That, my friends, is the cover of the last book in the Twilight saga. I just noticed today that it’s been posted on Amazon, even though it’s not going to be posted on Stephenie Meyer’s website until June 2nd according to the news there. Seems odd, but whatever. The point is, THAT is the cover. Personally, I think it looks awesome. Breaking Dawn comes out on August 2, 2008. (Three days before I leave for Sweden, so hopefully I’ll be able to read it on the plane!)

The cover for Scott Westerfeld’s latest book, Bogus to Bubbly: An Insider’s Guide to the World of Uglies, was also on Amazon. Click here to see it. That comes out on October 21, 2008. I’m actually looking forward to that one, too. Dorky reference books can be really fun. To get an idea of the questions that Bogus to Bubbly might answer, look at this post on Scott Westerfeld’s blog.

That concludes the first Weekly Update, which I will hopefully be posting every Saturday from now on. WeekUps will include news about new books and other booktastic stuff.

Bleed by Laurie Faria Stolarz moves in a completely new direction from Stolarz’s old series, Blue is for Nightmares. Bleed is actually a collection of ten short stories, each told by a different narrator. The stories take place over the course of one day, and all are connected.

The first story is Nicole’s. She’s in love with her best friend’s boyfriend, and she has been for a long time. After she betrays said best friend, she has no idea what to do. And so the day begins, with narrators such as Kelly (Nicole’s best friend), Sean (Kelly’s boyfriend), and Maria (Kelly and Nicole’s other best friend).

This is a hard book to summarize, but don’t get the impression that I didn’t like it. In fact, I finished it in one sitting. The connections between characters make this a great book. It’s interesting to see how one small action affects everyone. Parts of Bleed are graphic to the point where it’s just unnecessary, and I docked half a point for that. It makes the book realer, but at times, it’s just too much. One character – Derik LaPointe – is also a main character in Project 17.

4.5 out of 5

Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith starts with a murder, seemingly done by a werewolf. The chef at Quincie’s family’s restaurant is the victim, and this leaves Quincie with a huge problem. Who will be able to take over the kitchen of their vampire-themed Italian restaurant before it reopens?

There’s also a problem with Quincie’s best friend Kieren, who’s a werewolf and appears to be the primary suspect of the murder.

Once the new chef – Henry Johnson – is hired, things seem to be getting better, and the restaurant is coming together. But as murders keep happening and a love triangle ensues, Quincie starts to wonder if the mysterious Henry Johnson is too good to be true…

I got this book because it has a review from Libba Bray on the back cover (And I quote: “Looking for something to read that will make your TV jealous?”), and I was not disappointed. Tantalize is the perfect vampire-meets-werewolf book, full of excitement and mystery. It kept me guessing until the last page. The only bad part is that the descriptions of Italian food made me incredibly hungry. However, don’t think that this book is like Twilight. It’s much more literal and not as romantic. If you like vampire books in general, you’ll like Tantalize. But if you only like vampire books like Twilight, you may not like this one. Either way, I thought it was a great book, and I hope Cynthia Leitich Smith writes dark fantasy again.

5 out of 5

The Faerie Path by Frewin Jones begins on Anita’s sixteenth birthday. So far, Anita’s life has been pretty perfect. She has understanding parents, good friends, and a fantastic boyfriend named Evan. The only weird part of her life is the occasional episode of déjà vu, though she doesn’t think anything of it until a speedboat accident with Evan lands her in the hospital.

There, her déjà vu and vision worsen until one vision brings her to Lord Gabriel Drake, who she follows to the realm of Faerie. Everyone there seems to think that she’s Tania, a faerie princess who was lost five hundred years before. Anita isn’t so sure, but nevertheless, she soon finds herself caught in a plot that could destroy all of Faerie.

This book was recommended to me by several different people, so I thought I’d try it. I found it sorely disappointing. The story was okay, but it was the structure that really turned me off. The writing itself was dull… a lot of “was”, “has”, “said”, and other boring words. I just got the feeling that it was targeted more towards kids and less towards teenagers, and no matter how hard I tried to get engaged in the story, I just couldn’t manage it. At the end of the book, I still didn’t care what happened to any of the characters.

2.5 out of 5