Reader Girls Blog

Blurb: When a strange boy tumbles down a river embankment and lands at her feet, seventeen-year-old adrenaline junkie Deznee Cross snatches the opportunity to piss off her father by bringing the mysterious hottie with ice blue eyes home. Except there’s something off with Kale. He wears her shoes in the shower, is overly fascinated with things like DVDs and vases, and acts like she’ll turn to dust if he touches her. It’s not until Dez’s father shows up, wielding a gun and knowing more about Kale than he should, that Dez realizes there’s more to this boy and her father’s “law firm” than she realized. Kale has been a prisoner of Denazen Corporation—an organization devoted to collecting “special” kids known as Sixes and using them as weapons his entire life. And, oh yeah, his touch? It kills. The two team up with a group of rogue Sixes hell-bent on taking down Denazen before they’re caught and her father discovers the biggest sec...

Reader Girls welcomes author Derrolyn Anderson to our blog today. She has written a YA series, Marina's Tales : Between the Land and the Sea , The Moon and the Tide and The Fate of the Muse . We are showcasing her enchanting series and she has written a guest post about mermaids and is also sharing an excerpt from the first book. Ms. Anderson is also giving away one ebook set of all three books to one commenter. Between the Land and the Sea (Marina's Tales Book One) Blurb: Something extraordinary is lurking in the deep ocean waters off the coast of Aptos, California. Just a few weeks after moving to the beach town, sixteen year-old Marina has nearly drowned twice, enchanted the hottest guy in high school, and discovered a supernatural creature. If she can manage to survive her increasingly dangerous encounters with unpredictable mermaids, she might just be able to unlock the mystery of her past and learn how to appease the mysterious forces that seem to want something ...

Reading level: Ages 13 and up Paperback: 464 pages Publisher: HarperCollins (September 20, 2011) Blurb: A journey may take hundreds of miles, or it may cover the distance between duty and desire. Sixteen of today’s hottest writers of paranormal tales weave stories on a common theme of journeying. Authors such as Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Caine, and Melissa Marr return to the beloved worlds of their bestselling series, while others, like Claudia Gray, Kami Garcia, and Margaret Stohl, create new land-scapes and characters. But whether they’re writing about vampires, faeries, angels, or other magical beings, each author explores the strength and resilience of the human heart. My review: What I enjoy about reading anthologies is the  opportunity to sample authors. With Enthralled , I was already familiar with most of these authors and they did not fail me. In fact, some totally impressed me.  These mini-reviews are not in the exact order of the book. Giovanni's F...

Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages Publisher: Dell; Original edition (December 29, 2009) Blurb: In a frozen wilderness steeped in darkness, the lines between good and evil, lover and enemy, are never black or white but drawn in Shades of Midnight . Something inhuman is stalking the frigid Alaskan wilds, leaving unspeakable carnage in its wake. For bush pilot Alexandra Maguire, the killings stir memories of a horrific event she witnessed as a child and evoke in her the inexplicable sense of otherness she has long felt within herself but never fully understood . . . until a darkly seductive stranger with secrets of his own enters her world. Sent from Boston on a mission to investigate the savage attacks and stop the slaughter, vampire warrior Kade has his own reasons for returning to the frigid, forbidding place of his birth. Haunted by a secret shame, Kade soon realizes the stunning truth of the threat he faces–a threat that will jeopardize the fragile bond he has formed with the cou...

Format: Kindle Edition File Size: 308 KB Publisher: Zebra Books (June 1, 2011) Blurb: Magic It is bleeding into our world, bringing with it banshees, wraiths, fae from the twisting forests of Twilight. But Elllie's problem is a very different kind of phenomenon. . . Shadow It ought to be attached to her; instead it has a life of its own. And her dark mirror image is a wild thing, willfully seducing the very man Ellie hoped could help. Science Cam has devoted his career to exploring the boundaries between this world and the Hereafter. But nothing could prepare him for the mischief and mayhem of a soul split in two. Surrender Who will give in first: the man struggling to unite two halves of one fascinating female; the shadow fighting for freedom to experience the thrill of every emotion; or the woman who is about to discover her own deepest desires? My review: I first fell in awe of Kellison's paranormal world with her debut novel, Shadow Bound ( my review ). Shadow T...

The I LOVE DARK YA Blogfest  begins today. For Week 1 participating bloggers are sharing their favorite dark YA books. I had to wonder what is "dark"? After reading Kelley's insightful post about Dark YA at For The Love of Contemporary , I had a good idea of the titles I'd list. First, I wanted to mention some of the articles from earlier this year which didn't put 'dark YA' in a good light. I wanted to tell the parent from the article she shouldn't have gone to the bookstore first, she should have done her research online: Goodreads, YALSA's book lists , Publishers Weekly , author websites and blogs, and the scores of book bloggers themselves. These are the places to go. Before I share my list, I wanted to note some authors who deserve special mention. Judy Blume wrote real books for and to kids at a time when other authors weren't. Thank you, Ms. Blume, for showing me that my thoughts and feelings were real and, more importantly, oka...

Book blurb: Caroline Broadhurst is about to take a lover— At her husband’s command. For fifteen years, Caroline has done everything her much older husband has desired—except provide an heir. Now he has given her an ultimatum: seduce a suitable gentleman and bear a son. Caroline would never think of bowing to such a shameful order, but then she meets Jack Applegate. Jack has longed for the beautiful, untouchable Caroline for years, but the chasm between a lady and a laborer was too wide to ever dream of crossing. Now, fate and passion have thrown them together, but the potential scandal threatens to smother their love. And when a violent secret comes to light, only a terrible sacrifice will prevent the flame of their affection from being snuffed out forever … Amazon paperback / Kindle / Barnes & Noble An interview with Katy Madison: Have any of the books you read as a child influenced you as a writer? Undoubtedly. With two older sisters I had over a hundred Nancy Drew ...