Salt & Stone
Written by Victoria Scott
Preorder from Amazon
Check out my review for Fire & Flood
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What would you do to save someone you love?
In Fire & Flood, Tella Holloway faced a dangerous trek through the jungle and across the desert, all to remain a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed for a chance at obtaining the Cure for her brother. She can't quit, she has to win the race, save Cody, and then fight to make sure the race stops before it can claim any more lives. In the next legs of the race, across the ocean and over mountains, Tella will face frostbite, sharks, avalanche, and twisted new rules in the race.
But what if the danger is deeper than that? How do you know who to trust when everyone's keeping secrets? What do you do when the person you'd relied on most suddenly isn't there for support? How do you weigh one life against another?
The race is coming to an end, and Tella is running out of time, resources, and strength. At the start of the race there were one hundred twenty two Contenders. As Tella and her remaining friends start the final part of the race, just forty-one are left, and only one can win.
Edited by Kirsty Murray, Payal Dhar and Anita Roy
Dystopian, Short Stories
Published January 2015
240 Pages
Thank you to Allen & Unwin Australia
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★★★★
A ground breaking intercontinental collection of speculative stories, in both prose and graphic novel form, with contributors from India and Australia including Isobelle Carmody, Margo Lanagan, Nicki Greenberg and others of similar calibre.Be transported into dystopian cities and other worldly societies. Be amazed and beguiled by a nursery story with a reverse twist, a futuristic take on TV cooking shows, a playscript with tentacles, and more, much more. Plunge in and enjoy!A collection of science fiction and fantasy writing, including six graphic stories, showcasing twenty stellar writers and artists from India and Australia: Isobelle Carmody, Penni Russon, Justine Larbalestier, Margo Lanagan, Lily Mae Martin, Kuzhali Manickavel, Prabha Mallya, Annie Zaidi, Kate Constable, Vandana Singh, Mandy Ord, Priya Kuriyan, Manjula Padmanabhan, Samhita Arni, Alyssa Brugman, Nicki Greenberg and Amruta Patil.
Eat The Sky, Drink The Ocean is a compilation of both whimsical and illustrated short stories from both Australian and Indian Authors that stemmed from the power of women all around the world. Each story is based on a dystopian alternate reality and range from the engaging and quirky, to the strange yet enthralling. From the Australian dystopian story by Justine Larbalestier, author of Razorhurst comes Little Red Suit. The storyline follows Poppy, a girl who lives underground after decades of drought. Now cities are nothing more than ruins, which Poppy will need to navigate to reach her grandmother's house. Taking inspiration from Little Red Riding Hood, it's unique and packs a real punch. I would love to see it developed into a full length novel.
Each story wavers between dystopian, fantasy and magic realism, And although each are written by a different author, compliment each other beautifully. I loved the inclusion of the illustrated stories, but none more so than Swallow The Moon which is written and illustrated by Kate Constable and Priya Kuriyan. It tells the story of a community who now calls the forest home, where the young women make the long journey to the ocean, where they participate in a naming ceremony in the waters above a submerged civilization. A strong environmental message, it's powerful and beautifully illustrated.
Cooking Time is a quirky take on the worldwide Masterchef. In a world where citizens are fed by nutrition packs, the show offers contestants the opportunity to travel back through time to locations all over the world, where fresh food was still available. Contestants are the envy of the nation.
With seventeen incredible stories, including six beautifully illustrated from authors such as Kirsty Murray, Payal Dhar, Anita Roy, Samhita Arni, Alyssa Brugman, Isobelle Carmody, Kate Constable, Nicki Greenberg, Priya Kuriyan, Margo Lanagan, Justine Larbalestier and more. This compilation is the perfect gift for lovers of the written word. I loved it. Overall, it was incredibly engaging and charming and the transition from each story flowed beautifully from the selection of authors that complimented one another. One of the best young adult anthologies published.
Dead Of Winter
The Arcana Chronicles: Book Three
Written by Kresley Cole
Dystopian, Paranormal
Published January 1st 2015
336 Pages
Thanks to Simon & Schuster Australia
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Heartbreaking decisions. Evie was almost seduced by the life of comfort that Death offered her, until Jack was threatened by two of the most horrific Arcana, the Lovers. She will do anything to save him, even escape Death’s uncanny prison, full of beautiful objects, material comfort... And stolen glances from a former love.
Uncertain victory. Despite leaving a part of her heart behind with Death, Evie sets out into a perilous post-apocalyptic wasteland to meet up with her allies and launch an attack on the Lovers. Such formidable enemies require a battle plan, and the only way to kill them may mean Evie, Jack, and Death allying. Evie doesn’t know what will prove more impossible. Surviving slavers, plague, Bagmen and other Arcana, or convincing Jack and Death to work together.
Two heroes returned. There’s a thin line between love and hate, and Evie just doesn’t know where she stands with either Jack or Death. Will this unlikely trio be able to defeat The Lovers without killing one another first?
Golden Son
Red Rising Trilogy: Book Two
Written by Pierce Brown
Reviewed by the Hubby
Science Fiction, Dystopian
Published January 13th 3015
446 Pages
Thank you to Hachette Australia
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The astonishing, unforgettable sequel to Red Rising, which the Examiner called 'properly a-ma-zing, like an adrenalin shot for the imagination.' Ender's Game meets The Hunger Games in this, the second in an extraordinary trilogy from an incredible new voice.
'I'm still playing games. This is just the deadliest yet.'
Darrow is a rebel forged by tragedy. For years he and his fellow Reds worked the mines, toiling to make the surface of Mars inhabitable. They were, they believed, mankind's last hope. Until Darrow discovered that it was all a lie, and that the Red were nothing more than unwitting slaves to an elitist ruling class, the Golds, who had been living on Mars in luxury for generations.
In Red Rising, Darrow infiltrated Gold society, to fight in secret for a better future for his people. Now fully embedded amongst the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his dangerous work to bring them down from within. It's a journey that will take him further than he's ever been before, but is Darrow truly willing to pay the price that rebellion demands?
Hic sunt leones.
A life or death tale of vengeance with an unforgettable hero at its heart, Golden Son guarantees Pierce Brown's continuing status as one of fiction's most exciting new voices.
The Retribution of Mara Dyer
Mara Dyer: Book Three
Written by Michelle Hodkin
Paranormal, Fantasy
Published November 2014
480 Pages
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Australia
Mara Dyer wants to believe there's more to the lies she’s been told. There is.
She doesn’t stop to think about where her quest for the truth might lead. She should.
She never had to imagine how far she would go for vengeance. She will now. Loyalties are betrayed, guilt and innocence tangle, and fate and chance collide in this shocking conclusion to Mara Dyer’s story.
Retribution has arrived.
Red Rising
Red Rising Trilogy Book One
Written by Pierce Brown
Reviewed by the Hubby
Reviewed by the Hubby
Science Fiction, Dystopian
Published January 28th 2014
400 Pages
The Earth is dying. Darrow is a Red, a miner in the interior of Mars. His mission is to extract enough precious elements to one day tame the surface of the planet and allow humans to live on it. The Reds are humanity's last hope.Or so it appears, until the day Darrow discovers it's all a lie. That Mars has been habitable, and inhabited, for generations, by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. A class of people who look down on Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.Until the day that Darrow, with the help of a mysterious group of rebels, disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside. But the command school is a battlefield, and Darrow isn't the only student with an agenda.
Red Queen
Red Queen Trilogy: Book One
Written by Victoria Aveyard
Fantasy, Dystopian
Expected Publication February 10th 2014
400 Pages
Thank you to Hachette Australia
This is a world divided by blood. Red or silver.The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen year old Red girl from the poverty stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.That is, until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.Fearful of Mare's potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime.But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance. Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart...
Trust Me, I'm Lying
Written by Mary Elizabeth Summer
Mystery, Romance
Published January 2nd 2015
336 Pages
Thank you to Random House Austalia
★★★★
Julep Dupree tells lies. A lot of them. She’s a con artist, a master of disguise, and a sophomore at Chicago’s swanky St. Agatha High, where her father, an old school grifter with a weakness for the ponies, sends her to so she can learn to mingle with the upper crust. For extra spending money Julep doesn’t rely on her dad, she runs petty scams for her classmates while dodging the dean of students and maintaining an A plus, okay, A minus average.But when she comes home one day to a ransacked apartment and her father gone, Julep’s carefully laid plans for an expenses paid golden ticket to Yale start to unravel. Even with help from St. Agatha’s resident Prince Charming, Tyler Richland, and her loyal hacker sidekick, Sam, Julep struggles to trace her dad’s trail of clues through a maze of creepy stalkers, hit attempts, family secrets, and worse, the threat of foster care. With everything she has at stake, Julep’s in way over her head... But that’s not going to stop her from using every trick in the book to find her dad before his mark finds her. Because that would be criminal.
Julep is the master manipulator at the private and illustrious Saint Agatha's, taking full advantage of being the daughter of a con man and a Grifter herself. She sells dreams to anyone who can afford her services, while her father pays her tuition to ensure she gains the wealthy connections to follow in his footsteps. But when Julep arrives home from school to find their small apartment ransacked, her father missing and the only clue to his whereabouts is a cryptic note and a handgun, Julep realises she may need to call in reinforcements.
Wealthy young technology expert Sam is Julep's best friend and partner in crime... Until the popular and charismatic Tyler takes an interest. Tyler is adamant he wants to be her friend, his wealthy and lonely life demanding more than vapid friends and his father's senate election. As Julep follows her father's clues, she's being followed. threatened and needs to find a way to pay for her own tuition or risk being expelled and finding herself in foster care. As the clues lead her closer to her father's insurance policy should he disappear, it will be more than Julep's life in danger. She isn't the only one prone to telling lies, and this deception may just lead to her begging for her own life while others sacrifice theirs.
Kelly's Thoughts
Trust Me, I'm lying was fun, adventurous, but with a thrillingly sinister storyline that I couldn't put down. Reminiscent of Veronica Mars, it follows the story of Julep, a sassy voice in a sea of the wealthy and elite. She makes dreams a reality for a fee, with intricate schemes ranging from setting up dates for the desperate, to criminal activity. Her single father teaching her all he knows, until she comes home from school and finds her place ransacked and her father missing. Suddenly her extracurricular activities pale in comparison. Apart from best friend Sam, Julep has connections but no other friends, not allowing herself to take comfort in anyone else, until she meets Tyler.
Tyler is wealthy, popular and after seeing a dead rat being placed in Julep's school locker, feels he needs to involve himself in her protection. Julep is wary of his sudden interest, and with good reason. Sam doesn't trust him and their once close friendship becomes strained with the introduction of Tyler as a possible love interest. Their dangerous adventure was enthralling, a mystery that unravels as the reader turns each page. I loved Julep's character and although she eludes a tough exterior, I felt incredibly sorry for her. She doesn't want to follow in her father's footsteps, even though he is pushing her into a life of crime and one day dreams of attending Yale.
The appeal of Trust Me, I'm lying comes from being so far fetched, that it borders on being a fun thriller and not to be taken seriously. It's entertaining, and will appeal to fans of young adult mystery. Looking forward to continuing on with the series.
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