Cover Reveal: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass
(Throne of Glass #1)
By Sarah J. Mass

Expected Publication: August 7, 2012 by Bloomsbury USA Children's 
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Summary: After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her opponents are men—thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the kings council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom.

Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she’s bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it’s the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

My Thoughts

Throne of Glass was one of those book that made it to the top of my to read list the moment I found out about it.   The author's inspiration for the story is pretty awesome!
The following is from sarahjmaas.com

Basically, Throne of Glass (formerly known as Queen of Glass) started because I asked myself: “What if Cinderella was an assassin, and went to the ball not to dance with the prince, but to kill him?”

From there, I wanted to know WHO this Cinderella-is-an-assassin girl was. How had she become an assassin? Who sent her to kill the prince? WHY did they want her to kill the prince? WOULD SHE actually kill the prince? And then I found that the backstory was so huge–why she was sent to the ball in the first place and who hired her–that it needed its own book before Cinderella could even GET to that ill-fated ball! Thus, Celaena Sardothien, the heroine of Throne of Glass, was born.

How cool is that! Now on to the cover, which I must say is fantastic! Celaena looks very much what I would expect a Cinderella inspired assassin to look like, just the right combination of beautiful and deadly.  I'm very much looking forward to reading this one, is it August yet?

Review: Why We Broke Up

Why We Broke Up
By Daniel Handler & Maira Kalman(illustrator)

Published: December 27th 2011 by Little, Brown Books
Read from: March 9-16, 2012
Number of pages: 354
Source:  HS Library
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Summary: I'm telling you why we broke up, Ed. I'm writing it in this letter, the whole truth of why it happened.

Min Green and Ed Slaterton are breaking up, so Min is writing Ed a letter and giving him a box. Inside the box is why they broke up. Two bottle caps, a movie ticket, a folded note, a box of matches, a protractor, books, a toy truck, a pair of ugly earrings, a comb from a motel room, and every other item 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.

Cover Reveal: Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin

Ashen Winter
(Ashfall #2)
By Mike Mullin

Expected Publication: October 8, 2012 by Tanglewood Press
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Summary: It’s been over six months since the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Alex and Darla have been staying with Alex’s relatives, trying to cope with the new reality of the primitive world so vividly portrayed in Ashfall, the first book in this series. It’s also been six months of waiting for Alex’s parents to return from Iowa. Alex and Darla decide they can wait no longer and must retrace their journey into Iowa to find and bring back Alex’s parents to the tenuous safety of Illinois. But the landscape they cross is even more perilous than before, with life-and-death battles for food and power between the remaining communities. When the unthinkable happens, Alex must find new reserves of strength and determination to survive.

My Thoughts

I'm not sure what I was expecting for the cover of Ashen Winter, but I was very surprised when this image first appeared up on my cover watch shelf.  I think I was expecting a more subdued cover.  With a title like Ashen Winter I wasn't expecting the bright pop of red/pink on the cover, especially when you compare it to the desolate cover of Ashfall which is was initially drew me to the book. 

I guess the cover leaves me with a lot of questions.  the first being what exactly is that redish/pink in the background? To me it looks like muscle tissue, and if that is indeed what it is, why is it featured on the book cover? my second question is who's hands are on the cover, is it Alex and Darla's maybe Alex and one of his parents?  With just over 6 months till the book is released this book is absolutely on my must read list.  

Read my review of Ashfall