I love love love the Crash series (Review HERE and HERE) and have been anxiously awaiting the third and final installment in CRUSH. Nicole very kindly agreed to pick the Song of the Month to coincide with the release of Crush.
Image from Author Website
Here’s the song I’ve chosen for the month: the one that really embodies CRUSH to me is P!nk’s “Just Give me a Reason” ft. Nate Ruess. It’s an angsty love song that puts music to the roller coaster ride that Jude and Lucy are on. The lyrics P!nk sings really convey a lot of the uncertainties and insecurities Lucy possesses, and the lyrics Nate sing are so much like how Jude would respond to her, it makes me smile.
Image from Barnes & Noble
Title: Crush
Series: Crash #3
Author: Nicole Williams
Publisher: Simon and Schuster UK
Publication Date: 23 April 2013
Synopsis from Goodreads
Jude and Lucy are happily engaged . . . but that doesn’t mean life’s a bed of roses.
Once again, Jude and Lucy are torn apart by football training and a summer job that creates new tensions. This time Jude’s the one with trust issues. Will Lucy’s life-changing news bring them back together or end their relationship for good?
Title: The Stone Demon
Series: The Iron Witch #3
Author: Karen Mahoney
Publisher: Corgi Childrens
Publication Date: 4 April 2013
Synopsis from Fantastic Fiction
The just-unleashed demon hordes have delivered an impossible ultimatum to the Order of the Crow: produce the Philosopher’s Stone, or suffer a reaper storm of demonic tribulation. If alchemist’s apprentice Donna Underwood can’t recreate the mythical artifact, the world will be plunged into a devastating modern-day Dark Age. Pitting her dangerously unpredictable powers against a vengeful demon king, two maleficent faery queens, and an immortal magus with his own shadowy agenda, Donna must be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice – but this time, even death may not be enough.
Image from Author Website
I played ‘Never Let Me Go’ almost constantly while thinking about rewrites of The Stone Demon. I generally can’t listen to music while writing, but I do when I’m sort of gearing up to write. It helps to get in the right mood before I start, but then I have to write in silence. ‘Never Let Me Go’ resonates for me on many levels, especially when it come to Donna’s relationships with both Xan and Navin.
There is also a scene in the book that flashes back to her past, and the music became almost a theme song for what happens to her parents when Donna was seven.
The second book in The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer.
This is not the fairy-tale you remember. But it’s one you won’t forget.
SCARLET BENOIT’S grandmother is missing. The police have closed her case. The only person Scarlet can turn to is Wolf, a street fighter she does not trust, but they are drawn to each other.
Meanwhile, in New Beijing, Cinder will become the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive – when she breaks out of prison to stay one step ahead of vicious Queen Levana.
As Scarlet and Wolf expose one mystery, they encounter Cinder and a new one unravels. Together they must challenge the evil queen, who will stop at nothing to make Prince Kai her husband, her king, her prisoner . . .
***Red Riding Hood-meets-Percy Jackson in a thrilling new spin on Grimm by Marissa Meyer, the author of Cinder.***
After all, wolves are kind of an important fixture, in both the fairy tale and the book.
But if I had to choose one song that to me feels like the book’s theme song, it would be “Animal” by the Neon Trees.
Here we are again, I feel the chemicals kicking in. It’s getting heavy and I want to run and hide, I want to run and hide.
I love how this song is romantic—but in a very primal, passionate way, which is how I envision Scarlet and Wolf’s feelings toward each other. Although Wolf has the obvious animalistic tendencies, Scarlet acts on instincts just as much as he does, and while they both spend some time trying to fight off the initial attraction they feel to each other, eventually it gets to a point where the feelings are too strong to ignore.
You’re just a cannibal, and I’m afraid I won’t get out alive. No, I won’t sleep tonight…
Of course, acting on those feelings comes with consequences too, which is another reason I love this song. It makes the idea of falling in love sound dangerous—perhaps even deadly—which it very much is for these two characters.
Plus, this song is just really peppy and I can’t seem to stop listening to it. The best kind of theme song!
Marissa Meyer is in the UK at the end of March keep checking her calender for updates on events HERE
Title: Born Wicked
Series: Cahill Witch Chronicles
Author: Jessica Spotswood
Publisher: Puffin
Publication Date: 7 Feb 2013
Synopsis from Fantastic Fiction
Everybody knows Cate Cahill and her sisters are eccentric. Too pretty, too reclusive, and far too educated for their own good. But the truth is even worse: they’re witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it would mean an asylum, a prison ship – or an early grave.
Before her mother died, Cate promised to protect her sisters. But with only six months left to choose between marriage and the Sisterhood, she might not be able to keep her word . . . especially after she finds her mother’s diary, uncovering a secret that could spell her family’s destruction. Desperate to find alternatives to their fate, Cate starts scouring banned books and questioning rebellious new friends, all while juggling tea parties, shocking marriage proposals, and a forbidden romance with the completely unsuitable Finn Belastra.
If what her mother wrote is true, the Cahill girls aren’t safe. Not from the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood – not even from each other.
Florence and the Machine’s “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)”
You made a deal, and now it seems you have to offer up/ But will it ever be enough? (Raise it up, raise it up) / It’s not enough (Raise it up, raise it up)
Here I am, a rabbit hearted girl / Frozen in the headlights / It seems I’ve made the final sacrifice
I must become a lion hearted girl / Ready for a fight / Before I make the final sacrifice
Cate often feels like she isn’t enough. The promise she made to her dying mother – to look out for her sisters and keep their magic a secret from the Brotherhood – weighs heavily on her. In trying to protect her sisters, she often says or does the wrong thing and inadvertently makes the situation worse. Her relationship with Maura, especially, is becoming frayed; Maura really resents her for keeping secrets and treating her like a child. Cate’s also got to decide what she wants to do with her life – marry or join the Sisterhood – and she doesn’t have the luxury of thinking only of her own happiness. Everyone is weighing in with their opinions, and time is running out for her to choose, or else the Brothers will choose a husband for her. What sacrifices will she make to keep that promise to her mother?
I don’t know about you but I can’t wait to read this book
I am delighted to welcome Anita to Book Angel Booktopia today, I have been drooling over Splintered since I first set eyes on that cover. I am equally excited to hear Anita’s choice for the Song of the Month.
Image from Publisher
Music plays a role in everything I write. To evoke the mood or emotion I’m trying to portray, I choose songs not only for their beat and melody, but for the lyrics. Each book gets its own unique playlist. In SPLINTERED, Evanescence contributed several songs because their lyrics and instrumentals have an edginess and depth that captured the moods of several scenes. One of my favorite songs while writing SPLINTERED was “Lose Control” by Evanescence.
Anytime I needed to spotlight the power play between the bad boy, Morpheus, and our heroine, Alyssa—his manipulation and her fascination/hesitation—this was the song that nailed it for me. In fact, it’s so spot-on that I can visualize a conversation between them just by listening.
And so that you can, too, I’ve included the lyrics to the song below and attributed the verses to represent their wordplay. You can feel the seduction and temptation Morpheus weaves into every phrase, and Alyssa’s reluctant acceptance of it. In the last verse, Morpheus’s true intention comes to light … along with a hint of remorse for what it could ultimately mean for Alyssa.
Be sure to listen to the song as you follow the text…
Morpheus: You don’t remember my name. I don’t really care.
Alyssa:
Can we play the game your way?
Can I really lose control?
Morpheus: Just once in my life, I think it’d be nice,
Alyssa:
Just to lose control, just once…
Morpheus: Leave all the pretty flowers in the dust.
Alyssa:
Mary had a lamb.
His eyes black as coals.
Morpheus: If we play very quiet, my lamb, Mary never has to know. Just once in my life, I think it’d be nice,
Alyssa:
Just to lose control, just once.
Morpheus: If I cut you down to a thing I can use, I fear there’ll be nothing good left of you.
Title: Splintered
Author: AG Howard
Publisher: Abrams
Publication Date: 1 Jan 2013
Synopsis from Goodreads
This stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land, as well as a girl’s pangs of first love and independence. Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.
When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.
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