We’re back with another roundup of new releases plus an awesome giveaway! Jennifer Echols is giving away three copies of BIGGEST FLIRTS or PERFECT COUPLE, winner’s choice!
~The ladies of AYAP
Martina, Alyssa, Lisa, Susan, Shelly, Jocelyn, Becca, and Jan
YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS THIS WEEK
Perfect Couple
by Jennifer Echols
Reader’s choice: BIGGEST FLIRTS or PERFECT COUPLE Giveaway (3 Copies)
U.S. Only
Simon Pulse
Released 1/13/2015
In this second book in The Superlatives trilogy from Endless Summer author Jennifer Echols, Harper and Brody think they’re an unlikely match—but the senior class says they belong together.
As yearbook photographer, Harper is responsible for those candid moments that make high school memorable. But her own life is anything but picture perfect. Her parents’ bitter divorce left her wondering what a loving relationship looks like. And ever since the senior class voted her and star quarterback Brody “Perfect Couple That Never Was,” her friends have been pushing her to ask Brody out.
Brody doesn’t lack female admirers, but Harper can’t see herself with him. He’s confused about the match too. Yet they find themselves drawn together—first by curiosity about why the class paired them, then by an undeniable bond.
The trouble is, though they’re attracted to each other, they have a hard time getting along or even communicating well. If they’re the perfect couple, this shouldn’t be so difficult! Soon it becomes clear their class was wrong, and they throw in the towel. But they feel so changed from making the effort, they can’t forget each other. What if this match made in hell is the perfect couple after all?
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Perfect Couple?
The Superlatives series is based around the idea that older teens are looking for their identity. And if they think they’ve pinned it down, they’ll probably stick with it. But what if you thought you had yourself all figured out, but now you’re not so sure? That’s what happens to the teens in these books: the senior class selects people for “who’s who” titles like Biggest Flirts and Most Likely to Succeed, but the people selected are surprised at what their classmates choose for them, which in turn causes them to question how they see themselves.
In PERFECT COUPLE, Harper and her childhood friend Brody are named Perfect Couple That Never Was. Harper is quirky and artistic. Brody is athletic and popular. It’s easy to see why they’ve never dated. It’s hard to see why a large portion of their class would say they would make a perfect couple. Of course they’re curious. They can’t resist going on a date to find out. And Harper realizes she’s not really as controlled and cautious as she always thought.
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YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS LAST WEEK: WINNERS
Hellhole
by Gina Damico
Hardcover
HMH Books for Young Readers
Released 1/6/2015
Winner – Darlene Cruz
A devil is a bad influence . . . There was a time when geeky, squeaky-clean Max Kilgore would never lie or steal or even think about murder. Then he accidentally unearths a devil, and Max’s choices are no longer his own. The big red guy has a penchant for couch surfing and junk food—and you should never underestimate evil on a sugar high. With the help of Lore, a former goth girl who knows a thing or two about the dark side, Max is racing against the clock to get rid of the houseguest from hell before time, and all the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos this side of the fiery abyss, run out. Gina Damico, author of the Croak series, once again delivers all the horror, hilarity, and high-stakes drama that any kid in high school or hell could ever handle.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Hellhole?
I really like the character of Burg, the devil that pops up into Max’s life and refuses to go away. He’s such a mess – eats a ton of snacks, gets drunk, turns the basement into a pigsty. And he’s a jerk, too, as devils are wont to be. The things he does to torture Max are really infuriating and mean…but at the same time, he’s kind of lovable. He takes such pleasure in the little things up on the surface of the earth that he doesn’t have access to in hell. And you get the sense that deep down, maybe he’s not as bad as he seems. Or is he?
Purchase Hellhole at Amazon
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Ignite
by Sara B. Larson
Hardcover
Scholastic Press
Released 1/6/2015
Winner – Danielle Pelot
Murder, abductions, and forbidden romance abound in this thrilling sequel to Sara B. Larson’s acclaimed YA debut, DEFY.
Alexa remains by the newly crowned King Damian’s side as his guard, ever committed to helping him rebuild Antion and reclaim the hope of Antion’s people, despite continuing to harbor a secret love for him. However, when another threat to Damian and his kingdom emerges, and blame is cast on their newly forged allies from Blevon, Alexa knows things are not what they seem. With the fate of her nation hanging in the balance once again, will Alexa be able to protect her king and uncover the true enemy — before it’s too late?
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Ignite?
Ooh, that’s tough. I love so many things about IGNITE. But I think my favorite thing about IGNITE is the chance to go back into the world of Antion with Alexa, Damian, Rylan (and everyone else)—to continue their journey, to watch them grow, and hurt, and love, face new challenges and still somehow keep going. My goal with every book I write is to try and make it better than the last, and I hope that you will feel that I have accomplished that with IGNITE!
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Infected
by Sophie Littlefield
Hardcover
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Released 1/6/2015
Winner – Michelle Taylor
The race-against-the-clock feel of TV’s popular show 24 meets the action-packed romance of the film Run Lola Run. This high-concept teen thriller sends readers on the race of their lives.
Carina’s senior year is spiraling downward. Fast. Both her mother and her uncle, the only two family members she’s ever known, are dead. Their deaths were accidents, unfortunate results of the highly confidential research they performed for a national security organization. Or so she’s been told.
She’s not buying it.
After finding a unique code hidden beneath the stone in a ring her mother left to her, Carina goes straight to the only family she has left: her boyfriend, Tanner.
The people Carina loved kept dangerous secrets. Secrets that make her question the life she’s been living up to now. Her life is on the line, but more importantly, so is Tanner’s. And if she fails? He dies.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Infected?
I was tempted to say that my favorite thing is the eye-catching shiny green cover, which is truly one of the best I’ve ever received, but as far as the story itself goes, I love the capable, brave, kick-ass character of my heroine, Carina. She’s both physically strong and mentally tough, but she’s also emotionally courageous. In short, she’s a person I’d love to know.
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Vivian Apple at the End of the World
by Katie Coyle
Hardcover
HMH Books for Young Readers
Released 1/6/2015
Winner – Hannah Clark
Seventeen-year-old Vivian Apple never believed in the evangelical Church of America, unlike her recently devout parents. But when Vivian returns home the night after the supposed “Rapture,” all that’s left of her parents are two holes in the roof. Suddenly, she doesn’t know who or what to believe. With her best friend Harp and a mysterious ally, Peter, Vivian embarks on a desperate cross-country roadtrip through a paranoid and panic-stricken America to find answers. Because at the end of the world, Vivan Apple isn’t looking for a savior. She’s looking for the truth.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Vivian Apple at the End of the World?
My favorite thing about Vivian Apple is Vivian Apple herself! When I began to sketch out the story that would become the novel, I had a very specific goal to write a character that felt complicated and real to me. I wanted Vivian to be thoughtful and funny and active in shaping her own destiny, and I wanted her to have all the anxieties, dreams, confusions, and convictions that I remember from my own time as a seventeen-year-old. I’m a lot like Vivian in many ways, but there are other ways in which she completely surprised me. She was a very rewarding character to write about, and I find myself thinking about her sometimes as if she’s a real person out in the world, and wondering what she’s up to.
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X: A Novel
by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon
Hardcover
Candlewick
Released 1/6/2015
Winner – Mari Guevara
Cowritten by Malcolm X’s daughter, this riveting and revealing novel follows the formative years of the man whose words and actions shook the world.
I am Malcolm.
I am my father’s son. But to be my father’s son means that they will always come for me.
They will always come for me, and I will always succumb.
Malcolm Little’s parents have always told him that he can achieve anything, but from what he can tell, that’s nothing but a pack of lies—after all, his father’s been murdered, his mother’s been taken away, and his dreams of becoming a lawyer have gotten him laughed out of school. There’s no point in trying, he figures, and lured by the nightlife of Boston and New York, he escapes into a world of fancy suits, jazz, girls, and reefer.
But Malcolm’s efforts to leave the past behind lead him into increasingly dangerous territory when what starts as some small-time hustling quickly spins out of control. Deep down, he knows that the freedom he’s found is only an illusion—and that he can’t run forever.
X follows Malcolm from his childhood to his imprisonment for theft at age twenty, when he found the faith that would lead him to forge a new path and command a voice that still resonates today.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about X: A Novel?
Can I start with how excited I was when Ilyasah invited me to write this novel with her? The concept was just so incredibly cool and I immediately knew I wanted to be involved in the project. Malcolm X’s life and work and the inspiration of his example to the world has long been important to me, as a writer and as a black woman living my life in this country. It’s been so meaningful to get to know Malcolm’s life story better, and to play a role in sharing that powerful story in a way that has never been done before. I have heard Ilyasah say many times that she feels it is a honor and a privilege to be charged with carrying her father’s legacy forward, and as a collaborating writer on X, I felt that special weight of responsibility as well. We are both really thrilled that a new generation of young readers will be able to discover Malcolm X through our book.
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MORE YOUNG ADULT FICTION IN STORES NEXT WEEK WITH AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
The Conspiracy of Us
by Maggie Hall
Hardcover
Putnam Juvenile
Released 1/13/2015
To fight her destiny as the missing heir to a powerful and dangerous secret society, sixteen-year-old Avery West must solve an ancient puzzle in a deadly race across Europe. Forbidden love and code-breaking, masked balls and explosions, destiny and dark secrets collide in this romantic thriller, in the vein of a YA DaVinci Code.
Avery West’s newfound family can shut down Prada at the Champs-Elysees when they want to shop in peace, and can just as easily order a bombing when they want to start a war.
They are part of a powerful and dangerous secret society called the Circle of Twelve, and Avery is their missing heir. If they discover who she is, some of them will want to use her as a pawn. Some will want her dead.
To thwart their plans, Avery must follow a trail of clues from the landmarks of Paris to the back alleys of Istanbul and through a web of ancient legends and lies. And unless she can stay one step ahead of beautiful, volatile Stellan, who knows she’s more than she seems, and can decide whether to trust mysterious, magnetic Jack, she may be doomed after all.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about The Conspiracy of Us?
My favorite thing about the book is the characters and their ever-changing relationships. I’ve really loved getting to know Avery and Jack and Stellan and all the other people in their world, and I’m so excited for readers to meet them and hopefully be surprised by some of the things that happen to them along the journey. And my other favorite thing (am I allowed to have two?) is all the international settings. I love setting action and romance and the lives of my characters in all these fabulous places (and getting to do some research for it didn’t hurt, either!). 🙂
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MORE YOUNG ADULT NOVELS NEW IN STORES NEXT WEEK
Killing Time in Crystal City
by Chris Lynch
Hardcover
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Released 1/13/2015
A teen runs away from his broken life and invents a new one in this dazzling adventure from Printz Honor winner and National Book Award finalist Chris Lynch.
Crystal City called for him, and Kevin answered. And why wouldn’t he? His relationship with his father is broken—as is his arm. With barely anyone to miss him or care if he’s gone, it seemed like the perfect time for Kevin to run away to his estranged uncle and create an entirely new identity. New name. New attitude. New friends. Maybe even a new girl.
From the first moment of adventure, Kevin’s life takes a turn for the exciting. Making friends seems easy with his new persona, especially when a group of homeless beach bums instantly includes him in their crew. But do they like the real Kevin, or the guy he’s pretending to be? And will this new lifestyle help Kevin escape from the misery of his former life—or will it drag him right back into the reasons he left home?
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The Darkest Part of the Forest
by Holly Black
Hardcover
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Released 1/13/2015
Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.
Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.
At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.
Until one day, he does…
As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?
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Unmade
by Amy Rose Capetta
Hardcover
HMH Books for Young Readers
Released 1/13/2015
Cadence is in a race against time and space to save her family and friends from the Unmakers, who are tracking the last vestiges of humanity across the cosmos. As the epic battle begins, Cade learns that letting people in also means letting them go. The universe spins out of control and Cade alone must face the music in the page-turning conclusion to Entangled.
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When
by Victoria Laurie
Hardcover
Disney-Hyperion
Released 1/13/2015
Maddie Fynn is a shy high school junior, cursed with an eerie intuitive ability: she sees a series of unique digits hovering above the foreheads of each person she encounters. Her earliest memories are marked by these numbers, but it takes her father’s premature death for Maddie and her family to realize that these mysterious digits are actually death dates, and just like birthdays, everyone has one.
Forced by her alcoholic mother to use her ability to make extra money, Maddie identifies the quickly approaching death date of one client’s young son, but because her ability only allows her to see the when and not the how, she’s unable to offer any more insight. When the boy goes missing on that exact date, law enforcement turns to Maddie.
Soon, Maddie is entangled in a homicide investigation, and more young people disappear and are later found murdered. A suspect for the investigation, a target for the murderer, and attracting the attentions of a mysterious young admirer who may be connected to it all, Maddie’s whole existence is about to be turned upside down. Can she right things before it’s too late?
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