Emily's Reading Room

Welcome to my new Behind The Pages post! You can find last month's post of this feature, with Bethany Neal and her debut novel My Last Kiss, here . Today I'm sharing comments from Katie McGarry on a scene of CRASH INTO ME . What is Behind The Pages all about? I asked some of my favourite authors and a bunch of promising 2014 debut authors to annotate a scene, page or more of one of their books. I see the feature as a chance to show readers what's behind a page. Authors can share their favourite writing memories, the music that influenced a certain scene or anything else that comes to their mind. We might get hints to what the characters were thinking and feeling that exact moment or other fun details about their story. Hope you enjoy Behind The Pages as much as I do. I'm intending this feature to be a monthly post here on the blog. Thanks to all the incredible authors who took the time to annotate a page or scene for us, your comments are always so insightfu...

Title: Let's Get Lost Author: Adi Alsaid Publisher: Harlequin Teen Publishing Date: July 29th 2014 Length: 352 pages Keywords: YA, contemporary, road trip, romance, friendship Source: Edelweiss Five strangers. Countless adventures. One epic way to get lost. Four teens across the country have only one thing in common: a girl named LEILA. She crashes into their lives in her absurdly red car at the moment they need someone the most. There's HUDSON, a small-town mechanic who is willing to throw away his dreams for true love. And BREE, a runaway who seizes every Tuesday—and a few stolen goods along the way. ELLIOT believes in happy endings…until his own life goes off-script. And SONIA worries that when she lost her boyfriend, she also lost the ability to love. Hudson, Bree, Elliot and Sonia find a friend in Leila. And when Leila leaves them, their lives are forever changed. But it is during Leila's own 4,268-mile journey that she discovers the most important truth—...

Looking for some thrilling YA reads this summer and fall? Then these are your books! THE MURDER COMPLEX by Lindsay Cummings, BLACKBIRD by Anna Carey and UNRAVELING by Elizabeth Norris. The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings This debut transports its readers to a futuristic world where life means nothing and killing is everything. It's time for Meadow Woodson, who has been trained to fight and survive anything, to find her place in this cruel and dangerous society. Zephyr James is already part of that system, an assassin. Their roles in the system could uncover truths and secrets that could ultimately hurt both of them and destroy their new-found bond.  THE MURDER COMPLEX is made up of short chapters told from Zephyr and Meadow's perspectives which I liked both. The actual story could be confusing at times though. W hen one string of action had just begun and got promptly interrupted by another, I tended to fail to stay on top of things. The system our characters are caught in ...

It feels pretty good to be blogging again after the extended break I had to take for two reasons. First, there was the three-week vacation in Denmark . And the second reason is named Kira. Our Golden retriever Amy is 1 1/2 years old now and since she hasn't lost her anxiety about loud noises and new places, we decided it best to get a second dog who might be able to stabilize her in situations of great distress. Kira is a Bernaise Mountain dog and 13 weeks old. We got her just before we left for Denmark and so far it has been a stressfull, but awesome time with her. After two days of obsessive stalking the little pup, Amy grew to like her so much and has been showing signs of feeling more secure in certain situations. I believe Amy & Kira are already best buddies for life. They enjoyed the vacation and absolutely loved the beach. Here are a few pictures. The Denmark vacation was much needed and finally I had time to read a few books that I've been dying to read in the pas...

After an extended blogging break I'm finally back with a new mini reviews post. 17 FIRST KISSES by Rachael Allen, THE THINGS YOU KISS GOODBYE by Leslie Connor and THROUGH TO YOU by Lauren Barnholdt  are June and July 2014 releases and all make for great summer reads. 17 First Kisses by Rachael Allen Claire and Megan are best friends and they are completely boy-crazy. When a new boy moves to town Claire is determined he could finally be her one true love but she has to risk her friendship with Megan in order to test her theory. Claire and Megan's friendship was always presented like it couldn't coexist with their dating life. Her list of kisses, which Claire often talks about like trophies or inanities, is long. And so I couldn't help thinking that her emotional world felt very limited. Or maybe I just  couldn't see any sense in the fight she has with her supposedly best friend Megan over the new boy Luke.  Luke and Claire's love story could've been somethi...

June may be almost over but that doesn’t mean the fun is over at Entangled Teen! We are excited to be announcing the release of two of our new titles, Mirror X by Karri Thompson and Going Down in Flames by Chris Cannon, which readers are already raving about! Plus you can pick up both Mirror X and Going Down in Flames on sale for just $.99 right now. Mirror X by Karri Thompson Publication: June 30th 2014 Cassie Dannacher wakes up in a hospital over 1,000 years into the future after her space capsule is retrieved from space. She soon learns that 600 years prior to her arrival, the earth was struck by a plague, killing over half of the world’s population. Naïve and desperate, Cassie, who longs for home and is having trouble adjusting to the new, dictatorial 31st century government, is comforted by Michael Bennett, the 20-year old lead geneticist at the hospital where she was revived. But why is Cassie in genetics’ hospital in the first place, and why do several of the people around ...