ANTICIPATION!

Welcome back!!! First, some swoon…

It’s a new year! Happy 2012, swoony loves! And of course, that means diets, resolutions, taxes, only 80 more days until the Hunger Games movie NEW BOOKS! Because that’s what really matters, right? Right. *nods* So we received the most amazing emails from our buddy Toni, asking if we’d be interested in a Most Anticipated Books to Swoon in 2012 list. And we were like… Swoon? Books? DUH. Bring it sister. So here it is, the Spring edition of the books we can’t wait to get our hands on, the books we’d gladly sell our soul make an honest trade for. Yeah, that last one.

by Toni: Honestly, when Lo and Christina agreed to let me write this post for Swoontini, I immediately realized I had a dilemma. Somewhere between the happy dancing and jumpy squees, the list had gotten sooo long, sooo fast, and I hadn’t even written any of them down yet. What to do? What to do? Well, I decided to stick to the first half of the year. Otherwise, this post will take about six hours to read.

So here it is, My Five Most Anticipated Books in 2012, Spring Edition

January:

HALLOWED (Unearthly #2), by Cynthia Hand – January 17th

Toni:  It has big shoes to fill following the swoons of Unearthly, *cough* Tucker, Christian, Tucker *cough* but somehow given new tension between Christian and Clara, I’m looking forward to see Tucker’s swoon appeal increase. Or will we fall more head over stilettos (insert footwear of choice here) for Christian?? Stay tuned until we find out for ourselves January 17th.

INCARNATE (Newsoul #1), by Jodi Meadows – January 31st

Toni:  My two cents: Debut Author. Awesome. Pretty cover. Cool. Reincarnation. Interesting. Fantasy. Just my thing. Sam, who worries one life may not be enough lives to love Ana? I smell major swoon ahead so sign me up. *runs to pre-order this one*

February:

Pandemonium (Delirium #2) by Lauren Oliver -February 2nd

Toni: I really wanted to include the Goodreads description here, but honestly it may be a bit too spoilerish if you haven’t read Delerium, which I implore you to do because honestly it was good. Alex (from deep inside the pages of Delirium) is definitely swoonworthy. So if Ms. Oliver can still make me swoon for Alex, even knowing what I know and you may not if you haven’t read the book, this follow-up is definitely high on my list of to-reads this spring.

May: (will be a VERY good book month for me. Much anticipated swoonage will ensue.)

Bitterblue (The Seven Kingdoms #3), by Kristin Cashore – May 1st

Toni: In case I haven’t expressed my undying love of anything Kristin Cashore writes, let me do that now. She has an ability to put words together in such a way that I often find myself re-reading passages just to my treat heart to them again. Her stories leave me simultaneously awestruck, heartbroken, and filled with so much joy I think I’m going to burst, and often do. That being said, I would read anything she wrote. Anything. Graceling? Read. (Read Alison’s Swoon or Lo’s Rec if you need further convincing) Fire? Will read again soon I loved it so much. Her blog? Subscribed. Her grocery list? Yep, I’d even read that. So it should be no surprise I’m looking forward to Bitterblue.

Insurgent (Divergent #2), by Veronica Roth – May 1st

Toni: Four. That. Is. All. He was Swoontini’s swooniest boy of 2011, after all. Still might be considering a tattoo in his honor. *calls tattoo artist on spee dial*

City Of Lost Souls (Mortal Instruments Series #5) by Cassandra Clare – May 8

Toni: I have to admit, I was WAY late to this series, and in part I stayed far away for so long due to my own shear stubbornness. The series is so HUGE; its popularity alone scared me. Honestly, so did it’s fandom. Then one hurricane weekend, I downloaded the series on my kindle app. It was sort of a bored, what to read during a major storm kind of whim. And BAM. I was hooked. I read the first three books of this series over that weekend. So when #4 came out, I went out and bought ASAP. This may have even included a trip to DC just to see Cassandra Clare.

Even with such an unhelpful, detailess description and despite the fact that a proper cover has yet to be revealed (I’m assured it’s coming in January), I will pre-order this one *I may or may not have already done so*. And there is only one thing that can make a girl pre-swoon that much this far in advance, there has to be a boy! Jace Wayland-Morgenstern-Herondale-Lightwood. I absolutely, wholeheartedly adore JACE, quintessential bad boy with the hard shell and soft middle! Yum! I think I <3 him!

There they are, the top five, errr SIX, books I’m most looking forward to swooning over this spring. There are most definitely other books ranking high on my anticipation scale, but these are the ones I hope will make me tingle, leave me breathless and melt my, uh, heart.

Lo says: Okay, Toni, you’re a keeper. Stop being so damn adorable, I can’t take it.

HI GUYS! Happy new year!! I have to admit, 2012 is feeling pretty great. I HAVE A GOOD FEELING ABOUT THIS ONE. Not only is the sum of the digits a prime number (squee!) but 2012 is also clearly the Year of Amazing Books. Toni captured some great ones above, and I just have to amplify with a couple more I cannot WAIT to read…

Cinder (Book 1 in the Lunar Chronicles), by Marissa Meyer – January 3rd

Hold up. Humans, cyborgs, Beijing and a plague all wrapped up in a Cinderella story? SIGN ME THE HELL UP. RIGHT NOW. I love fairy tale re-tellings. I love futuristic novels, and I love love love this cover. I can’t wait to get my hands on it, and I won’t have to wait long because it comes out TODAY.

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi – January 3rd

This debut novel sounds like it has everything that I currently love: adventure, a badass heroine, some fantasy elements and SUSPENSE! This was another I pre-ordered and I’ve seen people loving all over it on Twitter. I can’t wait to read this one, you guys. READ WITH ME?

A Million Suns (An Across the Universe Novel) by Beth Revis – January 10th

Okay, I have to admit that I still need to read Across the Universe. I know – I AM SHAMED. But this is a great example of how interactions with readers on Twitter can make an author a rock star. Beth Revis is hands down one of my favorite people on twitter, and her personality and lovely spirit make me want to pick up her books and read them. I just got AtU in the mail and have pre-ordered the second one. Murder mystery in space? I AM GIDDY!

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – January 10th

Not going to lie, I turn in to a ridiculous fangirl over John Green. And when I found out that he was signing EVERY SINGLE FIRST EDITION of this book, I was all OH HELL YES. I preordered it back in, like 1998 (slight exaggeration). I do worry that this story of a girl with cancer falling in love will make me sob my eyes out, but John Green can do that to me without getting the angry face. I love him.

Bloodrose (A Nightshade Novel) by Andrea Cremer – January 3rd

If you haven’t met Andrea Cremer in person, you have really missed meeting the most adorable redhead ever. She’s sweet and cute and you really want to put her in your pocket except she’d be all UM NO THANKS, I’LL WALK BECAUSE I AM A BADASS HISTORY PROFESSOR. She happens to be a professor at my Alma Mater *high fives* but that isn’t why I’m excited for this book. I’m excited because this series has been a total blast and has one of the strongest female protagonists out there. And because of Ren. I mean, yum. Congrats, Andrea. You wrote a wonderful series.

So, that’s it for our First-Half-of-2012-Book-Recs-and-a-Little-Fangirling post. Everyone, please welcome Toni! She’s a loyal reader and total sweetheart.

Happy New Year, loves,