Happy Tuesday everyone! Like I've mentioned to you guys SO many times, I'm not very good at keeping up to date with books and the "in things" in general. So today is a Top Ten Tuesday I can definitely participate in, so without further a-do here are my Top Ten 2014 Releases I Meant To Read But Didn't Get To!
Panic by Lauren Oliver- "Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.
Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She'd never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.
Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he's sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he's not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.
For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them- and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most." (Source)
Landline by Rainbow Rowell- "Georgie McCool knows her marriage is in trouble; it has been in trouble for a long time. She still loves her husband, Neal, and Neal still loves her, deeply- but that almost seems beside the point now. Maybe that was always beside the point. Two days before they're supposed to visit Neal's family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can't go. She's a TV writer, and something's come up on her show; she has to stay in LA. She knows that Neal will be upset with her- Neal is always a little upset with Georgie- but she doesn't expect him to pack up the kids and go home without her.When her husband and kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she's finally done it. If she's ruined everything.That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It's not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she's been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts...Is that what she's supposed to do? Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?" (Source)
The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion- "Greetings. My name is Don Tillman. I am forty-one years old. I have been married to Rosie Jarman, world's most perfect woman, for ten months and ten days. Marriage added significant complexity to my life. When we relocated to NYC, Rosie brought three maximum-size suitcases. We abandoned the Standardised Meal System and agreed that sex should not be scheduled in advance. Then Rosie told me we had 'something to celebrate', and I was faced with a challenge even greater than finding a partner. I have attempted to follow traditional protocols and have sourced advice from all six of my friends, plus therapist and the internet. The result has been a web of deceit. I am now in danger of prosecution, deportation and professional disgrace. And of losing Rosie forever." (Source)
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith- "When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days- as he has done before- and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home. But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realises. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives- meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced. When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before..." (Source)
Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson- "The Pre-Sloane Emily didn't go to parties, she barely talked to guys, she didn't do anything crazy. Enter Sloane, social tornado and the best kind of best friend- the one who yanks you out of your shell. But right before what should have been an epic summer, Sloane just...disappears. No note. No calls. No texts. No Sloane. There's just random to-do list. On it, thirteen Sloane-selected-definitely-bizarre-tasks that Emily would never try...unless they could lead back to her best friend. Apple Picking at Night? Okay, easy enough. Dance until Dawn? Sure. Why not? Kiss a Stranger? Wait...what? Getting through Sloane's list would mean a lot of firsts. But Emily has this whole unexpected summer ahead of her, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected) to check things off. Who knows what she'll find? Go Skinny Dipping? Um..." (Source)
The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith- "Lucy and Owen meet somewhere between the tenth and eleventh floors of a NYC apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they're rescued, they spend a single night together, wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is restored, so is reality. Lucy soon moves to Edinburgh with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father. Lucy and Owen's relationship plays out across the globe as they stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and finally- a reunion in the city where they first met.
A carefully charted map of a long-distance relationship, Jennifer E. Smith's new novel shows that the center of the world isn't necessarily a place. It can be a person, too." (Source)
Love Letters To The Dead by Ava Dellaira- "Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to the dead- to people like Janis Joplin, Heath Ledger, Amelia Earhart, and Amy Winehouse- though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating the choppy waters of new friendships, learning to live with her splintering family, falling in love for the first time, and, most important, trying to grieve for May. But how do you mourn for someone you haven't forgiven? It's not until Laurel has written the truth about what happened to herself that she can finally accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister at the person she was- lovely and amazing and deeply flawed- can she truly start to discover her own path.
In a voice that's as lyrical and as true as a favourite song, Ava Dellaira writes about one girl's journey through life's challenges with a haunting and often heartbreaking beauty." (Source)
I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson- "Jude and her twin brother, Noah are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways...until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else- an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realise is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they'd have a chance to remake their world." (Source)
Us by David Nicholls- "Douglas Peterson understands his wife's need to 'rediscover herself'' now that their son is leaving home. He just though they'd be doing their rediscovering together. So when Connie announces that she will be leaving, too, he resolves to make their last family holiday into the trip of a lifetime: one that will draw the three of them closer, and win the respect of his son. One that will make Connie fall in love with him all over again. The hotels are booked, the tickets bought, the itinerary planned and printed. What could possibly go wrong?" (Source)
The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R Carey- "Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius". Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.
The Girl With All the Gifts is a groundbreaking thriller, emotionally charged and gripping from beginning to end." (Source)
There we have it, these are the Top Ten books I wanted to read in 2014 but didn't get round to. They all sound brilliant, particularly that last one The Girl With All The Gifts- I'm intrigued to know more about Melanie!
What are your Top Ten 2014 Releases that you wanted to read but didn't get to? I want to know!
