*This title will be released on May 1, 2012*

Title: Insurgent Author:  Veronica Roth Series: Divergent #2 Cover Art: N/A Genre: Dystopian YA Excerpt: Yes Source: Publisher Reviewed by: Abigail Reading level: Ages 14 and up Hardcover: 544 pages Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (May 1, 2012) ISBN-10: 0062024043 ISBN-13: 978-0062024046   Sexual Content: Kissing Rating: Excellent - Loved it! Buy it now & put this author on your watch list.

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Have you joined #TeamAmity yet? There are tons of ways to get involved (and tons of amazing giveaways too) Just search #TeamAmity on twitter to enter them all & don’t forget to clickety-click the Choose Amity links as often as possible. As promised, there are several fun ways to show your support for #TeamAmity and the upcoming book INSURGENT by Veronica Roth.  Today kicks off a chance for you to win an amazing Dystopian YA Prize Pack including DIVERGENT & INSURGENT!

The first thing #TeamAmity decided on when we got together was that we wanted to come up with a way to thank all of you for supporting us and the upcoming title INSURGENT by Veronica Roth (available May 1, 2012 from HarperTeen). We pooled our considerable resources and assembled the #TeamAmity Group Giveaway. We hope that you’re as excited about it as we are. The giveaway starts today, Monday, April 9th at 12:01 EST and ends Monday, April 30th at 12:01 EST To enter, all you have to do is fill out the form below. There will be a total of 15 winners.

Here are the prize packages you could win:

 

Welcome to Choosing Day! It’s time to choose your faction. I’ve chosen Amity: “The Amity faction values peace and friendship. Artistic, creative, and musical, this faction focuses on peacekeeping, harmony, and farming.” Sounds good right? Then help make the Amity faction the winner in the INSURGENT campaign celebrating the upcoming release of the second book in Veronica Roth’s amazing Divergent series.  The faction that generates the most traffic during the month of April will be handsomely rewarded…and the Team Amity faction members (see below) are already sharing the love with some amazing giveaways (*cough* Kindles *cough* INSURGENT ARCS *cough*) with more to come throughout the month. 

 

Some of the other Team Amity members have already chosen (and a few are holding giveaways to celebrate…you might even win an ARC of INSURGENT!)

(Faction Leader) Choosing Ceremony Day- Meet #TeamAmity | Divergent Lexicon

Emily's Reading Room: Choosing Ceremony: I'm Team Amity

Better Read than Dead: {Giveaway and Special Event} Insurgent Choosing Ceremony

i swim for oceans: Choosing Ceremony Day: Choose Team Amity!

Forever Young Adult: Team Amity Represent!

 

Be sure to follow #TeamAmity on twitter for all the latest news and giveaways (and trust me, you do not want to miss out on these giveaways)

How can you help make Team Amity the winner?

Click the special Choose Amity link. A lot.

Share our link: http://bit.ly/choose_amity

Get our twibbon (courtesy of Enna Isilee from Squeaky Books)

Grab the #TeamAmity code

 

I’m Team Amity!

You may remember a little book last year that went on to win scads of awards including Goodreads Choice Award for Favorite Book 2011: DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth!  I reviewed DIVERGENT and called it “thoughtful, occasionally horrifying, but always exhilarating, dystopian that I kept in a white-knuckled grip way into the wee hours of the night…[DIVERGENT is an] action packed dystopian thriller that will enrage and delight readers in turn, like every good dystopian should.”  So you can imagine there is quite a lot of excitement building for the sequel and it’s about to get even bigger starting today!

  

HarperTeen is launching a super cool campaign inviting bloggers to become faction initiates.  I’m Amity!

The Amity faction values peace and friendship. Artistic, creative, and musical, this faction focuses on peacekeeping, harmony, and farming.

There’s tons of cool stuff on the Amity site, so click and check it out.  The faction with the most traffic is going to be rewarded…so let’s make sure Amity comes out on top! More details to come!

There are 17 new covers to woo their way on to your TBR pile, and one re-issue that may prompt a few readers to take another look at Kelly Keaton’s Gods & Monsters series.  It was a close race to pick my favorite this week (and Rob Thurman’s hilarious comment may have tipped the balance).  In the end, both of my choices featured a foreboding expression and blank eyes, but obviously only one of them pulls it off. 

Doubletake by Rob Thurman

 

(Click to enlarge)

Description: N/A “I want to f***ing MARRY this cover or at least take it out to dinner and do incredibly filthy and naughty things to it.  It blew me away when I first saw it and it still gives me the same thrill every time I see it.” – Rob Thurman

Series: Cal Leandros #7 Artist: Chris McGrath Goodreads: Link	Publisher: Roc Release Date: March 6, 2012 Source: Author’s Blog
Julia’s Thoughts	Abigail’s Thoughts
While I’m not quite as passionate as the author on this one, I am a big fan.  The expression on the cover model’s face is riveting enough on it’s own, but the whole cover put together is entrancing.	I’m a big Chris McGrath fan so I understand Rob’s excitement over the great covers he keeps producing for her series (& so glad she’s recovered enough to make them), and Julia is dead on about the captivating expression on his face.

Previous Covers in This Series

*This title will be released on May 3, 2011*

Title: Divergent Author: Veronica Roth Series: Divergent Trilogy #1 Cover Art: N/A Genre: Dystopian YA Excerpt: Yes Source: Amazon Vine Reviewed by: Abigail Reading level: Young Adult Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (May 3, 2011) ISBN-10: 0062024027 ISBN-13: 978-0062024022 Sexual Content: Kissing. A non graphic sexual assault Rating: Near Perfect - Buy two copies: one for you and one for a friend.

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Description

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

Review

(This is a Genre Swap review, which means it’s not a paranormal book, but should still appeal to paranormal fans)

Everybody and their dog is jumping on the dystopian bandwagon these days, some more successfully than others.  No one has managed to dethrone THE HUNGER GAMES in my opinion, but books like DELIRIUM, WITHER, and ENCLAVE have all made strong contributions to the genre.  DIVERGENT, the first in a planned trilogy, is yet another to add to that list of thoughtful, occasionally horrifying, but always exhilarating, dystopian debuts that I kept in a white-knuckled grip way into the wee hours of the night.

The dystopian world of DIVERGENT is basically like an expanded Sorting Ceremony from Harry Potter.  All of society is divided up into five factions, each of whom prize a trait over all others.  Upon turning sixteen, everyone is tested to determine aptitude and then must choose a faction for life.  Those who value Bravery choose Dauntless, Selflessness choose Abnegation, Knowledge choose Erudite, Honesty choose Candor, and Peace choose Amity.  Once you choose, you essentially shun the traits and members of the other factions, some more aggressively antagonist towards certain factions than others.  Each faction controls a specific area of society best suited to that trait. 

I found myself thinking about ENDER’S GAME by Orson Scott Card a lot while reading DIVERGENT.  They both feature kids/teenagers plucked from their homes and forced to compete against one another in brutal training exorcises, both physical and emotional, designed to weed out the weak and prepare the fit for a life of fighting.  The initiates, as they are called, quickly turn on each other in hopes of eliminating threats to their own success, because choosing a faction doesn’t necessarily mean that the faction will choose you.  And being factionless is a fate worse than death.

Beatris, or Tris as she calls herself in her new faction, undergoes a magnificent transformation during her trials. She doesn’t have the physical prowess of most of the other initiates, and she is plagued by a secret that would mean her death if exposed.  But she is smart, observant and determined.  She struggles with her own conflicting emotions knowing that what she wants to do is often very different from what she’s supposed to do, what she must do in order to keep her secret.  For me, Tris ends up displaying equal parts Katniss, Harry, and Ender in this action packed dystopian thriller that will enrage and delight readers in turn, like every good dystopian should. 

Previous Books in Series	Also Reviewed By:
N/A	The Lovely Reader SciFiChick.com YA Book Queen