Sunday, July 6, 2014

Stacking the Shelves #54

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Review


BOUGHT

Windchaser by Scott Ciencin
During a mutiny on a prison ship, two boys are tossed overboard. Now they are stranded on Dinotopia. Raymond is the son of the ship's surgeon. He immediately takes to this strange new world and befriends a wounded Skybax named Windchaser. But Hugh, a London pickpocket, believes he'll never fit into this paradise. While Raymond helps Windchaser improve his shaky flying, Hugh forms a sinister plan. Soon all three are headed into a dangerous adventure that will test both their courage and their friendship. . . .

River Quest by John Vornholt
The Polongo River, the source of energy for Waterfall City, has mysteriously dried up. Thirteen-year-old Magnolia and her dinosaur partner, Paddlefoot, must restore the great river - or Waterfall City is doomed! Along the way they meet Birch, a farmer's son, and his triceratops buddy, Rogo, who insist on joining the quest. Together, the unlikely four must battle the elements as they try to save Dinotopia's most beautiful city and its inhabitants.

A Grimm Warning by Chris Colfer
Conner Bailey thinks his fairy-tale adventures are behind him - until he discovers a mysterious clue left by the famous Brothers Grimm. With help from his classmate Bree and the outlandish Mother Goose, Conner sets off on a mission across Europe to crack a two-hundred-year-old code.

Meanwhile, Alex Bailey is training to become the next Fairy Godmother. . . .but her attempts at granting wishes never go as planned. Will she ever be truly ready to lead the Fairy Council?

When all signs point to disaster for the Land of Stories, Conner and Alex must join forces with their friends and enemies to save the day. But nothing can prepare them for the coming battle. . . .or for the secret that will change the twins' lives forever.

Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne
Growing up on Forge's streets has taught Kyra how to stretch a coin. And when that's not enough, her uncanny ability to scale walls and bypass guards helps her take what she needs.

But when the leader of the Assassins Guild offers Kyra a lucrative job, she hesitates. She knows how to get by on her own, and she's not sure she wants to play by his rules. But he is persistent - and darkly attractive - and Kyra can't quite resist his pull.

Tristam of Brancel is a young Palace knight on a mission. After his best friend is brutally murdered by the Demon Riders, a clan of vicious warriors who ride bloodthirsty wildcats, Tristam vows to take them down. But as his investigation deepens, he finds his efforts thwarted by a talented thief, one who sneaks past Palace defenses with remarkable ease.

When a fateful raid throws Kyra and Tristam together, the two enemies realize that their best chance at survival - and vengeance - might be to join forces. And as their loyalties are tested to the breaking point, they learn a startling secret about Kyra's past that threatens to reshape both their lives.

Seer of Shadows by Avi
The is 1872. The place is New York City. Horace Carpetine has been raised to believe in science and rationality. So as apprentice to Enoch Middleditch, a society photographer, he thinks of his trade as a scientific art. But when wealthy society matron Mrs. Frederick Von Macht orders a photographic portrait, strange things begin to happen.

Horace's first real photographs reveal a frightful likeness: it's the image of the Von Machts' dead daughter, Eleanora.

Pegg, the Von Matchs' black servant girl, then leads him to the truth about who Eleanora really was and how she actually died. Joined in friendship, Pegg and Horace soon realize that his photographs are evoking both Eleanora's image and her ghost. Eleanora returns, a vengeful wraith intent on punishing those who abused her.

Heart of Glass by Sasha Gould
Three months have passed since Laura della Scala solved her sister's murder after joining the Segreta, a powerful society of women who trade protection for secrets. Now Laura is engaged to her true love, Roberto, and she has never been happier.

But the night Laura is sent on her first important mission for the Segreta, Roberto is found with the body of a dead woman in his room. Halim, an irresistibly handsome Turkish prince on a diplomatic visit to the city, identifies the woman as his sister and insists that Roberto be executed for her murder, or the Ottoman Empire will attack Venice.

Laura is desperate to save both her city and her fiance. But as the evidence against Roberto mounts and Laura finds herself increasingly drawn to Halim, she begins to wonder whether everything Roberto told her was a lie. What Laura uncovers is a conspiracy that involves nearly everyone she knows.

Shakespeare's Spy by Gary Blackwood
"You will come into a fortune."

That's what the fortune-teller says to Widge. But the orphan boy turned actor cannot believe it. Where would a young player find a fortune? He has been an apprentice with Shakespeare's company since his old master sent him to steal Shakespeare's play Hamlet by copying it down in "charactery" - his rare skill at shorthand. Instead of stealing the play, he joined the players, and they have become a family to him - the only family he has ever known.

Now thievery is again afflicting the company. Things are going missing from backstage, and Will Shakespeare's scripts must be guarded at all costs. The disappearances look like an inside job. Who among the players would betray Mr. Shakespeare and the company? Widge, the former thief, is a prime suspect. To prove his innocence, he takes on a new and challenging role: spy. And he has to get further into trouble to find his way out.

In the meantime, Widge starts writing a play of his own - he has seen Will Shakespeare do it - and, as a scribe, had even helped him. He desperately needs the money he could get from selling his work. Will this bring him the promised fortune?

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
Gemma Doyle isn't like other girls. Girls with impeccable manners, who speak when spoken to, who remember their station, who dance with grace, and who will lie back and think of England when it's required of them.

No, sixteen-year-old Gemma is an island unto herself, sent to the Spence Academy in London after tragedy strikes her family in India. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma finds her reception a chilly one. She's not completely alone, though. . . .she's been followed by a mysterious young man, sent to warn her to close her mind against the visions.

For it's at Spence that Gemma's power to attract the supernatural unfolds; there she becomes entangled with the school's most powerful girls and discovers her mother's connection to a shadowy, timeless group called the Order. It's there that her destiny waits. . . .if only Gemma can believe in it.

Rebel Angels by Libba Bray
Ah, Christmas! Gemma Doyle is looking forward to a holiday from Spence Academy - spending time with her friends in the city, attending balls in fancy gowns with plunging necklines, and dallying with the handsome Simon Middleton. Yet amid these distractions, her vision intensify - visions of three girls dressed in white, to whom something horrific has happened that only the realms can explain.

The lure is strong, and soon Gemma, Felicity, and Ann are turning flowers into butterflies in the enchanted world that Gemma takes them to. To the girls' great joy, their beloved Pippa is there as well, eager to complete their circle of friendship.

But all is not well in the realms - or out. Kartik is back, desperately insisting to Gemma that she must bind the magic, lest colossal disaster befall her. Gemma is willing to comply, for this would bring her face to face with her late mother's greatest friend, now Gemma's foe - Circe. Until Circe is destroyed, Gemma cannot live out her destiny. But finding Circe proves a most perilous task. . . .

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
It has been a year of change since Gemma Doyle arrived at the foreboding Spence Academy. Her mother murdered, her father a laudanum addict, Gemma has relied on an unsuspected strength to turn catty schoolgirls into loyal friends, and has discovered an ability to travel to an enchanted world called the realms, where dark magic runs wild. Despite certain peril, Gemma has bound the magic to herself and forged unlikely new alliances with headstrong Felicity and timid Ann; with Kartik, an exotic young Indian man whose companionship is forbidden; and with the fearsome creatures of the realms. Now, as Gemma approaches her London debut, the time has come to test these bonds.

Rule-breaking Felicity must do as she's told or risk losing her inheritance, and Ann's dream of a life onstage slips away. The Order, the mysterious group Gemma's mother was once part of, is grappling for control of the realms, as are the Rakshana. It is there that the girls meet their adored friend Pippa, who is not the same. . . .or is she? The power to change everything - both in and out of the realms - rests in Gemma's hands.

Reckoning by Kerry Wilkinson
In the village of Martindale, hundreds of miles north of the new English capital of Windsor, sixteen-year-old Silver Blackthorn takes the Reckoning. This coming-of-age test not only decides her place in society - Elite, Member, Inter, or Trog - but also determines that Silver is to become an Offering for King Victor.

But these are uncertain times and no one really knows what happens to the teenagers who disappear into Windsor Castle. Is being an Offering the privilege everyone assumes it to be, or do the walls of the castle have something to hide?

Trapped in a maze of ancient corridors, Silver finds herself in a warped world of suspicion where it is difficult to know who to trust and who to fear. The one thing Silver does know is that she must find a way out. . . .

William Shakespeare's the Jedi Doth Return by Ian Doescher
Prithee, attend the tale so far:

Hans Solo entombed in carbonite, the princess taken captive, the Rebel Alliance besieged, and Jabba the Hutt engorged. Alack! Now Luke Skywalker and his Rebel hand must seek fresh allies in their quest to thwart construction of a new Imperial Death Star. But whom can they trust to fight by their side in the great battle to come? Cry "Ewok" and let slip the dogs of war!

The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson
Elisa is a hero.

She led her people to victory over a terrifying, sorcerous army. Her place as the country's ruler should be secure. But it isn't.

Her enemies come at her like ghosts in a dream, from foreign realms and even from within her own court. And her destiny as the chosen one as not yet been fulfilled.

To conquer the power she bears, once and for all, Elisa must follow a trail of long-forgotten - and forbidden - clues, from the deep, hidden catacombs of her own city to the treacherous seas. With her go a one-eyed spy, a traitor, and the man whom - despite everything - she is falling love with.

If she's lucky, she will return from this journey. But there will be a cost.

The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene
Teenage detective Nancy Drew finds herself in danger when she sets out to track a jewel thief.

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson
She flees on her wedding day.

She steals ancient documents from the Chancellor's secret collection.

She is pursued by bounty hunters sent by her own father.

She is Princess Lia, seventeen, First Daughter of the House of Morrighan.

The Kingdom of Morrighan is steeped in tradition and the stories of a bygone world, but some traditions Lia can't abide. Like having to marry someone she's never met to secure a political alliance.

Fed up and ready for a new life, Lia flees to a distant village on the morning of her wedding. She settles in among the common folk, intrigued when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive - and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deceptions swirl and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets - secrets that may unravel her world - even as she feels herself falling in love.

The Actual & Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher by Jessica Jawson
Becky is determined to have her own adventures, just like she promised her brother, Jon, before he died. When she joins the boys at school in a bet to steal from the Widow Douglas, the rumored town witch, Becky recruits her best friend Amy Lawrence to join her in a night of mischief. And that's when the real adventure begins.

FOR REVIEW

Concrete Fever by Nathaniel Kressen
On the night he decides to jump off his Upper West Side rooftop, a prep school teen encounters a lost girl dancing on the ledge. They split cigarettes, spill secrets, and hatch an unexpected plan: to play out a romantic relationship over the course of one night, and discover whether magic can truly exist. As the game propels them through scattered haunts of the city, the line that separates fantasy from reality blurs, leading each to reconsider what is real, what is illusion, and whether the dawn will bring with it a new beginning or a violent end.

Forget Me Not by Shawn Martin

This Week, On The Reading Hedgehog...............

June 30, 2014 - Monday
July 1, 2014 - Tuesday
July 2, 2014 - Wednesday
July 3, 2014 - Thursday
July 4, 2014 - Friday
July 5, 2014 - Saturday

Next Week, On The Reading Hedgehog...................

July 7, 2014 - Monday
Review: Pirates! - Celia Rees
July 8, 2014 - Tuesday
Top Ten Tuesday #52: Top 10 Blogging Confessions
Teaser Tuesday #13
July 9, 2014 - Wednesday
Waiting on Wednesday #54 + WWW Wednesday #24
July 10, 2014 - Thursday
Review: Sea Monster! - Jordan Quinn
July 11, 2014 - Friday
ARC Review: The Vanishing Season - Jodi Lynn Anderson
July 12, 2014 - Saturday
2014 Series Challenge Update #3

2 comments:

  1. You've got some great titles there, I've only read Reckoning but it's a book I highly recommend!

    Thea @ Gizzimomo's Book Shelf

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It sounded really good - and I love the cover art.

      Delete

Thank you for visiting The Reading Hedgehog! The hedgie and I love hearing from our readers, so please feel free to leave a comment or question! I always try to reply within a day or two. Please keep all comments civil and clean.