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The Top Ten of 2011 is a week of top ten posts highlighting favorite books, characters, and covers. To see the event, click here.
The top ten books I can’t wait to read next year are:
(no cover yet)
1. Iced by Karen Marie Moning
Expected publication: October 3rd, 2012
I’m currently working on a trilogy that features Dani, Christian MacKeltar, Ryodan, and the mysterious ‘Dancer,’ set primarily in Fever-Dublin. Each installment in the trilogy is a stand-alone mystery, however there are larger plot arcs unfolding in the background…
..For those of you who have been worrying—the trilogy is not YA. If I had to categorize it, I would say it straddles the line between YA and adult uneasily. …Many of the questions I left unanswered in the FEVER series are addressed in this new series. -Karen
I absolutely adore KMM, I would be uber stoked to read anything she wrote. ANYTHING.
2. Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Lux #2)
Expected publication: May 2012
No one is who they seem. And not everyone will survive the lies…
Obsidian was absolutely amazing. I’m dying to get my hands on book 2!!
3. City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare (Mortal Instruments #5)
Expected publication: May 8th, 2012
The Shadowhunters struggle to piece together their shattered of world after a betrayal by one of their own leaves them reeling.
If you’ve read City of Fallen Angels, you know how terrible the cliffhanger was. I need to know what happens!
4. Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Expected publication: January 3rd, 2012
Aria is a teenager in the enclosed city of Reverie. Like all Dwellers, she spends her time with friends in virtual environments, called Realms, accessed through an eyepiece called a Smarteye. Aria enjoys the Realms and the easy life in Reverie. When she is forced out of the pod for a crime she did not commit, she believes her death is imminent. The outside world is known as The Death Shop, with danger in every direction.
As an Outsider, Perry has always known hunger, vicious predators, and violent energy storms from the swirling electrified atmosphere called the Aether. A bit of an outcast even among his hunting tribe, Perry withstands these daily tests with his exceptional abilities, as he is gifted with powerful senses that enable him to scent danger, food and even human emotions.
They come together reluctantly, for Aria must depend on Perry, whom she considers a barbarian, to help her get back to Reverie, while Perry needs Aria to help unravel the mystery of his beloved nephew’s abduction by the Dwellers. Together they embark on a journey challenged as much by their prejudices as by encounters with cannibals and wolves. But to their surprise, Aria and Perry forge an unlikely love – one that will forever change the fate of all who live UNDER THE NEVER SKY.
It sounds amazing. I pre-ordered it from Barnes & Noble :)
5. Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock
Expected publication: May 8th, 2012
Mackenzie and Amy were best friends. Until Amy was brutally murdered.
Since then, Mac’s life has been turned upside down. She is being haunted by Amy in her dreams, and an extremist group called the Trackers has come to Mac’s hometown of Hemlock to hunt down Amy’s killer: A white werewolf.
Lupine syndrome—also known as the werewolf virus—is on the rise across the country. Many of the infected try to hide their symptoms, but bloodlust is not easy to control.
Wanting desperately to put an end to her nightmares, Mac decides to investigate Amy’s murder herself. She discovers secrets lurking in the shadows of Hemlock, secrets about Amy’s boyfriend, Jason, her good pal Kyle, and especially her late best friend. Mac is thrown into a maelstrom of violence and betrayal that puts her life at risk.
Kathleen Peacock’s thrilling novel is the first in the Hemlock trilogy, a spellbinding urban fantasy series filled with provocative questions about prejudice, trust, lies, and love.
I love werewolf stories!
6. Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins
Expected publication: May 1st, 2012
What if there were teens whose lives literally depended on being bad influences? This is life for sons and daughters of fallen angels in Sweet Evil.
Anna, a tender-hearted southern girl, was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She’s aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but it isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage, and her will-power is put to the test. He’s the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.
A cross-country trip forces Anna and Kai to face the reality that hope and love are not options for their kind. When it’s time for Anna to confront her demons, will she choose to embrace her halo or her horns?
I’m not big on angel stories, but this cover is so gorgeous and I’m a fan of bad boys!
7. Insurgent by Veronica Roth (Divergent #2)
Expected publication: May 1st, 2012
One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.
Tris’s initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.
Divergent was pretty good, I’m interested to see how the story continues.
8. Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver (Delirium #2)
Expected publication: February 28th, 2012
I’m pushing aside the memory of my nightmare,
pushing aside thoughts of Alex,
pushing aside thoughts of Hana and my old school,
push,
push,
push,
like Raven taught me to do.
The old life is dead.
But the old Lena is dead too.
I buried her.
I left her beyond a fence,
behind a wall of smoke and flame.
Okay, let’s face it, Delirium didn’t wow me like I wanted it to. Especially after reading Before I Fall But the ending really pissed me off and I’m a fan of catharsis. If it doesn’t get resolved I’m going to be highly disappointed.
8. Everneath by Brodi Ashton
Expected publication: January 24th, 2012
Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she’s returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld… this time forever.
She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can’t find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.
Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there’s a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen.
As Nikki’s time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she’s forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole’s…
I pre-ordered this one too. I really hope the love triangle doesn’t ruin it for me.
10. Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
Expected publication: January 31st, 2012
NEWSOUL
Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.
NOSOUL
Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are suspicious and afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?
HEART
Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?
It sounds so unique, I couldn’t help but want it. And the cover! Another one I pre-ordered :)
Honorable mention:
Just for Fins by Tera Lynn Childs (Fins #3)
Expected publication: July 3rd, 2012
I loved Forgive My Fins, and Fins Are Forever was pretty good too. I can’t not finish the series!
Endlessly by Kiersten White (Paranormalcy #3)
Expected publication: July 24th, 2012
Again, I read Paranormalcy and Supernaturally and liked them both, so I have to read book three.
Fever by Lauren DeStefano (Chemical Garden #2)
Expected publication: February 21st, 2012
Wither wasn’t spectacular but I still liked it. I want to know what happens.
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