Happy Book Birthday: Across the Universe (+swag giveaway!)

Today is Beth Revis's Across the Universe BOOK BIRTHDAY! 

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.

I had the pleasure of reading an ARC of AtU a month or two ago. And this book? Well, it's frexing good, man!

Let me start by saying, I do enjoy some Sci-Fi. I mean, Ender's Game? One of my top favorite books of all time. But you already know that :P Needless to say, though, I was intrigued by Beth's book from the get-go, because like Ender's Game, it takes place in space. And I wasn't disappointed.


Plus, the cover. Oh, the cover. It. Is. So. Awesome. You must agree, yes? So even before flipping to the first page I took some time just to admire the cover. Then I flipped to the first page and didn't come back up for air for the next three hours.

I love dual narration, when it's done well--and Beth does it very, very well :) AtU switches POV between the two main characters, Amy and Elder. 

Amy's struggling to understand/get used to the world she's woken to find herself in--while trying to figure out who unfroze her early, in an attempt to kill her. Elder's being prepared as the next ruler of the ship, but the world he's always known is beginning to unravel. Some things just aren't making sense--and he can't ignore them. (And poor, poor Elder, honestly. I couldn't help but feel for him from the very beginning. Can you imagine living your entire life on a spaceship? Never setting foot on land? I shudder just thinking about it.)

And let me tell you right now--Beth doesn't play favorites with her secondary characters. You have no clue who you can count on--to be good, or to be bad. It's frustrating in the BEST way :)

And the ship, Godspeed... Well, I don't want to give anything away but dang. Life on Godspeed is--I want to say unimaginable, but clearly Beth imagined it. She's got one amazingly creative imagination. Especially when it comes to worldbuilding. You'll see what I mean when you read it! The social structure of the world is absolutely fascinating, and extremely scary.


The plot bobs and weaves and pulls you down paths where you might not know exactly where you're going, but you know you want to get there--so you end up constantly flinging the next page over to see what happens.


So seriously, go out today and get Across the Universe! And then come back here to tell me how much you loved it.

If you're still not sold, why not try reading the first chapter here (http://www.bethrevis.com/books/) to see how hooked you'll get! Or how about watching her book trailer?

Plus, like the title of the post promises, I've got some swag to giveaway!!

Five signed bookmarks and a pin button!

To enter, just leave a comment with

1. your email address
2. a promise to read this book as soon as possible, because you soooo should and you soooo won't be disappointed

I'll close the entries next Monday (1/17). First winner will get the pin button and a bookmark. The next four will receive bookmarks!

Happy Book Birthday, Beth!!