The Reading Hedgehog: Stacking the Shelves #77

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

BOUGHT

The Book of Storms by Ruth Hatfield

Eleven-year-old Danny O'Neill has never been what you'd call adventurous. But when he wakes the morning after a vicious storm to find his house empty, his storm-chaser parents gone, and himself mysteriously able to hear the thoughts of a dying tree, he has no choice but to set out on a quest to find answers. He soon learns that the enigmatic Book of Storms holds the key to what he seeks. . . .but unraveling its mysteries won't be easy. If he wants to find his family, he'll have to face his worst fears, battle terrifyingly powerful enemies, and confront a shadowy and demonic figure: Sammael.

The Bellmaker by Brian Jacques

Joseph the Bellmaker is troubled. It had been four seasons since his warrior-mouse daughter, Mariel, and her companion, Dandin, set off from Redwall to fight evil in Mossflower. Nothing has been heard of them since.

Then one night, in a dream, the legendary Martin the Warrior comes to the Bellmaker with a mysterious message. Clearly, Mariel and Dandin are in grave danger.

Joseph and four Redwallers set off at once to aid them. As they push over land and sea, they cannot know the terrible threats they face: the impossible Foxwolf, Urgan Nagru, his mate Silvamord, and their vicious rat hordes.

Can the impetuous sailor-otter Finbarr Galedeep help them cross the sea? What is the mystery of Roaringburn? And most important, will the Bellmaker and his companions arrive in time to help Mariel and Dandin?

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

Nathaniel is eleven years old and a magician's apprentice, learning the traditional arts of magic. All is well until he has a life-changing encounter with Simon Lovelace, a magician of unrivaled ruthlessness and ambition. When Lovelace brutally humiliates Nathaniel in public, Nathaniel decides to speed up his education, teaching himself spells way beyond his years. With revenge on his mind, he masters one of the toughest spells of all and summons Bartimaeus, a five-thousand-year-old djinni, to assist him. But summoning Bartimaeus and controlling him are two different things entirely, and when Nathaniel sends the djinni out to steal Lovelace's greatest treasure, the Amulet of Samarkand, he finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of magical espionage, murder, and rebellion.

The Luxe by Anna Godbersen

Beautiful sisters Elizabeth and Diana Holland rule Manhattan's social scene. Or so it appears. When the girls discover their status among New York City's elite is far from secure, suddenly everyone - from the backstabbing socialite Penelope Hayes, to the debonair bachelor Henry Schoonmaker, to the spiteful maid Lina Broud - threatens Elizabeth's and Diana's golden future.

With the fate of the Hollands resting on her shoulders, Elizabeth must choose between family duty and true love. But when her carriage overturns near the East River, the girl whose glittering life lit up the city's gossip pages is swallowed by the rough current. As all of New York grieves, some begin to wonder whether life at the top proved too much for this ethereal beauty, or if, perhaps, someone wanted to see Manhattan's most celebrated daughter disappear. . ..

Max by James Patterson

Max and the flock have traded in Antarctica's subzero temperatures for sunny Los Angeles, where they're taking over the skies with their hair-raising air show. But far below, a deadly assassin watches their every move, waiting for the perfect moment to send them plummeting to earth.

Suddenly, the flock learns that millions of fish are dying off Hawaii's coast and that someone - or something - is destroying hundreds of ships. When they are confronted with the most frightening ecological catastrophe yet, they have no choice but to go deep into the murky waters. Now, nowhere is safe.

While Max and her team comb the depths of the ocean, a powerful enemy tracks them. He has his own plans for the flock and will stop at nothing until they're under his control. Can the flock protect themselves from the approaching army - and save the world from utter destruction?

Fang by James Patterson

Fang will be the first to die.

Maximum Ride is used to living desperately on the run from evil forces sabotaging her quest to save the world - but nothing has ever come as close to destroying her as this horrifying prophetic message. Fang is Max's best friend, her soul mate, her partner in the leadership of her flock of winged children. A life without Fang is a life unimaginable.

When a newly created winged boy, the magnificent Dylan, is introduced into the flock, their world is upended yet again. Raised in a lab like the other, Dylan exists for only one reason: he was designed to be Max's perfect other half.

Thus unfolds a battle of perfection versus passion that terrifies, twists, and turns. . . .and meanwhile, THE APOCALYPSE IS COMING.

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

The universe has broken wide, and Lyra's friend lies dead. Desperate for answers and set on revenge, Lyra bursts into a new world in pursuit of his killer. Instead, she finds Will, just twelve years old and already a murderer himself. He's on a quest as fierce as Lyra's, and together they strike out into this sunlit otherworld.

But Cittagazze is a strange and haunted place. Soul-eating Specters stalk its streets while, high above, the wingbeats of distant angels sound against the sky. And in the mysterious Torre degli Angeli lurks Cittagazze's deadly secret - an object of extraordinary and devastating power.

On this journey marked by danger, Will and Lyra forge ahead. But with every step and each new horror, they move closer to the greatest threat of all - and the shattering truth of their own destiny.

Abhorsen by Garth Nix

'The ninth was strong

and fought with might,

but lone Orannis

was put out of the light,

broken in two

and buried under hill,

forever to lie there,

wishing us ill.'

So says the song. But Orannis, the Destroyer, is no longer buried under hill. It has been freed from its subterranean prison and now seeks to escape the silver hemispheres, the final barrier to the unleashing of its terrible powers.

Only Lirael, newly come into her inheritance as the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, has any chance of stopping the Destroyer. She and her companions - Sam, the Disreputable Dog, and Mogget - have to take that chance. For the Destroyer is the enemy of all Life, and it must be stopped, though Lirael does not know how.

To make matters worse, Sam's best friend, Nick, is helping the Destroyer, as are the necromancer Hedge and the Greater Dead Chlorr, and there has been no word from the Abhorsen Sabriel or King Touchstone.

Everything depends upon Lirael. A heavy, perhaps even impossible burden for a young woman who just days ago was merely a Second Assistant Librarian. With only a vision from the Clayr to guide her, and the rather mixed help of her companions, Lirael must search in both Life and Death for some means to defeat the Destroyer.

Before it is too late. . . .

Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

Incarceron, the living prison, has lost one of its inmates to the outside world: Finn's escaped, only to find that Outside is not at all what he expected. Used to the technologically advanced, if violently harsh, conditions of the prison, Finn is now forced to obey the rules of Protocol, which require all people to live without technology. To Finn, Outside is just a prison of another kind, especially when Claudia, the daughter of the prison's warden, declares Finn the lost heir to the throne. When another claimant emerges, both Finn's and Claudia's very lives hang on Finn convincing the Court of something that even he doesn't fully believe.

Meanwhile, Finn's oathbrother Keiro and his friend Attia are still trapped inside Incarceron. They are searching for a magical glove, which legend says Sapphique used to escape. To find it, they must battle the prison itself, because Incarceron wants the glove too.

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

Bastian Balthazar Bux is shy, awkward, and certainly not heroic. His only escape is reading books. When Bastian happens upon an old book called The Neverending Story, he's swept into the magical world of Fantastica - so much that he finds he has actually become a character in the story! And when he realizes that this mysteriously enchanted world is in great danger, he also discovers that he has been the one chosen to save it. Can Bastian overcome the barrier between reality and his imagination in order to save Fantastica?

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

February 2, 2015 - Monday

Review: Why We Broke Up - Daniel Handler

February 3, 2015 - Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday #75: Top 10 Books Contemporary Books I Want To Read

Teaser Tuesday #36

February 4, 2015 - Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday #77 + WWW Wednesday #47

February 5, 2015 - Thursday

Review: Thursdays with the Crown - Jessica Day George

February 6, 2015 - Friday

Review: Fairest - Marissa Meyer