Emily's Reading Room

This week I wrote three (not so short) reviews of YA contemporary novels that have very special protagonists with immensely emotional stories. EVERYTHING THAT MAKES YOU by Moriah McStay, BETTER THAN PERFECT by Melissa Kantor and THE LAST TIME WE SAY GOODBYE by Cynthia Hand are three fabulous reads that I can all recommend! E verything That Makes You by Moriah McStay "One girl. Two stories. Meet Fiona Doyle. The thick ridges of scar tissue on her face are from an accident twelve years ago. Fiona has notebooks full of songs she’s written about her frustrations, her dreams, and about her massive crush on beautiful uber-jock Trent McKinnon. If she can’t even find the courage to look Trent straight in his beautiful blue eyes, she sure isn’t brave enough to play or sing any of her songs in public. But something’s changing in Fiona. She can’t be defined by her scars anymore.    And what if there hadn’t been an accident? Meet Fi Doyle. Fi is the top-rated female high school lacross...

In my new Mini Reviews post in February I'm sharing three daring YA reads with you. ON THE EDGE by Allison van Diepen was one of my favourite books last year. AFTER HOURS by Claire Kennedy is a debut novel, coming out in June 2015. And LIES I TOLD by Michelle Zink is released in April 2015. On the Edge by Allison van Diepen "Maddie Diaz never should have taken that shortcut through the park. If she hadn't, she wouldn't have seen two members of the Reyes gang attacking a homeless man. Now, as the only witness, she knows there’s a target on her back. But when the Reyes jump her on the street, Maddie is protected by a second gang and their secretive leader, Lobo, who is determined to take down the Reyes himself. Lobo is mysterious and passionate, and Maddie begins to fall for him. But when they live this close to the edge, can their love survive?" ( Goodreads )    At first Lobo's identity is a mystery for Maddie. Mystery is always a good strategic element to cat...

A few days ago I found this ARC of Lies I Told by Michelle Zink in my mailbox. I decided to give it away to one lucky reader who then gets to read Michelle's newest book early. This book is not out until April 2015. Good luck! What if, after spending a lifetime deceiving everyone around you, you discovered the biggest lies were the ones you've told yourself? Grace Fontaine has everything: beauty, money, confidence, and the perfect family. But it’s all a lie. Grace has been adopted into a family of thieves who con affluent people out of money, jewelry, art, and anything else of value. Grace has never had any difficulty pulling off a job, but when things start to go wrong on the Fontaines' biggest heist yet, Grace finds herself breaking more and more of the rules designed to keep her from getting caught...including the most important one of all: never fall for your mark. Perfect for fans of Ally Carter, Cecily von Ziegesar, and Gail Carriger, this thrilling, hig...

Title: A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird #1) Author: Claudia Gray Publisher: Harper Teen Publishing Date: November 4th 2014 Length: 368 pages Keywords: YA, thriller, sci-fi, romance, dimension travel Source: Edelweiss Every Day meets Cloud Atlas in this heart-racing, space- and time-bending, epic new trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray. Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him. Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and...

Title: This Shattered World (Starbound #2) Author: Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner Publisher: Disney Hyperion Publishing Date: December 23rd 2014 Length: 390 pages Keywords: YA, fiction, sci-fi, space travel, romance, war  Source: Netgalley Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met. Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents. Rebellion is in Flynn's blood. Terraforming corporations make their fortune by recruiting colonists to make the inhospitable planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion. Desperate for any advantage in a bloody and unrelentingly war, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-tal...

Welcome to my new Behind The Pages post! You can find last month's post of this feature, with Mary Elizabeth Summer and Trust Me, I'm Lying, here . Today I'm sharing a map Sara Raasch annotated from her debut novel SNOW LIKE ASHES. It was one of my favourite reads of 2014!  What is Behind The Pages all about? I asked some of my favourite 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. Thanks to all the incredible authors who took the time to annotate a page or scene for us, your comments are always so insightful and fun to read. When readers can't get enough of a book and i...