Me on Waiting on Wednesday (3)

Ok, so I missed doing this last week, and maybe when I was sick, too. Sorry. :) Check out Jill at Breaking the Spine for more Waiting on Wednesday fun.

And I'm doing three because there are 300+ books on my to-read list right now. ;)

Title: Defiance (Strange Angels #4)
Author: Lili St. Crow
Release Date: April 19, 2011
Publisher: Penguin/Razorbill

From Goodreads:

The heart-stopping fourth novel in New York Times bestselling author Lili St. Crow's Strange Angels series.

Now that sixteen-year-old Dru's worst fears have come true and Sergej has kidnapped her best friend Graves, she'll have to go on a suicidal rescue mission to bring him back in one piece.
That is, if she can put all of Christophe's training to good use, defeat her mother's traitor, Anna, once and for all, and manage to survive another day . . . 

I love this series. Totally love it. Dru kicks butt like only Buffy could, but there's no cutesy California high school vibe. She's such a hard ass, with a hint of teen girl social awkwardness and loads of attitude. It's rough and nothing's ever easy for Dru, and it's so awesome. One slam after another after another and she's grasping at straws to stay alive. I can't wait for next spring when this book comes out.


Title: Across the Universe
Author: Beth Revis
Release Date: January 11, 2011
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 400 (Hardcover)

From Goodreads:

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.

I miss reading science fiction some days, and it's looking like this is going to be really good. The early buzz is positive, almost everyone I know on Goodreads has this on their list, and the cover is so pretty. :)

Title: Cryer's Cross
Author: Lisa McMann
Release Date: February 8, 2011
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 240 (Hardcover)

From Goodreads:

The community of Cryer’s Cross, Montana (population 212) is distraught when high school freshman Tiffany disappears without a trace. Already off-balance due to her OCD, 16-year-old Kendall is freaked out seeing Tiffany’s empty desk in the one-room school house, but somehow life goes on... until Kendall's boyfriend Nico also disappears, and also without a trace. Now the town is in a panic. Alone in her depression and with her OCD at an all-time high, Kendall notices something that connects Nico and Tiffany: they both sat at the same desk. She knows it's crazy, but Kendall finds herself drawn to the desk, dreaming of Nico and wondering if maybe she, too, will disappear...and whether that would be so bad. Then she begins receiving graffiti messages on the desk from someone who can only be Nico. Can he possibly be alive somewhere? Where is he? And how can Kendall help him? The only person who believes her is Jacian, the new guy she finds irritating...and attractive. As Kendall and Jacian grow closer, Kendall digs deeper into Nico's mysterious disappearance only to stumble upon some ugly—and deadly—local history. Kendall is about to find out just how far the townspeople will go to keep their secrets buried.

I've only read one book by McMann before (Wake), and I liked it. This book sounds so messed up and so cool. I think writing about teens with anxiety disorders (look at Tara Kelly's Harmonic Feedback, Dia Reeves' Bleeding Violet, or Christine Feehan's Water Bound (this one's a romance novel)) and not totally focusing on them makes the characters stand out more. Sure, they're not "normal," but who is, especially when they're a teenager? No one's totally perfect, physically or mentally, so why shouldn't they be included in the books we write? It sounds pretty spooky, but I recently read and loved The Replacement.