In My Mailbox [3]

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted over at the lovely blog The Story Siren. The point is to blog about books that you have somehow procured during the week!

So I am VERY EXCITED to share what books I got this week! Some of you might have read my post earlier in the week about finding some ARC books for sale (Yep FOR SALE) at my local Half Price Books. If you missed out on that little fiasco you can read about it here. So what does that have to do with the books that I got this week? Well there is a book store near my house that sells specifically to teachers and educators. I know about the store because my mom is a teacher. I hadn't been to the store in a really long time but the last time I had been there I remembered that they had had a cabinet full of ARC YA books and they had allowed me to take a few for free. So remembering this fact I decided to beg my mom to take me down to the store. Eventually she conceded and lo and behold inside the magical cabinet of wonderfulness (that's what I'm calling it from now on!) I found:

• Matched by Ally Condie                     
• Sapphique by Catherine Fisher            
• The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

Matched
GAHHH!!!!! Yeah pretty much I am so excited about getting Matched. And the other two books too of course. But just the fact that they actually had Matched after that whole weird situation at Half Price Books? Awesome! I can hardly wait to start reading it! Here is a little summary in case you haven't already heard about this awesome book. Cassia lives in a society where the Officials dictate everything about your life, from who you marry to when you die. She has always trusted their choices especially when she sees Xander appear on the Matching screen. Who better to marry than her best friend? But then she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.

Sapphique 
This was another one of the books in the Half Price Books incident so I'm pretty excited to have gotten it along with Matched. This one is the sequel to the highly acclaimed Incarceron. Unfortunately I haven't been able to read Incarceron yet so until I read that I won't be able to read Sapphique. But hopefully I'll get around to reading Incarceron soon so I can get to this one!  

The Replacement 
I've been hearing a lot of buzz about his book so I was pretty psyched to get a copy! The cover is really eerie and the whole aura of the book is kinda ominous. Its the story of Mackie Doyle, a boy who lives in the small town of Gentry. But Mackie isn't from our world. He comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of the living dead. He is a Replacement, left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. And time is running out. Mackie is slowly dying in the human world and he eventually is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs. I haven't ever read anything like The Replacement before. Should be interesting! 

Other than those three ARC books that I got for free I also picked up some titles from the Library. I know, I know, my book pile just keeps growing taller and taller! But I have promised myself to get no more new books this week! Lets see if I can actually keep to it. Hehe. 

These are the books I got from the Library:

•  Losing Faith by Denise Jaden                               
• If I Stay by Gayle Foreman                                    
• The Daughters Break the Rules by Joanna Philbin
• The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney                    

Losing Faith
This book is one that I have chosen to read as part of the Contemps Challenge. To find out more about that you can go here. I really like the cover of this book! I don't really know why. Maybe its the contrast between the black and white? Anyway Losing Faith is about a girl named Brie. When her sister dies she goes through the bizarre and devastating process of mourning. She barely even liked her sister. Why should she care so much that she has died? Then just as Brie starts to stettle into her new normal, she discovers some strange things surrounding her sisters death. Certain facts just don't line up. Brie soon uncovers a dark and twisted secret about her sister's final night.... a secret that puts her own life in danger. Oohhh mysterious! Sounds amazing doesn't it?

If I Stay
I've heard good things about this book so I decided to pick it up! Seventeen year old Mia is faced with some tough choices. Should she pursue music, her first love, even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving behind her family and friends? Then, one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone except one. And it's the only one that matters. Just about every review I have read says that this book is sad! I can kind of sense whats going to happen.... Can't wait to find out if my hunch is right. Oh and am I the only one who thinks that the girl on the paperback cover looks kind of like Megan Fox at first glance???

The Daughters Break the Rules
Okay so it is time for me to fess up. Yes I enjoy fluffy teen fiction that involves movie stars and hollywood and all that cheesiness. I couldn't really tell you why I read this books. Maybe its my love of acting? I've always held a secret fantasy that someday I would be a movie star. But alas I am not pretty enough nor do I have the connections to get into a movie. Anyway these books kind of sate my desire for fame I guess you could say. My guilty pleasure reading. In this story Carina Jurgensen has been cut off by her billionaire father. Always resourceful, she fibs her way into a job as a party planner for New York's annual Silver Snowflake Ball. Soon it becomes clear that the committee only hired Carina because they want favors and freebies from her father. Now Carina has to make a choice. Does she get real about her downgraded status, or pretend she's still the ultimate heiress?

The Mockingbirds
This one is actually an ARC copy. I'm on really good terms with all the Teen Librarians at my Library so they are going to let me start borrowing the ARC's they receive so that I can review them! I'm pretty excited about that. The Mockingbirds is another book I am reading for the Contemps Challenge. The story takes place at Themis Academy, a quiet boarding school with an exceptional student body. The administration always trusts to students to behave in an honorable way - the Themis way. So when Alex is date-raped during her junior year, she has two options: stay silent and hope someone helps her, or enlist the Mockingbirds - a secret society of students dedicated to righting the wrongs of the student body.

I also purchased a hardcover copy of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane from Half Price Books.

 

I love Kate DiCamillo's writing! This is my favorite book by her. Its very magical. I like to buy most books in hardcover and so I was really excited to finally find a copy of this one for a good price!

So thats what I got "In My Mailbox" this week! What did you get?

Julia :)