Review: Alienated by Melissa Landers

Alienated
Author: Melissa Landers
Publisher: Disney Hyperion, 2014
Genre: YA Aliens
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Overview 

Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them.

Handpicked to host the first-ever L’eihr exchange student, Cara thinks her future is set. Not only does she get a free ride to her dream college, she’ll have inside information about the mysterious L’eihrs that every journalist would kill for. Cara’s blog following is about to skyrocket.

Still, Cara isn’t sure what to think when she meets Aelyx. Humans and L’eihrs have nearly identical DNA, but cold, infuriatingly brilliant Aelyx couldn’t seem more alien. She’s certain about one thing, though: no human boy is this good-looking.

But when Cara's classmates get swept up by anti-L'eihr paranoia, Midtown High School suddenly isn't safe anymore. Threatening notes appear in Cara's locker, and a police officer has to escort her and Aelyx to class.

Cara finds support in the last person she expected. She realizes that Aelyx isn’t just her only friend; she's fallen hard for him. But Aelyx has been hiding the truth about the purpose of his exchange, and its potentially deadly consequences. Soon Cara will be in for the fight of her life—not just for herself and the boy she loves, but for the future of her planet.

Cover Reveal - Rebellion by Karen Sandler

 I've followed this series since book one, Tankborn, and it is one of the best YA Scifi novels out there. The second book, Awakening, took a while to come out but I always kept my eye out for it and I am so glad, because it totally raise the stakes in the story. That Rebellion is the final installment makes be both sad and excited to see how Kayla's story concludes.

 These are the first two covers and praise be the book cover gods for a little diversity!

Here is the cover for Rebellion (Tankborn, book 3)!
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 Can I just tackle-hug whoever did this cover? Because it is gorgeous. I love the little bit of planet landscape, the blues, and Kayla's tattoo. I'm sort of wishing they'd re-do the first cover now...

Rebellion

Author: Karen Sandler
Blog ♥ Twitter
Coming this Spring 2014
Genre: YA Scifi

In this final installment of the Tankborn series, Kayla has been kidnapped by the group that has been bombing GEN warehouses, and she must pretend to sympathize with them in order to escape.

Overview 

In the wake of a devastating bomb blast, severely injured Kayla has been brought to the headquarters of the organization that planted the bomb—and many others like it in GEN food warehouses and homes. Her biological mother tells her that Devak is dead and that Kayla must join her in the terrorist group, which is ramping up for something big. Now Kayla must pretend that she embraces this new role in an underground compound full of paranoia as she plots a way to escape and save her friends.

Meanwhile, Devak has emerged from his healing in a gen-tank, only to be told that Kayla is dead and his family has fallen from grace. Can he overcome his grief at the loss of his power to see the clues that point to Kayla being alive?

As Kayla and Devak overcome the multiple obstacles put between them while trying to free GENs without further bloodshed, the Tankborn trilogy rushes to a thrilling conclusion!

Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet
(Lunar Chronicles 2)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends, 2013
Genre: YA Sci-Fi Fairy Tale
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Overview

The fates of Cinder and Scarlet collide as a Lunar threat spreads across the Earth...

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

Review: Awakening by Karen Sandler

Awakening

(Tankborn 2)

Author: Karen Sandler

Publisher: Lee & Low Books, 2013

Genre: YA Scifi

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Overview

Once a GEN (genetically engineered nonhuman) girl terrified of her first Assignment, Kayla is now a member of the Kinship, a secret organization of GENs, lowborns, and trueborns. Kayla travels on Kinship business, collecting information to further the cause of GEN freedom.

Despite Kayla’s relative freedom, she is still a slave to the trueborn ruling class. She rarely sees trueborn Devak, and any relationship between them is still strictly forbidden.

Kayla longs to be truly free, but other priorities have gotten in the way. A paradoxically deadly new virus has swept through GEN sectors—a disease only GENs catch. And GEN warrens and warehouses are being bombed, with only a scrawled clue: F.H.E. Freedom, Humanity, Equality.

With the virus and the bombings decimating the GEN community, freedom and love are put on the back burner as Kayla and her friends find a way to stop the killing . . . before it’s too late.

Review: Lost Time by Susan Maupin Schmid

Lost Time 
Author: Susan Maupin Schmid 
Publisher: Philomel, 2008 
Genre: YA/MG Sci-fi 
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Overview

Twelve-year-old Violynne Vivant wants answers. Orphaned and anguished, she wonders daily what happened to her parents, archaeologists who went digging for the ancient city of Ninthon and vanished into the red sands of Lindos never to return.

Things heat up when a thief breaks into the Vivant?s house, looking for Violynne. Suddenly, she is swept into a maze of powerful adult forces: from the planetary ruler called the Arbiter to the murky underworld figure, the Coil?they all have a sudden deep interest in Violynne. Why? And what does it have to do with her parent?s disappearance? It becomes apparent that only Violynne herself can uncover her parents? whereabouts?along with age-old secrets of the mysterious planet that many would rather stay buried...

                                      

Early Review: Glitch by Heather Anastasiu

Glitch

Author: Heather Anastasiu

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2012

Genre: YA Dystopia

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Overview

In the Community, there is no more pain or war. Implanted computer chips have wiped humanity clean of destructive emotions, and thoughts are replaced by a feed from the Link network.

When Zoe starts to malfunction (or “glitch”), she suddenly begins having her own thoughts, feelings, and identity. Any anomalies must be immediately reported and repaired, but Zoe has a secret so dark it will mean certain deactivation if she is caught: her glitches have given her uncontrollable telekinetic powers.

As Zoe struggles to control her abilities and stay hidden, she meets other glitchers including Max, who can disguise his appearance, and Adrien, who has visions of the future. Both boys introduce Zoe to feelings that are entirely new. Together, this growing band of glitchers must find a way to free themselves from the controlling hands of the Community before they’re caught and deactivated, or worse.

Review: Suffocate by S.R. Johannes

Suffocate

(The Breathless)

Author: S.R. Johannes

Publisher: Coleman & Scott, 2012

Genre: YA Scifi Dystopia

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Overview

For centuries, the world outside the Biome has been unlivable. Today, marks the first time anyone will attempt to leave the suffocating ecosphere. Eria is not worried because her scientist father has successfully tested the new Bio-Suit many times. It's a celebratory day until something goes horribly wrong. In the midst of tragedy, Eria uncovers a deep conspiracy in her perfect bubble. If those responsible find out what she knows, they won't stop hunting her until she takes her last breath.

Early Review: Timepiece by Myra McEntire

Timepiece

(Hourglass 2)

Author: Myra McEntire

Publisher: Egmont USA, 2012

Genre: YA Time Travel

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Overview

A threat from the past could destroy the future. And the clock is ticking...

Kaleb Ballard's relentless flirting is interrupted when Jack Landers, the man who tried to murder his father, timeslips in and attacks before disappearing just as quickly. But Kaleb has never before been able to see time travelers, unlike many of his friends associated with the mysterious Hourglass organization. Are Kaleb's powers expanding, or is something very wrong?

Then the Hourglass is issued an ultimatum. Either they find Jack and the research he's stolen on the time gene, or time will be altered with devastating results.

Now Kaleb, Emerson, Michael, and the other Hourglass recruits have no choice but to use their unusual powers to find Jack. But where do they even start? And when? And even if they succeed, it may not be enough...

Review: A Million Suns by Beth Revis

A Million Suns

(Across the Universe 2)

Author: Beth Revis

Publisher: Razorbill, 2012

Genre: YA Sci-fi Dystopia

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Overview

Godspeed was fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos.

It's been three months since Amy was unplugged. The life she always knew is over. And everywhere she looks, she sees the walls of the spaceship Godspeed. But there may just be hope: Elder has assumed leadership of the ship. He's finally free to enact his vision - no more Phydus, no more lies.

But when Elder discovers shocking news about the ship, he and Amy race to discover the truth behind life on Godspeed. They must work together to unlock a puzzle that was set in motion hundreds of years earlier, unable to fight the romance that's growing between them and the chaos that threatens to tear them apart.

Early Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder

(Lunar Chronicles 1)

Author: Marissa Meyer

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends, 2012

Genre: YA Dystopian Fairy Tale / Sci-Fi
Pre-Order: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Overview

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Across the Universe

Author: Beth Revis

Publisher: Razorbill, 2011

Genre: YA Sci-Fi Dystopia 
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Goodreads

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone - one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship - tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Review: Tankborn by Karen Sandler

Tankborn

Author: Karen Sandler

Publisher: Lee & Low Books, 2011

Genre: YA Sci-fi Dystopia
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Goodreads

Best friends Kayla and Mishalla know they will be separated when the time comes for their Assignments. They are GENs, Genetically Engineered Non-humans, and in their strict caste system, GENs are at the bottom rung of society. High-status trueborns and working-class lowborns, born naturally of a mother, are free to choose their own lives. But GENs are gestated in a tank, sequestered in slums, and sent to work as slaves as soon as they reach age fifteen.

When Kayla is Assigned to care for Zul Manel, the patriarch of a trueborn family, she finds a host of secrets and surprises—not least of which is her unexpected friendship with Zul's great-grandson. Meanwhile, the children that Mishalla is Assigned to care for are being stolen in the middle of the night. With the help of an intriguing lowborn boy, Mishalla begins to suspect that something horrible is happening to them.

After weeks of toiling in their Assignments, mystifying circumstances enable Kayla and Mishalla to reunite. Together they hatch a plan with their new friends to save the children who are disappearing. Yet can GENs really trust humans? Both girls must put their lives and hearts at risk to crack open a sinister conspiracy, one that may reveal secrets no one is ready to face.