Summary:
Incapable. Awkward. Artless.
That’s what the other girls whisper behind her back. But sixteen year-old Adelice Lewys has a secret: she wants to fail.
Gifted
with the ability to weave time with matter, she’s exactly what the
Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen as a
Spinster is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal
beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the
power to embroider the very fabric of life. But if controlling what
people eat, where they live and how many children they have is the price
of having it all, Adelice isn’t interested.
Not that her feelings matter, because she slipped and wove a moment at testing, and they’re coming for her—tonight.
Now
she has one hour to eat her mom’s overcooked pot roast. One hour to
listen to her sister’s academy gossip and laugh at her Dad’s stupid
jokes. One hour to pretend everything’s okay. And one hour to escape.
Because once you become a Spinster, there’s no turning back.
Release Date: October 16, 2012
Age Group: Young Adult
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Source: Review copy from publisher
Review:
After finishing Crewel, all I can say is WOW! What a unique story and well-executed concept! I don't think I've ever read anything like this book. I don't know if Crewel is classified as a dystopia or science fiction, but it had my favorite elements of both genres.
I loved Crewel's premise. In the world of Arras (the reader learns about its relationship to Earth at the end of the story) certain women are gifted with the ability to change the world. They take the elements of the world, time and matter, and weave them together on a loom. These girls are called Spinsters and they are the most prestigious members of society. It took me a while to fully understand what the Spinsters actually do, and for a while I pictured their work sort of like how Tom Cruise worked the computer wall-screen in Minority Report. Weird, I know, but it worked for me. Spinsters control births, deaths, crops, everything about the world of Arras.
Anyway, most girls long to be a Spinster. In the Crewel world, women are not valued, with the exception of Spinsters. Most of them are secretaries, or at best, teachers. Men rule this society. However, Adelice does not want to be a Spinster. Her parents taught her to hide her gift of weaving, and she knows that she must pretend to fail at her testing. But, she slips and actually works the loom at her testing, and the Guild comes for her, to take her away to the Academy.
Once there, she uncovers the truth about Spinsterhood. She makes some unexpected allies and quickly makes a powerful enemy as well. But Adelice is no ordinary Spinster. Something is different about her: something that scares the people around her. Suddenly, things get really interesting. Adelice's ability pulls her into the limelight, and she has to fend off the attentions of a most unwanted suitor. She also starts to have feelings for someone who is wholly inappropriate for her.
I loved Adelice's character. She was tough, but still had a well-balanced emotional side to her as well. The plot moved quickly, and once I understood what being a Spinster meant, I found Crewel impossible to put down. I did predict the ending, but still enjoyed the book. There were some surprises along with way, which made things very interesting. My one complaint is the extreme cliffhanger ending. And since Crewel was an ARC for me, now I have forever to wait until book two comes out!
Gwen’s life has been a roller coaster since she discovered she was the Ruby, the final member of
the secret time-traveling Circle of Twelve. In between searching
through history for the other time-travelers and asking for a bit of
their blood (gross!), she’s been trying to figure out what all the
mysteries and prophecies surrounding the Circle really mean.
After defying the
ruthless Enclave, surviving the wasteland, and upending the rigid
matriarchy of Sylum, Gaia Stone now faces her biggest challenge ever.
She must lead the people of Sylum back to the Enclave and persuade the
Protectorat to grant them refuge from the wasteland. In Gaia's absence,
the Enclave has grown more cruel, more desperate to experiment on
mothers from outside the wall, and now the stakes of cooperating or
rebelling have never been higher. Is Gaia ready, as a leader, to
sacrifice what--or whom--she loves most? 
We're so excited to be part of the Spooktacular Giveaway Hop hosted by I am a Reader Not a Writer and The Diary of a Bookworm. Thank you to Kathy and Rhiannon for hosting this hop! 
Striking out into the
wasteland with nothing but her baby sister, a handful of supplies, and a
rumor to guide her, sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone survives only
to be captured by the people of Sylum, a dystopian society where women
rule the men who drastically outnumber them, and a kiss is a crime. In
order to see her sister again, Gaia must submit to their strict social
code, but how can she deny her sense of justice, her curiosity, and
everything in her heart that makes her whole? 
“But what about Leon?”
In the future, in a
world baked dry by the harsh sun, there are those who live inside the
walled Enclave and those, like sixteen-year-old Gaia Stone, who live
outside. Following in her mother’s footsteps Gaia has become a midwife,
delivering babies in the world outside the wall and handing a quota over
to be "advanced" into the privileged society of the Enclave. Gaia has
always believed this is her duty, until the night her mother and father
are arrested by the very people they so loyally serve.
Incapable. Awkward. Artless.
Twenty-nine-year-old
Lisa Newberry can barely make it through the day. Suddenly widowed and a
survivor of a near-fatal attack, she is wracked with grief and despair.
Then she hears of a medical trial for a tiny brain chip that emits
electrical pulses to heal severe depression. At rope’s end, Lisa offers
herself as a candidate.
Jamie was born with a
testis, an ovary, and a pixie face. He can be a boy after minor surgery
and a few years on testosterone. That’s what his parents always say, but
he sees an elfin princess in the mirror. To become the man his parents
expect, Jamie must leave behind a little girl’s dreams.
For fans of Tina Fey and David Sedaris-Internet star Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, makes her literary debut.
Olivia Aberdeen,
destitute widow of a murdered carpetbagger, gratefully accepts an
invitation from “Aunt” Elizabeth Harding, mistress of Belle Meade
Plantation and the dearest friend of Olivia’s late mother. Expecting to
be the Harding’s housekeeper, Olivia is disillusioned once again when
she learns the real reason why Elizabeth’s husband, Confederate General
William Giles Harding, agreed to her coming. Caring for an ill Aunt
Elizabeth, Olivia is caught off guard by her feelings for Ridley Adam
Cooper, a southern-born son who—unbeknownst to her and everyone
else—fought for the Union. Determined to learn “the gift” that Belle
Meade’s head horse trainer, Bob Green, possesses, Ridley is a man
desperate to end the war still raging inside him while harboring secrets
that threaten his life. As Ridley seeks to make peace within himself
for “betraying” the South he loved, Olivia is determined to never be
betrayed again… 
In this humorous and
insightful tale, a modern day princess finds herself single and asking
for magical intervention to change her sorry love life. Rather than
casting a spell to bring Prince Charming to her rescue, a savvy fairy
godmother gives the tenderhearted damsel an unexpected gift. By
entrusting her true thoughts and desires to an unlikely confidant, the
young royal soon discovers that the person who could make her life
everything she dreamed it would be has been with her all along.
