School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins (ARC)

School Spirits (School Spirits #1)
Rachel Hawkins
Pub Date: May 14, 2013

Fifteen-year-old Izzy Brannick was trained to fight monsters. For centuries, her family has hunted magical creatures. But when Izzy’s older sister vanishes without a trace while on a job, Izzy's mom decides they need to take a break.

Izzy and her mom move to a new town, but they soon discover it’s not as normal as it appears. A series of hauntings has been plaguing the local high school, and Izzy is determined to prove her worth and investigate. But assuming the guise of an average teenager is easier said than done. For a tough girl who's always been on her own, it’s strange to suddenly make friends and maybe even have a crush.

Can Izzy trust her new friends to help find the secret behind the hauntings before more people get hurt?   

The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller (ARC)

The Summer I Became a Nerd
Leah Rae Miller
Pub.: May 7, 2013

On the outside, seventeen-year-old Madelyne Summers looks like your typical blond cheerleader—perky, popular, and dating the star quarterback. But inside, Maddie spends more time agonizing over what will happen in the next issue of her favorite comic book than planning pep rallies with her squad. That she’s a nerd hiding in a popular girl's body isn’t just unknown, it's anti-known. And she needs to keep it that way.

Summer is the only time Maddie lets her real self out to play, but when she slips up and the adorkable guy behind the local comic shop’s counter uncovers her secret, she’s busted. Before she can shake a pom-pom, Maddie’s whisked into Logan’s world of comic conventions, live-action role-playing, and first-person-shooter video games. And she loves it. But the more she denies who she really is, the deeper her lies become…and the more she risks losing Logan forever.

  
Sweet and adorkable. Just how I like 'em.

The Rules for Disappearing by Ashley Elston (ARC)

The Rules for Disappearing
Ashley Elston
Exp. Pub.: May 14, 2013

She’s been six different people in six different places: Madeline in Ohio, Isabelle in Missouri, Olivia in Kentucky . . . But now that she’s been transplanted to rural Louisiana, she has decided that this fake identity will be her last.

Witness Protection has taken nearly everything from her. But for now, they’ve given her a new name, Megan Rose Jones, and a horrible hair color. For the past eight months, Meg has begged her father to answer one question: What on earth did he do – or see – that landed them in this god-awful mess? Meg has just about had it with all the Suits’ rules — and her dad’s silence. If he won’t help, it’s time she got some answers for herself.

But Meg isn’t counting on Ethan Landry, an adorable Louisiana farm boy who’s too smart for his own good. He knows Meg is hiding something big. And it just might get both of them killed. As they embark on a perilous journey to free her family once and for all, Meg discovers that there’s only one rule that really matters — survival.
 

Megan and her family have spent the better part of the year in hiding, shuffled by the Feds to one location to the next, sometimes just mere weeks after being given a new identity. And all for what? Well, Megan doesn't know. Her parents are tight-lipped about it all, which is really infuriating to a girl in her senior year who constantly has to abandon a new life she's worked so hard to build-up, even forced to leave a guy waiting for her to show up for a date she'll never get to.

 

Once again, Megan and her family have been moved, and this time, they're requiring a full change of identity, chopping off her long, beautiful blonde hair and giving her an awkward brunette pixie cut and brown contacts to cover her blue eyes. She can't even recognize the girl in the mirror anymore. That, on top of a mom that's become a drunk, a father that won't talk to her much and a little sister that's pretty much shut down at the age of eleven, Megan decides enough is enough. She doesn't know what her father has done, but she's determined to end this horrible life of running. And with a new guy in her life that she can really see sticking with, she's determined to get what she wants one way or another.

The Rules for Disappearing didn't offer anything I didn't expect, nor did the twists surprise me, having figured them out long before they came to light, but it was still an enjoyable read about a chick that just felt relatable. I think most people can kick back with this novel and come out pretty satisfied, even though it seems a little farfetched that teenagers would go to such lengths and think they could outsmart the FBI. And any book that can keep my attention and get me to read it through the night in one sitting without bothering to sleep, always gets five stars from me!

ARC provided by Disney-Hyperion for honest review.
 

May's Previously Loved Book Giveaway

  MAY'S GIVEAWAY
 

 Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting

 

Violet can sense the echoes of those who've been murdered—and the matching imprint that clings to their killers. Only those closest to her know what she is capable of, but when she discovers the body of a young boy she also draws the attention of the FBI, threatening her entire way of life.

As Violet works to keep her morbid ability a secret, she unwittingly becomes the object of a dangerous obsession. Normally she'd turn to her best friend, Jay, except now that they are officially a couple, the rules of their relationship seem to have changed. And with Jay spending more and more time with his new friend Mike, Violet is left with too much time on her hands as she wonders where things went wrong. But when she fills the void by digging into Mike's tragic family history, she stumbles upon a dark truth that could put everyone in danger.

 

To enter, visit the Previously Loved Book Giveaway page!

The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa (ARC)

The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden #2)
Julie Kagawa
Exp. Pub.: April 30, 2013

Out here in the Fringes, there is only one rule: Blood calls to blood. She has done the unthinkable: died so she might continue to live. Now Allie, the reluctant teenage vampire who was cast out of Eden, and Zeke, the human boy who loves her, must attempt to save the world from a deadly new strain of plague. In order to do so, they must first hunt down the monster who holds the promise of the cure—and Allie’s beloved mentor—in his sadistic grip…. Joined by Allie’s blood brother, Jackal, this unlikely posse of companions will brave a landscape stalked by raiders, rabids, and rogue vampires. But even if they survive, they’re bound for the Inner city, and a vicious showdown that will test their bonds in ways they never expected. It may just be that becoming undead was the easy part. Confronting the horrors of Allie’s awakening hunger, her growing feelings for Zeke, and the uncertainties of their future is going to be the ultimate challenge.