ASHES Awesome Pre-Order Special!

Have I not already told you how awesome ASHES by Ilsa J. Bick is? Have I not told you that you need to go out and pre-order this fantasmagorical book immediately? Well, if you deign not to listen to me and haven't done it yet, then maybe this will light the much needed fire under your little asses.

Jennifer Laughran, Ilsa's agent, is having an AMAZING pre-order giveaway for ASHES. Check out her post about it for all the drool-worthy details. But here's what you can get for pre-ordering ASHES by 11:59 PM on September 5th:

• With proof forwarded to the above email, you'll get your choice of an ASHES dog tag, pin or bookmark. EVERYONE will get one of these for pre-ordering. Freakin' sweet, right? But wait . . .
• You'll be entered to win even awesomer things from Egmont, like an ASHES survival pack (I'm guessing similar or the same as the one they were raffling at BEA) or an ASHES-skinned tablet/e-Reader.

For serious, why WOULDN'T you pre-order ASHES? It's a fantastic book plus you can get free things just for buying it and are entered to win even bigger stuff? What the deuce are you waiting for???

ASHES Gets Epic Marketing Push!

I've already waxed fangirlish on the awesomeness that is ASHES by Ilsa J. Bick. So imagine my squee moment when I see an article on Publisher's Weekly about how ASHES is getting the biggest launch in Egmont's history! With 125,000 copy first printing (which is huge), a pre-tour and another scheduled next month, it's a wonder that there's anyone left that HASN'T heard of ASHES yet.

Seriously people, it's a fantastic book. It really does put so many of those apocalyptic/dystopian books coming out now to shame in it's technical near-flawlessness. With a catastrophic world written so believably, it'll actually be pretty frightening to read. I'm telling you, you'll start looking at the sky differently after reading it. Considering in the past couple of months New England has gotten tornadoes, an earthquake and is bracing for a hurricane this weekend, it's only a matter of time before we have to start keeping an eye on our first born.

If you haven't read it already, put it on pre-order or mark your calendars to grab a copy when it drops on September 6th. Money absolutely well spent. Don't believe me? Then check out Lenore's joint review with Galleysmith. Four and a half zombie chickens don't lie, people.

Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick + Contest!

Pub date September, 2011.

An electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky, destroying every electronic device and killing billions. For those spared, it's a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human . . .

Desperate to find out what happened and to avoid the Changed, Alex meets up with Tom - a young army veteran - and Ellie, a young girl whose grandfather was killed by the electromagnetic pulse.

This improvised family will have to use every ou

nce of courage they have just to survive. (book back blurb)

When I first saw Ilsa's new book in a Publisher's Weekly article highlighting look-out YA books at BEA this year, I emailed her immediately and started hunting for her publicist's information to get a copy. I loved, loved, LOVED Draw the Dark so much that Ilsa could have written PUDDING!!! in blue crayon for 180 pages and I still would have wanted to read it. Guys, I don't love books like this very often but DRAW? OMFG love. So I saw a chance to jump at ASHES and I took it.

After some back and forth I ended up with a copy and my ultimate goal was to read it before BEA and then gush about it here and send my attending readers over to her signings to get copies. Obviously I'm just reviewing it now but gush I did already. And I hadn't even finished it at that point. Now that I've finished it, I want to consume it piece by piece, perhaps marinated in a nice remoulade sauce, so I an absorb her talent for my own.

Srsly, ASHES is an apocalyptic/dystopian novel that all other YA apocalyptic/dystopian novels should aspire to. None of those lazy worldbuilding, OMG lurve triangle piles of horse poop. Well, there's a little bit of a love triangle but it's more like two disjointed lines that haven't connected yet that are on like 25% opacity in Photoshop. It's all about the world and the characters surviving in it. Everything is so expertly figured out that it's hard, if not impossible, to find loopholes in the logic. The shit that should happen does. Nothing is conveniently explained away. There are no fades to black and then POOF everything is better. Logic rules. Science rules. This all makes the story pwn.

Alex is one hell of a strong, resilient character that almost wasn't. To keep this review spoiler-free, I won't say why but I will say when this girl needs to keep pushing forward, there isn't much that'll be able to stand in her way. And just when you think she gives up, she slaps you upside the head and proves you wrong. Ellie is the type of character you want to slap. Yeah she's young and scared but Alex is a better person than I probably would be if our roles were switched. Would I leave Ellie behind? No. Would I slap the snot right out of her when she gets petulant? Probably. At the very least be screaming my head off. My patience with children is pretty low under normal circumstances. And Tom. Dear Tom. What a saving grace he was. A perfect compliment, filling in the gaps in Alex's survival knowledge. And I loved how Ilsa balanced that relationship that, for the most part, wasn't there like it is in many other similar books.

One of the reasons why I liked ASHES so much. Romance isn't the focus. It's hardly even a blip on the radar. The book is about the world, the destruction of it and these characters' subsequent survival. Romance is tertiary at best and that's how I like it. There's just enough in there to spark something but she has you so sucked into the world that it doesn't really matter.

Ilsa's writing is detailed almost to a fault. There were a couple of places where it went on a little too long and gave a few too many details that probably wouldn't have hurt the story if they were removed but ultimately I didn't mind. All that detail played well when it mattered. Again, no spoilers but I will recommend not reading this book while eating anything. There were many times I found myself a little nauseous reading some of the things that happened. In a good way, if that's possible.

I alluded to it before but I'll say it straight out: Ilsa is merciless with her characters. She shows them no mercy. Anything that can happen to them will. They don't get reprieves, they don't get spared, they don't amazingly escape dangerous situations without some damage done at least. Logic holds strong to these characters and just because Alex is the MC doesn't mean she's boo-boo free. Holy hell no. If anything she gets it the worst. Ilsa does everything with her characters that I hope to do with mine. It takes true bravery to submit your babies to this kind of torture and I commend her for it. Not many authors do this and it makes her work all the stronger for it.

And last but not least, there are zombies. Sort of. They're not the already-dead-and-then-alive type of zombies. They're Changed. And evolving. Oh man they evolve and that makes them all the more terrifying.

Seriously, this book is terrifying. It will have you looking up at the sky and wondering what if. Because it could happen. It makes sense. So why wouldn't it? Truly frightening that at any second ZAP! Gone. And what then? ASHES is the type of apocalyptic/dystopian novel that gives other like-minded novels complexes. It puts them to shame in terms of worldbuilding and character development. And the ending? GAHHHHHHHHHHHH! If you don't want to read more after that ending, then go to a hospital and have them check your pulse because I think you might be dead.

Read ASHES. Now. Or when it comes out. You will not regret it.

Contest time!!!

You want an ARC of ASHES? You know you do. Because you want to bask in its awesomeness. So just fill out the form below for your chance to win a copy. Open to US residents 13 years of age and older only. One entry per person per email address. Duplicate entries will be deleted. Contest ends June 14th at midnight, EST.

Ashes Cover Reveal and Why You Need to Go to Ilsa's BEA Signing

Remember when I reviewed a book called Draw the Dark and I gushed for it like I gushed for very few books in my book blogging days? Remember the fantabulousness that I thought it was? Remember how it made my 2010 Squee!!mers list that was, needless to say, rather short? Remember the last time I steered you wrong about a book I gushed about? Yeah, I didn't think so on that last one.

Ilsa J. Bick, author of Draw the Dark, is coming out with her next book, Ashes, in September through Egmont. Is it like Draw the Dark? Not so much. It's more along the lines of the current apocalyptic/dystopian trend that's hitting the YA market now. Take a look -

An electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky, destroying every electronic device and killing billions. For those spared, it's a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human . . .

Desperate to find out what happened and to avoid the Changed, Alex meets up with Tom - a young army veteran - and Ellie, a young girl whose grandfather was killed by the electromagnetic pulse.

This improvised family will have to use every ounce of courage they have just to survive. (ARC back blurb)

A proper apocalyptic, but not like anything I've read yet. More on that in a minute. Right now I want to release its cover. If you get the Publisher's Weekly daily emails, then you've already seen it. If you've looked to the right and in my sidebar, you've seen the stock ARC cover. If you read my Added to the Pile post on Sunday, you've seen the tentative cover on my ARC. Creepy as hell. Rest assured I turn the thing over when it's on my nightstand. But the real cover? It looks like this -

You creeped out? Good. You should be. Because it's a creepy ass story. It's not meant to have some torn love triangle or really have any pretty romance in it at all. It's a survival story and it holds no qualms about it.

Ilsa's signing?

Tuesday, May 24th

10:30 - 11:30 at Table 4 in the Autographing Area

2:30 - 3:30 at Egmont Booth 4522

Why should you line up nice and early to get this ARC?

• It's an apocalyptic story that makes sense. With a growing number of cranked out dystopians and general books of future dismay being released, it's plainly obvious Ilsa has spent a lot of time crafting this destroyed world. She did the research. She studied the people. The thing's so damn realistic that it'll have you looking up at the sky with a touch of fear in your eyes.
• It's relatively romance-free. I say relatively because there is a hint of something. What would a YA book be without some nominal teenage hormones, even in the most desolate of times? But it's not a focus. The story is about these kids surviving. That's it. I know there are those of you out there yearning for a future-imperfect story sans romance. This is it.
• It will make you feel things you didn't think a book could make you feel. Like how you really shouldn't read this when you're eating. And I'm not exaggerating. From nausea to pain to extreme loss, you will feel it all along with Alex.
• Ilsa is merciless with her characters. They are spared nothing. Logic does not evade them. They don't miraculously escape tricky situations. They get pwned by them. They are ripped, torn and pulled apart until there's barely anything left, but their will to survive is so strong they just keep going.
• Zombies. Sort of. They're kind of non-traditional in that they're not reanimated corpses. But the Changed aren't spared that classic title.

I could keep going but I'll save it for the review. So now you have no excuse not to go to either of Ilsa's signings. So go and tell her I sent you. You'll meet an awesome chick and get a fan-fucking-tabulous book while you're at it. Seriously, you won't want to put it down and, quite frankly, it blows the rest of those dismal-future books clean out of the water.

Middleworld: The Jaguar Stones Book 1 by J & P Voelkel + Contest!

Published 2010.

Fourteen-year-old Max Murphy, video-gamer extraordinaire, is furious when his archaeologist parents cancel the family vacation to go on a dig in Central America. But things go from bad to worse when Max is summoned to join them, only to discover that his parents have vanished. With the help of Lola, a fast-talking, quick-thinking Maya girl, Max embarks on a quest to find out just what's going on. Soon Max and Lola are running for their lives in the perilous rainforest, as they unlock ancient secrets, meet mysterious strangers, and begin to understand that, in San Xavier, nothing is ever as it seems.

Fate has delivered a challenge of epic proportions to Max Murphy. But can a teen whose biggest talent is for video games rescue his parents from the Maya Underworld and save himself from the villainous Lords of Death? (book back blurb)

For a middle grade book, this is certainly a long one! 400 pages plus a glossary of terms! Not that is wasn't compelling to read through but that's mighty long for YA let alone MG.

I found Max to be a rather unlikeable character for about 2/3rds of the book. He was whiny, bratty and self-centered and it was rather disturbing to watch him insult entire tribes with his tantrums. As with all good coming-of-age books, he does realize the err of his ways and starts doing things for the greater good as opposed for just himself but it's right on the cusp of too little too late for me. Once his character turned, he didn't show any signs of reverting but still, he was a right pain in the ass for a good chunk of the book.

Lola is such an awesome character. She puts Max in his place when he's acting like a spoiled brat (which is every other page), she can survive on her own, not to mention she's strong of character. Really I wish there were more characters like her in YA. In terms of this particular book, she added that female touch to the story that could draw girls into reading it (although girls will more readily read a book with a male protagonist than boys will read a book with a female protagonist). I really had no complaints about Lola at all. I could relate to her on so many levels and I really wished she was a more prominent part of the story. I'm hoping to see more of her in the sequel.

The story had some camp to it, like kind of stupid humor, and I'm not sure if that's sort of normal in MG books. I found it a little grating and sort of undermining but it wasn't really too prominent so it was easier to look over.

To me the best part of the book was the history. All of the Mayan stuff dripping throughout. And I swear I did not plan to read two Maya books back to back! It just worked out that way. Instead of being background information to fuel the story, all of the Mayan information in Middleworld was front and center. It was the story. It removed itself from history and became the present, combining the two in an action-packed river ride into a parallel world.

Middleworld certainly isn't short on action. There's never a dull moment as you turn the pages. I think the success of the book to the person hinges on how much the reader can tolerate Max. If you can make it through his rough patch where he's finding himself, you'll surely enjoy the ride after that. If you can't make it, I have to say you'll be missing some interesting twists. The liberties the Voelkels took with Mayan history were totally within believable parameters and had they not said anything, I would have believed The Jaguar Stones were real.

The glossary at the back of the book provides some great rounding information that puts some of the more foreign pieces of the story into a better context. Worth reading as well so don't skip it!

Contest Time!!!

Want my copy of Middleworld? Then fill out the form below for your chance to win! Open to US residents 13 years old and older only. One entry per person per email. Duplicate entries will be deleted. Ends August 12th at midnight, EST.