New Book Releases for October 2015
Here are the books due for release in October 2015 that have had the pleasure to read or have made it onto my to-read list. Click on the covers for detailed reviews.
Young Adult Fiction
A Thousand Nights – E.K. Johnston – Disney Hyperion – Published 6 October 2015
Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.
And so she is taken in her sister’s place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin’s court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time.But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Full review.
Young adult fiction: Fantasy – fairytale retelling.
A Step Toward Falling – Cammie McGovern – HarperTeen – Published 6 October 2015
A Step Toward Falling is a book that is beautifully written and has a wonderful message of friendship and love, of fear and bravery, and of learning to reach out and stand up. This is a book that is well worth reading.
Lucas and Emily. One a successful football player and part of the popular social group at school, the other an academic activist. Now they are connected by one night where they both failed to act when Belinda, a fellow student with developmental disabilities, was being attacked. Full review.
Young adult fiction: Contemporary.
Spinning Starlight – R.C. Lewis – Disney Hyperion – Published 6 October 2015
A clever fairytale reconstruction set in a world of advanced technology, interplanetary journeys and magic.
Liddi is heir to the Jantzen Technology Innovations company. She also can’t seem to create anything new or exciting or even near worthy of the Jantzen name. But when her eight older brothers are placed in danger it is up to Liddi to save them. When her brothers manage to get her to moderate safety, she realises the world she knows is far larger and more diverse than she could have imagined and that the danger that threatens her family could also irrevocably destroy not only the seven planets of her home but the eighth plant on which she now takes refuge. Full review.
Young adult fiction: Fantasy – fairytale retelling.
Black Widow: Forever Red – Margaret Stohl – Marvel Press – Published 13 October 2015
Natasha Romanoff is one of the world’s most lethal assassins. Trained from a young age in the arts of death and deception, Natasha was given the title of Black Widow by Ivan Somodorov, her brutal teacher at the Red Room, Moscow’s infamous academy for operatives.
Young adult fiction: Sci-fi
Ice Like Fire – Sara Raasch – Snow Like Ashes #2 – Balzer + Bray – Published 13 October 2015
Meira has saved her kingdom. Her people are now free from the tyranny of Angra and Spring. But instead of rejoicing, all Meira feels is the loss of what she couldn’t save and the nagging feeling that all is not as safe as it should be.
Under the restrictive influence of Cordell, Winter’s mines are opened and the hunt for the magic chasm begins. But when it is found Meira must decide who are her true enemies and where else she might look to for support. Ordered on a journey across the kingdoms of Primoria, Meira intends to use this as a chance to garner allies and stop the spread of magic and the destruction it can bring, while Theron wants to unify the kingdoms in a bid for peace with magic for everyone. Divided by their goals, Meira’s journey is only just beginning. Full review.
Young adult fiction: Fantasy.
First & Then – Emma Mills – Henry Holt and Co. – Published 13 October 2015
Devon Tennyson wouldn’t change a thing. She’s happy watching Friday night games from the bleachers, silently crushing on best friend Cas, and blissfully ignoring the future after high school. But the universe has other plans. It delivers Devon’s cousin Foster, an unrepentant social outlier with a surprising talent for football, and the obnoxiously superior and maddeningly attractive star running back, Ezra, right where she doesn’t want them first into her P.E. class and then into every other aspect of her life. Full review.
Young adult fiction: Contemporary.
The Distance from Me to You – Marina Gessner – G.P Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers – Published 20 October 2015
McKenna Berney is a lucky girl. She has a loving family and has been accepted to college for the fall. But McKenna has a different goal in mind: much to the chagrin of her parents, she defers her college acceptance to hike the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia with her best friend. And when her friend backs out, McKenna is determined to go through with the dangerous trip on her own. While on the Trail, she meets Sam. Having skipped out on an abusive dad and quit school, Sam has found a brief respite on the Trail, where everyone’s a drifter, at least temporarily.
Young adult fiction: Contemporary.
Losers Take All – David Klass – Farrar, Straus and Giroux – Published 20 October 2015
At Jack Logan’s sports-crazy New Jersey high school, the new rule is that all kids must play on a team. So Jack and a ragtag group of anti-athletic friends decide to get even. They are going to start a rebel JV soccer team whose mission is to avoid victory at any cost, setting out to secretly undermine the jock culture of the school. But as the team’s losing formula becomes increasingly successful at attracting fans and attention, Jack and his teammates are winning in ways they never expected—and don’t know how to handle.
Young adult fiction: Contemporary.
New Adult Fiction
The Fifteenth Minute – Sarina Bowen – The Ivy Years #5 – Published 13 October 2015
Freshman Lianne Challice is known to millions of fans as Princess Vindi. But sometimes a silver screen sorceress just wants to hang up her wand, tell her manager to shove it, and become a normal college student. Too bad that’s harder than it looks.
She’s never lived a normal life. She hasn’t been to school since kindergarten. And getting close to anyone is just too risky — the last boy she kissed sold the story to a British tabloid.
But she can’t resist trying to get close to Daniel “DJ” Trevi, the hot, broody guy who spins tunes for hockey games in the arena. There’s something haunting his dark eyes and she needs to know more.
New adult fiction: Contemporary.
Surviving Ice – K.A. Tucker – Atria Books – Published 27 October 2015.
Ivy, a talented tattoo artist who spent the early part of her twenties on the move, is finally looking for a place to call home. She thinks she might have found it in San Francisco, but all that changes when she witnesses a terrible crime. She’s ready to pack up her things yet again, when a random encounter with a stranger keeps her in the city, giving her reason to stay after all.
That is, until Ivy discovers that their encounter wasn’t random. Not at all…
New adult fiction: Contemporary.
Christian Fiction
Deadlock – DiAnn Mills – FBI: Houston #3 – Tyndale Publishers – Published 1 October 2015
Deadlock jumps straight into the crime-fighting action. It read like a great crime TV show, high on dialog, short sharp sentences and minimal other details, with touches of romance and faith.
It’s the first day on the job for Special Agent Bethany Sanchez, who has transferred from civil rights division to violent crimes. Eager to start, yet anxious about working with her new partner Special Agent Thatcher Graves, Bethany is plunged straight into the middle of a serial killer case. Things get complicated when Bethany isn’t sure the second murder really is the work of the serial killer, while Thatcher is adamant his gut is correct in assuring him the murders are the work of the same person. Full review.
Fiction: Christian Suspense.
Love in the Details: A November Wedding Story – Becky Wade – A Year of Weddings 2 #12 – Zondervan – Published 27 October 2015
This novella has all of Becky Wade’s trademark charming writing style, great characters and swoony romance.
Holly is a successful full-time writer, but she gave up on her own happily ever after eight years ago when she sacrificed her dreams for those of her boyfriend Josh’s. Now he has returned to her little town of Martinsburg, a wealthy and successful businessman, to stand up as best man in his best friend’s wedding. But his proximity and their shared connection to the wedding has the past threatening to expose itself. Can Holly walk away with her heart intact, or will Josh’s return change everything. Full review.
Fiction: Christian contemporary.
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