Waiting on Wednesday: Alive by Scott Sigler

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting. I've chosen a book by an author that I don't think of with YA normally, but I'm pleased to see one.  I've really enjoyed his Infected series, and was so excited when I got to meet him last summer at BEA.  It looks like a bit of a dystopian type of story, although from the first few lines, I feel like they left out one book for comparison, The Maze Runner.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

For fans of The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Red Rising comes a gripping sci-fi adventure in which a group of teenagers wake up in a mysterious corridor with no knowledge of who they are or how they got trapped. Their only hope lies with an indomitable young woman who must lead them not only to answers but to survival.

“I open my eyes to darkness. Total darkness. I hear my own breathing, but nothing else. I lift my head . . . it thumps against something solid and unmoving. There is a board right in front of my face. No, not a board . . . a lid.”

A teenage girl awakens to find herself trapped in a coffin. She has no idea who she is, where she is, or how she got there. Fighting her way free brings little relief—she discovers only a room lined with caskets and a handful of equally mystified survivors. Beyond their room lies a corridor filled with bones and dust, but no people . . . and no answers.

She knows only one thing about herself—her name, M. Savage, which was engraved on the foot of her coffin—yet she finds herself in charge. She is not the biggest among them, or the boldest, but for some reason the others trust her. Now, if they’re to have any chance, she must get them to trust each other.

Whatever the truth is, she is determined to find it and confront it. If she has to lead, she will make sure they survive. Maybe there’s a way out, a rational explanation, and a fighting chance against the dangers to come. Or maybe a reality they cannot comprehend lies just beyond the next turn. 

I don't know about you, but I think it sounds really good! And I know I enjoyed his writing in the other books I've read, so I can't wait for this one.

So tell me what book or books you are eagerly awaiting this week!! 

A to Z April: I Reviews - It Had to Be You by Sarah Webb/Infected by Scott Sigler

Today I've got another chick lit title, along with an adult science fiction title to share.  Once again I'll share the synopsis from Goodreads along with a few sentences about what I remember liking about the book.

First is It Had To Be You by Sarah Webb.  It's set in Ireland, where I'm sure my perfect man must be just waiting to speak to me in his sexy Irish accent.  The main character is an aspiring author (kinda like me, I like to write) who works at a bookstore (also like me as I do work at a bookstore!).  It's a story about actually three friends and how their lives and love lives will get better or take a new turn.  Here's the blurb from Goodreads:
Still-unpublished author Molly Harper would die for a passion like those depicted in the novels sold at Happily Ever After, the bookshop she manages in the Irish village of Burnaby that specializes in romance fiction. And she'd love a boss—any boss—other than her store's detestable, super-smooth new owner, Milo Jones . . . though Milo's very attractive son may be the one good reason why Molly should not take flight.

Molly's best friend, Paige Brady, is a happily married mother of two and running for local office. But suddenly she faces two unanticipated challenges: an opponent's stingingly personal attacks . . . and a surprise pregnancy.

Kate Bowan sells trendy designer shoes by day, and potential matches-made-in-heaven by night. Because of her hectic schedule, the determined dating service entrepreneur has no time to pencil in for loneliness. What she does have, however, is a client who's proving to be a lot more than she can handle.

Welcome to modern life and love in tiny Burnaby, Ireland, where three very different women with big dreams, the closest of friends, are about to discover that "happily ever after" could be only a heartbeat—or a heartbreak—away.

Second is Infected by Scott Sigler.  I first discovered him with this book.  I loved the cover, and it immediately grabbed my attention.  I was reading a lot more adult science fiction at the time, and so this fit right into that niche.  I also got to meet him at  BEA last summer, but I don't think I got my picture taken with him.  :-(
The characters in the story are interesting, and the whole basis for infection is really scary as well.  Here's the blurb for this one:
Across America a mysterious disease is turning ordinary people into raving, paranoid murderers who inflict brutal horrors on strangers, themselves, and even their own families.

Working under the government’s shroud of secrecy, CIA operative Dew Phillips crisscrosses the country trying in vain to capture a live victim. With only decomposing corpses for clues, CDC epidemiologist Margaret Montoya races to analyze the science behind this deadly contagion. She discovers that these killers all have one thing in common – they’ve been contaminated by a bioengineered parasite, shaped by a complexity far beyond the limits of known science.

Meanwhile Perry Dawsey – a hulking former football star now resigned to life as a cubicle-bound desk jockey – awakens one morning to find several mysterious welts growing on his body. Soon Perry finds himself acting and thinking strangely, hearing voices . . . he is infected.

The fate of the human race may well depend on the bloody war Perry must wage with his own body, because the parasites want something from him, something that goes beyond mere murder.

So those are the two books I'm sharing today for my I Reviews.  Have you read either of these, or anything by either of the authors?  Have any similar titles to recommend for me to add to my TBR list?

And of course, don't forget to enter my month long giveaway below!


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Review: Infected by Sophie Littlefield (COYER Challenge #1)

First, thanks to Edelweiss and Delacorte Books for Young Readers for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  It was a good read, I was just disappointed that it wasn't another zombie book.  I first found this author, Sophie Littlefield with an ARC of her book, Aftertime, which was a zombie story.  And when I saw the title of this, my first thought was, oooh, YA zombie story, I mean isn't that what the word infected brings to mind for you these days?  No?  Just me?  Oh well.  Overall it was still a good story, even it it wasn't what I'd expected.  That's what I get for not reading the synopsis.  I just saw the title and the author's name and requested.

The main character in this book is Carina.  Her mother passed away, suicide, about a year ago. She'd been living with her uncle until just before the book starts, when he is in a car accident on his way home from a business trip.  As the story starts Carina is getting ready to go to his memorial service.  But some strange things are going on.  As far as she knew her mom and uncle had been working on some kind of nutrition scientific research.  But at the memorial service there is security, two bodyguards following her around. She's getting ready to go live with her mom and uncle's friend Sheila.  But first she finds a code of some sort in a ring that her mother had given her. And when she tries to get some alone time with her boyfriend Tanner, Sheila and the bodyguards start getting really weird about not letting them hang out.  So she and Tanner decide to get out of there and sneak away.  Carina has an envelope that she found under the trash can at her uncle's house, and in it, he says to not trust Sheila and gives a location for her to go to in order to be safe and find out what is going on.

Both Carina and Tanner enjoy code breaking, or other computer programming type of things.  And together they are able to find this apartment along with the code to get into it and then figure out how to get into the encrypted files her uncle left her.  There is a virus that was being developed to help make stronger, faster soldiers.  Only it caused them to die from the side effects.  They had finally come up with an antidote, but before they could attach it to the virus, they began to have trouble, someone had sold the info to Albanians. So not only are Carina and Tanner running from Sheila, but also these Albanians.  And somehow they've both been infected.  Well, first Carina, and then the night before the memorial, when they spent the night on the roof of the school, Tanner got the virus from Carina.

I liked the science, and the intrigue, and even the code breaking.  For the most part it didn't get too technical at any part in my opinion.  And there were twists and turns throughout the whole book.  Some I didn't see coming.  And the dangerous moments were all really edge of your seat, and also unique.  There were drones used at one point, and I loved how they were worked into the story.  Once again Sophie Littlefield has written a great story.  I was lucky enough to get to meet her this past summer at BEA, and here is my picture with her: