The Sunday Post ~2~

Elsewhere News

• Last week in Elsewhere, we celebrated John Green's THE FAULT IN OUR STARS (recap here). This week, we'll be talking everyone's head off about Robin Mellom's debut novel DITCHED. If you like to know about a book before you read it, know that my review will be posted by 10 AM PST today so that you can get a pretty decent idea on whether this is the book for you or not.
• Last week's live chat was fun for me, Arianna, and the anonymous viewer who showed up after I accidentally went offline and then rectified the situation by getting back online and eating a Snickers bar... However, this week will be even better if you join the three of us, or four, if you count my Snickers, as we discuss DITCHED and Ally Carter's CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY. You didn't forget about the optional Gallagher Girl Challenge did you? Well good! The fifth Gallagher Girl book is out this week so you've got to get a move on!
• Today is the last day to enter your original pieces for this week's Wednesday Writes Challenge. Have you had a bad date that went horribly wrong, or can you write a short story set in a convenient store? For the full prompts and how to submit, check out the March Calendar, and enter your story for the chance to win The Book of The Week Prize Pack! We didn't give any out last week, but never fear! We won't stop trying to give you free things. Not unless you want us to, of course.
• REMEMBER! Join us! This Friday at 6 PM PST! Over at my Livestream channel! To actually talk DITCHED and CROSS MY HEART!

Reviews for Last Week's New Releases

So this happened last week...

...And this is what people are saying about:

BALTHAZAR by Claudia Gray

1. Mundie Moms Review

WHERE IT BEGAN by Ann Redisch Stampler

1. Confessions of a Bookaholic

And here's a cool contest you can enter to win a copy of ASHES by Ilsa J. Bick. It has nothing to do with anything, but if you win, let me know so I can tell everyone on Elsewhere of your victory! You'll be just like Arianna. Bookish Warriors of the Epic Battle of Give-away, unite! 

New Releases March 12th- March 18th

***March 13th: OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF TIME by Ally Carter (fifth book in Gallagher Girl series. We're reading this next month on Elsewhere!)

From Goodreads: The last thing Cammie Morgan remembers is leaving the Gallagher Academy to protect her friends and family from the Circle of Cavan. But when Cammie wakes up in an alpine convent and discovers months have passed, she must face the fact that her memory is now a black hole. The only traces left of Cammie’s summer vacation are the bruises on her body and the dirt under her nails, and all she wants is to go home. 


Once she returns to school, however, Cammie realizes that even the Gallagher Academy now holds more questions than answers. Cammie, her friends, and mysterious spy-guy Zach must face their most difficult challenge yet as they travel to the other side of the world, hoping to piece together the clues that Cammie left behind. It’s a race against time. The Circle is hot on their trail and willing stop at nothing to prevent Cammie from remembering what she did last summer.

March 13th: INFAMOUS by Sherryline Kenyon (Book #3 in The Chronicles of Nick Series) 

Nick Gautier’s learned to annihilate zombies and raise the dead, divination and clairvoyance, so why is learning to drive such a difficulty? But that isn’t the primary skill he has to master. Survival is. And in order to survive, his next lesson makes all the others pale in comparison. He is on the brink of becoming either the greatest hero mankind has ever known. 

Or he’ll be the one who ends the world. With enemies new and old gathering forces, he will have to call on every part of himself to fight or he’ll lose everyone he cares about. 

Even himself.

March 13th: SPELLBOUND by Rachel Hawkins (Book #3 in the Hex Hall Series)

Just as Sophie Mercer has come to accept her extraordinary magical powers as a demon, the Prodigium Council strips them away. Now Sophie is defenseless, alone, and at the mercy of her sworn enemies—the Brannicks, a family of warrior women who hunt down the Prodigium. Or at least that’s what Sophie thinks, until she makes a surprising discovery. The Brannicks know an epic war is coming, and they believe Sophie is the only one powerful enough to stop the world from ending. But without her magic, Sophie isn’t as confident. 

Sophie’s bound for one hell of a ride—can she get her powers back before it’s too late?

March 13th: THE GIRL WHO COULD SILENCE THE WIND by Meg Medina (seems to be a standalone)

Sixteen-year-old Sonia Ocampo was born on the night of the worst storm Tres Montes had ever seen. And when the winds mercifully stopped, an unshakable belief in the girl's protective powers began. All her life, Sonia has been asked to pray for sick mothers or missing sons, as worried parents and friends press silver milagros in her hands. Sonia knows she has no special powers, but how can she disappoint those who look to her for solace? Still, her conscience is heavy, so when she gets a chance to travel to the city and work in the home of a wealthy woman, she seizes it. At first, Sonia feels freedom in being treated like all the other girls. But when news arrives that her beloved brother has disappeared while looking for work, she learns to her sorrow that she can never truly leave the past or her family behind. With deeply realized characters, a keen sense of place, a hint of magical realism, and a flush of young romance, Meg Medina tells the tale of a strongwilled, warmhearted girl who dares to face life's harsh truths as she finds her real power.

March 13th: STARTERS by Lissa Price (first in a series)

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie's only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man. 

He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie's head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator's grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. . . .

March 13th: WANDERLOVE by Kirsten Hubbard (seems like a standalone)

In a quest for independence, Bria Sandoval's neglected art, and no-strings-attached hookups, she signs up for a guided tour of Central America—the wrong one. Middle-aged tourists with fanny packs are hardly the key to self-rediscovery. When Bria meets Rowan, devoted backpacker and dive instructor, and his outspokenly humanitarian sister Starling, she seizes the chance to ditch her group and join them off the beaten path. 

Bria's a good girl trying to go bad. Rowan's a bad boy trying to stay good. As they travel across a panorama of Mayan villages, remote Belizean islands, and hostels plagued with jungle beasties, they discover what they've got in common: both seek to leave behind the old versions of themselves. And the secret to escaping the past, Rowan’s found, is to keep moving forward. But Bria comes to realize she can't run forever, no matter what Rowan says. If she ever wants the courage to fall for someone worthwhile, she has to start looking back.

BEING RELEASED IN PAPERBACK

Miles from Ordinary by Carol Lynch Williams

The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan

Girl Stolen by April Henry

Steel by Carrie Vaughn

In Theaters March 12th- March 18th

Here are the movies that released this past weekend...

...Now here are the movies you should check out this upcoming Friday:

March 16th: 21 Jump Street

Directors: Phillip Lord and Christopher Miller

MPAA Rating: R

Going to see it?: I can wait, but I love both of the actors so... eh! Who knows?!

Description: In the action-comedy 21 Jump Street, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are more than ready to leave their adolescent problems behind. Joining the police force and the secret Jump Street unit, they use their youthful appearances to go undercover in a local high school.

As they trade in their guns and badges for backpacks, Schmidt and Jenko risk their lives to investigate a violent and dangerous drug ring. But they find that high school is nothing like they left it just a few years earlier - and neither expects that they will have to confront the terror and anxiety of being a teenager again and all the issues they thought they had left behind.

March 16th: Casa de mi Padre

Director: Matt Piedmont

MPAA Rating: R

Going to see it?: Um... no. No I don't think so.

Description: Casa de Mi Padre  is an upcoming Spanish-language American comedy film. The film stars Will Ferrell, Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna and Génesis Rodríguez with Matt Piedmont directing a screenplay written by Andrew Steele. The film has been described to be in the style of an "overly dramatic telenovela" and tells the story of Armando Alvarez, who must save his father's ranch from a powerful drug lord. 

March 16th: Jeff Who Lives at Home

Directors: Jay Duplass and Mark Duplass

MPAA Rating: R

Going to see it?: No, but I'm noticing a male dominance in the box office this week.

Description: On his way to the store to buy wood glue, Jeff looks for signs from the universe to determine his path. However, a series of comedic and unexpected events leads him to cross paths with his family in the strangest of locations and circumstances. Jeff just may find the meaning of his life... and if he's lucky, pick up the wood glue as well.

And that's it for this week, Gang! 
Well actually, there's also a Nicholas Cage movie (Rated R) called "Seeking Justice" you could check out if you're interested in revenge plots and, um, Nicholas Cage (I don't judge! I like him too, sometimes!) And a French movie being released here called "Delicacy" should be coming out, although I'm not so sure (but Moviefone says it should be coming out in the US!). I admit, though, there's not much out for anyone under the age of 17. Last week's movies were pretty varied. I hear "John Carter" was good but don't trust my word for it because I'm not going to see it if I can help myself. And there's always "The Artist" if you're into black-and-whites. The end of this month is when all the epic movies are coming out. Get ready, 'cause here they come!