"If I Find You...It's Already Too Late"

I absolutely adored The Body Finder (Goodreads | my review). I cannot wait to read Desires of the Dead (I reeeally wanna read that book) - it comes out February 15. But in the meantime, the book trailer has been released! Kimberly Derting posted it on her blog Wednesday, and now I'm sharing it with you. Because really? This trailer is made of awesome. Enjoy!

Review: Raised by Wolves

Title: Raised by Wolves
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Publisher: Egmont USA
Pages: 418
Series: Raised by Wolves #1
Rating: 5/5
Description from Goodreads:
Adopted by the Alpha of a werewolf pack after a rogue wolf brutally killed her parents right before her eyes, fifteen-year-old Bryn knows only pack life, and the rigid social hierarchy that controls it. That doesn't mean that she's averse to breaking a rule or two.

But when her curiosity gets the better of her and she discovers Chase, a new teen locked in a cage in her guardian's basement, and witnesses him turn into a wolf before her eyes, the horrific memories of her parents' murders return. Bryn becomes obsessed with getting her questions answered, and Chase is the only one who can provide the information she needs.

But in her drive to find the truth, will Bryn push too far beyond the constraints of the pack, forcing her to leave behind her friends, her family, and the identity that she's shaped?

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Werewolves are becoming more and more commonplace in YA, but Raised by Wolves is anything but commonplace. I would have loved to devour it in one sitting (sadly, school foiled that plan). It takes the typical werewolf mythology, puts a new and creative spin on it, and then uses that to tell an incredible story. It wasn't a story about werewolves so much as it was a story told through werewolves. Yes, the main characters are part of a pack of werewolves and that completely drives the plot of the novel, but it wasn't about werewolf-ism. It was about identity and growing up and, to a degree, girl power. I feel like I didn't explain that very well, but I mean it as the highest compliment.

The premise is straightforward and complex at the same time. Bryn is a human girl raised in a pack of werewolves; she belongs with them, almost to them, and they are her family. But when she discovers a caged boy who was not born a werewolf but Changed, everything she thought she knew changes, because she is connected to Chase in a way that should not be possible. The plot is one of the many things I adored about this book - it wasn't predictable, it kept moving all the time, it was gripping and engaging, and it kept me reading almost compulsively. Plus, there was just enough tension so that the romantic element was sort of vaguely present, but it was all about the plot. It's so nice to encounter a paranormal novel that isn't a drippy love story.

I also loved Bryn's voice. She's funny and sarcastic and not afraid to stand up for herself, but she also has moments of dark reflection on the tragedies in her past. I especially loved the flashbacks to her childhood and the communication with the wolves - sentence structure and the use of "Mommy" instead of "Mom" can do wonders. Here again, I don't think I'm explaining very well. What I'm trying to say is, Jennifer Lynn Barnes can write. Wow.

The only thing I would change is that I wanted to see more of Devon and I wanted Chase to be more developed. For someone who is apparently Bryn's best friend, Devon got astonishingly little page time - which is unfortunate, because who doesn't love a clever, show-tunes-singing, werewolf best friend? He's a great character, hopefully we get more of him in book two. And Chase...I want to know more about him.

I'm going to stop talking now before I spoil something by accident. Instead, I will leave you with this: Raised by Wolves is one of the best ones out there. I highly recommend it.

Links:
Jennifer Lynn Barnes' website

Waiting on Wednesday (for Thursday)

This particular Wednesday marks a very special date for Bookworm Boulevard. I've been blogging for exactly six months today! I guess that means I'm shedding my "newbie" status, although I hardly feel like a blogging expert. Either way, I'm having fun - I hope you all are enjoying it as much as I am!

Anyway, I won't have to wait long for the book I'm featuring today, because it comes out tomorrow! So this is sort of a combined Waiting on Wednesday/New-Release Alert post. I've been meaning to put this in a WoW for a while, but I never got around to it - and suddenly release day is here! Anyway, this week I can't wait to read XVI by Julia Karr.

Description from Goodreads: 
Nina Oberon's life is pretty normal: she hangs out with her best friend, Sandy, and their crew, goes to school, plays with her little sister, Dee. But Nina is 15. And like all girls she'll receive a Governing Council-ordered tattoo on her 16th birthday. XVI. Those three letters will be branded on her wrist, announcing to all the world—even the most predatory of men—that she is ready for sex. Considered easy prey by some, portrayed by the Media as sluts who ask for attacks, becoming a "sex-teen" is Nina's worst fear. That is, until right before her birthday, when Nina's mom is brutally attacked. With her dying breaths, she reveals to Nina a shocking truth about her past—one that destroys everything Nina thought she knew. Now, alone but for her sister, Nina must try to discover who she really is, all the while staying one step ahead of her mother's killer.

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I think this sounds darkly creepy and immensely intriguing. (Plus, I love the name Nina Oberon.) I want to know what this life-changing secret about the past is. Fortunately, I don't have to wait long, because it's out tomorrow! Yay!

What are you waiting on this week? Leave a link in the comments and I'll stop by!

*Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.*

Missing Letters Challenge

If you look at my reviews archive, you will see that I haven't reviewed any books with titles beginning with the letters O, Q, V, X, Y, or Z, probably because there aren't a whole lot of books that have those first letters. The spaces are kind of bothering me.

They are also bothering a friend of mine, who challenged me to get at least one book for each letter. For O, I have Once in a Full Moon by Ellen Schreiber, and for V I have Vesper by Jeff Sampson, but I still don't know for the other letters. If you know of any good books that have titles beginning with Q, X, Y, or Z... let me know! They're pretty uncommon letters, which, I guess, is why it's a challenge.

I don't have a specific end date set for this challenge, but I'm going to try to do it by summer. And I'm challenging you: if there are missing letters in your review archive... fill the holes! If you decide to participate, leave a comment with your name and your missing letters, and we can help each other find great books to meet our missing-letter goals.

And so the quest begins.

Interview with a Blogger...Me!

Hey guys!

Cathy from The Crazy Bookworm has just started a new feature called Interview with a Blogger, and today's interview is with me! If you want to see the interview, you can find that at this link. If you don't care about the interview, I suggest that you head over anyway just to check out her blog, which you can do by clicking here.

In other news, I go back to school today. For those of you who are still in school, when do you go back?

Review: The Unidentified

Title: The Unidentified
Author: Rae Mariz
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 296
Rating: 4/5
From the book jacket: 
Fifteen-year-old Katey (aka Kid) goes to school in the Game -- a mall converted into a "school" run by corporate sponsors. As the students play their way through the levels, they are also creating products and being used for market research by the sponsors, who are watching them 24/7 on video cameras.

Kid has a vague sense of unease but doesn't question this existence until one day she witnesses a shocking anticorporate prank. She follows the clues to uncover the identities of the people behind it and discovers an anonymous group that calls itself the Unidentified. Intrigued by their counterculture ideas and enigmatic leader, Kid is drawn into the group. But when the Unidentified's pranks and even Kid's own identity are co-opted by the sponsors, Kid decides to do something bigger -- something that could change the Game forever.

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I think the thing that hit me hardest about this book is that it's totally plausible. Maybe not in the immediate future, but the technology of the Game is fast approaching and education spending is decreasing and corporations are on the rise... is it really so ridiculous to imagine a world where "school" is a blend of technology, video games, and marketing?

Before I get too rambly, let me start at the beginning. Katey, known to her friends as "Kid," is basically the epitome of mediocrity in the Game. She has decent scores, "riding high on the bell curve" as her advisor puts it, a few friends... she's not on the It List (which is an actual list in the Game), she's not a social pariah, she's just...average. And she's happy that way, mostly. And then an anti-corporate prank rattles her world. She's the only one who seems to care - and that attracts attention. Suddenly corporations want her, her friends don't understand her sudden popularity, she maybe has a boyfriend -- and the anonymous group responsible for the prank knows she knows about them. Cue mystery and hidden agendas.

It took me a while to get into The Unidentified for a couple of reasons. First, the set-up was kind of confusing; I didn't really understand the Game for the first several chapters. Second, the slang was not what I was used to; Kid and Mikey and Ari were using words that I didn't know. It took some getting used to. But once I got into it...wow. I couldn't put it down.

I love that The Unidentified challenges us to think. To think about popularity, and fashion, and corporate America, and what it means to have an identity. The ideas that this book tackles are so big and so real that it's impossible to read it without fully engaging your brain - and that's a good thing. But at the same time, it's a very basic look at friendship and humanity that is just as applicable now as in the technology-dominated society Kid lives in.

It's a bit confusing at times, but I think The Unidentified is definitely worth your time.

Links:
Rae Mariz's website

New Years Resolutions, Blog Edition

Happy New Year, readers!

In addition to a few personal resolutions, I've set a few goals for the blog this year. I'm trying to set goals that I can actually meet but ones that will challenge me to make Bookworm Boulevard the best it can be. Here they are:

1. Post frequently! Every day is probably not realistic, but I'm going to try for five days a week (with the exception of holidays).

2. Get rid of the "nothing" posts. If it's a post not to say something but just for the sake of posting something, then it probably isn't worth posting. (I used the word "post" a lot in that sentence.)

3. Be more involved in the blogger community. Comment more on other blogs, participate in challenges, contribute to things - like I said, be involved.

4. Balance professional and personal. I don't want to sound like a textbook or anything - I'm still trying to find "my" voice, but once I find it, I'm going to keep using it. But I want to try to keep my personal life off the blog for the most part.

5. Have fun with it. Blogging is something fun, not a chore -- I don't want to push too hard to be like the really successful book blogs and make it more of a job than something I enjoy doing. I really do love book blogging and I want to keep it that way!

Here's to a great 2011, readers!