Ok, so I’m trying to win another contest Lisa McMann, one of my favorite authors, is having a contest. All I have to do is post anywhere on the internet about her books Wake, Fade & Gone and I could win an advanced copy of Gone which is to be released in February 2010. Luckily for me, this blog also posts at Twitter, Facebook and Myspace so hopefully I’ll get the word out even more. Click here for Lisa’s post about the 2nd Annual Freaking Huge Contest-O-Thanks!

Synopsis for Wake:

Not all dreams are sweet.
For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people’s dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie’s seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

She can’t tell anybody about what she does — they’d never believe her, or worse, they’d think she’s a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn’t want and can’t control.

Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else’s twisted psyche. She is a participant….

If you are looking for some very quick reads, you should pick up Lisa’s series. Wake is a very good introduction to Janie and later on a character named Cabel (whom I love) and Fade continues on with their story. By the time Fade comes around, a few people know about Janie’s ‘gift’ and she’s getting better at controlling it. Cabe is there along Janie trying to help her and work on his own problems.

I can’t wait to see what awaits Janie & Cabe in the next book. So help me! Tell me if you go out and get the books, let me know that my spreading the word really worked! lol..

Since I never blogged about the Hunger Games when I first read it last year, I figured I would go ahead and do it now along with it’s sequel, Catching Fire.

The Hunger Games From School Library Journal:

In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districs, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss’s young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district’s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the fighting alliances and friendships in the face of overwhelming odds; the plot is tense, dramatic, and engrossing.

 
When I picked up The Hunger Games, I could not put it down for anything. Probably from the very beginning of the book, it had me captured. Seeing all the things that Katniss and her family have to deal with on a daily basis, and then the feeling what she feels when she has to leave everyone she loves to go compete in sick, sadistic games that the government force them to participate in. Suzanne Collins knows how to get you into the story. There were times where I actually felt scared when she was having to fight for her life or triumphant when things went her way.

I absolutely love the Hunger Games and suggest it to everyone I know!

I’m not going to post the summary for Catching Fire here because it would have major spoilers in it but I wanted to make sure and post that there is a sequel to the Hunger Games. And I know once you read HG, you will want to turn right back around to the store and pick up Catching Fire.

I had a whole year between reading Hunger Games and Catching Fire and luckily, these are the type of books that you don’t have to reread to remember what happened. As soon as I started reading CF, the first book came right back to me and I was raptured into this book nearly as fast as I was in Hunger Games. In all actuality, I probably enjoyed Catching Fire better than Hunger Games but they are so close it’s hard to tell.

can⋅dor / [kan-der]
–noun

Synopsis:

In the model community of Candor, Florida, every teen wants to be like Oscar Banks. The son of the town’s founder, Oscar earns straight As, is student-body president, and is in demand for every club and cause.

But Oscar has a secret. He knows that parents bring their teens to Candor to make them respectful, compliant–perfect–through subliminal Messages that carefully correct and control their behavior. And Oscar’ s built a business sabotaging his father’s scheme with Messages of his own, getting his clients out before they’re turned. After all, who would ever suspect the perfect Oscar Banks?

Then he meets Nia, the girl he can’t stand to see changed. Saving Nia means losing her forever. Keeping her in Candor, Oscar risks exposure . . . and more

I absolutely loved this book. It’s completely different from any book I have ever posted about but is pretty high up on my list of favorites.  Candor brings you the Stepford-esque community. The adolescents in Candor do their chores, homework and work without complaining. The adults quit addictions and get the life they always wished for.

From the outside looking in, Candor looks like the perfect community. No backtalking from the kids, perfect grades and absolutely no rule breaking. Kid’s don’t vandalize property, they don’t steal. They are perfect.

Oscar Banks is the son of the town founder, Campbell. He has learned his dad’s secret ways of creating subliminal messages in music to control others’ minds. He has fought hard to control the messages in his own brain and helps other kids fight it too. For a small price, of course. Everything goes to plan, he has his rules. Everything happens in a specific way and if it doesn’t go as planned, it risks Oscar’s side business being discovered.

Enter Nia. She is THE girl for Oscar. She is wild, artistic, and everything that Candor is not. He has to decide, does he want to keep her in Candor and have her become one of the brainwashed girls or does he tell her goodbye so she won’t lose herself? 

Getting hooked into this book didn’t take long at all. If you’re looking for a good read and something a little different, check out Candor today!