Got My Arms Full of ARCs (by Amy K. Nichols)

This month we're blogging about what we're reading, and I don't even know where to start. I am up to my eyeballs in advanced reader copies!

I'm a member of the Class of 2K14 debut authors, and we've been having a lot of fun sending our ARCs on a tour among the members of our group. Maybe it was the lunar eclipse or Mars being so close, but somehow I ended up with four of my fellow classmates' ARCs showing up at once.

So I'm reading them all. And so far, they're all amazing!

Can I tell you about them?

In no particular order, here they are.


ABBY SPENCER GOES TO BOLLYWOOD
by Varsha Bajaj

Abby Spencer wants a life of excitement!

Well, sort of. Actually, that's a lie. All Abby really wants is to meet her father. It's not that she's ungrateful for what she has--nice mom, adorable grandparents, great friends--but she feels like something's missing. She'd never tell anyone that.

Abby knows her dad lives in India, but she's never met him and doesn't know much else about him. But Abby's mom realizes it's time to have the big talk and for Abby to finally meet her father.

Does he want to meet her? Abby's about to find out that her dad lives a very different life in a different country and she's going to experience it all, for better or worse. This is what happens when all your wishes come true...


EXTRACTION
by Stephanie Diaz


Sixteen-year-old Clementine wins escape from a brutal life on her planet’s surface, only to find herself battling to save the entire planet from destruction.

Clementine has spent her whole life preparing for her sixteenth birthday, when she will be tested for Extraction in the hopes of being sent from the planet Kiel’s toxic Surface to live with the free and without fear. On the Surface, children are forced to endure a life of backbreaking labor and unending hunger, all the while praying the protective shields will guard them from the moon’s lethal acid that threatens to batter the planet.

When Clementine is lucky enough to be chosen for Extraction, she must leave Logan, the boy she loves; her only family. Wrenched apart, Clementine promises to come back and save him.

A utopia compared to the Surface, the Core is free of starvation, gun-wielding officials, and the moon’s acid. But life is anything but safe, and Clementine is constantly fighting to not be “permanently removed.” Meanwhile, Clementine learns that the planet’s leaders are going to exterminate Surface dwellers—and Logan.

Trapped by the steel walls of the underground and the lies that keep her safe, Clementine must find a way to escape and rescue Logan and the rest of the planet. But the planet leaders don’t want her running—they want her subdued.



NO SURRENDER SOLDIER

by Christine Kohler

A young man, an old soldier, and a terrible injustice. Should the punishment be death?

Growing up on Guam in 1972, fifteen-year-old Kiko is beset by worries: His older brother is a USAF navigator in Vietnam during the war; his grandfather is acting crazy due to dementia; he just learned that when his mother was a teen during World War II she was raped by a Japanese soldier. When Kiko discovers an old Japanese soldier hiding in the jungle behind his house how far will he go to prove to himself that’s he’s a man? Based on a historical event, No Surrender Soldier is the story of a boy grappling with ancient questions of courage and manhood.




FALLS THE SHADOW

by Stefanie Gaither

In a near-future world, a sixteen year old girl must decide what she believes and who to trust when her sister’s clone is accused of murder.

When Cate Benson was a kid, her sister died. Two hours after the funeral, they picked up Violet’s replacement, and it was like nothing had ever happened. Because Cate’s parents are among those who decided to give their children a sort of immortality— by cloning them at birth. Which means this new Violet has the same smile. The same laugh. That same perfect face. Thanks to advancements in mind-uploading technology, she even has all the same memories as the girl she replaced.

She also might have murdered the most popular girl in school.

Or at least, that’s what the paparazzi and the crazy anti-cloning protestors want everyone to think: that clones are violent, unpredictable monsters. Cate is used to hearing all that, though. She’s used to defending her sister too—against mean girls, against paparazzi, and now, if necessary, against these dangerous rumors. But then Violet vanishes, and when Cate sets out to find her, she ends up in the line of fire instead. Because Cate is getting dangerously close to staggering secrets that will rock the foundation of everything she thought was true.


These are only the ARCs from the tour that I've received so far, but with twenty members in the class, there are loads more to come. I can't wait! I hope you'll check them out, too.

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