Hello everyone! After a few weeks of no giveaways, we have three to kick off this July! Don’t forget to check out all the new releases and add them to your TBR!
Happy Reading,
Shelly, Lindsey, Martina, Jocelyn, Erin, Susan, Sam, Sarah, Sandra, Kristin, and Anisaa
YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS THIS WEEK
Learning to Swear in America
by Katie Kennedy
Signed Hardcover plus Swag Giveaway
U.S. Only
Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Released 7/5/2016
Brimming with humor and one-of-a-kind characters, this end-of-the world novel will grab hold of Andrew Smith and Rainbow Rowell fans.
An asteroid is hurtling toward Earth. A big, bad one. Yuri, a physicist prodigy from Russia, has been called to NASA as they calculate a plan to avoid disaster. He knows how to stop the asteroid: his research in antimatter will probably win him a Nobel prize–if there’s ever another Nobel prize awarded. But Yuri’s 17, and having a hard time making older, stodgy physicists listen to him. Then he meets Dovie, who lives like a normal teenager, oblivious to the impending doom. Being with her, on the adventures she plans when he’s not at NASA, Yuri catches a glimpse of what it means to save the world and save a life worth living.
Prepare to laugh, cry, cringe, and have your mind burst open with questions of the universe.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Learning to Swear in America?
LEARNING TO SWEAR IN AMERICA is a high concept book—meaning that an incoming asteroid is a scenario that’s easy to explain and easy to grasp. I learned a lot while researching the science scenes, but my favorites were the scenes Yuri has with Dovie (and her brother, Lennon). It was fun hearing them all talk to each other. So in a book that is pretty explicitly defined by its plot, my favorite thing is the characters, and the interactions between characters.
Purchase Learning to Swear in America at Amazon
Purchase Learning to Swear in America at IndieBound
View Learning to Swear in America on Goodreads
Life After Juliet
by Shannon Lee Alexander
Swag Only Giveaway
U.S. Only
Entangled: Teen
Released 7/5/2016
Becca Hanson is a reader–a “voracious” reader. And with all those fictional friends, she never had time for real ones. Plus real ones come with uncontrollable quirks, like constantly filling a room with song, drawing on any available surface, and worst of all, dying. Real friends are more trouble than they’re worth. Since her best-and only-real friend Charlotte’s death six months before, Becca has returned to a life of books in order to distance herself from heartache and constant loneliness as her junior year at Sandstone High begins.
When a class project forces her into the Drama Club, she attracts the attention of not one, but TWO guys involved in the production, onstage and off. Meanwhile, she’s still dealing with the grief of Charlotte’s death–the fact that Charlie is away at MIT–and that she finally has to build a life for herself on her own terms. Ultimately she learns more about who she is, what she wants, how she feels–and how to find what she’s looking for. And while she isn’t sure what comes next, she’s pretty sure there’ll be more kissing involved.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Life After Juliet?
My favorite thing about LIFE AFTER JULIET is that much of the story takes place in a high school theater. I loved my theater arts classes and the drama club in high school. It was there that I found my first tribe, a merry band of misfits who made me feel at home in my own skin. I was so pleased to give Becca Hanson the chance to try out new roles and grow into her own true self while surrounded by a crazy cast of drammies and techies.
Purchase Life After Juliet at Amazon
Purchase Life After Juliet at IndieBound
View Life After Juliet on Goodreads
Secrets, Lies, and Scandals
by Amanda K. Morgan
Hardcover Giveaway
U.S. Only
Simon Pulse
Released 7/5/2016
In the tradition of I Know What You Did Last Summer and How to Get Away with Murder, five teens must overcome their paranoia in order to keep their teacher’s death a secret in this fast-paced suspense thriller.
Nothing ruins summer vacation like a secret…especially when it involves a dead teacher.
Ivy used to be on top of the social ladder, until her ex made that all go away. She has a chance to be Queen Bee again, but only if the rest of the group can keep quiet.
Tyler has always been a bad boy, but lately he’s been running low on second chances. There’s no way he’s going to lose everything because someone couldn’t keep their mouth shut.
Kinley wouldn’t describe herself as perfect, though everyone else would. But perfection comes at a price, and there is nothing she wouldn’t do to keep her perfect record—one that doesn’t include murder charges.
Mattie is only in town for the summer. He wasn’t looking to make friends, and he definitely wasn’t looking to be involved in a murder. He’s also not looking to be riddled with guilt for the rest of his life…but to prevent that he’ll have to turn them all in.
Cade couldn’t care less about the body, or about the pact to keep the secret. The only way to be innocent is for someone else to be found guilty. Now he just has to decide who that someone will be.
With the police hot on the case, they don’t have much time to figure out how to trust each other. But in order to take the lead, you have to be first in line … and that’s the quickest way to get stabbed in the back.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Secrets, Lies, and Scandals?
That’s actually a really tough question! There are a lot of things I really like about this book, but I think I love the main characters the most. SECRETS, LIES, AND SCANDALS is told from the viewpoints of five different characters: Ivy, Mattie, Tyler, Kinley, and Cade. They’re all good people in a really awful situation. I love how it really forces the cast to confront what’s important and what they’re unwilling to lose.
Purchase Secrets, Lies, and Scandals at Amazon
Purchase Secrets, Lies, and Scandals at IndieBound
View Secrets, Lies, and Scandals on Goodreads
MORE YOUNG ADULT FICTION IN STORES NEXT WEEK WITH AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
Paper and Fire
by Rachel Caine
Hardcover
NAL
Released 7/5/2016
In Ink and Bone, New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine introduced a world where knowledge is power, and power corrupts absolutely. Now, she continues the story of those who dare to defy the Great Library—and rewrite history…
With an iron fist, The Great Library controls the knowledge of the world, ruthlessly stamping out all rebellion, forbidding the personal ownership of books in the name of the greater good.
Jess Brightwell has survived his introduction to the sinister, seductive world of the Library, but serving in its army is nothing like he envisioned. His life and the lives of those he cares for have been altered forever. His best friend is lost, and Morgan, the girl he loves, is locked away in the Iron Tower and doomed to a life apart.
Embarking on a mission to save one of their own, Jess and his band of allies make one wrong move and suddenly find themselves hunted by the Library’s deadly automata and forced to flee Alexandria, all the way to London.
But Jess’s home isn’t safe anymore. The Welsh army is coming, London is burning, and soon, Jess must choose between his friends, his family, or the Library willing to sacrifice anything and anyone in the search for ultimate control…
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Paper and Fire?
For any book I do, it’s the characters that really pull me through a story, and PAPER AND FIRE sees all of the characters from INK AND BONE change and grow … and reveal more secrets. For Scholar Wolfe and Captain Santi, we get to see the strength and love of their relationship, and how much it costs them to stay together through it all. For Jess and his friends, we really see them growing up to face ever-increasing challenges … not just the physical hardships they’ll face, but the emotional ones, too. Without giving too much away, they’ll have to make very hard choices in this book that will change the course of their lives … and those choices have very real consequences to the world.
Having said all that, one of the most fun things I did in this book was to really dig into the puzzle of the Iron Tower and the Obscurists, the Black Archives that the Library hides from the rest of the world, and all of the sinister implications of what it’s suppressed through the ages. It’s surprising for the characters and me as a writer, and I hope for readers, too.
Also, automatons! SO MANY. And so dangerous! Egyptian gods, sphinxes, Roman lions, Spartan statues … and every one of them will be against our heroes at some point.
I love history, and seeing it come to life in my imagination is really the very best thing about PAPER AND FIRE for me.
Purchase Paper and Fire at Amazon
Purchase Paper and Fire at IndieBound
View Paper and Fire on Goodreads
The Lost & Found
by Katrina Leno
Hardcover
HarperTeen
Released 7/5/2016
LOST:
Frannie and Louis met in an online support group when they were both younger. They have never met face-to-face. They don’t even know each other’s real names. All they know is that they both have a mysterious tendency to lose things. Well, not lose them, exactly. Things just seem to…disappear.
FOUND:
They each receive news in the mail that sets them off on a road trip to Austin, Texas, looking for answers—and each other. Along the way, each one begins to find, as if by magic, important things the other has lost. And by the time they finally meet in person, they realize that the things you lose might be things you weren’t meant to have at all, and that you never know what you might find if you just take a chance.
The Lost & Found is a bighearted novel about connections (missed and found), family (the kind you’re born with and the kind you make for yourself), and unexpected journeys (on the road, and of the heart), from an author who Publishers Weekly called “a fierce new presence.”
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about The Lost & Found?
My favorite thing about THE LOST & FOUND is the characters- both the two protagonists and the characters who follow along with them in their journey. It was important to me to have strongly developed “secondary” characters (in quotes because I think both Willa and Arrow would be pissed if you called them secondary) because so often in life we are supported in our personal journeys by strong, positive friends and family. I wanted to reflect that in TL&F and I think Willa and Arrow play their parts admirably!
Purchase The Lost & Found at Amazon
Purchase The Lost & Found at IndieBound
View The Lost & Found on Goodreads
MORE YOUNG ADULT NOVELS NEW IN STORES NEXT WEEK
Autumn’s Wish
by Bella Thorne
Hardcover
Delacorte Press
Released 7/5/2016
Senior year is here, and everyone has a plan—except Autumn Falls. So many crazy-important decisions lie ahead, and she’s scared to make the wrong one. So when she receives a magical watch that enables her to travel through time (!!!), Autumn hopes she can correct all of her past mistakes—with her friends, with boys—and maybe even prevent her dad from dying. But the watch doesn’t work that way. Instead, Autumn discovers that she’s only able to visit the future—and she doesn’t like what she sees. Autumn can change her destiny . . . but what does she really want?
Purchase Autumn’s Wish at Amazon
Purchase Autumn’s Wish at IndieBound
View Autumn’s Wish on Goodreads
Lucky Strikes
by Louis Bayard
Hardcover
Henry Holt and Co.
Released 7/5/2016
Set in Depression-era Virginia, this is the story of orphaned Amelia and her struggle to keep her siblings together.
With her mama recently dead and her pa sight unseen since birth, fourteen-year-old Amelia is suddenly in charge of her younger brother and sister, and of the family gas station. Harley Blevins, local king and emperor of Standard Oil, is in hot pursuit to clinch his fuel monopoly. To keep him at bay and her family out of foster care, Melia must come up with a father, and fast. And so when a hobo rolls out of a passing truck, Melia grabs opportunity by its beard. Can she hold off the hounds till she comes of age?
Purchase Lucky Strikes at Amazon
Purchase Lucky Strikes at IndieBound
View Lucky Strikes on Goodreads
Remix
by Non Pratt
Hardcover
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Released 7/5/2016
Two girls test the strength of their friendship—and their hearts—over the course of a summer weekend in this contemporary novel perfect for fans of Morgan Matson and Rainbow Rowell.
Ruby and Kaz’s friendship has always worked like a well-oiled machine. Ruby is loud and acts impulsively, while Kaz is quiet and plans ahead for every scenario. Together, they are two halves of a whole. But when the girls run into their ex-boyfriends at a music festival, they suddenly find themselves acting out of character and navigating unchartered territory. Afraid of letting each other down, both girls start keeping secrets—with disastrous consequences.
Told in alternating perspectives between Ruby and Kaz, Remix is the story of two teenage girls fighting to hold on to their splintering relationships and rediscovering that true friendship—like love—is not so easily broken.
Purchase Remix at Amazon
Purchase Remix at IndieBound
View Remix on Goodreads
The Merciless II: The Exorcism of Sofia Flores
by Danielle Vega
Hardcover
Razorbill
Released 7/5/2016
Danielle Vega—YA’s answer to Stephen King—once again brings major scares in the spine-tingling sequel to horror hit The Merciless, which MTV calls “Mean Girls meets The Exorcist.”
Sofia is still processing the horrific truth of what happened when she and three friends performed an exorcism that spiraled horribly out of control. Ever since that night, Sofia has been haunted by bloody and demonic visions. Her therapist says they’re all in her head, but to Sofia they feel chillingly real. She just wants to get out of town, start fresh someplace else . . . until her mother dies suddenly, and Sofia gets her wish.
Sofia is sent to St. Mary’s, a creepy Catholic boarding school in Mississippi. There, seemingly everyone is doing penance for something, most of all the mysterious Jude, for whom Sofia can’t help feeling an unshakeable attraction. But when Sofia and Jude confide in each other about their pasts, something flips in him. He becomes convinced that Sofia is possessed by the devil. . . . Is an exorcism the only way to save her eternal soul?
Readers won’t be able to look away from this terrifying read full of twists and turns that will leave them wondering, Is there evil in all of us?
Purchase The Merciless II: The Exorcism of Sofia Flores at Amazon
Purchase The Merciless II: The Exorcism of Sofia Flores at IndieBound
View The Merciless II: The Exorcism of Sofia Flores on Goodreads
This Savage Song
by Victoria Schwab
Hardcover
Greenwillow Books
Released 7/5/2016
There’s no such thing as safe in a city at war, a city overrun with monsters. In this dark urban fantasy from acclaimed author Victoria Schwab, a young woman and a young man must choose whether to become heroes or villains—and friends or enemies—with the future of their home at stake. The first of two books, This Savage Song is a must-have for fans of Holly Black, Maggie Stiefvater, and Laini Taylor.
Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives. In This Savage Song, Victoria Schwab creates a gritty, seething metropolis, one worthy of being compared to Gotham and to the four versions of London in her critically acclaimed fantasy for adults, A Darker Shade of Magic. Her heroes will face monsters intent on destroying them from every side—including the monsters within.
Purchase This Savage Song at Amazon
Purchase This Savage Song at IndieBound
View This Savage Song on Goodreads
