UK Cover Reveals: Revived by Cat Patrick, The Blessed by Tonya Hurley, Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone & More!

Here are some recent UK cover reveals that have caught my eye! I'm especially excited to read Cat Patrick's Revived and The Blessed by Tonya Hurley -- how cool do those books sound!

I've included the US cover counterparts where available, so tell me what your favourites are! Some of these UK covers are very different to the US looks, so I'll be interested to hear what you think!

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Revived by Cat Patrick

Publisher:  Egmont

Release date: July 2012

Ages: 12+

As a little girl, Daisy Appleby was killed in a school bus crash. Moments after the accident, she was brought back to life.

A secret government agency has developed a drug called Revive that can bring people back from the dead, and Daisy Appleby, a test subject, has been Revived five times in fifteen years. Daisy takes extraordinary risks, knowing that she can beat death, but each new death also means a new name, a new city, and a new life. When she meets Matt McKean, Daisy begins to question the moral implications of Revive, and as she discovers the agency’s true goals, she realizes she’s at the center of something much larger—and more sinister—than she ever imagined.

ETA: The UK cover for Revived has changed. Click here to see the new cover!

International Editions:

US and Australian covers of Revived by Cat Patrick

 Other books by Cat Patrick:

Click image to read my review of Forgotten

The Blessed by Tonya Hurley

Publisher: Hodder Children's Books

Release date: August 2012

Ages: 14+

Brooklyn teens Lucy, Cecelia and Agnes find themselves in the emergency room at Perpetual Help Hospital at the lowest point in their lives. Lucy, the superficial party girl; Cecelia, a drop out rock chick; and Agnes, a hopeless romantic. All rebels running from their lives and themselves, plagued by broken hearts and broken dreams. Enter Sebastian. Mysterious, compelling, seductive. He seems to bring each of them what they long for...

But in the battle for his heart, will they lose their souls?

International Editions:

US Cover for The Blessed by Tonya Hurley

Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone

Publisher: Doubleday Childrens

Release date: October 2012

Ages: 12+

Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet: she lives in 1995 Chicago and he lives in 2012 San Francisco. But Bennett’s unique ability to travel through time and space brings him into Anna’s life, and with him, a new world of adventure and possibility.

As their relationship deepens, they face the reality that time might knock Bennett back where he belongs, even as a devastating crisis throws everything they believe into question. Against a ticking clock, Anna and Bennett are forced to ask themselves how far they can push the bounds of fate—and what consequences they can bear in order to stay together.

Fresh, exciting, and deeply romantic, TIME BETWEEN US is a stunning and spellbinding debut from an extraordinary new talent in YA fiction.

International Editions: 

US Cover for Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone

Saving June by Hannah Harrington

Publisher: Mira Ink

Release date: June 2012

Ages: 14+

Harper Scott’s older sister has always been the perfect one so when June takes her own life a week before her high school graduation, sixteen-year-old Harper is devastated. Everyone’s sorry, but no one can explain why.

When her divorcing parents decide to split her sister’s ashes into his-and-her urns, Harper takes matters into her own hands. She’ll steal the ashes and drive cross-country with her best friend, Laney, to the one place June always dreamed of going, California.

Enter Jake Tolan. He’s a boy with a bad attitude, a classic-rock obsession and nothing in common with Harper’s sister. But Jake had a connection with June, and when he insists on joining them, Harper’s just desperate enough to let him. With his alternately charming and infuriating demeanour and his belief that music can see you through anything, he might be exactly what she needs.

Except June wasn’t the only one hiding something. Jake’s keeping a secret that has the power to turn Harper’s life upside down again.

International Editions:

US and Australian covers of Saving June by Hannah Harrington

Spoiler Alert! The next cover is for a second-in-a-series book. You might want to skip reading the synopsis if you haven't read the first book already!

Rage Within (Dark Inside #2) by Jeyn Roberts

Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books

Release date: August 2012

Ages: 14+

Aries, Clementine, Mason and Michael have survived the first wave of the apocalypse that wiped out most of the world's population, and turned many of the rest into murderous Baggers. Now, they're hiding out in an abandoned house in Vancouver with a ragtag group of surviving teens, and trying to figure out their next move.

Aries is trying to lead, but it's hard to be a leader when there are no easy answers, and every move feels wrong. Clementine is desperate to find her brother Heath, but it's impossible to know where he'd be, even if he is still alive. Michael is still haunted by the memories of his actions during his harrowing struggle to survive. And Mason is struggling with something far worse: the fear that he may be a danger to his friends.

As the Baggers begin to create a new world order, Aries, Clementine, Mason and Michael will have to trust and rely on each other in order to survive.

Series Side-by-Side:

US Covers

UK Covers

And now you guys in the US are in for a treat, because one of my favourite reads of 2011, Velvet by Mary Hooper is getting a US release.  Check out the new US cover look below -- I think it looks great!

Velvet by Mary Hooper

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Release date: November 2012.

Ages: 12+

Velvet is a laundress in a Victorian steam laundry. With both her mother and father dead, she is an orphan and has to rely upon her own wits to make a living. The laundry's work is back-breaking and Velvet is desperate to create a better life for herself. Then Velvet is noticed by Madame Savoya, a famed medium, who asks Velvet to come to work for her. Velvet is dazzled at first by the young yet beautifully dressed and bejewelled Madame. But soon Velvet realises that Madame Savoya is not all that she says she is, and Velvet's very life is in danger ...A romantic and thrillingly exciting new novel from an acclaimed and much loved historical writer for teens.

Original UK Cover:

Click image to read my review of Velvet

* Please note: These covers may not be final and may be subject to change. Images sourced from publishers websites, Goodreads & Amazon. 

Book Review: Saving June by Hannah Harrington.

Product details:
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Paperback, 375 pages
Release date: May 1st 2011
Rating: 3 out of 5
Ages: 14+

‘If she’d waited less than two weeks, she’d be June who died in June. But I guess my sister didn’t consider that.’

Harper Scott’s older sister has always been the perfect one so when June takes her own life a week before her high school graduation, sixteen-year-old Harper is devastated. Everyone’s sorry, but no one can explain why.

When her divorcing parents decide to split her sister’s ashes into his-and-her urns, Harper takes matters into her own hands. She’ll steal the ashes and drive cross-country with her best friend, Laney, to the one place June always dreamed of going California.

Enter Jake Tolan. He’s a boy with a bad attitude, a classic-rock obsession and nothing in common with Harper’s sister. But Jake had a connection with June, and when he insists on joining them, Harper’s just desperate enough to let him. With his alternately charming and infuriating demeanour and his belief that music can see you through anything, he might be exactly what she needs.

Except June wasn’t the only one hiding something. Jake’s keeping a secret that has the power to turn Harper’s life upside down again

Having read and loved Morgan Matson’s  Amy & Rogers Epic Detour earlier this summer, I was hungry for another book filled with road trips, romance and music, and so, from its synopsis, Saving June sounded like the perfect book for me. I wanted to love this book, I really did, but unfortunately it didn’t work out for me on a number of levels.  Let’s just say that if the plot of a book is on the weak side, then I need to fall in love with its characters, and to put it mildly, that did not happen here.

 

In Saving June we are introduced to Harper Scott, a sixteen year old girl who is trying to come to terms with the death of her older sister, June.  As far as Harper can see, June with her great grades and ‘perfect daughter’ status had it all. So, why did she commit suicide?  Harper will never know the dark secrets that June kept locked up inside, but she can do one last thing for June, and so she decides scatter her sister’s ashes in California where June always dreamed of going. Thus ensues a road trip where Harper is joined by her best friend Lacey, and Jake, a mysterious older guy, who is connected to June in some way, although he’s not saying exactly how.

Saving June is a road trip book where I never felt included in the journey. The pacing in this book is often off, while the story seems strangely disjointed as the characters move from place to place.  I didn’t get to experience what they experienced and frankly I would rather not have encountered some of the people Harper, Lacey and Jake met on their way to California.  Take the politically motivated and pretentious bunch of friends that Jake introduces the two girls to at the beginning of their road trip.  These are the kind of people I can’t stand to be around! They sit around smoking pot while having pseudo-intellectual conversations and judging each other by their music tastes.  For them, political activism is something of a hobby, and for some unexplained reason, Harper and Lacey think it would be fun to get involved in a protest…..just because.  On the first night of their trip, Harper ends up in a bad way after drinking bucket loads of tequila, while Lacey hooks up with the first guy she sees.  Jake and his friends are the kind of people who try way too hard to be cool, while Harper and Lacey are the kind of impressionable girls who buy into it, and try way to hard to impress the older kids. This is a constant throughout the book.

I was banking on Jake to save this book for me. The plot is pretty straightforward, but we’re counting on the secret that Jake is keeping to be something major. Does he know why June killed herself? Was there a romantic interest there? For me, the ending was pretty anti-climactic and made me question Jake’s character, so take from that what you will.   I was really looking forward to meeting Jake though. I love bad boys, and music loving bad boys, well, that’s totally my thing, but Jake has a huge chip on his shoulder, and sure, he knows his music, but unfortunately he’s pretty much a music snob too. Yawn. Jake is one of those ‘too cool for school’ guys whose taste in music is so much better than yours. I’ve encountered a whole lot of guys like Jake in my life already, so really, he was nothing special for me. As for Jake and Harper, maybe it’s meant to be chemistry, but from me all I took from them was nasty bickering. Harper is hurt and angry.  She’s on internal lockdown and she’s not particularly nice to the people around her, so as far as romance goes, this one didn’t work for me.

 Overall, it’s safe to say that Saving June isn’t a favourite of mine, although it does have its plus points. Harrington’s writing style is accessible and engaging, her knowledge of music is stellar, and her depiction of grief is raw, honest and real.  As a guy, Jake is a character who will probably appeal to a lot of people, but for me, I’ve been driven crazy by Jake-alikes too often in my own life to take him to my heart.  I may not have loved this one, but I’m still interested in checking out future titles from Harrington to see if they are a better fit for me.