Thursday, August 13, 2009

Imogen Howson - A Holiday TBR Pile

I don’t normally have a TBR pile—everything lives on my Amazon wish list until I buy it, and then it doesn’t wait to be read long enough to live in a pile. But for once I really, genuinely do have one. We’re going away on holiday for a week in a few days, so when this order from Amazon came I put it aside to read only once we’re on holiday.

I have an eleven-year-old and a thirteen-year-old, so this pile is a mix of books for all of us. I love young adult books—and write them myself—so my thirteen-year-old and I do a lot of sharing. And, in her case, very useful beta-reading of my stuff!

Wings is a young adult fantasy, the debut release from Aprilynne Pike, about a girl who (I think) discovers she’s a fairy. The publisher had the good sense to put a whole lump of the book up to read online on their website. I read, I got hooked, I put the book straight on my wish list.

The Prophet from Ephesus is for my thirteen-year-old. She’s been reading this series, The Roman Mysteries by Caroline Lawrence, for several years now, and swears she’s learned more about Ancient Rome from them than she could ever learn from school.

The Tin Princess by Philip Pullman is also for her. It’s the fourth in his Victorian mystery books. I’ve read and enjoyed these as well.

The Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder is for my younger daughter. I loved these books as a child, and enjoy reading them to her now. Like the Roman Mysteries, you learn an astonishing amount of history from them—in this case about Frontier America.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a young adult futuristic, set in a scary-sounding dystopia. I read a great review of this at http://dearauthor.com and have been waiting for it to come out in the UK so I could buy it. I’d have got it as an ebook (instant gratification!) but for some reason the publisher didn’t release it as one so I had to wait.

False Colors is a historical gay romance by Alex Beecroft. I read another book by her, Captain’s Surrender, and loved it. There’s a lot of m/m romance in the epublishing world in particular, but a lot of it is more erotic than I really like, whereas Alex Beecroft’s writing is much more about the emotions and developing relationship—and she only includes the sex scenes that, after lots of sexual tension, you really want to see!

Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr is another young adult fantasy, the third in a series that began with Wicked Lovely and continued with Ink Exchange (the titles are as beautiful as the covers!). These have dark, scary, sexy fairies, emotion deep enough to drown in, and stunningly beautiful writing.

I can’t wait to get on holiday and start reading. The only trouble will be which to choose first!

Imogen writes romantic fantasy and science fiction for young adults and adults. Her next book is Heart of the Volcano, releasing as an ebook on September 15th from Samhain Publishing. To find out more about her work visit her website – www.imogenhowson.com.

2 comments:

Jan Jones said...

And Alex Beecroft is also a member of the RNA!

BUT - how do you manage to wait when you've got all these lovely titles shouting READ ME at you?

Jenny Haddon said...

So agree with your thirteen year old. My first history lessons were from Rosemary Sutcliffe!

I love Young Adult books too and you've given me some cracking new titles to try.

Thank you!