Mailbox Monday (17)

Twenty Boy Summer

Sarah Ockler

“Don’t worry, Anna. I’ll tell her, okay? Just let me think about the best way to do it.”
“Okay.”
“Promise me? Promise you won’t say anything?”
“Don’t worry.” I laughed. “It’s our secret, right?”

For Anna Reiley and Frankie Perino, the ingredients for the Absolute Best Summer Ever are simple: Two girls. Two bikinis. And twenty days in Zanzibar Bay, California. The best part? According to Frankie, if they meet one boy every day, there’s a good chance Anna will find her first summer romance.

Anna lightheartedly agrees to the fun, but there’s something she hasn’t told Frankie… she’s already had her romance, and it was with Frankie’s older brother, Matt, just before his tragic death last year.

TWENTY BOY SUMMER explores what it truly means to love someone, what it means to grieve, and ultimately, how to make the most of every beautiful moment life has to offer.

Won from a contest hosted at Write for a Reader.
I am pretty excited about this one after all of the great reviews around the blogosphere.

Ash

Malindo Lo

In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, re-reading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love—and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.

Sent to me for review from Malinda Lo and Little, Brown.
I didn't even know that this one was coming, so when I opened the package I literally squealed, then my boyfriend looked at me like I was crazy... :)

Viola in Reel Life

Adriana Trigiani

When fourteen-year-old Viola is sent from her beloved Brooklyn to boarding school in Indiana for ninth grade, she overcomes her initial reservations as she makes friends with her roommates, goes on a real date, and uses the unsettling ghost she keeps seeing as the subject of a short film—her first.

Sent to me for review from Adriana Trigiani and Harper Collins.
I really love this cover and I also love the fact that the main character is named Viola (which is the only instrument I can kinda play).

What did you receive in the mail this week?