Top 5 New Books for October 2014

Atlantia

by Ally Condie

Release Date: October 28, 2014

Rio has waited her whole life for the opportunity to leave the sheltered, underwater city of Atlantia for life on the surface. It has been said that life on the surface is harsh and unforgiving, but offers the promise of something more than the life Atlantia provides. But when Rio is forced to remain below, she is left with increasingly dangerous questions about the complex system constructed to govern the fragile divide between land and sea.

My Thoughts: I loved Ally Condie’s Matched Series and I’m really excited for her new book. It sounds like a Little Mermaid retelling of sorts but the title makes me wonder if it’s also about the lost city of Altantis or something.

Chasing Power

by Sarah Beth Durst

Release Date: October 14, 2014

Sixteen-year-old Kayla was born with the ability to move things with her mind—things like credit cards and buttons on cash registers—and she has become a master shoplifter. She steals to build up enough money for her and her mom to be able to flee if her dad finds them again . . . which would mean grave danger for them both.

When she’s caught stealing by a boy named Daniel—a boy with the ability to teleport—he needs her help and is willing to blackmail her to get it. Together, they embark on a quest to find and steal an ancient incantation, written on three indestructible stones and hidden millennia ago, all to rescue Daniel’s kidnapped mother. But Kayla has no idea that this rescue mission will lead back to her own family—and to betrayals that she may not be able to forgive . . . or survive.

My Thoughts: This kind of reminds me of that 80’s movie Escape from Witch Mountain. But it also has a kind of Jedi vibe that I think sounds really cool.

Snow Like Ashes

by Sara Raasch

Release Date: October 14, 2014

A heartbroken girl. A fierce warrior. A hero in the making.

Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild their kingdom ever since.

Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians’ general, Sir. Secretly training to be a warrior—and desperately in love with her best friend, Winter’s future king, Mather—she would do anything to help Winter regain its source of magic and rise to power again.

So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself. Finally, she’s scaling towers and fighting enemy soldiers just as she’s always dreamed she would. But the mission doesn’t go as planned, and Meira soon finds herself thrust into a world of evil magic and dangerous politics—and ultimately comes to realize that her destiny is not, and never has been, her own.

Sara Raasch’s debut fantasy is a lightning-fast tale of loyalty, love, and finding one’s destiny.

My Thoughts: I’ve read this one. It was good. I liked the idea of kingdoms being a season. It seemed a little like a YA version of Frozen, but it was a great fantasy that just took a while to get into.

Catalyst

by S. J. Kincaid

Release Date: October 28, 2014

This exhilarating, explosive, and heartrending conclusion to the Insignia trilogy brings Tom and his intelligent, passionate, and brave young friends stunning tests and dangerous confrontations and through to an impossible future they could never have predicted.

Tom Raines and his friends are eager to return to the Pentagonal Spire to continue training for the elite Intrasolar Forces, but they soon discover troubling changes: strict new regulations and the revelation that the Spire is under new military control. What begins as an irritating adjustment soon reveals a dangerous shift in reality. Those now in control are aligned with corporate sponsors and their ruthless agendas. And when the military academy begins welcoming new cadets with suspicious neural processors, the first step in a plan with horrifying worldwide ramifications, Tom is desperate to stop it, even if that means keeping secrets from his closest allies.

Then a mysterious figure, the other ghost in the machine, begins fighting against the corporations, but with methods even Tom finds shocking. And when the enemy comes for Tom, how much can Tom endure in the battle to save himself? He must decide if he can still fight when the odds of success seem to be sliding from his grip.

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed the first book in this series, Insignia.  The final book is coming out this month!

Stitching Snow

by R.C. Lewis

Release Date: October 14, 2014

Princess Snow is missing.

Her home planet is filled with violence and corruption at the hands of King Matthias and his wife as they attempt to punish her captors. The king will stop at nothing to get his beloved daughter back—but that’s assuming she wants to return at all.

Essie has grown used to being cold. Temperatures on the planet Thanda are always sub-zero, and she fills her days with coding and repairs for the seven loyal drones that run the local mines.

When a mysterious young man named Dane crash-lands near her home, Essie agrees to help the pilot repair his ship. But soon she realizes that Dane’s arrival was far from accidental, and she’s pulled into the heart of a war she’s risked everything to avoid. With the galaxy’s future—and her own—in jeopardy, Essie must choose who to trust in a fiery fight for survival.

My Thoughts: I love fairy tell retellings and this one looks like an awesome dystopian/sci-fi retelling of Snow White.

Honorable Mentions