Unearthly by Cynthia Hand.

"In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart."-GoodReads.

Hardcover, 435 pages

Published January 4th 2011 by HarperTeen

Source: NetGalley

So I would like to start off with saying, thank you Cynthia Hand for having Clara already know she is part angel. It was really nice and refreshing not having her go through the same song and dance of all the drama that comes with having to find out and then dealing with it.

I will admit, when I got up to this book on my list I almost didn't want to read it. I came close to skipping ahead and coming back to it later. Paranormal wasn't exactly what I was in the mood for, but I kept seeing so many positive reviews and tweets for it that I decided just to jump in. And I am happy to say this book is great.
You know those books that you read that you think the descriptions are way over the top, or there's too many? Or there's too much character and not enough plot? Unearthly is the perfect fix for that.
The descriptions are beautiful, the character development is wonderful, and the plot is great.
And the love triangle! Oh my word....I thought I was sick of them. But this one....whoa. It was intense. And perfect. Poor Clara is stuck trying to figure out just what the purpose of her vision is and is being torn between these two amazing guys.

This is not a stand alone book. I don't know how many there is going to be, but I know there is going to be a second. But, once you read it you won't want it to end. I kept wanting the end to come faster so I could find out what happened. Once it ended though I was sad. I cannot wait for the next one.
5/5 for Unearthly!

Across the Universe-Beth Revis

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder. 

"Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules. 

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone--one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship--tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next. 

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming."- Goodreads.

Hardcover, 400 pages

Expected publication: January 11th 2011 by Razorbill

This book has been an awesome surprise since day one when it showed up at my door unexpectedly (thank you Penguin/Razorbill). And as much as I wanted to stop reading whatever I was reading at the time I could not, because I really wanted to use this towards my DAC 2011 list. So I waited a month and a half, and finally January 1st at 12:01 I started reading it.

Wow. Such an awesome book and such a beautiful cover! Not only are Beth Revis' characters great, but they are believable. They have been on this ship for a really long time so it was interesting to read about the things that developed and changed from how we are used to them.

And I think that was my favorite part of reading this. There were many times when Amy said certain things that were going on on the ship were not normal, but it's an entirely new society hundreds of years in the future. What is normal to her, is not normal to them. So what exactly is normal anymore for her?

Elder is in training to lead the ship when Amy wakes up, and Eldest, the current leader, is not happy about how much time Elder is spending with her. But Eldest is kind of tyrannical, so I was wanting to just throw him off the ship. I would have not listened to him either.

The world that Revis has built for these people on this ship is incredible. When I was first reading the descriptions I kept thinking "Wow, that's all soo cool. I would like to go on spaceship like that," but then through her mad writing skills Revis makes you feel just as trapped as Amy does. Amy was born and grew up on Earth, with open skies, mountains, oceans, etc. So for her it's like being trapped in a pretty big metal cage. And you will start to feel trapped with her. Seriously, there should be a warning on this book that you will end up having feelings of claustrophobia during reading. 

The romance also does not get in the way of the mystery Amy, Elder, and Harley are trying to figure out. There is attraction there, but not to where you want to yell at Amy and Elder to stop making out because they have a killer to catch. It's subtle and sweet. Elder wants to protect Amy but he understands she needs to adjust to life on this ship.

Ah, I could go on and on. Basically just get the book and set aside some time to read it, and then set aside a little bit more time to just stare at the cover.

Strong 5/5 for Across the Universe!