“Hell may have all the best composers, but heaven has all the best choreographers.”

According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday.  Next Saturday, in fact.  Just before dinner. 

So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring.  Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan.  Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon - both of whom have lived amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle - are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture.

And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist...

Neal Gaiman + Terry Pratchett = Amazingness.  Hilarious, profound, and thoroughly enjoyable, Good Omens, just goes to show you that one can find humour in the end of the world.

“People couldn't become truly holy, he said, unless they also had the opportunity to be definitely wicked.”

“But now I can see that there is redemption and beauty in an accident emanating from love.”

Chick Lit Superstar Emily Giffin is back!  I was starting to have my doubts about Miss Giffin for awhile there.  I, like many, fell in love with Something Borrowed and Something Blue.  However, things started to go downhill for me with Baby Proof and Love the One You're With.  I just couldn't connect with the characters and the stories the same way I did with her earlier novels.  I was concerned.  Things got better with Heart of the Matter and I think that with her newest novel, Where We Belong, we are back in business! 

Marian Caldwell is a thirty-six year old television producer, living her dream in New York City. With a fulfilling career and satisfying relationship, she has convinced everyone, including herself, that her life is just as she wants it to be. But one night, Marian answers a knock on the door . . . only to find Kirby Rose, an eighteen-year-old girl with a key to a past that Marian thought she had sealed off forever. From the moment Kirby appears on her doorstep, Marian’s perfectly constructed world—and her very identity—will be shaken to its core, resurrecting ghosts and memories of a passionate young love affair that threaten everything that has come to define her.

For the precocious and determined Kirby, the encounter will spur a process of discovery that ushers her across the threshold of adulthood, forcing her to re-evaluate her family and future in a wise and bittersweet light. As the two women embark on a journey to find the one thing missing in their lives, each will come to recognize that where we belong is often where we least expect to find ourselves—a place that we may have willed ourselves to forget, but that the heart remembers forever

I loved Kirby right off the bat and Marian grew on me by the end of the novel.  A perfect summer beach read!

“She’s like Bruce Lee, the Hulk and Neo from The Matrix all rolled in to one.”

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story...

I loved this book! (and it's cover! Isn't it lovely and haunting?)  Kendare Blake is officially my new Teen author to watch!  Here's a quick synopsis of Anna Dressed in Blood, the first in a trilogy (Book two just came out this month and is currently sitting on my bedside table!)

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

Cas and Anna may be my new favourite supernatural couple (especially since I think they would annihilate Edward and Bella in a heartbeat).  Read this book!

“You make me want things I can't have.”

“What we have here is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

I can't believe I haven't mentioned one of my favourite mystery / thriller series here before! If you are looking for a great read then you cannot go wrong with Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's Agent Pendergast series.  Aloysius X. L. Pendergast is an FBI agent who works out of New Orleans but frequently travels out of state to investigate cases of interest, mostly those that appear to be the work of serial killers.  I often recommend this series to fans of Micheal Crichton, especially Relic, the first book in the series.  Relic deals heavily with scientific elements and things that go bump in the night (specifically in the New York Natural History Museum) and very much reminds me of the style Crichton exhibited in Jurassic Park.  Pendergast is such a fascinating character and he continues to get better and better in each book.  The recently published (and soon to be finished!) 'Helen Trilogy' delves heavily into the reader discovering just who Pendergast is and how he became the man he is.  A great summer (or anytime) read!

Pendergast Series

1. Relic
2. Reliquary
3 The Cabinet of Curiosities
4. Still Life With Crows
5. Brimstone (Book 1 in the Diogenes Series)
6. Dance of Death (Book 2 in the Diogenes Series)
7. Book of the Dead (Book 3 in the Diogenes Series)
8. Wheel of Darkness
9. Cemetary Dance
10. Fever Dream (Book 1 in the Helen Trilogy)
11. Cold Vengeance (Book 2 in the Helen Trilogy)
12. Two Graves (Book 3 in the Helen Trilogy) (coming Fall 2012)

“The question I've asked more often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not to the person who could answer. I supposed these questions stormcloud over every marriage: What are you thinking how are you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?”

Gillian Flynn officially rocks my world.  After all the buzz about her latest novel Gone Girl, I knew I had to jump on the bandwagon and check it out.  OH MY GOD.  Now here is a lady who knows how to weave a psychological thriller.  I sat down one evening to start the book and finished it the next night; I literally could not put it down.  I haven't met a psychopath quite like the one Flynn has created and my god I couldn't get enough of it.  Amy and Nick are some of the most in depth and fascinating characters I have encountered in a long time and despite being disgusted with them at times, I found that my curiosity got the best of me and I had to keep reading to find out how these two were going to continue to mess with each others minds.  This one is topping my best reads of the year list so far.

I so enjoyed Gone Girl that I picked up Flynn's debut novel, Sharp Objects.  While I didn't enjoy it quite as much, it was still fantastic.  The reader has a love-hate relationship with reporter Camille Preaker, who returns to her home town to investigate two brutal murders of two little girls.  Camille's mother and step-sister are unnerving and keep the reader continually guessing about what exactly is going on in these women's heads.

I hope to soon read Flynn's second novel, Dark Places.  I have a feeling I'm gonna love that one too.

“We were like gods at the dawning of the world, & our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.”

I have always been interested in stories of the Trojan War (despite the fact that I have yet to make it through The Iliad and The Odyssey...one day!).  I had already planned on picking up Madeline Miller's novel The Song of Achilles when it won the prestigious Orange Prize.  Talk about extra motivation!

What a wonderful novel.  Beautifully written and it succeeds in creating a new and interesting way of telling an age old tale.  The protagonist is not the hero Achilles, but instead Patroclus, a character that appeared in the original story, played a vital role in the downfall of Achilles, but did not get a lot of 'screen time'.  This is not only a story of war but also one of love and the role it plays in one of the greatest stories ever told.  An amazing debut novel and definitely an author to watch.

“Name one hero who was happy."
I considered. Heracles went mad and killed his family; Theseus lost his bride and father; Jason's children and new wife were murdered by his old; Bellerophon killed the Chimera but was crippled by the fall from Pegasus' back.
"You can't." He was sitting up now, leaning forward.
"I can't."
"I know. They never let you be famous AND happy." He lifted an eyebrow. "I'll tell you a secret."
"Tell me." I loved it when he was like this.
"I'm going to be the first." He took my palm and held it to his. "Swear it."
"Why me?"
"Because you're the reason. Swear it."
"I swear it," I said, lost in the high color of his cheeks, the flame in his eyes.
"I swear it," he echoed.

“The problem with wanting is that it makes us weak”

Looking for a teen read that is not about love struck vampires / werewolves / other supernatural beings?  Check out Leigh Bardugo's debut novel Shadow and Bone, book one in the Grisha Trilogy.  As teen author Veronica Roth puts it, "Unlike anything I've ever read".  Here's a quick synopsis:
  
Alina Starkov doesn’t expect much from life. Orphaned by the Border Wars, the one thing she could rely on was her best friend and fellow refugee, Mal. And lately not even that seems certain. Drafted into the army of their war-torn homeland, they’re sent on a dangerous mission into the Fold, a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh.

When their convoy is attacked, all seems lost until Alina reveals a dormant power that not even she knew existed. Ripped from everything she knows, she is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling. He believes she is the answer the people have been waiting for: the one person with the power to destroy the Fold.

Swept up in a world of luxury and illusion, envied as the Darkling’s favorite, Alina struggles to fit into her new life without Mal by her side. But as the threat to the kingdom mounts, Alina uncovers a secret that sets her on a collision course with the most powerful forces in the kingdom. Now only her past can save her . . . and only she can save the future.

A really well written and engaging debut.  Bardugo has created a world that is unlike any I've read before and I very much enjoyed visiting it!  Alina is a wonderfully relate able character, the underdog who can't quite contemplate her own worth.  The Darkling is mysterious and seductive and you spend a lot of the novel trying to figure out his intentions and motivations.  Mal, the seemingly unattainable boy, is not physically present for much of the book but he more then makes up for that by the end. A new male to challenge Edward and Friends for the title of 'Literary Crush'!  Can't wait for the next installment!

“I've been waiting for you a long time, Alina" He said. "You and I are going to change the world.”