In My Mailbox - 22 Feburary

In the mail -
Once Bitten - Kalayna Price
Kita Nekai, on the run and the smallest of her shifter clan—a calico cat among lions and tigers—is being hunted. She was expected to accept her role as her father’s successor whether or not her cat was up to the task of leading the clan. She disagreed. Now she’s less than a step ahead of the hunters, bone-tired, cold, and living hand-to-mouth in the city of Haven. And that’s the high point of her day. She’s also drugged, "accidently" turned into a vampire, and sentenced to death for recklessly creating a rogue shifter who tortures its human prey. She’s got seventy-two hours to find the rogue, evade a city full of hunters, prove she’s not responsible for the rogue, and keep the vampire council from killing her. All while sorting out an apprentice mage, a married ex-boyfriend shifter-hunter, and the vampire who made her.

I am really not sure about this one. The tag line cracked me up - "Meow. Purr. Die. Repeat" OMG too funny for words.

Bite Me - Parker Blue
Barely eighteen-year-old Valentine Shapiro got a raw deal in the parent lottery. Her father was part incubus demon, and her mother's never forgiven her for that.
Life after high school is tough enough without having to go 15 rounds with your inner demon. Thrown out of the house by her mother, Val puts one foot in front of the other and does the only thing that seems to make any sense--she takes aim at the town vampires. A stake a day, keeps the demon at bay.
Her dark side makes everyday life a roller coaster, but means she's perfect for her night job as a bounty hunter. San Antonio's vampires are out of control, and it's up to Val, her faithful hellhound Fang, and her new partner, a handsome San Antonio police detective, to get the deadly fangbangers off the city streets.

While it sounds like an awful lot happens in this title, I am intrigued by the family drama rather than the action packed elements.

Moonstone - Marilee Brothers
The girl voted least likely to save the world may have to do just that.
A sickly mom. A crappy travel trailer. High school bullies and snarky drama queens. Bad-guys with charming smiles. Allie has problems. And then there's that whole thing about fulfilling a magical prophecy and saving the world from evil.
Welcome to the funny, sad, sometimes-scary world of fifteen-year-old Allie Emerson, who's struggling to keep her act together (not to mention her mom's) in the small-town world of Peacock Flats, Washington. A zap from an electrical fence sets off Allie's weird psychic powers. The next thing she knows she's being visited by a hippy-dippy guardian angel, and then her mysterious neighbor, the town "witch," gives her an incredible moonstone pendant that has powers only a "Star Seeker" is meant to command. "Who, me?" is Allie's first reaction. But as sinister events begin to unfold, Allie realizes she's got a destiny far bigger than she ever imagined. If she can just survive everyday life, in the meantime.

I don't know...I guess I will see. It's like the Book Nerd Gods decided to challenge my newly found sci fi/fantasy tolerance.

Samurai Kids:White Crane -Sandy Fussell
Can a one-legged boy train to become a great samurai warrior?
Niya Moto is the only one-legged Samurai kid in Japan, famous for falling flat on his face in the dirt. None of the samurai schools will teach crippled Niya, until an offer arrives from the legendary samurai warrior Ki-Yaga, sensei of the Cockroach Ryu. Together with the other Cockroaches, Niya must defeat the fierce Dragon Ryu at the Samurai Trainee Games.

Samurai Kids: Owl Ninja - Sandy Fussell
The kids from the Cockroach Ryu are back and this time they join forces with the Owl Ninja clan!

The fifty years of peace that has ruled over the samurai ryus is coming to an end and only the Emperor can stop it. The kids from the Cockroach Ryu are back and make it their mission to get the Emperor to stop the coming war. But the last time the Emperor saw Sensei, he threatened to cut off his head! Will they be able to protect their Sensie and stop a battle?

Sandy kindly sent these to me to review. The kids in my class were grappling over them so that's a positive sign.

Bought -
Paper Towns - John Green
When Margo Roth Spiegelman, the über-cool and very beautiful queen of school and town, chose Quentin, her next-door neighbour to accompany her in one night of wild misdemeanor and witty revenge, he wondered how things would be changed between them at school next day. But Margo Roth Spiegelman never came back, leaving the only clues to her whereabouts in an old Bob Dylan poster and the poetry of Walt Whitman. Quentin and his friends search for her in paper towns and abandoned subdivisions, while Quentin tries to puzzle out who she is - this beautiful paper girl.

Review will be posted within the next 24 hours.

Red: Teenage Girls in America Write What Fires Up Their Lives Today, Edited - Amy Goldwasser
For every teen girl who thinks she's alone and every adult who's dared to try to figure her out comes thi s"heartbreaking, hilarious, and often harrowing" (Francine Prose) collection. American girls - ages thirteen to nineteen, from across the spectrum of geographic, socioeconomic, racial, and religious upbringings - write about body image, family, politics, and pop culture. From their accounts of post-Katrina New Orleans to Johnny Depp to the pain of losing a friend, the authors of Red are brave and honest documentarians of their own lives.

Review to be posted in the next few days.

Operation Weasel Ball - Nicki Greenberg
Budding investigative reporter Antonia Cutlass isn't happy.

Her bedroom has been overrun with unsavoury guests from the visiting carnival, her career as a journalist seems to have ended before it has even begun and, since ex-best friend Kat started hanging out with the popular Sock sisters, she doesn't have any friends.
When a school project leads to a surprising discovery inside a weasel ball, Ant thinks she is onto the scoop of the century. But someone else knows what Ant has discovered and they are willing to do just about anything to get their property back.
Ant has to quickly unravel the mystery of Operation Weasel Ball - but who can she trust? It seems like everyone is in on the heist - even her mum!

This is definitely more Middle Grade than YA but I wanted to check out another Aussie author. It won't take me long to read either, which is a massive plus at the moment.

In Too Deep - D C Grant

Josh's family life has suddenly changed - they are bankrupt and their house is to be sold. Josh is furious. How could his father be such a failure? But then Josh makes a few mistakes of his own.

Another male protagonist, I've been hitting the jackpot with them of late. The blurb intrigued me.

Gift -
Melina Marchetta sent me a signed copy of Jellicoe Road this week and I sort of cried. That's right, I screamed, fanned my face and acted like a beauty queen that had just won a tiara. She also sent me her copy of this title because we both love Veronica Mars. Rob Thomas (the one that's not the lead singer of Matchbox20) created Veronica Mars and was a YA author before that success.

Rat Saw God - Rob Thomas
For Steve York, life was good. He had a 4.0 GPA, friends he could trust, and a girl he loved. Now he spends his days smoked out, not so much living as simply existing.
But his herbal endeavors — and personal demons — have lead to a severe lack of motivation. Steve's flunking out, but if he writes a one-hundred-page paper, he can graduate.
Steve realizes he must write what he knows. And through telling the story of how he got to where he is, he discovers exactly where he wants to be....

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