Recent Arrivals chronicles the books that have made their way onto the Today, I Read… bookshelf. Here’s the latest arrival: The Well by A. J. Whitten

First line: Dying in the movies always looks cool.*

Initial thoughts: I heard about this upcoming title from a friend and she said it might be right up my alley. Sure enough, after reading the synopsis, she was right. Modern horror inspired by Shakespeare? Definitely up my alley.

Plus, the cover looks pretty cool.

My review is now online

Book description:

If Hamlet thought he had issues, he should have talked to Cooper Warner.

His mother’s normally sunny demeanor has turned into something—homicidal.

And what’s worse, she has help in her hunt for Cooper: A ravenous monster living at the bottom of the old well in the woods behind their house. She’s determined to deliver her 14-year-old son straight into the creature’s eager clutches. Cooper turns to his girlfriend, Megan, for help, but then, to his horror, the creature takes her prisoner.

Now, it’s up to Cooper to fend off his murderous mother, finish his Hamlet paper, and enter the putrid lair at the bottom of the well to rescue Megan. And when he confronts the creature, Cooper must make the toughest decision of his life: kill, or be killed.

This horrific tale, inspired by Hamlet, puts a modern, terrifying twist on the Shakespearean classic.

Book Details: 336 pages; Graphia; Pub. September 28, 2009

Learn more:

• Official website
• Read an excerpt
• Reviews at GoodReads

* First line taken from Chapter 1, not the prologue.

Recent Arrivals chronicles the books that have made their way onto the Today, I Read… bookshelf. Here’s the latest arrival: Undiscovered Gyrl by Allison Burnett

First line: Last April when I decided to defer college for a year my friends said I was insane, but I’m not.

Initial thoughts: I can’t say entirely why this title appealed to me as much as it did. Maybe it’s the voyeur in me wanting to break free. There’s something interesting about watching sometime’s life unfold as though you were peeping in through a window–see how other people live…even if it is a work of fiction. Plus, it ups the ante by revealing these escapades via blog entries. Also, I wanted to see how a middle-aged man would handle writing a teenage female protagonist.

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Recent Arrivals chronicles the books that have made their way onto the Today, I Read… bookshelf. Here’s the latest arrival: Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

First line: I walked into biology and my jaw fell open. Mysteriously adhered to the chalkboard was a Barbie doll, with Ken at her side. They’d been forced to link arms and were naked except for artificial leaves placed in a few choice locations. *

Initial thoughts: I happened to check the mail when I was running out of the house and didn’t open the package until I was in the parking lot of a department store. And when I saw what was awaiting me–a signed ARC, you better believe I did a Snoopy dance and squealed like a fangirl with everyone watching. I even started reading while walking up and down the aisle…more than once I nearly ran over the stray pedestrian with my cart. To say I’m a little excited would be an understatement.

Book description:

Nora Grey is responsible and smart and not inclined to be reckless. Her first mistake was falling for Patch. Patch has a past that could be called anything but harmless. The best thing he ever did was fall for Nora.

After getting paired with Patch in biology, all Nora wants to do is stay away from him, but he always seems to be two steps ahead of her. She can feel his eyes on her when he is nowhere around. She feels him nearby even when she is alone in her bedroom. And when her attraction can be denied no longer, she learns the secret about who Patch is and what led him to her. Despite all the questions she has about his past, in the end, there may be only one question they can ask each other: How far are you willing to fall?

Book Details: 400 pages; Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing; Pub. October 13, 2009

*OK, I realize that’s not really a first line, it’s a first paragraph (almost). I had to include it because, seriously, read it! In fact, I selected the first line of the first chapter because the first line of the prologue could not live up to the first chapter’s in my eyes.

First, thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway for a chance to win Serena Robar’s upcoming YA title, Giving Up the V.

I combed through each of the comments, tallied them up and, with the help of random.org, selected a winner:

Congratulations dsmitty1012

An email has been sent out, but if I don’t hear back within 48 hours, I’ll select another entrant.

Now, if you didn’t win this time around, please don’t fret. I’m planning to hold a number of giveaways in the future (infinitely-wise higher power willing).

I finished reading Gena Showalter’s Blacklisted on Tuesday, and I wanted to publish a few book notes. Think of this like a flash review until I can publish the extended edition.

When I was about 9/10ths of the way through this book, I realized that it was a sequel to Red Handed, which was sitting on my bookshelf—unread. That was definitely a *facepalm* moment if I do say so myself. So, if you already have Red Handed, read that one first.

Aside from reading the book out of order, I enjoyed my little detour.

• The action never stopped. It seemed that Camille and Erik were always being chased, shot at, and when they weren’t Camille was getting a little action of her own. (There were a couple scenes which would definitely place this book on the 16+ list.)
• The characters were well-drawn, if not a little stereotypical. I would have preferred, however, if Camille’s cowardice and goodie-two-shoes-ness was shown more clearly in her actions before we got to see the brave, strong Camille that she never realized she could be. But it was no big. I also wish the bad guys had been a little badder. (Eh hem, I’m looking at some of those A.I.R. agents.)
• Reading it made me reminisce about old Alien Nation episodes that I used to watch as a kid. Yes, folks, I just admitted that I watched Alien Nation. The concept of aliens inhabiting the earth alongside humans has always been intriguing to me and the thing that I loved about both the series and this book was that it didn’t sugarcoat it. It showed some of the tribulations that different species might encounter as a result of simply being different.
• There were more editing mistakes than I’d expected. The book started off strong, with an easy flow, then all of a sudden, errors started cropping up. The errors seemed random and gave the book the feel that it was a rush to complete and get to print. While it didn’t detract entirely from the story, there were more than a few moments when I had to stop and re-read a sentence because I thought my mind was playing a trick on me.

Put plainly, I had no idea what to expect with this book, but was pleasantly surprised. It’s a great lazy day read when you just want to kill a few hours.

And since I won’t be reading this title for my Sunday Salon post, I won’t be able to use this sketch for my Sunday Sketch. Rather than let it languish, I’ve decided to include it here.

This is my interpretation of Kitten, one of the A.I.R. agents that took on Camille and Erik.

I have no idea why I chose to draw Kitten—in fact, I didn’t even know I was drawing her until I was done. I really wanted to draw Cara or Erik, but never quite got around to it…maybe while I’m reading Red Handed.

(Sorry about the image bleed-through. I sketch in my Moleskine notebook and these particular pages are thin.)