Our Pitch + First Page Contest will open for submissions at 12:00pm Eastern tomorrow, February 15th.
Make sure you read the rules here: http://adventuresinyacontests.blogspot.com/2014/02/february-pitch-first-page-contest-rules.html
And check out all of the fabulous judges here: http://adventuresinyacontests.blogspot.com/2014/02/february-pitch-first-page-contest-rules.html
YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS THIS WEEK
Ignite Me
by Tahereh Mafi
Hardcover Giveaway
HarperCollins
Released 2/4/2014
The heart-stopping conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Shatter Me series, which Ransom Riggs, bestselling author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, called “a thrilling, high-stakes saga of self-discovery and forbidden love”
Juliette now knows she may be the only one who can stop the Reestablishment. But to take them down, she’ll need the help of the one person she never thought she could trust: Warner. And as they work together, Juliette will discover that everything she thought she knew-about Warner, her abilities, and even Adam-was wrong.
In Shatter Me, Tahereh Mafi created a captivating and original story that combined the best of dystopian and paranormal and was praised by Publishers Weekly as “a gripping read from an author who’s not afraid to take risks.” The sequel, Unravel Me, blew readers away with heart-racing twists and turns, and New York Times bestselling author Kami Garcia said it was “dangerous, sexy, romantic, and intense.” Now this final book brings the series to a shocking and climactic end.
Praise for the Shatter Me series:
“Dangerous, sexy, romantic, and intense. I dare you to stop reading.”-Kami Garcia, #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of the Beautiful Creatures series
“Tahereh Mafi’s bold, inventive prose crackles with raw emotion. A thrilling, high-stakes saga of self-discovery and forbidden love, the Shatter Me series is a must-read for fans of dystopian young adult literature-or any literature!”-Ransom Riggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
“Addictive, intense, and oozing with romance. I’m envious. I couldn’t put it down.”-Lauren Kate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Fallen series
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Run to You: Third Charm
by Clara Kensie
eBook Giveaway
Harlequin Teen
Released 2/15/2014
Part Three in the riveting romantic thriller about a family on the run from a deadly past and a first love that will transcend secrets, lies and danger…
Betrayed, heartbroken, and determined to save her family, Tessa Carson refuses to give in to Tristan Walker’s pleas for forgiveness. But her own awakening psychic gift won’t let her rest until she uncovers the truth about her family and her past. And Tristan is the only one who can help her sift through the secrets to find the truth hidden in all the lies…
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YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS LAST WEEK: WINNERS
Fools’ Gold
by Philippa Gregory
Complete Series Giveaway (2 Sets)
Simon Pulse
Released 2/11/2014
Winners: Danielle Nguyen and Hannah Clark
All that glitters may well be gold in the third book in the Order of Darkness quartet filled with intrigue, mystery, and romance, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory.
Tasked to expose a coin counterfeiting scheme, Luca and Isolde travel to Venice just in time for Carnival. Amid the masks, parties, and excitement, the romantic attraction between the two reaches a new intensity that neither can deny.
Their romance is interrupted by the arrival of the alchemist, who may be the con artist they’ve been looking for. But as Luca starts to investigate the original charge, the alchemist reveals his true goal—he plans to create the Philosopher’s Stone, a mystical substance said to be capable of turning base metals into gold and producing the elixir of life.
With pounds of undocumented gold coins and an assistant who claims to be decades older than she appears, all evidence points to the possibility that the alchemist has succeeded in his task. But as Luca and Isolde get closer to the truth, they discover that reality may be more sinister than they ever could have imagined.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Fools’ Gold?
What I love best about Fools’ Gold is the chance it gave to weave so many themes together in a story which moves along at a good pace. My four characters, who have been established in earlier books, come to an entirely new city and story and find themselves in the rich, extraordinary city of Venice. I adore Venice – I think it is my favourite city in the world and I stayed there twice while researching and writing the story. They see the Jewish ghetto and a moneychanger who is a Jew like Shylock from The Merchant of Venice, but our merchant explains the anti-semitism that the Jews of Venice suffer. They see the wealth of the city and the scholarship – they meet with street magicians and alchemists. Luca gets very close to buying his father out of slavery, and he has his first love affair. The medieval Venice was teeming with adventure, danger and opportunity and they experience all this with all the glamour and colour of this most wonderful of medieval trading cities.
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Want more chances to win THE ORDER OF DARKNESS complete series? We’re giving away three more sets here.
Road Rash
by Mark Parsons
Hardcover Giveaway
Knopf Books for Young Readers
Released 2/11/2014
Winner – Hanna G.
A teenage drummer finds out what life is really like on tour with a rock band in this funny, funky, bittersweet debut YA novel. For anyone who loved Almost Famous or This Is Spinal Tap.
After being dropped from one band, 17-year-old drummer Zach gets a chance to go on tour with a much better band. It feels like sweet redemption, but this is one rocky road trip. . . .
Zach’s in control on the drums, driving the band, keeping things moving at the right pace. But when the show is over, his timing is all off. The jealousies and rivalries within his new group keep him off-balance. The awesome original song he recorded backfires. And the girl he left back home is suddenly talking about this other guy . . .
Mark Parsons has written a fast-paced, feel-good novel about a boy finding his place in the world, in a band, and in the music. Zach is a character teens will stand up and cheer for as he lands the perfect gig, and the perfect girl.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Road Rash?
Wow… good question. There were several things about the writing of ROAD RASH that I found wonderful, or enlightening, or humbling. (Or frequently all three.) But my favorite thing about the book itself is that now there is (or very soon will be) a book out there that “Gives the drummer some!” I mean, he/she is the dude in the back, sweating it out, laying it down, holding it together, all while driving that damn bus down the road every night. And what do they get for it? Uh… drummer jokes? The chance to haul more gear than the rest of the band combined? Blisters and a bad back? A stunning lack of respect/attention from the media, the crowd, and the world at large? (All of whom seem to fixate on the lead singer or occasionally the lead guitarist. But never the drummer.) Even the second-best rock ‘n roll film of all time—“This is Spinal Tap”—had the drummer as nothing but the butt of a running (umm… exploding) joke.
So yeah, among many other things that I’m thankful for, I’m pretty stoked to have a book out there that gives a little love to the people who’re the true heartbeat of the music.
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The Glass Casket
by McCormick Templeman
Hardcover Giveaway
Delacorte Press
Released 2/11/2014
Winner – Elisabeth Castro
Death hasn’t visited Rowan Rose since it took her mother when Rowan was only a little girl. But that changes one bleak morning, when five horses and their riders thunder into her village and through the forest, disappearing into the hills. Days later, the riders’ bodies are found, and though no one can say for certain what happened in their final hours, their remains prove that whatever it was must have been brutal.
Rowan’s village was once a tranquil place, but now things have changed. Something has followed the path those riders made and has come down from the hills, through the forest, and into the village. Beast or man, it has brought death to Rowan’s door once again.
Only this time, its appetite is insatiable.
[STAR] “With stylish prose, richly developed characters and well-realized worldbuilding, Templeman plumbs archetypes of folklore to create a compelling blend of mythic elements and realistic teen experience.”-Kirkus Reviews, Starred
“The legion of Maggie Stiefvater fans out there ought to look this way.”-
Booklist
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about The Glass Casket?
I think my favorite thing about The Glass Casket is the setting. I live in Southern California, and I dislike both heat and the sun, so it was kind of a dream book to write because it takes place in this gorgeous mountain village where it’s always snowing and it smells really good – pine trees everywhere. Plus there’s magic in the air and lots of mysterious creatures lurking in the forest. I drafted it really quickly in part because it was so immensely pleasurable to disappear into that world.
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The Tinker King
by Tiffany Trent
Hardcover Giveaway
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Released 2/11/2014
Winner – Nichol Brown
Science and magic mean danger in this sequel to The Unnaturalists, which School Library Journal called “an entertaining mix of steampunk and fantasy.”
After Vespa, Syrus, and Bayne defeated the Grue and restored order to their world in The Unnaturalists, they thought their future was secure. Empress Olivia, committed to peace and equality for humans and Elementals alike, was a fair and just ruler. And the Creeping Waste had vanished, giving them hope for the first time.
But rebellion is brewing in the far-off city of Scientia, and dark Elementals are plotting war in the ruins of New London. Before they know what’s happening, Vespa, Syrus, and their friends are plunged into a new swamp of intrigue, deception and magic—and the cost of survival may be more than any of them are willing to pay.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about The Tinker King?
My favorite thing about THE TINKER KING is the discovery I made about one of the characters in the process of writing it. It was a discovery that linked the origins of THE UNNATURALISTS and the dark empire of the novels. It was a true lightbulb moment, but I suppose I can’t say much more about it because that would be spoilery.
The other thing (though I suppose this may be somewhat spoilery, too) I loved was getting my characters out of New London and into a new city. Somehow, Scientia was much easier to write than New London. Its history and geography popped into my head almost fully formed. And what wasn’t readily apparent during my brainstorming sessions came easily as I was writing. It was a very fun city to write with its sprawling palace, haunted ruins, and air car transportation system. And I was very curious to see what the Grimgorns had done with the place after they’d taken it over early in the history of the Empire.
The palace ruins were inspired by a trip I took to the Forbidden City in Beijing, as well as my interest in Xian and the terracotta warriors there. As per usual with settings I love, I got a little carried away and ending up writing the plot of an entirely different bit of backstory that would be wonderful to play with someday. Of course for the sake of the novel at hand, I had to rein myself in, but writing all that backstory and knowing that it was beneath the surface of the novel made it that much more fun.
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The Tyrant”s Daughter
by J.C. Carleson
ARC Giveaway
Knopf Books for Young Readers
Released 2/11/2014
Winner – Christina Condomaros
From a former CIA officer comes the riveting account of a royal Middle Eastern family exiled to the American suburbs.
When her father is killed in a coup, 15-year-old Laila flees from the war-torn middle east to a life of exile and anonymity in the U.S. Gradually she adjusts to a new school, new friends, and a new culture, but while Laila sees opportunity in her new life, her mother is focused on the past. She’s conspiring with CIA operatives and rebel factions to regain the throne their family lost. Laila can’t bear to stand still as an international crisis takes shape around her, but how can one girl stop a conflict that spans generations?
J.C. Carleson delivers a fascinating account of a girl—and a country—on the brink, and a rare glimpse at the personal side of international politics.
“Every American should read this book. It’s an eye-opener.” —Suzanne Fisher Staples, Newbery Honor-winning author of Shabanu
*Bonus Backmatter includes a note about the author’s CIA past, and a commentary by RAND researcher and president of ARCH International, Dr. Cheryl Benard. Recommendations for further reading are also included.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about The Tyrant’s Daughter?
I’d have to say that my favorite thing about this book is that it is so much more personal than my previous books. Although I technically have very little in common with Laila, the main character (I’m neither from the Middle East nor am I the daughter of a dictator), her reactions and emotions are very much my own.
As a former CIA officer, I’ve had the privilege of traveling all over the world, and I’ve lived in a number of other countries. Because of this, I know all too well how disorienting it can be to be thrust into a different culture. Living far away from everything that is familiar to you be exhilarating and wonderful one moment, and then threatening and confusing in the next. I feel like I really managed to capture those vacillating emotions and both the funny and the not-so-funny parts of extreme culture shock that I know all too well.
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White Space
by Ilsa J Bick
Hardcover Giveaway
EgmontUSA
Released 2/11/2014
Winner – Arlinda Smith
In the tradition of Memento and Inception comes a thrilling and scary young adult novel about blurred reality where characters in a story find that a deadly and horrifying world exists in the space between the written lines.
Seventeen-year-old Emma Lindsay has problems: a head full of metal, no parents, a crazy artist for a guardian whom a stroke has turned into a vegetable, and all those times when she blinks away, dropping into other lives so ghostly and surreal it’s as if the story of her life bleeds into theirs. But one thing Emma has never doubted is that she’s real.
Then she writes “White Space,” a story about these kids stranded in a spooky house during a blizzard.
Unfortunately, “White Space” turns out to be a dead ringer for part of an unfinished novel by a long-dead writer. The manuscript, which she’s never seen, is a loopy Matrix meets Inkheart story in which characters fall out of different books and jump off the page. Thing is, when Emma blinks, she might be doing the same and, before long, she’s dropped into the very story she thought she’d written. Trapped in a weird, snow-choked valley, Emma meets other kids with dark secrets and strange abilities: Eric, Casey, Bode, Rima, and a very special little girl, Lizzie. What they discover is that they–and Emma–may be nothing more than characters written into being from an alternative universe for a very specific purpose.
Now what they must uncover is why they’ve been brought to this place–a world between the lines where parallel realities are created and destroyed and nightmares are written–before someone pens their end.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about White Space?
Oh, that’s easy: I got to be Captain Kirk. WHITE SPACE was my Kobayashi Maru, a potential no-win scenario where I really had to have the faith in myself to try something that I don’t think has ever been done. The book’s not structured in a traditional way; chapters break off in the middle of a sentence; plots and storylines echo and merge; there are lots of characters—and I loved playing with all these guys’ collective heads, trying to figure out how to give each a distinctive voice and then tying them together in creative ways while totally messing with their sense of who they were and all they’d taken for granted. Because, basically, the book is all about the nature of reality. Seriously, how do you know—really know—you’re real? What makes you think that you’re not some character in a book, following a plot that’s been scripted just for you, or that you haven’t built your reality around you? And if you are an idea or a character . . . what happens if you fall between the lines? If you wake up to the fact that you’re nothing more than a character? What happens when too much of a writer’s “real” life bleeds into a narrative? So, in WHITE SPACE, if I’ve managed to talk about all that and entertain while also making you think and sort of blowing your mind in a Matrix/Inception kind of way at the same time . . . then, Ilsa, you go, girl.
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Willow
by Tonya Cherie Hegamin
Hardcover Giveaway
Candlewick
Released 2/11/2014
Winner – Julie Musil
In 1848, an educated slave girl faces an inconceivable choice — between bondage and freedom, family and love.
On one side of the Mason-Dixon Line lives fifteen-year-old Willow, her master’s favorite servant. She’s been taught to read and has learned to write. She believes her master is good to her and fears the rebel slave runaways. On the other side of the line is seventeen-year-old Cato, a black man, free born. It’s his personal mission to sneak as many fugitive slaves to freedom as he can. Willow’s and Cato’s lives are about to intersect, with life-changing consequences for both of them. Tonya Cherie Hegamin’s moving coming-of-age story is a poignant meditation on the many ways a person can be enslaved, and the force of will needed to be truly emancipated.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Willow?
What I value the most about this book was the ability to put almost ten years of research to work in this context. At its deepest core, I wrote Willow because I’m fascinated by the dynamics of race and familial relationships, and when I read accounts of slave life, it became clear that the most painful and fascinating stories of slavery were the complicated politics of mixed race families. I also am grateful to have the opportunity to re-vision history in order to give a young black woman agency and empowered choice.
However, I also love a good tangled romance, and I love simple historical details, like how dedicated men of a certain class were to their neckties and secret societies. Finding stuff like that is what keeps you learning and immersing yourself in the time period. For instance, I hadn’t originally intended to take Willow to the city, but the amount of research I had done made it irresistible, especially when exploring with characters like Silvey and Little Luck. I’ve often said that I don’t want to write history, I want to re-write it!
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Love Me
by Rachel Shukert
Hardcover Giveaway
Delacorte Press
Released 2/11/2014
Winner – Rosi Hollinbeck
A new series set in the golden age of glam . . .
Amanda is heartbroken. She’s tried, but she can’t get over her breakup with hotshot writer Harry Gordon. If only she could talk to him, she could convince him that their love story is bigger than any screenplay. But Amanda isn’t the only one in Hollywood keeping a secret—Harry’s got one too.
Margo has to pinch herself: there’s talk of her getting an Oscar nom for her first film role, and she’s living with the Dane Forrest, the gorgeous movie star millions—including herself—swoon over. But if the public finds out about their domestic arrangement, her career will be over. The studio has a plan to fix it all . . . but is Margo prepared to pay the price?
Gabby’s drinking is out of control, but who cares? She’s bored and depressed. She needs someone who will treat her like the woman she is beneath the silly stage costumes and pigtails. And she’s sure unpredictable musician Eddie Sharp is The One. But playing with bad boys like Eddie isn’t for little girls. . . .
From the Hardcover edition.
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Run to You: Second Glance
by Clara Kensie
eBook Giveaway
Harlequin Teen
Released 2/8/2014
Winner – Lysette Lam
Part Two in the riveting romantic thriller about a family on the run from a deadly past and a first love that will transcend secrets, lies and danger…
Tessa Carson has unlocked her heart and her secrets to Tristan Walker—but Tristan has secrets of his own, and his might just mean the end of Tessa’s family. Unaware, Tessa embraces falling in love and being herself for the first time since she was attacked when she was only eight years old. But secrets can’t be run from forever, and sometimes love is too good to be true…
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MORE YOUNG ADULT NOVELS NEW IN STORES NEXT WEEK
Maybe One Day
by Melissa Kantor
Hardcover
HarperTeen
Released 2/18/2014
Critically acclaimed author Melissa Kantor masterfully captures the joy of friendship, the agony of loss, and the unique experience of being a teenager in this poignant new novel about a girl grappling with her best friend’s life-threatening illness.
Zoe and her best friend, Olivia, have always had big plans for the future, none of which included Olivia getting sick. Still, Zoe is determined to put on a brave face and be positive for her friend.
Even when she isn’t sure what to say.
Even when Olivia misses months of school.
Even when Zoe starts falling for Calvin, Olivia’s crush.
The one thing that keeps Zoe moving forward is knowing that Olivia will beat this, and everything will go back to the way it was before. It has to. Because the alternative is too terrifying for her to even imagine.
In this incandescent page-turner, which follows in the tradition of The Fault in Our Stars, Melissa Kantor artfully explores the idea that the worst thing to happen to you might not be something that is actually happening to you. Raw, irreverent, and honest, Zoe’s unforgettable voice and story will stay with readers long after the last page is turned.
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Third Strike
by Heather Brewer
Hardcover
Dial
Released 2/20/2014
Heather Brewer, the New York Times bestselling author of THE CHRONICLES OF VLADIMIR TOD, brings this spin-off series to a thrilling conclusion.
All secrets will be revealed as Slayer Joss McMillan tracks a murderous vampire terrorizing his hometown of Santa Clara. During his investigation, Joss comes head to head with old enemies seeking revenge and faces the truth about his sister Cecile’s murder. Joss must use all of his skill to protect his loved ones, even if it means paying the ultimate price.
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