News Round Up! 20th April

Here's my latest weekly recap of YA news stories that have popped up on my radar. Enjoy!

The moment all Divergent fans have been waiting for arrived this week. We have a title for the third book! The final book in the trilogy will be called Allegiant. What do you think of the title? It wasn't one I'd heard in all the speculation but it certainly has a lot of potential. Find out more from Veronica Roth in a special video announcement over on USAtoday.com.

And one of the biggest news story by far this week is the release of the Catching Fire teaser trailer! The trailer premiered at this year's MTV Move Awards, and at over 2 minutes long it's certainly a teaser and a half - much more than I was expecting! What do you think of the trailer? It's certainly intense. Watch it below:

With all the hype around The Mortal Instruments film adaptation, this week we got a glimpse of book tie-ins and merchanidse. Check out the book tie-ins here on EW.com and find out more about a Hot Topic clothing line here on Hypable.

Fans of Katie McGarry (Pushing the Limits, Dare You To) like me will be happy to hear we'll be getting more books from her! According to the announcement on her Facebook page, the new book is described as "West Side Story meets Sons of Anarchy, where a teen boy brought up in the rough and tumble world of motorcycle clubs finds love with a girl raised outside of this world when he's tasked with not only protecting her for the summer she visits her father, the leader of the group, but also with preventing her from learning the truth about her father's past and the gang he used to lead". Sounds pretty awesome right?

The YALSA's Teen Top Ten nominations have been announced as part of the Teen Read Week. The titles making up the nominations include Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry, Crewel by Gennifer Albin, Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Insurgent by Veronica Roth. You can read the full list on the YASLA website.   

The American Library Association released their list of most challenged novels for 2012 this week and three YA novels made the list: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and John Green's IB. I haven't read any of these books but have Looking for Alaska lined up to read soon. Read more about these challenged novels here on Examiner.com.

And finally the London Book Fair took place this week with a lot of talk surfacing about young debut authors and the rise of e-books. You can find out more about the book fair itself on the website here and catch up with what's been happening via the London Book Fair Twitter feed.

Which news stories have been getting you excited this week? Let me know in the comments!


New book releases:
Imaginable by J. Meyers
Buy: Amazon
Read my review!

What Really Happened in Peru by Cassandra Clare
Buy: Amazon

Review: Imaginable (Intangible, #2) by J. Meyers

Spoiler warning! This is the 2nd book in the Intangible series and so this review will contain spoilers from the first book. If you haven't read it, you can read my review of Intangible here instead. You have been warned!

Imaginable by J. Meyers

[Goodreads page]

Author: J. Meyers Website|Twitter
Published: 16 April 2013
Format: Kindle e-book
Pages: 342
Amazon: Kindle

Source: Received free copy from author for review

Plot Summary (from Goodreads):
Twins Sera and Luke Raine’s unusual abilities are growing. Sera is healing vampires now, making them human again. And, at times, Luke can actually change the future he Sees.

But Sera’s healing has dangerous consequences, and though Luke is altering the outcome of more visions, he can’t control them yet.

Now Sera is in danger as the dark creatures of the Realm seek to use her. As Luke struggles to master his gift in order to save his sister, he discovers even more about his powers.

And what he learns just may put him in greater danger than Sera has ever been.

My Review:
I was so excited to read this book because I adored the first book, Intangible. I was very privileged to receive a copy of Imaginable from the author to review and so I started it as soon as it was loaded on my Kindle! The book picks up with Sera's healing powers causing real problems for the Gifteds, and Luke isn't having it so easy either.

The book opens with a scene in the coffee shop and made me fall right back in love with this world and, more importantly, the characters. Straight away there was humour from the group of characters who have the most amazing chemistry between them, and I love it when I start a book and I'm laughing within the first few pages. Most of that was down to Luke. I love Luke. I'll probably state that a lot in this review!

The plot revolves around Sera's ability to "heal" vampires, only this has been causing more harm than good. I love Sera and how we get to see than vulnerable side of her. She clearly wants to do as much as she can to help other people and that really endears me to her as a character. The fact she has such valuable powers makes her a target for other creatures who want to exploit that power, which puts her life in danger for a large part of the book. I really felt that danger and the suspense created throughout the book had me flipping the pages just to find out what happened to those characters I was so attached too.

Like I mentioned before, Luke is my favourite character and he also had a lot going on in his life. He's having to deal with his feelings for Fey who he knows he can't really have. He was so sweet pining for her. I was really rooting for him! On top of that, he's struggling with his visions, not always being able to conjure them and his fight to gain control of his powers showed just how determined he was. But my favourite part was his realtionship with Sera, which was one of my highlights of the first book. They just have such a great connection and as Sera was in danger I really loved how Luke wanted to do everything he could to make sure she was okay.

Still on the topic of characters, I really loved the mysterious Jonas and the Light Elf Fey and the roles they played in the story. Both of them are protective of the twins and so it made for some great kickass scenes as both of them showed what they could do when it came to looking out for the others. I also loved discovering more about those characters as bits of their past were introduced into the story.

I was really excited to explore more of the world that was established in Intangible and I wasn't disappointed. I loved seeing more of the Realm as well as the creatures that reside there, from the flower pixies to the dark and creepy Shadows. The descriptions of everything really carried me away as I escaped into the story and that world. As the book reached its climax it delved into fantasy as well with more magical creatures appearing, and I really enjoyed that element of it. The two worlds are weaved so seamlessly together that you don't really focus on what genre the book is, because it flows so well from the real to the magical.

I absolutely devoured this book from the moment I picked it up. I just couldn't put it down! From the middle of the book onwards there was so much action to keep my attention. Whilst it managed to keep that pace and action up and build on the world introduced in Intangible, it also wet my appetite for more as a middle-of-a-series book should. There were things that were just touched upon, with some stuff just bubbling away under the surface that I can't wait to read more about! And the ending definitely left me eager to carry on. There's huge potential for this series. If you loved Intangible then you'll adore this. A fantastic sequel!

Rating: 5*
What to read next: Intuition or Indomitable by J. Meyers, two short stories to accompany the series
Books like this: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, The Iron King by Julie Kagawa