this mesmerizing sequel to Lament, music prodigy James Morgan and his best friend, Deirdre, join a private conservatory for musicians. James' musical talent attracts Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. Composing beautiful music together unexpectedly leads to mutual admiration and love. Haunted by fiery visions of death, James realizes that Deirdre and Nuala are being hunted by the Fey and plunges into a soul-scorching battle with the Queen of the Fey to save their lives.


2. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

From the back: Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

3. Crazy Beautiful by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

From the back: In an explosion of his own making, Lucius blew his arms off. Now he has hooks. He chose hooks because they were cheaper. He chose hooks because he wouldn’t outgrow them so quickly. He chose hooks so that everyone would know he was different, so he would scare even himself.

Then he meets Aurora. The hooks don’t scare her. They don’t keep her away. In fact, they don’t make any difference at all to her.

But to Lucius, they mean everything. They remind him of the beast he is inside. Perhaps Aurora is his Beauty, destined to set his soul free from its suffering. Or maybe she’s just a girl who needs love just like he does.

So that's what I got to read this week. Taking Ballad and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to read on the plane to London next week. What did you get?

Shiver Video and Contest

The very talented Maggie Stiefvater, author of Shiver (which is being released August 1, 2009), has made her very own SHIVER video. (Maggie - you are SO talented!)




And she is holding a contest. Entries are available by posting the embedded trailer all over the internet! And there are PRIZES. Here's what she has as prizes:
Two ARCs of SHIVER, mailed out as soon as the contest is finished.
Two finished copies of SHIVER, mailed out as soon as she get her author's copies.
Two CDs of the music she wrote for SHIVER and LAMENT.
15 minute live-chat with the author to talk about my books, your books, your dog, or whatever!
Read more about the contest on Maggie's blog here!
And don't forget to let her know I sent you! :)

And just want to remind you that SHIVER is fabulous. If you want to go back to my review you can read it here.

Waiting for Wednesday

This meme is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and lets you know which books we can't wait to be published. There are so many great books that will be published this Fall but this week I want to talk about The Hollow by Jessica Verday.

Cover copy says: When Abbey's best friend, Kristen, vanishes at the bridge near Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, everyone else is all too quick to accept that Kristen is dead and rumors fly that her death was no accident. Abbey goes through the motions of mourning her best friend, but privately, she refuses to believe that Kristen is really gone. Then she meets Caspian, the gorgeous and mysterious boy who shows up out of nowhere at Kristen's funeral, and keeps reappearing in Abbey's life. Caspian clearly has secrets of his own, but he's the only person who makes Abbey feel normal again...but also special.

Just when Abbey starts to feel that she might survive all this, she learns a secret that makes her question everything she thought she knew about her best friend. How could Kristen have kept silent about so much? And could this secret have led to her death? As Abbey struggles to understand Kristen's betrayal, she uncovers a frightening truth that nearly unravels her — one that will challenge her emerging love for Caspian, as well as her own sanity.

Oh, it sounds so good, it has a GREAT cover, and you can read the first chapter here (thanks Jessica!)

You can find out more about Jessica Verday at her website here and can sign up here for a goodies package. But oh, waiting is never easy...

Little Brother on stage

Cory Doctorow's wonderful Little Brother has been adapted by Bill Massiola for the stage and is currently being performed by the Griffin Theatre Company in Chicago at the Athenaeum Theatre. Oh, I hope it comes to the Bay Area some time soon.

I found video clips from the play on BoingBoing here.







Doesn't it look great?

In My Mailbox

I'm a bit late again this week but it's that time again when I get to talk about the books I acquired this week and how excited I am to read them. And I'm always excited about the new books I get. This week being exceptional, as you will see. Again thanks to the very creative Story Siren and Alea of Pop Culture Junkie, the blogs where this meme started. And now to the books.

The book fairy was very good to me this week. Very good. She brought me the one book I really really wanted. And apparently they are not printing arcs for this title, so I've got a bound manuscript. And it's been hard to stop jumping around with glee.
1. Blood Promise by Richelle Mead.
Yes - now you can see why I am so very very excited.

How far will Rose go to keep her promise? The recent Strigoi attack at St. Vladimir’s Academy was the deadliest ever in the school’s history, claiming the lives of Moroi students, teachers, and guardians alike. Even worse, the Strigoi took some of their victims with them. . . including Dimitri.

He’d rather die than be one of them, and now Rose must abandon her best friend, Lissa—the one she has sworn to protect no matter what—and keep the promise Dimitri begged her to make long ago. But with everything at stake, how can she possibly destroy the person she loves most?

2. Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough
How far will Rose go to keep her promise?

Tamsin Greene comes from a long line of witches, and she was supposed to be one of the most Talented among them. But Tamsin's magic never showed up. Now seventeen, Tamsin attends boarding school in Manhattan, far from her family. But when a handsome young professor mistakes her for her very Talented sister, Tamsin agrees to find a lost family heirloom for him. The search—and the stranger—will prove to be more sinister than they first appeared, ultimately sending Tamsin on a treasure hunt through time that will unlock the secret of her true identity, unearth the sins of her family, and unleash a power so vengeful that it could destroy them all. This is a spellbinding display of storytelling that will exhilarate, enthrall, and thoroughly enchant.

3. Ghosthuntress: The Guidance by Marley Gibson
Kendall and her ghost hunting team is the talk of Radisson, Georgia, but one person isn’t so pleased. Courtney Langdon doesn’t appreciate Kendall’s new popularity or her relationship with Jason, Courtney’s ex.

So Courtney begins dabbling in the paranormal world. At first it’s all a game to draw attention away from Kendall. But Courtney doesn’t know what she’s getting into—or what wants in her. This is one game that’s about to turn deadly serious.

What a wonderful pile of books. Now I have to get back to Rose and Dimitri and Blood Promise. Do you know how hard it is to have this title and be so so busy? What is she going to do? How can I work out a way to abandon eveyerthing else to finish this book?