Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Books from 2017 I Wanted to Read But Didn't

Top Ten Tuesday is sponsored by The Broke and The Bookish.

This happens every year. There are books I'm so excited about, but then I either don't get the ARC, or run out of time to get to them because of other review books.  So here is a list of the top 10 books I didn't get to last year, but had been so excited to read.

1.

2.

3.

I actually got started on an e-galley of this one, but wasn't able to get it finished due to review obligations.  :-(

4.

Even though the author thought there would be ARCs of this, there were not, so I just didn't get a chance to read it, still need to buy it.

5.

6.

The final book in a trilogy, there were no ARCs.  But then with all the political things, I had a hard time reading all of his posts, they were so negative and so I just kind of lost my taste to read on in his series.  I'll finish at some point, but for now, it's on the backburner.  The second book had actually strayed quite a bit from what I'd loved about the first one, and had turned into the second book which is the usual road trip.

7.

8.

Well, I got an ARC of this through books for trade on Twitter, but while I got started reading it, again, because of review obligations, I didn't get to it.

9.

No ARC, so no copy  of it yet.

10.

I had the e-galley of it, and thought I was on a tour, so I had it on the schedule to read. Then I realized that I had never received anything about the actual tour dates, so checked the tour site and saw that I had not been picked to be part of the tour.  So unfortunately, my disappointment kept me from fitting it in.  :-(

What are some books you planned to read in 2017 that you didn't get to?

Waiting on Wednesday: Heart of the Storm (Undertow #3) by Michael Buckley

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 picked the final book in a series that I've really enjoyed the first two books, Undertow and Raging Sea.  While it really reminded me of the very short-lived TV series Star-Crossed, it also was a very unique story in its own way as well.  I'm very excited to see how the author will end the story.  Here's the blurb from Goodreads:

After seven months as a captive of Minerva, the insane Alpha queen, Lyric Walker has escaped to the surface. Her only goal is to warn the world about the Great Abyss. When she finally arrives back in Coney Island, she discovers a world she never expected, one where humans and Alpha are finally working hand in hand to rebuild the country. But she soon discovers that an old enemy allied with an old friend may kill them all before the monsters get their turn.

Where will Lyric’s loyalties, and her heart, lead her? With nail-biting action and romance, Michael Buckley’s epic trilogy draws to a stunning conclusion.




Have you read any of the books in this series yet?  Did you see the show Star-Crossed?  What book or books are you eagerly awaiting this week?

Review: Raging Sea (Undertow #2) by Michael Buckley

First, I have to say thank you soooooo much to the publisher HMH Books for Young Readers for sending me a copy of the ARC of this when I emailed and requested it.  I loved the first book, Undertow, so much, and you can read my review of it HERE.  While at first this book seemed like it would be a normal 2nd book/road trip story, that didn't last long, and it became an action-packed story where we even learned so much more about our characters and the Alphas.  Again, if you haven't read the first book, you might want to stop, because there will definitely be spoilers for that story here.  I do my best not to do spoilers for this book, but can't help it for the last one.

So, at the end of the last book there was the big battle on the beach, and Lyric was chased away, considered a criminal by the government for something she had done in the battle.  But what she'd done was actually to help humans and save her friends and family.  Fathom, the Alpha boy she had really started to connect with disappeared.  However she has kept her hopes up that maybe he isn't dead, just went to some other place in all the chaos.  Together with her best friend Bex and Fathom's betrothed, Arcade, they take off on the run.  But not just on the run, also on a mission. They must get to a place, Tempest, that is holding their friends and family.  But all they really know is that it is out in the middle of a desert.  So far Texas is a safe place, and people from the west and east coasts are trying to get there as the battles with the Alphas cause their homes to be destroyed. 

Along the way they will have to avoid being captured by the law, which wants them as criminals to the US, also other people will kill Arcade for being what she is.  So they must accept help from sympathetic people, including other homeless teens, misplaced by the battles.  When they get separated after Tempest people attack the place they're hiding, Lyric must travel on her own to Tempest, knowing that Bex and Arcade are probably there now with the others that she loves.  When she finally arrives at Tempest, things aren't quite what she expected.  At first she is tortured and they try to control her to do their work.  Finally after several escape attempts, things change again.  An unexpected love one shows up, and she feels betrayed, but will find that maybe Tempest might have something she can use to fight all the Alphas and other creatures that are battling the United States.

As I got to the end, I kept thinking, there is no way there are enough pages left in this book to finish the big battle, and I was pleased to go on Goodreads and find that there will be a third book.  While there is a big battle at the end of this, of course there will be some MAJOR loose ends left in how the battle ends, including what Lyric sacrifices to save her family, and how it will affect her wearing the glove that gives the power over water and stops her headaches.  And now, I can't believe I have to wait over a year for the final book! 

A great story, as it reminded me of the very short-lived tv show Starcrossed, this went where I could have seen that show going eventually, except the book is with undersea creatures, not aliens.  A very original series, highly recommended.

Teaser Tuesday - January 5th, 2016

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm.  

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This is only my first or second time participating in this meme.  I had a review planned for today, but then I remembered I had to save that review for part of a blog tour later this month.  So I thought it would be fun to share something from one of my current reads.

My teaser:

• "I can't help but smile, because that was actually the coolest thing any boy has ever said to me, and this guy, he's not so good at being a boy or being cool.  I realize then that all along, as intense as this feeling has been for him, it was always infatuation and lust, but now it actually is love."

   ~ p. 195, Raging Sea (Undertow Trilogy #3) by Michael Buckley

* Note this quote is taken from an ARC, so the exact wording and page number may change by the final copy. 

Waiting on Wednesday - Raging Sea (Undertow #2) by Michael Buckley

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  As usual it is a sequel to a book I really enjoyed.  This time it is the sequel to Undertow by Michael Buckley, and you can read my review of that one HERE.  It was a pretty unique story, although it reminded me a bit of the short lived TV series Star-Crossed, but that was a good thing.  Here is the very short blurb for this sequel from Goodreads:

In the first book of Michael Buckley’s Undertow trilogy, the Alpha arrived and the world was never the same. At the start of the second book, most of south Brooklyn is in ruins and the nation is terrified. Nearly everyone that Lyric Walker loves is either missing or presumed dead, including the mesmerizing prince Fathom. It’s up to Lyric to unite the Alpha before the second wave of a cataclysmic invasion wipes out mankind for good. The Undertow trilogy is an unforgettable reading experience that author E. Lockhart calls, "Allegorical and romantic, the book nevertheless reads like an action movie with especially awesome CGI." 

Doesn't give us much info there, but I know I've got to read on.  Now to wait until February, unless I can get my hands on an e-galley again!

What are you eagerly awaiting this week?
 

Review: Undertow by Michael Buckley

First, thanks to Netgalley and HMH Books for Young Readers for approving me to read the egalley, then of course I was able to grab an ARC at the bookstore where I work, and so I ended up reading that.  I have to say I was hooked pretty quickly.  And while it had some similarities to other things, it also had a lot of new things that I really liked. 

The main character is Lyric.  She has grown up on Coney Island with her mom and dad.  Three years ago though, everything changed.  Strange, some terrifying, creatures came out of the sea and swarmed the beach.  They took over the beach, and those living in what is now called the Zone, were left with no beach to go to.  Hatred for these new creatures, called Alpha has caused many issues.  Families who were able to moved away.  Unfortunately Lyric's family wasn't able to.  Which she's okay with because she gets to be there with her best friend Bex, not only with her, but she is able to be there for her, as Bex has an abusive stepfather.  Lyric's dad is a cop.  Her mother is a very new agey type of person.  With a secret.  One that Lyric and her father must keep their heads down and do anything they can to protect, in order to not only save their own lives as well as her mother.  The book begins with a new law that makes the high school here starting the first program to try to let the Alpha children in for school.  As you can guess, the hatred of the new "people" causes many problems.  It starts out just like back when we first integrated blacks and whites into school together. The National Guard and other police there to make sure the new students were allowed in.  But there is the Governor who is there to fight it, in fact she vows to be there every day, and protest every day, and get arrested every day to make her point.  And she does as much as she can.  One of the new administrators for the school is named Mr. or Agent, don't know for sure, Doyle.  He decides that he will use Lyric as a help for the Prince of the Alpha, Fathom.  She will meet with him one class period every day to help him assimilate, teach him to read, whatever it takes.  This is hard at first as Fathom is pretty violent, and takes almost everything literally.  Like all the other Alpha tend to do.  But eventually Lyric will get past this, and find him as more of a friend, and want to work with him. But she has to do it as secretly as possible, because she knows that if it is found out, the gang out there will cause problems for her and her family.  It even turns out that the Alphas may not be the people who live there's only problem.  It seems there are other creatures that are out to attack and destroy the Alphas, and they will stop at nothing, including the humans around them.

This is going to have a 2nd books, thank goodness, because the ending leaves too much up in the air.  Of course the schooling experiment with the Alphas totally reminded me of the very short lived TV series, Star-Crossed, which was about aliens being assimilated into human high schools.  I really liked the tv show, was sad when it didn't make it to another season.  I thought maybe by the title it was based on the book by Josephine Angelini, which I hadn't read, but wondered, but no, not that either.  Other than how similar it was to that tv series, these were different creatures.  Not aliens, but creatures that had lived below the sea for who knows how long.  In fact, in one part one of the Alphas alludes to there actually being a Kraken alive deep in the ocean.  A great story, one that kept me turning the pages and hating any time I had to put it down.  Now to wait till 2016 for book 2!!