Stacking the Shelves and Showcase Sunday (13)

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews. Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea.

These memes are a replacement of The Story Siren's In My Mailbox.

Stacking the Shelves and Showcase Sunday make a place to showcase your new books,

whether you obtained them through the post or otherwise.

 I finally got my hands on a copy of The Snow Child this week! I have been meaning to pick it up/read it since it was released and as it's been released as paperback, I'm getting the chance to review it and perhaps participate in a blog tour!  I also got copies of Freeing Grace and After the Fall both by an author who is new to me but has had Jodi Picoult comparisons - that can't be bad! I also received a book called Red Leaves and the Living Token - if you sent this, please let me know! It randomly came through the post though I never requested nor was offered it for review - I'm not on the publishers mailing list either. How strange!

 I picked up brand new copies of The Scorch Trials, Death Cure and The Resistance for just £5 all together - although I haven't read the first books of either series, I do have them on my bookshelves and have heard how amazing they are, so I'm looking forward to getting around to them. In Too Deep was half price this week too, so I couldn't resist picking that up. I was also excited to get a hardback of Kate Bush: The Whole Story which is actually now out of print!

That's all of my books from this week... what did you get?

Hav3n

Hav3n by Tom Easton

Paperback, 398 pages

Expected Publication: 2nd August 2012 by Andersen Press

My shelves: apocalyptic, arc-or-review, awful-cover, books-i-own, coming-up-next, currently-reading, dystopian, if-i-were-a-boy, read-in-2012, realistic-fiction, sci-fi, young-adult

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

A killer virus has struck, and only one community has survived, in this gripping, dark and witty psychological thriller.
 
When the newspapers start talking about a flu pandemic, Josh Pirbright is sure it's just media hype. As the son of the most eminent epidemiologist in the country he knows better than to get hysterical about a virus. Until his father phones from the laboratory with a dark warning, and the newsreels start to show dead bodies piled in the streets, before cutting out altogether. It's time to man the barricades in the picture-postcard village of Great Sheen, and Josh, his sister Martha and best friends Sam and Kitty are on the front line.
 
Hav3n is the story of an epidemic and of its aftermath; of being a teenager when all the rules have changed. Life within the claustrophobic confines of the protected village (renamed Haven after the disease that nearly destroyed it) is full of increasingly bizarre rules and secrets, with Josh's father at the heart of the intrigue. What is behind the villagers' survival? And how is it linked to the increasingly despotic behaviour of the adults ruling the New World? There's only one way to find out.

Buy this book:

The Book Depository / Amazon (US/INT) / Amazon UK

My thanks go to Andersen Press for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

I hadn't heard of Hav3n until I was kindly offered the chance to participate in a blog tour for the book. I like to read every book that I feature, so I began reading this one as soon as I got my hands on a copy. Whilst the cover did put me off slightly, the premise sounded absolutely fantastic - just like something I would enjoy! I couldn't wait to start it.

One of the first things I want to say is that if you're put off by the cover, please try not to be. I've shown a couple of people the cover and the reception hasn't been great - it looks very boy-orientated and the helmet is a little strange as helmets don't play any big role in the book - I think it's a little misleading. This book is about the aftermath of a plague that has destroyed a lot of animals and most of the human population. It's a little bit dystopian, a little bit post-apocalyptic - something that will intrigue a lot of young adult readers!

We are introduced to a group of people living in the village of Little Sheen who are slowly contracting the deadly disease, Hav3n, one by one. Thankfully, a man called Michael who has family in the village, manages to find a cure in his laboratory and comes to the aid of the villagers. However, by then the rest of the world has succumbed to the disease and have died - leaving the villagers as the only survivors on the planet. We follow the villagers as they try to form some sort of government and try to build a community that will survive and grow.

There are several characters in this book, all aware of each other and all who have their own thoughts and concerns about this 'New World' that they will live in. The story is centred mainly around Josh and his family - his sister Martha and parents Judith and Michael. I thought the relationship between Josh, Martha and their friends Sam and Kitty was really great to read about - it felt genuine. I also found the issues of partnering and 'breeding' for the next generation to be interesting, but I think it could've been explored more. Michael plays a huge role in this story and I had conflicting emotions when it came to him - he was certainly an interesting, complex character, who I really wish we had gotten to know more about. I absolutely adored his wife Judith and I also enjoyed reading about the other villagers who seemed authentic.  

I did enjoy reading this book - I thought that the idea of a virus that was attacking the whole of mankind was gruesomely interesting and the opening pages certainly pulled me in. For some reason I found myself reading this book quite slowly - I'm not sure why though as it was very fast paced - something was always happening! I think that, at points, some things were happening a little too quickly. I know some of the quick actions were intentional, to up the pace, but some events felt quite rushed. I think that there was huge potential for this book to actually become a trilogy or series, but as a stand alone it was still enjoyable - I realise a lot of people will actually appreciate this being a standalone as you don't have to wait to find out what happens! 

Tom Easton clearly has an active imagination and has used it to create a quite captivating story for young adults. I look forward to seeing what this author has in store for us next!

From The Review Pile (13)

 From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday.

The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you've received for review (or if you don't receive review books, any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven't yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

I know that a lot of you have a huge pile of books that you want to read/review, but it understandably takes a while to get around to reading them all - here you can give a book (or two!) some of the publicity that it deserves, even if you haven't read it yet!

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This week, I'm going to showcase Code Name Verity!

I really, really want to read this book! I hadn't heard much about it when I first received the book, but since then I have looked up this book and its reviews and have been eager to pick it up - I really don't know why I haven't! 

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Paperback, 452 pages

Published 6th February by Egmont

I have two weeks. You’ll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.

That’s what you do to enemy agents. It’s what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine — and I will do anything, anything, to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.

He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I’m going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France — an Allied Invasion of Two.

We are a sensational team.

Hav3n Blog Tour Stop + Giveaway

Hav3n Blog Stop!

I'm very happy to announce that the Hav3n blog tour has stopped by my blog, complete with a UK giveaway!

I had a great (though slightly unnerving!) time reading Hav3n, wondering what I'd do if I was caught in an end of the world situation. Thankfully, the author, Tom Easton has come to our rescue, writing a fantastic and fun guest post, giving us the do's and don'ts of surviving a global catastrophe!

Surviving a Global Catastrophe

Global Pandemic wiped out 99% of the population?

Asteroid destroyed Civilization?

Alien/Zombie/Vampire invasion threatening human hegemony?

Super-Volcano erupting, ending world as we know it?

DON'T PANIC!

Read on for a list of important survival techniques that'll keep you grinning even as the rest of humanity is reduced to radoactive dust.

DO: Stock up on bottled water and tinned food. Eat your fill of pickled onion-flavoured Monster Munch NOW, because once the current stock is past its use-by-date, there won't be any more coming.

DON'T: drink stagnant water, especially if it has rotting corpses floating in it.

DO: Plant some crops and get some chickens. Canned food won't last for ever. If you're sqeamish about having to strangle the chickens for the pot, pretend they're characters from TOWIE.

DO: Wear stout walking boots and a face-mask.

DON'T: Wear kitten heels and a fascinator.

DON'T: Open the door to strangers. Especially those coughing up blood, standing in a pool of molten lava, carrying ray guns, etc.

DO: Charge up your iPod. The electricity won't be back on for a long time.

DON'T: Count on the government. Let's face it, they're no use now. Are they suddenly going to improve after a giant asteroid lands on the Houses of Parliament?

DON'T: Crown yourself Emporer of the Worldwide Union of Surviving States (WUSS) after a pre-emptive strike by an Alien civilization. After all, you don't want to draw attention to yourself when the Alien ships arrive to mop up.

DO: Study archery, basket weaving, animal husbandry, fishing, vampire-slaying, vulcanology.

DON'T: Study golf-course management, IT, telemarketing, PR, Sanskrit.

DO: Eat green vegetables.

DON'T: Eat green pork chops.

DO: Carry a medikit at all times. 

DON'T: Carry an iPhone. There's no App to help you where you're going.

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Thank you to Tom Easton for taking the time to write his great guest post for this tour - I hope that you enjoyed it!

Hav3n by Tom Easton is published TODAY!
Buy this book:

The Book Depository / Amazon (US/INT) / Amazon UK

Thanks to the lovely publishers of this book, I am also able to hold a giveaway for one copy of this book! This giveaway is open to UK residents only. All you have to do is fill in this form:

a Rafflecopter giveaway