Friday Finds [5]

Friday Finds are books that you've heard about during the past week. For me, I'm taking it a step further: these are books I heard about and may potentially read. Friday Finds is hosted by MizB @ Should be Reading

This week I found...

Wondrous Strange (Wondrous Strange, #1) by Lesley Livingston

17 year-old Kelly Winslow doesn’t believe in Faeries. Not unless they’re the kind that you find in a theatre, spouting Shakespeare—the kind that Kelley so desperately wishes she could be: onstage, under lights, with a pair of sparkly wings strapped to her shoulders. But as the understudy in a two-bit, hopelessly off-off-Broadway production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, wishing is probably the closest she’s going to get to becoming a Faerie Queen. At least, that’s what shethinks... In this fun, urban fantasy, Kelly's off-stage life suddenly becomes as complicated as one of Shakespeare’s plot twists when a nighttime trip to Central Park holds more than meets the mortal eye.

and part two in the trilogy...

Darklight (Wondrous Strange, #2) by Lesley Livingston

"Much has changed since autumn, when Kelley Winslow learned she was Faerie royalty, fell in love with changeling guard Sonny Flannery, and saved New York City from a rampaging Faerie war band. When a terrifying encounter in Central Park sends Kelley tumbling into the Otherworld, her reunion with Sonny is joyful—but cut short. For they’ve been plunged into a game of Faerie deception and wavering allegiances in which the next move could topple a kingdom...or part them forever."

Hmm, I have to say, I never thought I'd read faerie fiction again! I have been so angrily disappointed as of late with these new urban fantasy faerie books: I was less than impressed with Holly Black's Tithe, and I won't even begin to describe Melissa Marr and her Wicked Fugly series... but this one looks cute! It seems to have a heavy Shakespeare emphasis...and I've heard of many good things about this series, so I'll give faeries a try again!

And in the other direction, I'm looking forward to reading about post-apocalyptic America with the Moon series...

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

It's almost the end of Miranda's sophomore year in high school, and her journal reflects the busy life of a typical teenager: conversations with friends, fights with mom, and fervent hopes for a driver's license. When Miranda first begins hearing the reports of a meteor on a collision course with the moon, it hardly seems worth a mention in her diary. But after the meteor hits, pushing the moon off its axis and causing worldwide earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, all the things Miranda used to take for granted begin to disappear. Food and gas shortages, along with extreme weather changes, come to her small Pennsylvania town; and Miranda's voice is by turns petulant, angry, and finally resigned, as her family is forced to make tough choices while they consider their increasingly limited options. Yet even as suspicious neighbors stockpile food in anticipation of a looming winter without heat or electricity, Miranda knows that that her future is still hers to decide even if life as she knew it is over.

There are 2 other books in the series: The Dead & the Gone, which switches perspectives to another character in a more urban setting, and the final installment, This World We Live In (April 1, 2010). I'm wondering, for those who have read advanced copies, if it is necessary to read The Dead & the Gone to understand the last book. Answers?

What did you "find" this week?

Last week's finds: Beth Fantaskey's Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, Brenna Yovanoff's The Replacement, Lisa Mantchev's Eyes Like Stars

Friday Finds 3: Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, James Dashner's Maze Runner

Friday Finds 2: Katherine Langrish's Troll Trilogy

Friday Finds 1: Catherine Fisher's Incarceron & Sapphique, Sarah Addison Allen's The Sugar Queen