In My Mailbox (10)

Behind Every Illusion by Christina Harner (Part of T2T)
Publisher: Two Trees Books; 1 edition
Pub Date: May 31, 2009
500pp

Synopsis (Amazon)
"All creatures born of human parents must be human and therefore must be ordinary." Even the soft-spoken eighteen-year-old Tatiana Lewis wholeheartedly accepts this logic. So when she begins to experience unusual changes, she has no clue where to turn and instead keeps her new abilities a secret. But her best friend and brother, Isaac, sees past her illusions and together they explore the significance of her differences and search out the meaning behind them. Amidst tragedy, unimaginable transformations and an unexpected friendship, Tatiana has to learn to reveal the girl hidden behind her illusions and what it means to face the world in order to preserve not only the forest but her very existence.

Ash (ARC) by Malinda Lo
Publisher: Little Brown Books Young Readers
Pub. Date: September 01, 2009
Age Range: Young Adult
272pp

Synopsis (Author’s website)
In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, re-reading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love—and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.


The Tear Collector by Patrick Jones
Publisher: Walker & Company
Pub. Date: September 01, 2009
Age Range: Young Adult
272pp

Synopsis
Fans of urban fantasy should prepare for a new kind of vampire–one that feeds off of tears instead of blood. Descended from an ancient line of creatures that gain their energy from human tears, Cassandra Gray depends on human sorrow to live. Only Cass has grown tired of living this life and wants to live like a human, especially now that she's met someone worth fighting for.

Coffeehouse Angel by Suzanne Selfors

Publisher: Walker & Company
Pub. Date: July 21, 2009
Age Range: Young Adult
288pp

Synopsis
From the author of Saving Juliet comes a romantic comedy that is good to the last drop. When Katrina spots a homeless guy sleeping in the alley behind her grandmother’s coffee shop, she decides to leave him a cup of coffee, a bag of chocolate-covered coffee beans, and some pastries to tide him over. Little does she know that this random act of kindness is about to turn her life upside down. Because this adorable vagrant, Malcolm, is really a guardian angel on a break between missions. And he won’t leave until he can reward Katrina’s selflessness by fulfilling her deepest desire. Now if only she could decide what that might be . .

Oathbreaker: Assassin's Apprentice by S R Vaught and J B Redmond
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Pub. Date: May 2009
Age Range: Young Adult
384pp
Series: Oathbreaker Series

Synopsis

Assassin’s Apprentice is the first volume in a thrilling two-part epic fantasy.

In the world of Eyrie – a world of two moons, shapeshifters, and powerful magic – Aron of Brailing knows he owes honor to his guild, honor to the code of the land, and honor to the companions he serves with, but it is his own family he holds closest to his heart. Kidnapped and forced to become an assassin, Aron is thrown in with men and a woman who come to care more about him than he imagined anyone could. Now, Aron must reset his inner strengths for this new life, even as he grieves for the family he knows is lost forever. Assassin’s Apprentice unveils an intriguing cast of characters whose sense of honor, strength and history binds then together as they fight to save their land from the fears and greed that threatens its existence.

Dark Oz: Of Courage And Witchcraft by Aaron Paul Denenberg
Paperback: 258 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace
Pub. Date: June 6, 2009
258pp

Synopsis
Based on the long-running comic book series, Dark Oz follows Dorothy Gale, fifteen years after her first visit to the Wizard in Oz. Now in her mid-twenties, she flies through a tornado and crash-lands in Munchkinland only to discover the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion have been turn evil. Can she remove the spells? Follow her adventures as one by one she removes the spells, gathers the strength of her forces and rallies to destroy the real culprit-the Nome King. Book one of a trilogy.