YA INDIE CARNIVAL: INDIE READING

It's time again for the YA Indie Carnival, an awesome group of weekly bloggers blogging about the same topic! Wait, you haven't heard of the YA Indie Carnival? You're totally missing out. But no longer! You can check out all the amazing author/bloggers below:

Danny Snell's Refracted Light Reviews
Patti Larsen (The Ghost Boy of MacKenzie House, The Diamond City Trilogy)
Courtney Cole (Every Last Kiss, Fated, Princess, and Guardian)
Wren Emerson (I Wish)
Laura Elliott (Winnemucca)
Nichole A. Williams (Eternal Eden, and the upcoming Fallen Eden)
Fisher Amelie (The Understorey)
Amy Maurer Jones (The Soul Quest Trilogy)
Rachel Coles. Geek Mom. Book Reviewer (Diary of a Duct Tape Zombie, Whistles, Beergarden, Plagues, Bees of St. John, and Mushrooms)
T. R. Graves (Warriors of the Cross)
Cyndi Tefft (Between)
P.J. Hoover (Solstice, The Emerald Tablet, The Navel of the World, The Necropolis)
Alicia McCalla (Breaking Free)
Heather Cashman (Perception)

Okay, here's the deal! Each Friday, because Friday is awesome, we all blog about the same topic. This week's topic?

WHAT INDIE READING AM I DOING NOW?
I read all the time. Every night. New releases, yet-to-be-released books, critique partner manuscripts, paid critiques. It's a priority, and I am a firm believer in the fact that the single best way to improve my own writing is by reading other stuff. Over the course of the last year, my reading has changed a bit.

1) I now own a Nook. I love ereading. Never, ever would I have thought this. But it is so much easier. I'll save that topic for another day.

2) I get tons of ARCs. From publishers, from trade shows, by request. I have them stacked in piles trying to pretend they are in some fashion organized. These ARCs make up the majority of my reading.

3) In addition to reading the ARCs, I've also started indie-reading. Yes, this spawned from bringing SOLSTICE out independently, and yes, I'm thrilled to have discovered this vast new source of books.

Perhaps what I love the most about the three bullet points above is a marriage between (1) and (3). Within a couple of clicks, I can sample tons of books. I adore the "read a free sample" feature so many indie authors offer. So that said, here are three indie books I'm planning on reading in the near future based on sample reading.

SLEEPERS by Megg Jensen

From Amazon:

An adoptee raised in a foreign land, sixteen-year-old Lianne was content with her life as handmaiden to the queen, until a spell cast on her at birth activated. Now she's filled with uncontrollable rage and access to magic she thought had been bled from her people years ago. Even her years of secret training in elite hand-to-hand combat and meditation can't calm the fires raging inside her.

Her heart is torn between two boys, the one she's always loved and the one who always ignored her. But when the kingdom threatens to tear itself apart due to rumors surrounding the queen's alleged affair, who will Lianne protect and who will she destroy?


RAZOR GIRL by Mari Mancusi

From Amazon:

THE WORLD HAS ENDED, MOLLY.
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NOW?

Molly Anderson is not your average twenty-one-year-old. It's been six years since she and her family escaped into a bunker, led by her conspiracy theorist father and his foreknowledge of a plot to bring about the apocalypse. But her father's precautions didn't stop there. Molly is now built to survive.

Yes, Ian Anderson's favorite book gave him ideas on how to "improve" his daughter. Molly is faster, stronger, and her ocular implants and razor-tipped nails set her apart. Apart, when--venturing alone out of the bunker and into a plague ravaged, monster-ridden wilderness--what Molly needs most is togetherness. Chase Griffin, a friend from her past, is her best bet. But while he and others have miraculously survived, the kind boy has become a tormented man. Together, these remnants of humanity must struggle toward trusting each other and journey to the one place Molly's father believed all civilization would be reborn: The Magic Kingdom, where everyone knows it's a small world after all.


ETERNAL EDEN by Nicole Williams

From Amazon:

College sophomore Bryn Dawson is a self-proclaimed poster child for normal. However, the day William Hayward enters her life, normalcy is the last thing Bryn will be able to count on if she wants to be with him. Too mysterious and appealing to be good for a girl, Bryn feels drawn to him in a way that seems out of her control—as if fate is orchestrating it.

Despite every red flag and warning siren going off in her head telling her not to, Bryn falls hard for William, knowing he's categorically different from anyone she's ever met. She never imagined how right she was. When William takes her deeper into the rabbit hole of his world, Bryn must decide just how much she is willing to sacrifice to be with him, knowing no matter what, fate always finds a way to have the last laugh.

Spinning a new twist on star-crossed lovers, Eternal Eden will put Bryn through a gauntlet of turmoil, challenging her to find the power within herself to become the heroine in her own story.


What about you?