YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS THIS WEEK
Let The Storm Break
by Shannon Messenger
Hardcover Giveaway
Simon Pulse
Released 3/4/2014
Whirlwind romance and breathtaking action continues in the sequel to Let the Sky Fall, which Becca Fitzpatrick called “charged and romantic.”
Vane Weston is haunted. By the searing pull of his bond to Audra. By the lies he’s told to cover for her disappearance. By the treacherous winds that slip into his mind, trying to trap him in his worst nightmares. And as his enemies grow stronger, Vane doesn’t know how much longer he can last on his own.
But Audra’s still running. From her past. From the Gales. Even from Vane, who she doesn’t believe she deserves. And the farther she flees, the more danger she finds. She possesses the secret power her enemy craves, and protecting it might be more than she can handle—especially when she discovers Raiden’s newest weapon.
With the Gale Force weakened by recent attacks, and the power of four collapsing, Vane and Audra are forced to make a choice: keep trusting the failing winds, or turn to the people who’ve betrayed them before. But even if they survive the storms sent to destroy them, will they have anything left to hold on to?
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Let The Storm Break?
Oh—that’s easy: THE HABOOBS! And no—they’re not what you’re thinking. A haboob is actually a type of dust storm that plays a very prominent role in LET THE STORM BREAK. Though of course Vane isn’t the type of guy to let a name like that pass without a few choice comments. One of the reasons I love him. 🙂
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Hung Up
by Kristen Tracy
Hardcover Giveaway
Simon Pulse
Released 3/4/2014
Can you fall in love with a voice? This witty romance, told entirely through phone calls, chronicles the tale of a wrong number gone right.
It all started with a wrong number. The voicemails Lucy left on James’s phone were meant for someone else—someone who used to have James’s digits. But then when James finally answers and the two start to talk, a unique bond forms between the two teens.
Gradually Lucy and James begin to understand each other on a deeper level than anyone else in their lives. But when James wants to meet in person, Lucy is strangely resistant. And when her secret is revealed, he’ll understand why…
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YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS LAST WEEK: WINNERS
Unforgotten
by Jessica Brody
Hardcover Giveaway plus Paperback of Unremembered
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Released 2/25/2014
Winner: Lisa Basso
Some memories are better left forgotten…
After a daring escape from the scientists at Diotech who created her, Seraphina believes she is finally safe from the horrors of her past. But new threats await Sera and her boyfriend, Zen, at every turn as Zen falls prey to a mysterious illness and Sera’s extraordinary abilities make it more and more difficult to stay hidden. Meanwhile, Diotech has developed a dangerous new weapon designed to apprehend her. A weapon that even Sera will be powerless to stop. Her only hope of saving Zen’s life and defeating the company that made her is a secret buried deep within her mind. A secret that Diotech will kill to protect. And it won’t stay forgotten for long.
Packed with mystery, suspense, and romance, this riveting second installment of Jessica Brody’s Unremembered trilogy delivers more heart-pounding action as loyalties are tested, love becomes a weapon, and no one’s memories are safe.
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Faking Normal
by Courtney C. Stevens
Signed Hardcover Giveaway
HarperTeen
Released 2/25/2014
Winner: Stephanie Habina
An edgy, realistic, and utterly captivating novel from an exciting new voice in teen fiction.
Alexi Littrell hasn’t told anyone what happened to her over the summer. Ashamed and embarrassed, she hides in her closet and compulsively scratches the back of her neck, trying to make the outside hurt more than the inside does.
When Bodee Lennox, the quiet and awkward boy next door, comes to live with the Littrells, Alexi discovers an unlikely friend in “the Kool-Aid Kid,” who has secrets of his own. As they lean on each other for support, Alexi gives him the strength to deal with his past, and Bodee helps her find the courage to finally face the truth.
A searing, poignant book, Faking Normal is the extraordinary debut novel from an exciting new author-Courtney C. Stevens.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Faking Normal?
Hmm. That’s a tough question because Faking Normal hits on so many levels for me. I believe it’s the book I was meant to write, and there’s some triumph in the fact that I ever wrote the first sentence. But my favorite part is the character of Bodee.
He’s very real to me, and I’m thankful for him. I suppose that sounds funny or a little crazy to anyone who isn’t an author. When I was writing Faking Normal, I re-experienced so much personal healing through his character. Characters, while they obviously come from the writer’s brain, don’t often manifest like a personal creation, but rather as their own entity. Bodee waltz into my life, and as he reintroduced himself, I wrote down everything he told me, everything he said that was true about me and others who have experienced pain.
Faking Normal is fiction, but I tried to be true to pain, but also to hope. Bodee is dressed in hope and speaks with healing. And I believe for every pain in the world, there is a Bodee. He will always be the boy who loved Alexi anyway, and that’s a powerful message in my own life.
One of my favorite musicians (Andrew Peterson) has a line in his song Lay Me Down that I come back to all the time. He says,
“And all of the death that ever was,
if you set it next to life
Well, I believe it would barely fill a cup.”
Pain is the common denominator of the human experience. See, the tricky thing about pain is that we all have it, but we rarely share it. What if we did? What if we chose vulnerability over shame? What if we chose honesty over secrets? What if we chose to channel our brave instead of letting fear rule us? That’s what Bodee does. He decides to tell Alexi his story, his pain, and that makes all the difference.
I’d like to be a Bodee.
And if you have pain, I hope you find your Bodee.
(If you’re interested in how Bodee became Bodee, check out The Blue-Haired Boy, a Harper Impulse story that releases 3/4/14.)
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Tremor
by Patrick Carman
Signed Hardcover Giveaway
Katherine Tegen Books
Released 2/25/2014
Winner: Glenn Woods
In the year 2051, some people have a second pulse…
Like all who have “the pulse,” Faith Daniels and Dylan Gilmore have telekinetic powers—they can move objects with their minds. But there are five “second pulses” in the world who have an even greater power: Almost nothing can harm them. They are virtually indestructible.
Both Faith and Dylan have the second pulse. But the other side has second pulses, too, and they’ve been training for a war that has been brewing their entire lives. As Dylan executes a plan to infiltrate enemy grounds, he’ll have to face his only weakness, and a family secret that will threaten his very existence.
Together, Faith and Dylan are the only hope this world has left, but they must go their separate ways in order to accomplish their plan. Will their love survive?
With richly developed characters and heart-pounding action scenes, the second book in Patrick Carman’s Pulse trilogy continues the electrifying dystopian story of love and revenge.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Tremor?
Second books in a series can be challenging to write, but I have to say, writing TREMOR (the second PULSE book) was a blast. Everything was so tee’d up at the end of the first book! All the main character were pumped up and ready to fight, so I could put them directly into the serious action. From the word go, TREMOR is a fast paced section of the overall story, and I love writing those books – my fingers can’t fly across the keyboard fast enough. Two other things I loved about this book: being able to reveal some big things I’d been hiding, and moving the key characters forward in their emotional journey. If you read the first book, TREMOR pays off on a lot of scores.
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The Well’s End
by Seth Fishman
Personalized Hardcover Giveaway
U.S. and Canada
Putnam Juvenile
Released 2/25/2014
Winner: Jill Lurie
A deadly virus and an impossible discovery unite in one enthralling can’t-miss read…
Sixteen-year-old Mia Kish has always been afraid of the dark. After all, she’s baby Mia, the one who fell down a well. That was years ago, though the darkness still haunts her. But when her classmates and teachers at ritzy Westbrook Academy start dying of old age from a bizarre and frightening virus that ages its victims years in a matter of hours, Mia becomes haunted by a lot more than the dark. Their deaths are gruesome and Mia worries she and her friends may be next. In order to survive, Mia and her small crew must break quarantine and outrun armed soldiers in hazmat suits who shoot first and ask questions later.
And there’s only one place to go—the Cave, aka Fenton Electronics. Mia knows it’s somehow connected and hopes her dad, Director of Fenton Electronics, who has always been strangely secretive about his work, has the answers she needs, and more importantly a cure to save everyone before the whole town succumbs to the mysterious virus. Unfortunately, it’s not answers Mia discovers, but something far more treacherous and impossible than even the virus itself.
A high-stakes, fast-paced adventure with imagination and heart.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about The Well’s End?
My favorite thing about TWE is that I wanted to create a world that felt grounded and exciting, but then to slowly take the reader into a brand new world, one they might not normally travel to. I think it’s a risk but one, as an agent, that I haven’t really seen much of before and that’s the goal: to try to do something totally different in a way that will appeal to lots of readers. I guess we’ll see if it works! I also like elite prep schools and things that go wrong. Who doesn’t?
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Year of Mistaken Discoveries
by Eileen Cook
Hardcover Giveaway
Simon Pulse
Released 2/25/2014
Winner: Carl Scott
Friendship is a bond stronger than secrets in this novel from the author of The Almost Truth and Unraveling Isobel.
As first graders, Avery and Nora bonded over a special trait they shared—they were both adopted.
Years later, Avery is smart, popular, and on the cheerleading squad, while Nora spends her time on the fringes of school society, wearing black, reading esoteric poetry, and listening to obscure music. They never interact…until the night Nora approaches Avery at a party, saying it’s urgent. She tells Avery that she thought she found her birth mom—but it turned out to be a cruel lie. Avery feels for Nora, but returns to her friends at the party.
Then Avery learns that Nora overdosed on pills. Left to cope with Nora’s loss and questioning her own actions, Avery decides to honor her friend by launching a search for her own birth mother. Aided by Brody, a friend of Nora’s who is also looking for a way to respect Nora’s legacy, Avery embarks on an emotional quest. But what she’s really seeking might go far deeper than just genetics…
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Year of Mistaken Discoveries?
How does someone choose one favorite thing from a book? The inspiration for this book came when I was looking at how friendships reflect who we are, and how when we change this puts pressure on those relationships. The main character, Avery, has grown apart from her childhood best friend, Nora. Even though she doesn’t really hang out with Nora anymore, she still feels as if they’re friends. Nora is a part of her growing up. When Nora kills herself, Avery has to decide how to honor that friendship and what the loss of Nora means to her. It sends her off on a quest to find her own birth mom and a chance to decide who she wants to be.
I am fascinated in that period in your life when you let go of being who your family and friends want you to be and start deciding what it is you want from your life. This book has some more serious moments as compared to my others, but I love the characters and the journey they take. And in case anyone is worried- there are still lots of laugh out loud moments.
However, if I had to pick one favorite thing, it hasn’t happened yet. It’s the moment when I open my email and see a note from a reader saying that she loved the book. I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything.
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Boy on the Edge
by Fridrik Erlings
Hardcover Giveaway
Candlewick
Released 2/25/2014
Winner: Erin Koch
Can a boy on the edge find his way back? From award-winning Icelandic author Fridrik Erlings comes a novel as cruel as it is tender.
Henry has a clubfoot and he is the target of relentless bullying. One day, in a violent fit of anger, Henry lashes out at the only family he has — his mother. Sent to live with other troubled boys at the Home of Lesser Brethren, an isolated farm perched in the craggy lava fields along the unforgiving Icelandic coast, Henry finds a precarious contentment among the cows. But it is the people, including the manic preacher who runs the home, who fuel Henry’s frustration and sometimes rage as he yearns for a life and a home. Author Fridrik Erlings offers a young adult novel that explores cruelty and desperation, tenderness and remorse, but most importantly, kindness and friendship.
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Never Ending
by Martyn Bedford
ARC Giveaway
Wendy Lamb Books
Released 3/11/2014
Winner: Jeanne Agee
Shiv’s best mate, her brother Declan, is dead. It’s been all over the news. Consumed by grief and guilt, she agrees to become an inpatient at the Korsakoff Clinic. There she meets Mikey. Caron. The others. They share a similar torment. And there, subjected to the clinic’s unconventional therapy, they must face what they can’t bear to see.
Shiv is flooded with flashbacks, nightmares, haunting visions of Declan on their last, fateful family vacation in Greece. And with memories of Nikos, the beautiful young man on the tour boat. It started there, with him, beside the glittering sea . . . the beginning of the end.
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MORE YOUNG ADULT FICTION IN STORES NEXT WEEK WITH AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
A Death-Struck Year
by Makiia Lucier
Hardcover
HMH Books for Young Readers
Released 3/4/2014
A deadly pandemic, a budding romance, and the heartache of loss make for a stunning coming-of-age teen debut about the struggle to survive during the 1918 flu.
For Cleo Berry, the people dying of the Spanish Influenza in cities like New York and Philadelphia may as well be in another country–that’s how far away they feel from the safety of Portland, Oregon. And then cases start being reported in the Pacific Northwest. Schools, churches, and theaters shut down. The entire city is thrust into survival mode–and into a panic. Headstrong and foolish, seventeen-year-old Cleo is determined to ride out the pandemic in the comfort of her own home, rather than in her quarantined boarding school dorms. But when the Red Cross pleads for volunteers, she can’t ignore the call. As Cleo struggles to navigate the world around her, she is surprised by how much she finds herself caring about near-strangers. Strangers like Edmund, a handsome medical student and war vet. Strangers who could be gone tomorrow. And as the bodies begin to pile up, Cleo can’t help but wonder: when will her own luck run out?
Riveting and well-researched, A Death-Struck Year is based on the real-life pandemic considered the most devastating in recorded world history. Readers will be captured by the suspenseful storytelling and the lingering questions of: what would I do for a neighbor? At what risk to myself?
An afterword explains the Spanish flu phenomenon, placing it within the historical context of the early 20th century. Source notes are extensive and interesting.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about A Death-Struck Year?
On the surface, there’s nothing remarkable about Cleo. She doesn’t have any superpowers or ninja reflexes. She can’t read your mind; she can barely handle living on her own for the first time. In other words, Cleo is imperfect, which makes her easy to relate to. My favorite thing about A Death-Struck Year is that it takes an ordinary girl and places her in an extraordinary situation. And we realize that there’s something very special about her after all.
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Death Sworn
by Leah Cypess
Hardcover
Greenwillow Books
Released 3/4/2014
When Ileni lost her magic, she lost everything: her place in society, her purpose in life, and the man she had expected to spend her life with. So when the Elders sent her to be magic tutor to a secret sect of assassins, she went willingly, even though the last two tutors had died under mysterious circumstances.
But beneath the assassins’ caves, Ileni will discover a new place and a new purpose… and a new and dangerous love. She will struggle to keep her lost magic a secret while teaching it to her deadly students, and to find out what happened to the two tutors who preceded her. But what she discovers will change not only her future, but the future of her people, the assassins… and possibly the entire world.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Death Sworn?
I find that impossible to answer, so I’m going to twist it into: What
was your favorite part of writing Death Sworn? And that was getting
the setting right. Death Sworn is set entirely in a series of
underground caverns, which meant the research for it was amazing. I
got to look at beautiful pictures, watch awe-inspiring documentaries,
and best of all, dig through my old travel notebooks to recapture the
descriptions I wrote of various caves I had been in. And then I got to
improve on those descriptions to make them as atmospheric and eerie
and frightening as I could!
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Nil
by Lynne Matson
Hardcover
Henry Holt and Co.
Released 3/4/2014
On the mysterious island of Nil, the rules are set. You have exactly 365 days to escape—or you die.
Seventeen-year-old Charley doesn’t know the rules. She doesn’t even know where she is. The last thing she remembers is blacking out, and when she wakes up, she’s naked in an empty rock field.
Lost and alone, Charley finds no sign of other people until she meets Thad, the gorgeous leader of a clan of teenage refugees. Soon Charley learns that leaving the island is harder than she thought . . . and so is falling in love. With Thad’s time running out, Charley realizes that she has to find a way to beat the clock, and quickly.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Nil?
What do I love most about NIL? Gosh, that’s hard. I love how the characters fight to figure out the island, knowing so much information has been lost over time due to the “revolving door” of kids coming and going over time. I Iove the selflessness of the characters (at least most!) on the island, as they cling to their humanity and work to help others, including figuring out a way to retain knowledge of Nil so less is lost. And I love how Charley and Thad wrestle with their feelings for each other …after finding each other in the one place (Nil) where they have no future.
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Panic
by Lauren Oliver
Hardcover
HarperCollins
Released 3/4/2014
Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.
Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.
Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn’t know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.
For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Panic?
That’s a difficult question to answer. Of course, I love the characters and the way that their stories intersect, and I’m particularly proud of the dual narrative perspective, particularly because it gave me the chance to write from a male point of view. I also like the way that the town of Carp itself becomes a kind of character; it was fun to really conceive of the town as a whole and think about what growing up there would have felt like. But my absolute FAVORITE thing about PANIC? One word, man: tigers!
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MORE YOUNG ADULT NOVELS NEW IN STORES NEXT WEEK
16 Things I Thought Were True
by Janet Gurtler
Paperback
Sourcebooks Fire
Released 3/4/2014
Heart attacks happen to other people #thingsIthoughtweretrue
When Morgan’s mom gets sick, it’s hard not to panic. Without her mother, she would have no one—until she finds out the dad who walked out on her as a baby isn’t as far away as she thought…
Adam is a stuck-up, uptight jerk #thingsIthoughtweretrue
Now that they have a summer job together, Morgan’s getting to know the real Adam, and he’s actually pretty sweet…in a nerdy-hot kind of way. He even offers to go with her to find her dad. Road trip, anyone?
5000 Twitter followers are all the friends I need #thingsIthoughtweretrue
With Adam in the back seat, a hyper chatterbox named Amy behind the wheel, and plenty of Cheetos to fuel their trip, Morgan feels ready for anything. She’s not expecting a flat tire, a missed ferry, a fake girlfriend…and that these two people she barely knew before the summer started will become the people she can’t imagine living without.
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Half Bad
by Sally Green
Hardcover
Viking Juvenile
Released 3/4/2014
A stunning, magical debut. An international sensation.
In modern-day England, witches live alongside humans: White witches, who are good; Black witches, who are evil; and fifteen-year-old Nathan, who is both. Nathan’s father is the world’s most powerful and cruel Black witch, and his mother is dead. He is hunted from all sides. Trapped in a cage, beaten and handcuffed, Nathan must escape before his sixteenth birthday, at which point he will receive three gifts from his father and come into his own as a witch—or else he will die. But how can Nathan find his father when his every action is tracked, when there is no one safe to trust—not even family, not even the girl he loves?
In the tradition of Patrick Ness and Markus Zusak, Half Bad is a gripping tale of alienation and the indomitable will to survive, a story that will grab hold of you and not let go until the very last page.
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Steadfast
by Claudia Gray
Hardcover
HarperTeen
Released 3/4/2014
Nadia, Mateo, and Verlaine have saved Captive’s Sound from the dark Sorceress Elizabeth…or so they thought. Despite their best efforts, a crack opened and a new, greater evil seeped through. With Mateo as her Steadfast, Nadia’s magic is magnified and she is more powerful than ever. But there is still so much she doesn’t know about the craft, leaving her open and vulnerable to a darker magic…which has begun to call Nadia’s name.
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The Winner’s Curse
by Marie Rutkoski
Hardcover
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Released 3/4/2014
Winning what you want may cost you everything you love As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions. One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin. But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined. Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.
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Wayfarer: A Tale of Beauty and Madness
by Lili St. Crow
Paperback
Razorbill
Released 3/6/2014
New York Times bestselling author Lili St. Crow thrilled legions of fans with her dark paranormal series Strange Angels. Now she has created a stirringly romantic, deliciously spooky update of Cinderella, the alluring second volume in her trilogy Tales of Beauty and Madness.
The Charmer’s Ball. Midnight. And one glass slipper…
Newly orphaned, increasingly isolated from her friends, and terrified of her violent stepmother, Ellen Sinder still believes she’ll be okay. She has a plan for surviving and getting through high school, which includes keeping her head down and saving any credits she can earn or steal. But when a train arrives from over the Waste beyond New Haven, carrying a golden boy and a new stepsister, all of Ellie’s plans begin to unravel, one by one.
Just when all hope is lost, Ellie meets an odd old woman with a warm hearth and a heavenly garden. Auntie’s kindness is intoxicating, and Ellie finally has a home again. Yet when the clock strikes twelve on the night of the annual Charmer’s Ball, Ellie realizes that no charm is strong enough to make her past disappear…
In a city where Twisted minotaurs and shifty fey live alongside diplomats and charmers, a teenage girl can disappear through the cracks into safety–or into something much more dangerous. So what happens when the only safety you can find wants to consume you as well?
Lili St. Crow is the author of the Strange Angels series for young adults and the Dante Valentine series, among others, for adults. She is also the author of Nameless, a companion book to Wayfarer. She lives in Vancouver, Washington with her family. Visit lilistcrow.com to find out more.
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