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!