In My Mailbox - 15th July

In My Mailbox is hosted over at The Story Siren and showcases the books you received throughout the week. Be sure to pop over there to see some great books!

In My Mailbox

This week is a library special IMM! Ok, so I get most of my IMM posts feature library books but this one is a bumper library special because I got my hands on some pretty awesome books.

First up - Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver.

Eek! I've been waiting so long to read this book. I requested it from the library and I've been waiting for them to order it in. Finally got the email this week. I've finished it already and I absolutely loved it! I just adore Lauren Oliver's writing.

At the same time, I also requested Paper Towns by John Green. Ta da!

I've read bought The Fault in Our Stars at the start of the year when it came out, and since then I've been slowly working my way round John Green's back catalogue.

Next up it's Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick.

I've been wanting to read this for ages! I nearly took it out a few weeks ago but I was on a library ban at the time (too many books to read!) and so my friend took it out instead. She said it was good so when I saw it in front of my this week I couldn't resist taking it out.

And finally Stargazer by Claudia Gray.

This is the sequel to Evernight which I read last month. I had a sort of love/hate affair with the first book but I liked it enough to want to carry on with the series, so I'm looking forward to reading this.

I mentioned in my last IMM that I've been using my library's e-book lending service. There's so much good stuff on there! I've downloaded Percy Jackson and the Lighning Thief from there this week because it's a book I've been wanting to read for absolutely ages and I'm probably one of the few people on the planet who still hasn't read it. Time to change that!

Also, one last book I want to mention (even though it isn't YA) is Separate Lives by Kathryn Flett.

This was my first ever Waterstone's review copy that I won as part of their cardholder review scheme. If you haven't signed up to the scheme then it's totally worth it! It's free to get a Waterstone's card (find out how here) and I've seen a few YA titles on their read and review page before. (For their read and review scheme you receive a free copy of a book in exchange for a review on the Waterstone's website.) This came as a total surprise when the postie delivered it this week! I loved the book so if you're a chick-lit fan I'd highly recommend it.

Weekly Book Round Up!

Currently reading: Paper Towns by John Green.

Books finished: Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult, Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead, The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness and Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver. (plus non-YA - Separate Lives by Kathryn Flett)

In My Mailbox/Weekly Round up! - 17th June

Hello! This week I've decided to take part in In My Mailbox, a meme hosted over at The Story Siren. Be sure to go over there and check out a great selection of books and blogs.

The reason I wanted to do it this week was because I actually ordered some books and had them come in the post, woohoo! Here's what I got:

Now I am a HUGE Jaclyn Moriarty fan (I'll say that a lot on this blog) but unfortunately some of the books of hers I absolutely loved as a teenager ended up being cleared out my mum years and years ago (sad face) and it's always made me sad that I no longer had copies of those books. So imagine how excited I was when I found one of them on Oxfam Books! (very). Feeling Sorry For Celia (which is an amazing, amazing book) was available at a steal for just £1.49 so I grabbed it.

Upon searching the Oxfam website I also found The Spellbook of Listen Taylor which is the one book of Moriaty's I haven't read yet, so I grabbed that too! I'm really excited to give that a read as it's the first book that isn't a part of the Ashbury/Brookfield series.

After finding Feeling Sorry For Celia I went on an Internet search to find the second book in the Ashbury/Brookfield series Finding Cassie Crazy. I managed to grab that for £2.48 from an Amazon seller.

All these copies are second-hand but I don't mind that about books - it means they've been read and loved by somebody else and that's awesome!

If you haven't read any of these books then here's a quick plot summary of each (from Goodreads). You need them in your life, you really do. (Note: although the Ashbury/Brookfield books are part of a series, they can all be read independently as each book has it's own unique plot focusing on certain characters, but characters from across the series pop up in each of the books so it's a better reading experience to read them all.)

Feeling Sorry for Celia (Ashbury/Brookfield book #1)

Life is pretty complicated for Elizabeth Clarry. Her best friend Celia keeps disappearing, her absent father suddenly reappears, and her communication with her mother consists entirely of wacky notes left on the fridge. On top of everything else, because her English teacher wants to rekindle the "Joy of the Envelope," a Complete and Utter Stranger knows more about Elizabeth than anyone else.

But Elizabeth is on the verge of some major changes. She may lose her best friend, find a wonderful new friend, kiss the sexiest guy alive, and run in a marathon.
So much can happen in the time it takes to write a letter...

Finding Cassie Crazy (aka The Year of Secret Assignments) (Ashbury/Brookfield book #2)

Three Aussie girls become pen pals with three guys at another school in this delightful, high-spirited read by Feeling Sorry for Celia author Jaclyn Moriarty.

Told entirely through letters, diary entries, emails, and other writing, Moriarty's novel introduces us to Emily, Lydia, and Cassie -- all students at Ashbury High -- who begin writing to their Brookfield High counterparts through the schools' organized pen pal project. Readers learn quickly that each girl has her own writing style and that at two of the Brookfield boys (Seb and Charlie) seem to be smitten with Lydia and Emily. The only trouble is Cassie's pen pal, Matthew, a shady character who first sends her short, threatening letters and then becomes strangely sweet toward her. Nobody can figure out why Cassie keeps writing to him, but after she has a crushing meet-up with Matthew, Cassie discovers -- with the help of her friends and the Brookfield guys -- that he hasn't been honest about his identity. All could be ended there, but when Charlie helps take revenge and Brookfield High gets mysteriously vandalized, the group comes together to deliver justice and save the endangered pen pal project.

The Spellbook of Listen Taylor

A fairytale, a mystery, a history of hot-air ballooning, and a romance . . . A novel so brilliant, moving, zingy -- and Zingy -- that it could only have come from Jaclyn Moriarty.

The Zing family lives in a world of misguided spell books, singular poetry, and state-of-the-art surveillance equipment. They use these things to protect the Zing Family Secret -- one so huge it draws the family to the garden shed for meetings every Friday night.
Into their world comes socially isolated middle grader Listen Taylor, whose father is dating a Zing. Enter Cath Murphy, a young teacher at the elementary school that Cassie Zing attends, suffering from a broken heart. How will the worlds of these two young woman connect? Only the reader can know!

Since starting this blog I've also had some e-book ARCs arrive in my e-mail inbox! The books I got were Intangible by J. Meyer, Deception by Ashley Strachan. I can't wait to read them both!

The Weekly Round Up! Here's what I've been reading this week:

Books finished: Crossed by Ally Condie, The Iron King by Julie Kagawa, My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher.

Currently reading: The Gathering by Kelley Artmstong, the first book in the Darkness Rising trilogy.

Library hold: Ready to collect on Monday - Falling Fast by Sophie MacKenzie.

Don't forget to check out more IMM posts on The Story Siren!