Two books you should run out and buy TODAY!

Happy New Year, Everyone!

I hope you had a fantastic holiday break. I know I did--hubs had a whole week off! But I have to say that it is nice to have the kids back in school. Well, except KidA only lasted a whole hour and a half before he told his teacher that he had a tummy ache and the school sent him home. (Grrrrr.) Actually, I'm pretty sure he really does have a tummy ache. The poor kid always has a tummy ache--he's just cleverly figured out that the school's policy is that if he says he has a tummy ache they'll send him home for fear of the stomach flu. So even though he doesn't have the stomach flu, he's been working the system . . .

(Side note: KidA was just diagnosed as being allergic to dairy, gluten, and soy. We are working on eliminating all of these things from his diet, and hopefully the tummy aches will soon be a thing of the past.)

Anyway, I'm daydreaming about having a little bit of reading time to myself in the next month, which got me thinking about a couple of books I'm dying to pick up from the book store (and would be doing right now if I didn't feel bad about dragging my boy with a tummy ache out of the house).

So therefore, dear readers, I think you guys should go out and pick a couple of books for yourselves, and think about me while you do . . .

There are many awesome new books that have come out this week and the last, but the two I would most definitely pick up for myself are:

1. EVERY OTHER DAY by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Every other day, Kali D'Angelo is a normal sixteen-year-old girl. She goes to public high school. She attends pep rallies. She's human.

And then every day in between...She's something else entirely.

Though she still looks like herself, every twenty-four hours predatory instincts take over and Kali becomes a feared demon-hunter with the undeniable urge to hunt, trap, and kill zombies, hellhounds, and other supernatural creatures. Kali has no idea why she is the way she is, but she gives in to instinct anyway. Even though the government considers it environmental terrorism.

When Kali notices a mark on the lower back of a popular girl at school, she knows instantly that the girl is marked for death by one of these creatures. Kali has twenty-four hours to save her and, unfortunately, she'll have to do it as a human. With the help of a few new friends, Kali takes a risk that her human body might not survive...and learns the secrets of her mysterious condition in the process.

I first heard about EVERY OTHER DAY when I met Jenn a couple of summers ago. Not only did I discover that Jenn one of the cutest, nicest, and smartest authors I've ever met, I also got the scoop on this killer new book almost a year and a half before it came out--which needless to say, means I have been DYING to read this book for that long. I am so excited that it is finally available. (You think since we share the same publisher that someone would have hooked me up with an advance copy, but no, I've had to wait in agony for this one. And will apparently have to wait a little longer until KidA's tummy ache subsides. Darn you, food allergies!)

And the second book I'd run out to go buy this very minute is I could . . .

2. UNDER THE NEVER SKY by Veronica Rossi

Since she’d been on the outside, she’d survived an Aether storm, she’d had a knife held to her throat, and she’d seen men murdered. This was worse.

Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland—known as The Death Shop—are slim. If the cannibals don’t get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She’s been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He’s wild—a savage—and her only hope of staying alive.

A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile—everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria’s help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.

I've actually already read UNDER THE NEVER SKY--as an advanced reader copy version I snagged from Brodi Ashton--but it's so good I want to read the hardcover addition now, and then place it lovingly on a shelf in my library. I first heard about UNDER THE NEVER SKY when I met Veronica at SCBWI L.A. last summer. Let me tell you, Veronica is drop dead gorgeous and equally as nice--and when I got my hands on her book a few weeks later, I found out that she's also incredibly talented. Within a matter of pages, Perry had stolen my fiction-loving heart. Honestly, this is one of the best books I've read in the last year.

KidA is fast asleep now, so it looks like the bookstore is going to have to wait even longer for me. *Sad Face* But what about you? What 2012 books have you been dying for?