German Shepard sitting
Cocker Spaniel sittting
Big, fuzzing brown puppy sitting
Gray Pitbull sitting
Jack Russel sitting
Black and white spaniel sitting
Husky laying down
Golden Retriever sitting
Hound dog sitting
Young Husky sitting

New Releases this week 01/09-01/15 plus 2 Giveaways

by Shelly Zev

Happy Monday! 2017 is continuing to be bookish, with two new giveaways and many more new releases to feature! Don’t forget to check out all the new releases and enter below to win.

Happy Reading,

Shelly, Sam, Jocelyn, Martina, Erin, Susan, Michelle, Laura, Anisaa, and Kristin

YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS THIS WEEK

* * * *

Frostblood
by Elly Blake
Hardcover Giveaway
U.S. Only
Little, Brown Books for Young
Released 1/10/2017

Seventeen-year-old Ruby is a fireblood who must hide her powers of heat and flame from the cruel frostblood ruling class that wants to destroy all that are left of her kind. So when her mother is killed for protecting her and rebel frostbloods demand her help to kill their rampaging king, she agrees. But Ruby’s powers are unpredictable, and she’s not sure she’s willing to let the rebels and an infuriating (yet irresistible) young man called Arcus use her as their weapon.

All she wants is revenge, but before they can take action, Ruby is captured and forced to take part in the king’s tournaments that pit fireblood prisoners against frostblood champions. Now she has only one chance to destroy the maniacal ruler who has taken everything from her and from the icy young man she has come to love.

Fast-paced and compelling, Frostblood is the first in a page-turning new young adult three-book series about a world where flame and ice are mortal enemies—but together create a power that could change everything.

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Frostblood?

My favorite aspect of FROSTBLOOD is the meeting and clashing and unexpected harmony of opposites. Firebloods and Frostbloods are complete opposites in elemental terms, but their common humanity makes their similarities greater than their differences. However, they have a history of violent conflicts, which means they don’t necessarily see things that way.

The heroine, Ruby, is a Fireblood who has lost a great deal because of a corrupt Frostblood king. She’s confronted with an opportunity early in the story, but in order to take advantage of it she has to decide to trust two Frostblood strangers. That tentative trust turns out to be the basis for her own growth and acceptance of her Fireblood powers. I also think the romantic parts of the book are made more poignant by the opposing natures of the two characters. I hope readers will think so, too!

Purchase Frostblood at Amazon
Purchase Frostblood at IndieBound
View Frostblood on Goodreads

* * * *

The Last Harvest
by Kim Liggett
Hardcover Giveaway
U.S. Only
Tor Teen
Released 1/10/2017

“I plead the blood.”

Those were the last words seventeen-year-old golden boy quarterback Clay Tate heard rattling from his dad’s throat when he discovered him dying on the barn floor of the Neely Cattle Ranch, clutching a crucifix to his chest.

Now, on the first anniversary of the slaughter, the whole town’s looking at Clay like he might be next to go over the edge. Clay wants to forget the past, but the sons and daughters of the Preservation Society—a group of prominent farmers his dad accused of devil worship—won’t leave him alone. Including Ali, his longtime crush, who suddenly wants to reignite their romance after a year of silence, and hated rival Tyler Neely, who’s behaving like they’re old friends.

Even as Clay tries to reassure himself, creepy glances turn to sinister stares and strange coincidences build to gruesome rituals—but when he can never prove that any of it happened, Clay worries he might be following his dad down the path to insanity…or that something far more terrifying lies in wait around the corner.

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about The Last Harvest?

Clay Tate. My MC. He’s the strong silent type, caught in a horrific web of grief, deceit and devil worship. It’s nerve wracking and heartbreaking, watching him fight against forces way beyond his control.

Purchase The Last Harvest at Amazon
Purchase The Last Harvest at IndieBound
View The Last Harvest on Goodreads

YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS LAST WEEK: WINNERS

Because of the Sun by Jenny Torres Sanchez: Tiffany E.
Life in a Fishbowl by Len Vlahos: Yolande B.
The Truth of Right Now by Kara Lee Corthron: Gianna J.

MORE YOUNG ADULT FICTION IN STORES NEXT WEEK WITH AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

* * * *

A List of Cages
by Robin Roe
Hardcover
Disney-Hyperion
Released 1/10/2017

When Adam Blake lands the best elective ever in his senior year, serving as an aide to the school psychologist, he thinks he’s got it made. Sure, it means a lot of sitting around, which isn’t easy for a guy with ADHD, but he can’t complain, since he gets to spend the period texting all his friends. Then the doctor asks him to track down the troubled freshman who keeps dodging her, and Adam discovers that the boy is Julian–the foster brother he hasn’t seen in five years.

Adam is ecstatic to be reunited. At first, Julian seems like the boy he once knew. He’s still kind hearted. He still writes stories and loves picture books meant for little kids. But as they spend more time together, Adam realizes that Julian is keeping secrets, like where he hides during the middle of the day, and what’s really going on inside his house. Adam is determined to help him, but his involvement could cost both boys their lives.

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about A List of Cages?

That would have to be the bond between Julian and Adam. As I was writing this novel, I began to understand authors who create series following the same characters. I became so attached to these boys, and they feel incredibly real for me. Writing A LIST OF CAGES felt less like generating a story and more like transcribing—as if I was tuned into their lives.

Purchase A List of Cages at Amazon
Purchase A List of Cages at IndieBound
View A List of Cages on Goodreads

* * * *

Poison’s Kiss
by Breeana Shields
Hardcover
Random House Books
Released 1/10/2017

A teenage assassin kills with a single kiss until she is ordered to kill the one boy she loves. This commercial YA fantasy is romantic and addictive—like a poison kiss—and will thrill fans of Sarah J. Maas and Victoria Aveyard.

Marinda has kissed dozens of boys. They all die afterward. It’s a miserable life, but being a visha kanya—a poison maiden—is what she was created to do. Marinda serves the Raja by dispatching his enemies with only her lips as a weapon.

Until now, the men she was ordered to kiss have been strangers, enemies of the kingdom. Then she receives orders to kiss Deven, a boy she knows too well to be convinced he needs to die. She begins to question who she’s really working for. And that is a thread that, once pulled, will unravel more than she can afford to lose.

This rich, surprising, and accessible debut is based in Indian folklore and delivers a story that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Poison’s Kiss?

I loved getting to explore different relationships in POISON’S KISS—not just romantic relationships (though that was a lot of fun!) —but relationships between siblings, between rivals, between friends. Marinda’s life is complicated and her interactions with the people in her life are far from straightforward. But it’s that complexity—that tension that exists when people serve two opposing roles in her life—that provides the beating heart of the book.

Purchase Poison’s Kiss at Amazon
Purchase Poison’s Kiss at IndieBound
View Poison’s Kiss on Goodreads

* * * *

Teen Hyde
by Chandler Baker
Hardcover
Feiwel & Friends
Released 1/10/2017

High school meets classic horror in this YA contemporary twist on Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Head Cheerleader Cassidy Hyde’s life should have been perfect. But it really, really wasn’t, and she’s about ready to give up and disappear. Until the first time she takes Sunshine. This new experimental drug makes Cassidy feel like the perfect, golden girl once again. A little memory loss seems like a small price to pay to get her life back . . . at least until boys start to go missing . . . boys that Cassidy NEVER wanted to think of again . . .

Thus begins Chandler Baker’s second twisty-turny retelling of a familiar tale, once again set in the town of Hollow Pines, Texas, where high school is truly horrifying.

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Teen Hyde?

I love the ending! Endings are something that I constantly worry about as a writer. I usually go back and forth throughout the process of writing a novel searching for the perfect ending, but not this time! The climax and denouement of TEEN HYDE were firmly in my head from the beginning and I was absolutely dying to write them. I find both the climax and the final few words of the book very satisfying. It’s the type of ending that as a reader I adore. And I really can’t say anything other than that without being spoiler-y, but YES. So. Much. Fun.

Purchase Teen Hyde at Amazon
Purchase Teen Hyde at IndieBound
View Teen Hyde on Goodreads

MORE YOUNG ADULT NOVELS NEW IN STORES NEXT WEEK

* * * *

Beheld
by Alex Flinn
Hardcover
HarperTeen
Released 1/10/2017

Kendra first beheld James over three hundred years ago. Since then, she’s tangled with witch hunters and wolves, helped a miller’s daughter spin straw into gold, cowered in London as bombs fell, and lived through who knows how many shipwrecks.

Being a powerful witch, she has survived it all. But immortality can be lonely. Kendra isn’t ready to stop searching for the warlock she had met centuries ago. With the help of her magic mirror, Kendra will travel the world to reconnect with her lost love—and, of course, she can’t help but play a hand in a few more stories along the way.

Featuring retellings of Little Red Riding Hood, Rumpelstiltskin, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and The Ugly Duckling, Alex Flinn’s latest young adult novel, Beheld, is fresh fairy-tale fun from beginning to end.

Purchase Beheld at Amazon
Purchase Beheld at IndieBound
View Beheld on Goodreads

* * * *

Stone Mirrors
by Jeannine Atkins
Hardcover
Atheneum Books
Released 1/10/2017

From critically acclaimed author Jeannine Atkins comes a gorgeous, haunting biographical novel in verse about a half Native American, half African American sculptor working in the years following the Civil War.

A sculptor of historical figures starts with givens but creates her own vision. Edmonia Lewis was just such a sculptor, but she never spoke or wrote much about her past, and the stories that have come down through time are often vague or contradictory. Some facts are known: Edmonia was the daughter of an Ojibwe woman and an African-Haitian man. She had the rare opportunity to study art at Oberlin, one of the first schools to admit women and people of color, but lost her place after being accused of poisoning and theft, despite being acquitted of both. She moved to Boston and eventually Italy, where she became a successful sculptor.

But the historical record is very thin. The open questions about Edmonia’s life seem ideally suited to verse, a form that is comfortable with mysteries. Inspired by both the facts and the gaps in history, author Jeannine Atkins imagines her way into a vision of what might have been.

Purchase Stone Mirrors at Amazon
Purchase Stone Mirrors at IndieBound
View Stone Mirrors on Goodreads

* * * *

Windwitch
by Susan Dennard
Hardcover
Tor Teen
Released 1/10/2017

The follow-up to New York Times bestselling Truthwitch, next in a breathtaking YA fantasy series hailed by Alexandra Bracken as “a world you will want to inhabit forever.”

On a continent ruled by three empires, some are born with a “witchery,” a magical skill that sets them apart from others.

In this follow-up to New York Times bestselling Truthwitch, a shadow man haunts the Nubrevnan streets, leaving corpses in his wake—and then raising those corpses from the dead. Windwitch continues the tale of Merik—cunning privateer, prince, and windwitch.

Purchase Windwitch at Amazon
Purchase Windwitch at IndieBound
View Windwitch on Goodreads

* * * *

You Don’t Know My Name
by Kristen Orlando
Hardcover
Swoon Reads
Released 1/10/2017

Fighter, Faker, Student, Spy.

Seventeen-year-old Reagan Elizabeth Hillis is used to changing identities overnight, lying to every friend she’s ever had, and pushing away anyone who gets too close. Trained in mortal combat and weaponry her entire life, Reagan is expected to follow in her parents’ footsteps and join the ranks of the most powerful top-secret agency in the world, the Black Angels. Falling in love with the boy next door was never part of the plan.

Now Reagan has to decide: Will she use her incredible talents and lead the dangerous life she was born into, or throw it all away to follow her heart and embrace the normal life she’s always wanted? And does she even have a choice at all?

Find out if you are ready to join the Black Angels in the captivating and emotional page-turner, You Don’t Know My Name, from debut novelist Kristen Orlando!

Purchase You Don’t Know My Name at Amazon
Purchase You Don’t Know My Name at IndieBound
View You Don’t Know My Name on Goodreads

Shelly Zev

Shelly is a Toronto-based book professional versed in editing, the publication industry, and the library sector where they currently work part-time as a public-facing librarian.

Shelly reads and blabbers on the internet about books, their expertise being in professional editing as well as library services for children and teens. They occasionally write.

Post © Shelly Zev and/or Adventures in YA Publishing. All rights reserved.
Posted: Jan 9, 2017
Category: Imported from AYAP
Tags: New Releases | YA Fiction Giveaways

Welcome to Transmedia Mutts

Yellow origami dog on a teal background

Unleash your creative bark!

Shout out to AYAP!

Logo for Adventures in YA Publishing

Thank you to the women who started Adventures in YA Publishing and ran it for years. AYAP and TMM have merged to form Adventures in PUPlishing, and the legacy AYAP posts are now part of TMM. Click here to learn more about the earlier AYAP team.

 

Click to Join our Facebook Group

Share advice, practice pitching, celebrate successes, and support each other through writing and publishing adventures.

The first slide is an animation of a science/magic room in a castle. A cartoon character of a mad-scientist looking man in in the foreground says: “Hello! Dr. Frankenstein here to say, Well Done on kid lit zombie week! I’m an expert at reviving the dead, and let me assure you, with a little spark, you can bring dead projects to life. Especially if you dig up parts from other dead things. I’ll even let you have a sneak peek at my laboratory’s store room to consider potential parts for your dead project. If you see something with a yellow glow, that means you should click it. Have fun!”

He points to the right side of the screen and a new scene slides in of a castle science/magic storage room. There are various cartoon Frankenstein body parts scattered around. Some of them have a yellow glow. If you click on them, the images below appear (I’ve added alt text to them, so I hope it works).

The Heart of your story is the main character. The protagonist is the beating core that truly brings your story to life. If your MC doesn't make kids (and their grown-ups) care within the first few pages, your story will flatline. </p> <p>Your main character needs to be:<br /> • Relatable enough for kids to see themselves<br /> • Unique enough to stand out in the slush pile<br /> • Active enough to drive the story<br /> • Memorable enough to survive multiple readings at bedtime</p> <p>Where do you find this amazing donor heart? It might be the very thing you loved so much about the manuscript you want to revive. It might be the younger sister from your shelved YA novel. Or maybe it’s the hilarious kid you blogged about meeting at a school visit. Find a character beating with potential and place it in the center of your story.<br />
The Brain of your story is the theme or central message. The theme is the big idea that controls everything else. Picture books are more than stories - they're tiny life lessons disguised with humor and heart.</p> <p>But your theme needs to be:<br /> • Subtle enough not to trigger the dreaded "didactic" rejection<br /> • Clear enough for a four-year-old to grasp<br /> • Universal enough to speak to both kids and adults<br /> • Fresh enough to prevent agents and editors from responding with "Not another sharing/bedtime/first-day story!"</p> <p>Check your other dead manuscripts to see if there is a recurring theme, something that really seems to be speaking to you. Find the bit of poetry you scribbled on the back of a receipt to see what theme inspired it. Reread the pep talk you texted your critique partner at 1am. Pick the theme that will drive your story, giving it purpose, direction, and deeper meaning.<br />
The Legs of your story is the plot. Not to be confused with a grave plot.🤪 The plot is what keeps everything upright and moving, as well as providing support for all the other elements. You have very few words to use in a picture book, so you need to do a lot with each plot point.</p> <p>In general, your plot should:<br /> • Hook readers fast<br /> • Build tension that a child can follow<br /> • Create page turns that feel natural<br /> • Wrap up in a way that satisfies</p> <p>You can borrow a plot twist (a leg) from one manuscript and the opening (the other leg) from a different manuscript. Consider if the subplot of the middle grade novel you trunked would work better as a picture book. Or maybe your Facebook post about a disastrous camping trip could become a story for kids. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other until you have your storyline.
The Arms of your story are the side characters.
The Torso of your story is the setting. Setting helps a story breathe and connects all the elements of the story. It isn't just where your story lives, it's what makes your story ALIVE. It's the difference between "this happened in a park" and "this happened in that park, the one with the twisty slide that burns your legs and the creaky swing that sounds like a baby crying.”</p> <p>Your setting should:<br /> • Make your character's world feel real<br /> • Contain your story in a way that makes sense to young readers<br /> • Connect different scenes and moments organically<br /> • Give your illustrator enough room to add visual subplots</p> <p>Half-finished manuscripts are a great place to dig up settings, since you worked out the place details before the plot petered out. Or maybe you had to cut a second fantastic location from your chapter book. You can also revisit the detailed caption from your Instagram carousel documenting your tour of that delish candy shop. Disinter a robust setting that can house all of your story's vital organs.

After you press the Click When Done circle button, the lights flash with the sound of electricity buzzing. Then the screen goes black and lightning zaps across the screen with the sound of thunder.

The screen then lights up to show the storage room, and all the Frankenstein pieces have been assembled into the whole monster. An upbeat song plays in the background. Then a speech bubble pops up with the words, “I’m alive! I’M ALIVE!” Then the screen goes to black. 

Use of this site constitutes an agreement to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

AFFILIATE LINK DISCLAIMER: This site contains affiliate links, images, and ads to purchase various products. As an Amazon Associate, and a member of other affiliate programs, this site earns a commission from qualifying purchases if you click on one of these links, images, or ads.

© 2025 Transmedia Mutts, LLC. All Rights Reserved.