Hi everyone! It’s Monday again and time for another giveaway of YA books coming out this week! We’ve got two giveaways for you, plus an interview with Adele Griffin, and descriptions and covers of some more books you won’t want to miss picking up.
Enjoy and have a great week!
Martina, Alyssa, Katharyn, Jan, Lisa and Clara
YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS THIS WEEK
A Blind Spot for Boys
by Justina Chen
Signed Hardcover plus Swag Giveaway
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Released 8/12/2014
Shana has always had a blind spot for boys. Can she trust the one who’s right in front of her?
Sixteen-year-old Shana Wilde is officially on a Boy Moratorium. After a devastating breakup, she decides it’s time to end the plague of Mr. Wrong, Wrong, and More Wrong.
Enter Quattro, the undeniably cute lacrosse player who slams into Shana one morning in Seattle. Sparks don’t just fly; they ignite. And so does Shana’s interest. Right as she’s about to rethink her ban on boys, she receives crushing news: Her dad is going blind. Quattro is quickly forgotten, and Shana and her parents vow to make the most of the time her father has left to see. So they travel to Machu Picchu, and as they begin their trek, they run into none other than Quattro himself. But even as the trip unites them, Quattro pulls away mysteriously… Love and loss, humor and heartbreak collide in this new novel from acclaimed author Justina Chen.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about A Blind Spot for Boys?
Imagine a young woman who’s a complete man magnet. Imagine that she’s been heartbroken by someone she thought was her Mr. Right. Imagine that she’s been in denial over the truth about their relationship: who he truly is, who she pretended to be. Imagine learning to see herself and her past clearly. “It was shocking to consider that even though Dom went to the right school, knew the right people, drove the right car, aspired to the right career, he may never have been my Mr. Right.” That’s what I love about Shana’s journey in A BLIND SPOT FOR BOYS. She’s able to look unflinching at the truth by the end of the book. Love. That.
Purchase A Blind Spot for Boys at Amazon
Purchase A Blind Spot for Boys at IndieBound
View A Blind Spot for Boys on Goodreads
Random
by Tom Leveen
Hardcover Giveaway
Simon Pulse
Released 8/12/2014
Who’s the real victim here? This tense and gripping exploration of cyberbullying and teen suicide is perfect for fans of Before I Fall and Thirteen Reasons Why.
Late at night Tori receives a random phone call. It’s a wrong number. But the caller seems to want to talk, so she stays on the line.
He asks for a single thing—one reason not to kill himself.
The request plunges her into confusion. Because if this random caller actually does what he plans, he’ll be the second person connected to Tori to take his own life. And the first just might land her in jail. After her Facebook page became Exhibit A in a tragic national news story about cyberbullying, Tori can’t help but suspect the caller is a fraud. But what if he’s not? Her words alone may hold the power of life or death.
With the clock ticking, Tori has little time to save a stranger—and maybe redeem herself—leading to a startling conclusion that changes everything…
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Random?
My favorite thing about RANDOM was the opportunity to get inside the head of a character that may very well be not well liked by readers. And with good reason. The thing about this protagonist, Tori, is that she’s not exactly the hero of the piece; and as her creator, I had to spend time in emotional-memory places I usually don’t have to inhabit for very long. It was a challenging book to write. I worry that some readers won’t understand the point of the novel as a result.
Purchase Random at Amazon
Purchase Random at IndieBound
View Random on Goodreads
YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS LAST WEEK: WINNERS
Blind
by Rachel DeWoskin
Hardcover
Viking Juvenile
Released 8/7/2014
Winner – Christina Condomaros
When your life as you know it is taken from you, how do you go on?
Imagine this: You are fourteen, watching the fireworks at a 4th of July party, when a rocket backfires into the crowd and strikes your eyes, leaving you blind. In that instant, your life is changed forever. How do you face a future in which all your expectations must be different? You will never see the face of your newborn sister, never learn to drive. Will you ever have a job or fall in love? This is Emma’s story. The drama is in her manysmall victories as she returns to high school in her home town and struggles to define herself and make sense of her life, determined not to be dismissed as a PBK – Poor Blind Kid. This heartfelt and heart wrenching story takes you on Emma’s journey and leaves you with a new understanding of the challenges to be faced when life deals a devastating blow.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Blind?
What is your favorite thing about BLIND? My favorite thing about Blind is Emma Sasha Silver, the colorful girl at the center of the book. She loses her eyesight in a horrific accident and yet still manages to be a brave and resilient warrior about her teenage life. I began to imagine and write Blind when my two little girls and I read The Black Book of Colors every night for a year. I was both frightened and inspired by that shiny, embossed wonder, a children’s book full of images you can feel rather than see. The more we touched the pages, the more I wondered what it would be like to be able to see and then lose that ability. Would my memories stay visual? Would my senses cross so that I could taste, smell and hear colors? What would language look and feel like, and how would I read, think and make meaning of the world? What if one of my daughters lost her vision? We would read with our fingers and voices, take in books, each other, and everything around us in an utterly changed way. The stakes would be astronomical. What if feeling became our way of seeing?
Purchase Blind at Amazon
Purchase Blind at IndieBound
View Blind on Goodreads
Servants of the Storm
by Delilah S. Dawson
Hardcover
Simon Pulse
Released 8/5/2014
Winner – Sarah Bauman
A year ago Hurricane Josephine swept through Savannah, Georgia, leaving behind nothing but death and destruction — and taking the life of Dovey’s best friend, Carly. Since that night, Dovey has been in a medicated haze, numb to everything around her.
But recently she’s started to believe she’s seeing things that can’t be real … including Carly at their favorite cafe. Determined to learn the truth, Dovey stops taking her pills. And the world that opens up to her is unlike anything she could have imagined.
As Dovey slips deeper into the shadowy corners of Savannah — where the dark and horrifying secrets lurk — she learns that the storm that destroyed her city and stole her friend was much more than a force of nature. And now the sinister beings truly responsible are out to finish what they started.
Dovey’s running out of time and torn between two paths. Will she trust her childhood friend Baker, who can’t see the threatening darkness but promises to never give up on Dovey and Carly? Or will she plot with the sexy stranger, Isaac, who offers all the answers — for a price? Soon Dovey realizes that the danger closing in has little to do with Carly … and everything to do with Dovey herself.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Servants of the Storm?
I feel like *should* say that I love how fiercely Dovey fights to save her friend Carly, but my answer is far more selfish and indulgent. I’m from the South, and I really love the creepy, abandoned, vine-draped, Southern Gothic languor of Savannah. Writing this book was a paean to the parts of Georgia that I find most beautiful, haunting, and dangerous. I loved my research trips, which included visits to Bonaventure Cemetery and horse-drawn carriage tours with my brother-in-law, the Dread Pirate Robert. We traced Dovey’s path through downtown, and I got to envision what Savannah would look like after a demonic hurricane. So I loved dwelling in that world. And making the creepy parts even creepier.
Purchase Servants of the Storm at Amazon
Purchase Servants of the Storm at IndieBound
View Servants of the Storm on Goodreads
Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling
by Lucy Frank
Hardcover
Schwartz & Wade
Released 8/5/2014
Winner – Kara Meggs
This novel-in-verse—at once literary and emotionally gripping—follows the unfolding friendship between two very different teenage girls who share a hospital room and an illness.
Chess, the narrator, is sick, but with what exactly, she isn’t sure. And to make matters worse, she must share a hospital room with Shannon, her polar opposite. Where Chess is polite, Shannon is rude. Where Chess tolerates pain silently, Shannon screams bloody murder. Where Chess seems to be getting slowly better, Shannon seems to be getting worse. How these teenagers become friends, helping each other come to terms with their illness, makes for a dramatic and deeply moving read.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling?
My favorite thing about TWO GIRLS STARING AT THE CEILING is the way the book ends. I know: the two girls are in the hospital, so they either live, and go home, or one dies, or they both die. But coming up with a last chapter, and a last page that felt right made me very happy.
Purchase Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling at Amazon
Purchase Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling at IndieBound
View Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling on Goodreads
MORE YOUNG ADULT FICTION IN STORES NEXT WEEK WITH AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone
by Adele Griffin
Hardcover
Soho Teen
Released 8/12/2014
Two-time National Book Award finalist Adele Griffin offers an ingenious fictional take on the “oral history” celebrity bio that defined a bestselling genre: Edie, American Girl by Jean Stein and George Plimpton. In presenting herself as interviewer and curator of memories, Adele paints the portrait of a tragic young celebrity who allegedly committed suicide—presented in a series of brief first-person recollections—that ultimately results in the solving of a murder.
Adele’s words: “From the moment she burst into the downtown art scene, seventeen-year-old Addison Stone was someone to watch. Her trademark subversive street art and her violent drowning left her fans and critics craving to know more about this brilliant wild-child who shone so bright and was gone too soon. By means of more than one hundred interviews with those who knew her best—including close friends, family, teachers, mentors, art dealers, boyfriends, and critics—I have retraced the tumultuous path of Addison’s life, with research that sheds new evidence on what really happened the night of July 28, 2013. With photo inserts and previously unpublished supplemental material.”
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone?
My favorite thing about writing The Unfinished Life Addison Stone was inventing the visual piece. I told the story as a hybrid, photographing models and friends, and using locations from all over my Brooklyn neighborhood. I showcased art from four different working artists and art students, and I created magazine articles and newspapers. The result is a biography of a young artist that feels immediate, real, and emotionally connected.
I really enjoyed working with Giza Lagarce, who plays Addison in the book. In her modeling jobs, Giza is often required to help create narratives that tell different stories of whatever she is selling. As Addison, Giza also had to express everything about her character via nonverbal cues. And I think she totally embodied reckless, brilliant wild-child “It Girl” Addison.
Purchase The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone at Amazon
Purchase The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone at IndieBound
View The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone on Goodreads
MORE YOUNG ADULT NOVELS NEW IN STORES NEXT WEEK
Between the Spark and the Burn
by April Genevieve Tucholke
Hardcover
Dial
Released 8/14/2014
The conclusion to Between the Devil and The Deep Blue Sea, this gothic thriller romance with shades of Stephen King and Daphne du Maurier is a must-read for fans of Beautiful Creatures and Anna Dressed in Blood.
Freddie once told me that the Devil created all the fear in the world.
But then, the Devil once told me that it’s easier to forgive someone for scaring you than for making you cry.
The problem with River West Redding was that he’d done both to me.
The crooked-smiling liar River West Redding, who drove into Violet’s life one summer day and shook her world to pieces, is gone. Violet and Neely, River’s other brother, are left to worry—until they catch a two a.m. radio program about strange events in a distant mountain town. They take off in search of River but are always a step behind, finding instead frenzied towns, witch hunts, and a wind-whipped island with the thrum of something strange and dangerous just under the surface. It isn’t long before Violet begins to wonder if Neely, the one Redding brother she thought trustworthy, has been hiding a secret of his own . . .
Purchase Between the Spark and the Burn at Amazon
Purchase Between the Spark and the Burn at IndieBound
View Between the Spark and the Burn on Goodreads
Fiendish
by Brenna Yovanoff
Hardcover
Razorbill
Released 8/14/2014
Clementine DeVore spent ten years trapped in a cellar, pinned down by willow roots, silenced and forgotten.
Now she’s out and determined to uncover who put her in that cellar and why.
When Clementine was a child, dangerous and inexplicable things started happening in New South Bend. The townsfolk blamed the fiendish people out in the Willows and burned their homes to the ground. But magic kept Clementine alive, walled up in the cellar for ten years, until a boy named Fisher sets her free. Back in the world, Clementine sets out to discover what happened all those years ago. But the truth gets muddled in her dangerous attraction to Fisher, the politics of New South Bend, and the Hollow, a fickle and terrifying place that seems increasingly temperamental ever since Clementine reemerged.
Purchase Fiendish at Amazon
Purchase Fiendish at IndieBound
View Fiendish on Goodreads
Sisters’ Fate
by Jessica Spotswood
Hardcover
Putnam Juvenile
Released 8/14/2014
A fever ravages New London, but with the Brotherhood sending suspected witches straight to the gallows, the Sisters are powerless against the disease. They can’t help without revealing their powers—as Cate learns when a potent display of magic turns her into the most wanted witch in all of New England.
To make matters worse, Cate has been erased from the memory of her beloved Finn. While she’s torn between protecting him from further attacks and encouraging him to fall for her all over again, she’s certain she can never forgive Maura’s betrayal. And now that Tess’s visions have taken a deadly turn, the prophecy that one Cahill sister will murder another looms ever closer to its fulfillment.
Purchase Sisters’ Fate at Amazon
Purchase Sisters’ Fate at IndieBound
View Sisters’ Fate on Goodreads
