#RR #Wednesday #1: #Authors @SkylarDorset @cynbalog @herreracus ~ Crossroad Reviews

Welcome to my first posting of Review Request Wednesdays! Each week I will be positing three books that were sent to me via my Review Request From. Then you get to vote on which one I should read. If your name comes up then you will win some swag as well as other neat items.
You will also get 10 extra points via the Rafflecopter for that book when it goes up for review the following week.
Where do I get books? Well these books are either via my review request form or from my show called #ReadOn.

The Girl Who Never Was by Skylar Dorset

THE GIRL WHO NEVER WAS is the story of Selkie Stewart, who thinks she’s a totally normal teenager growing up in Boston. Sure, her father is in an insane asylum, her mother left her on his doorstep—literally—when she was a baby, and she’s being raised by two ancient aunts who spend their time hunting gnomes in their Beacon Hill townhouse. But other than that her life is totally normal! She’s got an adventurous best friend who’s always got her back and an unrequited crush on an older boy named Ben. Just like any other teenager, right?

When Selkie goes in search of the mother she’s never known, she gets more than she bargained for. It turns out that her mother is faerie royalty, which would make Selkie a faerie princess—except for the part where her father is an ogre, which makes her only half of anything. Even more confusing, there’s a prophecy that Selkie is going to destroy the tyrannical Seelie Court, which is why her mother actually wants to kill her. Selkie has been kept hidden all her life by her adoring aunts, with the help of a Salem wizard named Will. And Ben. Because the boy she thinks she’s in love with turns out to be a faerie whose enchantment has kept her alive, but also kept her in the dark about her own life.

Now, with enchantments dissolved and prophecies swinging into action, Selkie finds herself on a series of mad quests to save the people she’s always loved and a life she’s learning to love. But in a supernatural world of increasingly complex alliances and distressingly complicated deceptions, it’s so hard to know who to trust. Does her mother really wish to kill her? Would Will sacrifice her for the sake of the prophecy? And does Ben really love her or is it all an elaborate ruse? In order to survive, Selkie realizes that the key is learning—and accepting—who she really is.

› Visit Amazon's Skylar Dorset Page

Skylar’s first story was a tale of romantic intrigue involving two feuding factions of squirrels. Think “Romeo & Juliet” but with bushy tails and added espionage. She was seven.

Since that time, Skylar’s head has been filled with lots of characters and lots of drama. She is delighted to be able to share some of it with all of you now, because, honestly, it was getting pretty loud and crowded in there.

Skylar is a born-and-bred New Englander, which is why Boston was a natural setting for her debut novel, THE GIRL WHO NEVER WAS. Skylar shares her home with a cardboard cutout of the Tenth Doctor, lots of Mardi Gras beads from the time she spent living in New Orleans, and a harp she’s supposed to be teaching herself to play. She’d like to get a dog

Starstruck by Cyn Balog

Gwendolyn "Dough" X doesn't think she has much going for her—she carries a few extra pounds, her family struggles with their small bakery in a town full of millionaires, and the other kids at her New Jersey high school don't seem to know that she exists. Thank the stars for her longtime boyfriend, Philip P. Wishman—or "Wish." He moved away to California three years ago, when they were 13, but then professed his love for her via e-mail, and he's been her long-distance BF ever since.
At the beginning of her junior year, though, Wish e-mails that he's moving back to Jersey. Great, right? Well, except that Dough has gained about 70 pounds since the last time Wish saw her, while Wish—according to his Facebook photos—has morphed into a blonde god. Convinced that she'll be headed for Dumpsville the minute Wish lays eyes on her, Dough delays their meeting as long as she possibly can.
But when she sees Wish at school, something amazing happens. He looks at Dough like she's just as gorgeous as he is. But Wish is acting a little weird, obsessed with the sun and freaked out by rain. And the creepy new guy working at the bakery, Christian, is convinced that there's more to Wish's good looks than just healthy eating and lots of sun. He tells Dough that a mark on Wish's neck marks him as a member of the Luminati—an ancient cult of astrologers who can manipulate the stars to improve their lives. Is Wish and Dough's love meant to be—or are they star-crossed?

› Visit Amazon's Cyn Balog Page

Biography

While the other neighborhood children were out getting fresh air and sunlight playing Zim Zam and freeze tag, Cyn Balog preferred to be locked in her bedroom, writing. When she emerged, with her growth only slightly stunted, she graduated from Rutgers with a degree in Shoelace Tying or something. She'd wanted to major in Writing, but certain "wise elders" in her life told her that career writers must learn to subsist on three Saltines a day, and being part-Italian, Cyn adamantly refused to give up Pasta Sundays.

Cyn now lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with her husband and daughters. She rarely listens to "wise elders" anymore, still eats pasta regularly and is currently looking for a way to get back her figure, possibly by taking up Zim Zam or freeze tag. Her first novel, FAIRY TALE (Delacorte), is a 2009 RITA finalist in the young adult category, and her second novel, SLEEPLESS, which School Library Journal calls "an interesting, quick-paced, and compelling paranormal romance" and Kirkus calls "a lovely read," released this year. Two more young adult paranormal novels, STARSTRUCK and LIVING BACKWARDS, will be released in 2011 and 2012. Visit her online at www.cynbalog.com.

Hope is a Ferris Wheel by Robin Herrera

Ten-year-old Star Mackie lives in a trailer park with her flaky mom and her melancholy older sister, Winter, whom Star idolizes. Moving to a new town has made it difficult for Star to make friends, when her classmates tease her because of where she lives and because of her layered blue hair. But when Star starts a poetry club, she develops a love of Emily Dickinson and, through Dickinson’s poetry, learns some important lessons about herself and comes to terms with her hopes for the future.

› Visit Amazon's Robin Herrera Page

I wrote HOPE IS A FERRIS WHEEL and love love love reading. I read a lot of comics these days, and less fiction, but I'm trying to get back into the prose world.

Just a quick note: I do not check the notifications here very often! I do add books occasionally, especially when I have something to say about them.

If you want to contact me, please do so through my website: robinherrera.com