YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS THIS WEEK
Now and Forever
by Susane Colasanti
Personalized Hardcover Giveaway
Viking Juvenile
Released 5/20/2014
What if your boyfriend was the world’s biggest rockstar?
Sterling is crazy in love with Ethan. Not only is he the sweetest boy she’s ever met, but he’s an incredibly talented guitarist, singer, and songwriter. And since forever, he’s believed he has what it takes to be a star.
When Ethan becomes an overnight sensation, he’s thrown head-first into the glam world of celebrity-and so is Sterling. Before she knows it, she’s attending red-carpet premieres, getting free designer clothes, and flying around the country to attend Ethan’s monumental sold-out concerts.
It’s a dream come true…but whose dream is Sterling living? And what do you do when “forever” comes to an end?
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Now and Forever?
My favorite thing about NOW AND FOREVER is that I was able to bring my biggest teen fantasy to life. Back in junior high and high school, I obsessed over my fave musicians something fierce. I imagined what it would be like to be the girlfriend of the world’s biggest rock star. Would it be all glamorous and passionate? Or would insane fame inevitably shatter our bond? Would I be jealous of his millions of fangirls? Or would I know in my heart that nothing could ever tear us apart? Exploring these questions made the writing process super fun. Writing NOW AND FOREVER was my opportunity to take a loving relationship and follow it during the evolution of a rock star blowing up.
Another thing I loved was bringing back a character from my third book, WAITING FOR YOU. Sterling was the best friend of the main character, Marisa. Now it’s two years later and a lot has changed since we last saw her. Connecting my books with common characters, places, and quirky details is always fun times. I hope my readers enjoy discovering these connections as much as I enjoy including them!
Purchase Now and Forever at Amazon
Purchase Now and Forever at IndieBound
View Now and Forever on Goodreads
The Art of Lainey
by Paula Stokes
Signed Paperback Giveaway
Harper Teen
Released 5/20/2014
Soccer star Lainey Mitchell is used to getting what she wants, and when her boyfriend Jason breaks up with her for no reason, what she wants is to win him back before the start of their senior year. Lainey and her friend Bianca check the interwebz for tips and tricks, but the online dating advice is all pretty lame.
Then the girls stumble across a copy of The Art of War. Didn’t someone once say that love is a battlefield? Jason isn’t going to stand a chance once Lainey and Bee go all Zhou Dynasty on him…
Old school strategy and subterfuge meet modern-day dramarama in the story of a girl who sets out to win at all costs and ends up discovering what’s really worth fighting for.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about The Art of Lainey?
I am going to say Lainey’s character growth throughout the book. I prefer to write (and read) about flawed characters, so Lainey starts out as a mix of endearing (she’s funny, loyal, etc.) and exasperating. She’s living her “dream high-school experience” as a soccer star and popular girl with an awesome boyfriend when he suddenly dumps her for no reason. Her world kind of falls apart until she resolves to win him back any way she can, which ends up involving strategies from The Art of War. Sure, it’s not very enlightened to want a guy back who blew you off in spectacular fashion, but I’ve been there, multiple times, as have most of my friends. It felt real to me, as did Lainey’s tendencies to be a little shallow and melodramatic.
Lainey doesn’t become a whole new person by the end of the book, because that would’ve felt forced, but she does go from being someone you might want to bop on the head to being someone you honestly cheer for. She loses a lot of her superficial tendencies and deepens her endearing traits as she learns things over the course of the summer. Alongside a truly epic best friend and potential new love interest, Lainey figures out what really matters, and to me the metamorphosis is both believable and inspiring.
Purchase The Art of Lainey at Amazon
Purchase The Art of Lainey at IndieBound
View The Art of Lainey on Goodreads
Biggest Flirts
by Jennifer Echols
Hardcover Giveaway
Simon Pulse
Released 5/20/2014
Tia and Will’s lives get flipped upside down when they’re voted Yearbook’s Biggest Flirts in this sassy novel from the author of Endless Summer and The One That I Want.
Tia just wants to have fun. She’s worked hard to earn her reputation as the life of the party, and she’s ready for a carefree senior year of hanging out with friends and hooking up with cute boys. And her first order of business? New guy Will. She can’t get enough of his Midwestern accent and laidback swagger.
As the sparks start to fly, Will wants to get serious. Tia’s seen how caring too much has left her sisters heartbroken, and she isn’t interested in commitment. But pushing Will away drives him into the arms of another girl. Tia tells herself it’s no big deal…until the yearbook elections are announced. Getting voted Biggest Flirts with Will is, well, awkward. They may just be friends, but their chemistry is beginning to jeopardize Will’s new relationship—and causing Tia to reconsider her true feelings. What started as a lighthearted fling is about to get very complicated…
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Biggest Flirts?
A couple of years ago, I vacationed in Puerto Rico with my husband. We ate at a wonderful restaurant in Old San Juan, where we were waited on by the cutest, most vivacious waitress with her auburn hair in two long braids. She bounded up to the table, rattled off the night’s specials, and asked for our drink orders in perfect Spanish. (At least, I thought it was perfect Spanish. My own Spanish is spotty at best. I was very proud that I was able to order lunch the next day at an all-Spanish-speaking Pollo Tropical fast-food restaurant. But she sounded perfect to me!) My husband is Southeast Asian, and I think she must have taken him for Latino at first in the dim light. We looked up at her in shock, both of us thinking, “We were told most folks serving tourists in Old San Juan speak English, but now we’re in trouble!” She read our expressions, turned on a dime, and repeated everything she’d just said (I guess) in perfect English with no accent whatsoever, like an American newscaster, and with the brightest smile.
I based the main character, Tia, on this girl. I thought it would be so fun to spend a book with her. I loved the idea of a tall, auburn-haired beauty so proficient that she never even thinks about her own proficiency, and so carefree that it’s her very happy-go-lucky attitude that eventually becomes her downfall.
Purchase Biggest Flirts at Amazon
Purchase Biggest Flirts at IndieBound
View Biggest Flirts on Goodreads
Inifinite Sky
by C.J Flood
Advance Reader Copy Giveaway
Antheum Books For Young Reader
Released 5/20/2014
True love is never lost—but how much loss can it endure? Iris confronts the complexities of family and prejudice in this exquisite and searing debut novel.
Just two months after her mother abandons her family, leaving her gruff, introverted father to raise two children alone, Iris watches a family of gypsies set up an illegal camp in the paddock by her house. The gypsy boy, Trick, is restless and warm and full of life—he’ll settle when he’s in his grave, he tells Iris—and she feels as though she understands him completely.
Yet even as Iris’s secret friendship with Trick blooms into something more, tensions run high between their families. Iris’s father is bent on evicting the travelers, and her beloved brother Sam is impulsive, lost, and headed for trouble. But Trick might not be everything he seems, and as Iris struggles to find where her loyalties lie, all of the prejudice, vulnerability, and anger that surrounds her collides in an unspeakable tragedy.
Like love, and like sorrow, the blue summer sky is infinite in this coming-of-age story that is both breathtaking and heartbreaking.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Inifinite Sky?
My favourite thing about Infinite Sky is the setting. I stole lots of details from my home town in the British countryside, and Silverweed Farm where Iris and her family live, and where the Dancy family set up camp, is an almost identical replica of my childhood home.
The story takes place during a summer holiday in which there is a heat wave, and so it is a very summery book is full of blue sky days and pink sky nights. There are lots of scenes with Iris and Trick sitting out in the fields sharing secrets and telling stories into the extra long evenings.
Purchase Inifinite Sky at Amazon
Purchase Inifinite Sky at IndieBound
View Inifinite Sky on Goodreads
YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS LAST WEEK: WINNERS
Free to Fall
by Lauren Miller
Hardcover
Harper Teen
Released 5/13/2014
Winner – Gilly Segal
What if there was an app that told you what song to listen to, what coffee to order, who to date, even what to do with your life—an app that could ensure your complete and utter happiness? What if you never had to fail or make a wrong choice?
What if you never had to fall?
Fast-forward to a time when Apple and Google have been replaced by Gnosis, a monolith corporation that has developed the most life-changing technology to ever hit the market: Lux, an app that flawlessly optimizes decision making for the best personal results. Just like everyone else, sixteen-year-old Rory Vaughn knows the key to a happy, healthy life is following what Lux recommends. When she’s accepted to the elite boarding school Theden Academy, her future happiness seems all the more assured. But once on campus, something feels wrong beneath the polished surface of her prestigious dream school. Then she meets North, a handsome townie who doesn’t use Lux, and begins to fall for him and his outsider way of life. Soon, Rory is going against Lux’s recommendations, listening instead to the inner voice that everyone has been taught to ignore — a choice that leads her to uncover a truth neither she nor the world ever saw coming.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Free to Fall?
I think my favorite thing about this story is how philosophical it is! On one level, it’s this really fast-paced, conspiracies everywhere techno thriller. But just beneath that are deeply philosophical questions about free will and the human spirit and the nature of happiness. When the story opens, Rory, my main character, has just been accepted into Theden Academy, a boarding school modeled after the Platonic Academies of Ancient Greece. Theden is this really cool mix of the future and the past. The technology in the classrooms is all crazy cutting-edge, but the substance of the education is very old-school, and what Rory learns in the classroom — Socratic-style lessons about rationality and logic and happiness — begins to have deeper meaning as her life begins to unravel. Her worldview is shaped by what she’s been learning, and that worldview colors the narrative for the reader. The result, I think, is that we experience Rory’s journey as a sort-of microcosm of humanity’s journey down a road that will eventually fork, forcing the journeyman — whether that’s society as a whole, Rory, each reader — to choose which path to take. I love this deeper layer. The substance beneath the surface. And really, that’s what Free to Fall is all about. Asking difficult questions and questioning the answers.
Purchase Free to Fall at Amazon
Purchase Free to Fall at IndieBound
View Free to Fall on Goodreads
Renegade
by Debra Driza
Hardcover
plus Paperback of Mila 2.0
Katherine Tegen Books
Released 5/13/2014
Winner – Christine Tremmel
There is no one left for Mila to trust. Except for a boy she barely knows.
But Hunter has no idea who—and what—Mila really is. She can’t bear to reveal her secret, even though he’s unwittingly joined her search for Richard Grady, a man who may know more details of Mila’s complicated past.
Yet the road to the truth is more dangerous than ever. With General Holland and the Vita Obscura scouring the earth for her whereabouts, Mila must rely on her newfound android abilities to protect herself and Hunter from imminent harm. Still, embracing her identity as a machine leads her to question the state of her humanity—as well as Hunter’s real motives.
Perfect for fans of I Am Number Four and Divergent, this action-packed and heart-wrenching second installment of MILA 2.0 will leave readers breathlessly awaiting the series conclusion.
Purchase Renegade at Amazon
Purchase Renegade at IndieBound
View Renegade on Goodreads
Searching for Sky
by Jillian Cantor
Hardcover
Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Released 5/13/2014
Winner – Danielle Hammelef
Sky and River have always lived on Island, the only world they’ve ever known. Until the day River spots a boat. Across Ocean, in a place called California, Sky is separated from River and forced to live with a grandmother she’s just met. Here the rules for survival are different. People rely on strange things like cars and cell phones. They keep secrets from one another. And without River, nothing makes sense. Sky yearns for her old life where she was strong and capable, not lost and confused. She must find River so they can return to Island, but the truth behind how they ended up there in the first place will come as the biggest shock of all.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Searching for Sky?
What I enjoyed most about writing Searching for Sky was thinking about the world from my main character Sky’s point of view. In the book Sky has grown up on a deserted island, so she knows about survival: fishing and hunting and starting fires, but she has no sense of the modern world. When she’s rescued in the beginning of the book and taken to California to live with a grandmother she has never met, she’s seeing everything in our modern world for the first time: cell phones, cars, light switches, even toilets. I enjoyed thinking about and describing what our world would look like through her eyes and thinking about how scary and foreign modern technology (and even the concept of Google!) would appear to someone like Sky.
Purchase Searching for Sky at Amazon
Purchase Searching for Sky at IndieBound
View Searching for Sky on Goodreads
The Lovely and the Lost
by Page Morgan
Hardcover
Delacorte Press
Released 5/13/2014
Winner – Alysia Lynch
Ingrid and Gabby survived the Underneath. They saved their brother, Grayson, from a future of dark servitude and exposed a plot to undermine the Alliance. But danger still lurks in the streets of Paris, and the Dispossessed, perched on the city’s bridges and rooftops, might not be able to save their human wards this time.
Purchase The Lovely and the Lost at Amazon
Purchase The Lovely and the Lost at IndieBound
View The Lovely and the Lost on Goodreads
The Secrets of Tree Taylor
by Dandi Daley Mackall
Hardcover
Knopf Books for Young Readers
Released 5/13/2014
Winner – Rachel Bostick
Thirteen-year-old Tree Taylor has two goals for the summer of ’63:
1. Experience her first real kiss. A kiss delivered by a boy. A boy who is not related to her. A kiss worth writing about.
2. Become a famous writer. (Or, at least, write an investigative article that will land her the freshman spot on the Blue and Gold staff.)
So when a gunshot is fired right across the street, Tree knows this is the big story she’s been waiting for. But the more she goes digging, the more secrets she uncovers, and soon she begins to wonder: When is it important to expose the truth? And when is it right to keep a secret?
Purchase The Secrets of Tree Taylor at Amazon
Purchase The Secrets of Tree Taylor at IndieBound
View The Secrets of Tree Taylor on Goodreads
The Sound
by Sarah Alderson
Hardcover
Simon Pulse
Released 5/13/2014
Winner – Taffy Lovell
A British nanny looking for a low-key summer finds buried secrets, murderous attention, and unexpected romance when she visits the Nantucket Sound.
The Nantucket Sound is a beachfront playground for the privileged and elite, where the sunny days are filled with scenic bike rides, backyard picnics, and bonfire parties.
But all Ren Kingston—a visiting Brit still reeling from heartbreak—really wants is a quiet summer as a nanny for one of Nantucket’s wealthy families. Getting acquainted with handsome Jeremy and his young group of trust fund, private school kids was not part of the plan. Neither was befriending the local bad boy whose reputation is more dangerous than charming.
After a dead body is found next to The Sound’s postcard-perfect view, Ren starts to wonder where the real threat lies. Because it’s becoming clear that her newfound “friends” are much more than they seem. They’re hiding secrets. Secrets that Ren wants no part of.
But once The Sound has you in its current, it won’t want to let you go…
Purchase The Sound at Amazon
Purchase The Sound at IndieBound
View The Sound on Goodreads
There Will Come a Time
by Carrie Arcos
Paperback
Simon Pulse
Released 5/13/2014
Winner – Kara Meggs
Mark knows grief. Ever since the accident that killed his twin sister, Grace, the only time he feels at peace is when he visits the bridge on which she died. Comfort is fleeting, but it’s almost within reach when he’s standing on the wrong side of the suicide bars. Almost.
Grace’s best friend, Hanna, says she understands what he’s going through. But she doesn’t. She can’t. It’s not just the enormity of his loss. As her twin, Mark should have known Grace as well as he knows himself. Yet when he reads her journal, it’s as if he didn’t know her at all.
As a way to remember Grace, Hanna convinces Mark to complete Grace’s bucket list from her journal. Mark’s sadness, anger, and his growing feelings for Hannah threaten to overwhelm him. But Mark can’t back out. He made a promise to honor Grace—and it’s his one chance to set things right.
Purchase There Will Come a Time at Amazon
Purchase There Will Come a Time at IndieBound
View There Will Come a Time on Goodreads
MORE YOUNG ADULT NOVELS NEW IN STORES NEXT WEEK
Dangerous Creatures
by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Hardcover
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Released 5/20/2014
From the world of Beautiful Creatures–a dangerous new tale of love and magic.
Ridley Duchannes is nobody’s heroine. She’s a Dark Caster, a Siren. She can make you do things. Anything. You can’t trust her, or yourself when she’s around. And she’ll be the first to tell you to stay away-especially if you’re going to do something as stupid as fall in love with her.
Lucky for Ridley, her wannabe rocker boyfriend, Wesley “Link” Lincoln, never listens to anyone. Link doesn’t care if Rid’s no good for him, and he takes her along when he leaves small-town Gatlin to follow his rock-star dream. He teams up with a ragtag group of Dark Casters, and when the band scores a gig at a hot Underground club, it looks like all of Link’s dreams are about to come true.
But New York City is a dangerous place for both Casters and Mortals, and soon Ridley realizes that Link’s bandmates are keeping secrets. With bad-boy club owner Lennox Gates on her heels, Rid is determined to find out the truth. What she discovers is worse than she could have imagined: Link has a price on his head that no Caster or Mortal can ever pay. With their lives on the line, what’s a Siren to do?
Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthors of the Beautiful Creatures novels, are back to cast another magical spell. Their signature blend of mystery, suspense, and romance, with a healthy dose of wit and danger, will pull fans in and leave them begging for more.
Purchase Dangerous Creatures at Amazon
Purchase Dangerous Creatures at IndieBound
View Dangerous Creatures on Goodreads
Butterfly Grave
by Anne Cassidy
Paperback
Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Released 5/20/2014
Joshua’s uncle has survived a near fatal accident and Rose and Joshua drive to Newcastle to visit him, along with their friend Skeggsie.
Joshua is convinced they are being followed. Can it be true, or is it just his paranoia? Rose and Joshua do not know who to trust – even Joshua’s uncle has a dark past, touched by murder. And then the precious murder notebooks are stolen and it is Skeggsie who pays the price for Rose and Joshua’s so-called meddling. Somebody out there really does not want Rose and Joshua to find their parents. But who? And why?
A taut and pacy thriller, perfect for teens.
Purchase Butterfly Grave at Amazon
Purchase Butterfly Grave at IndieBound
View Butterfly Grave on Goodreads
End Times
by Anna Schumacher
Hardcover
Razorbill
Released 5/20/2014
Carbon County, Wyoming is like a current running through Daphne’s heart.
When life gets too tough to bear in Detroit, Daphne flees to her Uncle Floyd’s home, where she believes she’ll find solace in the silent hills of her childhood summers. But Daphne’s Greyhound bus pulls over in downtown Carbon County and it’s not silence that welcomes her. It’s the sound of trumpets.
Daphne’s desire to start again in simple country comfort is instantly dashed as the townsfolk declare that the End Times are here. And incredible occurrences soon support their belief. Daphne does all she can to keep her head down and ignore the signs. She works a job at the local oil rig, helps around the house, hangs out with her pregnant cousin Janie and gets to know Owen, a mysterious motocross racer and fellow roustabout at the rig. But soon a startling discovery shatters her resolve and calls into question all her doubts and fears.
Daphne landed in Carbon County for a reason. She only has to read the signs—and believe.
Purchase End Times at Amazon
Purchase End Times at IndieBound
View End Times on Goodreads
The Rules for Breaking
by Ashley Elston
Hardcover
Disney-Hyperion
Released 5/20/2014
Who do you trust when no one is what they seem? The gripping sequel to contemporary, romantic YA thriller, The Rules for Disappearing.
Who do you trust when no one is what they seem? The gripping sequel to contemporary, romantic YA thriller, The Rules for Disappearing.
Anna Boyd almost lost her life to get what she wanted most in the world: freedom.
But just when it seems that her family has finally escaped Witness Protection, the illusion that Anna could resume a normal life comes crashing down.
The deadly man Anna knows as Thomas is still on the loose, and now he’s using her as a pawn in a dangerous game with the drug cartel determined to silence her forever. When Thomas and a mysterious masked man capture not only Anna but also her fragile younger sister and her boyfriend, Anna decides it’s time to break all the rules-even if it means teaming up with the lesser of two evils.
Anna will do whatever it takes to protect the people she loves and win her life back once and for all. But her true enemies are hidden in plain sight. Before long, Anna will learn that putting her trust in anyone may be the last mistake she ever makes.
Purchase The Rules for Breaking at Amazon
Purchase The Rules for Breaking at IndieBound
View The Rules for Breaking on Goodreads
The Summer Invitation
by Charlotte Silver
Hardcover
Roaring Brook Press
Released 5/20/2014
Two sisters are summoned to their aunt’s Greenwich Village flat, where they must start dressing like young ladies, cultivate their artistic sensibilities, and open themselves up to Life with a capital L.
When Franny and her older sister Valentine are summoned by their Aunt Theodora from foggy San Francisco to sunny New York City for one summer, they are taken to old-world locales like Bemelmans Bar, the Plaza, and the Sherry Netherland by their chaperone, Clover, Aunt Theodora’s protégé. As they discover New York City going lingerie shopping and learning about the simple elegance of a cucumber sandwich, they also begin to unearth secrets and answers about Aunt Theo’s glamorous and romantic past, and they have a few romantic adventures of their own.
Purchase The Summer Invitation at Amazon
Purchase The Summer Invitation at IndieBound
View The Summer Invitation on Goodreads
While You’re Away
by Jess Holbrook
Paperback
Razorbill
Released 5/20/2014
Once a cheater, always a cheater?
From the moment Will and Sarah first set eyes upon each other, they know that what they have is special. There’s just one little problem . . . each of them already has a significant other.
After flirting with danger, it becomes clear their passion is too strong to be denied. But even if they make their relationship official, there are plenty of challenges in store. Will leaves for college at the end of the summer, while Sarah faces her senior year of high school in their small suburban town. Long-distance relationships always come with their fair share of troubles—mismatched schedules, jealousy, and temptation are only the beginning.
Can cheaters ever change?
WHILE YOU’RE AWAY is a steamy story about a love triangle, a long-distance relationship, and learning the true meaning of commitment.
Purchase While You’re Away at Amazon
Purchase While You’re Away at IndieBound
View While You’re Away on Goodreads
