Letterbox Love no.6 - 8th July 2012

Another week, another insight into what's magically appeared on my doormat, complete with official blurbs what I've copied off the back, and publishing details. And I must admit, it's been a particularly exciting week for post!

Debutantes by Cora Harrison

It's 1923 an London is a whirl of jazz, dancing and parties. 

Violet, Daisy, Poppy and Rose Derrington are desperate to be part of it, but stuck in an enormous crumbling house in the country, with no money and no fashionable dresses, the excitement seems a lifetime away.

Luckily the girls each have a plan for escaping their humdrum country life: Rose wants to be a novelist, Poppy a jazz musician, and Daisy a famous film director. Violet, however, has only one ambition: to become the perfect Debutantem so that she can go to London and catch the eye of Prince George, the most eligible bachelor in the country.

But a house as big and old as Beech Grove Manor hides many secrets, and Daisy is about to uncover one so huge it could ruin all their plans - ruin everything - forever. 

Published by Macmillan, August 2012

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler (art by Maira Kalman)

Min Green and Ed Slaterton have broken up, so Min is writing Ed a letter and giving him a box. Inside the box is why they broke up. A movie ticket from their first date, a comb from the motel room they shared and every other memento collected over the course of a giddy, intimate, heartbreaking relationship. Item after item is illustrated and accounted for, and then the box, like a girlfriend, will be dumped.

Published by Electric Monkey (Egmont), August 2012

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

Griffins are supposed to be extinct. So when Yukiko and her warrior father are sent to capture one for the Shogun, they fear their lives are over - everyone knows what happens to those who fail the Lord of the Shima Isles. But the mission proves less impossible and more deadly than anyone expects. Soon Yukiko finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in her country's last wilderness, with only a furious, crippled griffin for company. Although she can hear his thoughts, and saved his life, all she knows for certain is he'd rather see her dead than help her. Yet trapped together in the forest, Yukiko and the beast soon discover a bond that neither of them expected.

Meanwhile, the country around them verges on collapse. A toxic fuel is choking the land, and the machine-powered Lotus Guild is publicly burning those they deem impure, and the Shogun cares for nothing but his own dominion. Authority has always made Yukiko uneasy, but her world changes when she meets Kin, a young man with secrets, and the rebel Kage cabal. She learns the horrifying extent of the Shogun's crimes, both against her country and her family.

Returning to the city, Yukiko is determined to make the Shogun pay - but what can one girl an a flightless griffin do against the might of an empire?

Published by Tor, September 2012

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Every year, Blue stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue can't usually soo them but this year is different. When she sees a boy emerge from the dark there are only two explanations as to why she can see his spirit - either he is her true love or she has killed him.

The boy's name is Gansey and Blue soon discovers that he attends the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from those students. Known as Raven Boys, they only mean trouble. But Blue is drawn to Gansey in a way she can't explain.

There's something magical about Gansey. Something powerful. And as Blue becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven boys, she's determined to keep him alive...

Published by Scholastic, September 2012

Witch Crag by Kate Cann

In a tribe where basic survival is the only priority, Kita must make a choice: to accept arranged marriages and being treated with less value than a sheep, or escape and journey to the place that even the strongest men fear with their lives - Witch Crag.

But a common threat is facing the witches and sheepmen alike. The tribes must somehow overcome their prejudices and join together is they are to win a war that threatens to destroy everything they hold as good. 

Published by Scholastic, October 2012

I'm a little bowled over by this weeks haul, and I want to read it all now!


Hugs and high fives, 


Nicole
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