Happy Monday! This week is extra special, as the paperback version of PERSUASION (by our very own Martina Boone) is releasing! We also have some great giveaways for you all to enter. Don’t forget to read more about all the new releases!
Happy Reading,
Shelly, Sam, Jocelyn, Martina, Erin, Susan, Michelle, Laura, Anisaa, and Kristin
YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS THIS WEEK
Scavenger of Souls
by Joshua David Bellin
Signed Hardcover plus Swag Giveaway (2 Copies)
U.S. Only
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Released 8/23/2016
Querry Genn must face the truth about the past and fight to save humanity and the future in this stunning sequel to Survival Colony 9, which New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry called “a terrific novel.”
Querry and the members of Survival Colony 9 have defeated a whole nest of the creatures called Skaldi, who can impersonate humans even as they destroy them. But now the colony is dangerously low in numbers and supplies. Querry’s mother is in command, and is definitely taking them somewhere—but where? Some secret from her past seems to be driving her relentlessly forward.
When they do finally reach their destination, Querry is amazed to discover a whole compound of humans—organized, with plenty of food and equipment. But the colonists are not welcomed. Everything about them is questioned, especially by Mercy, the granddaughter of the compound’s leader. Mercy is as tough a fighter as Querry has ever seen—and a girl as impetuous as Querry is careful. But the more Querry learns about Mercy and the others, the more he realizes that nothing around him is as it seems. There are gruesome secrets haunting this place and its people. And it’s up to Querry to unearth the past and try to save the future in this gripping conclusion to the Survival Colony novels.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Scavenger of Souls?
Can I cheat and name two? One of the things I love about SCAVENGER OF SOULS is that it gave me a chance to create a number of survival colonies. It seemed to me that, with the almost complete collapse of worldwide civilization depicted in this series, various colonies would develop along very different lines depending on any number of factors: who led them, what access to technology they had, where they were situated geographically, and so on. So in SCAVENGER OF SOULS, the reader meets a number of colonies that are very different from—and sometimes in conflict with—Survival Colony 9.
Which brings me to the second thing I love about the book: a new character named Mercy, who’s a feisty teenage girl living in one of the colonies encountered by my narrator, Querry Genn. She was one of those characters who was a pure joy to create—a character who developed so naturally she seemed to take on an independent life, and I would sometimes forget that I was the one who created her!
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Persuasion
by Martina Boone
Paperback Giveaway
U.S. Only
Simon Pulse; Reprint edition
Released 8/23/2016
Beautiful Creatures meets Gone with the Wind in the spellbinding second novel in the Heirs of Watson Island trilogy that “skillfully blends rich magic and folklore with adventure, sweeping romance, and hidden treasure” (Publishers Weekly, on Compulsion).
Grieving the death of her godfather and haunted by her cousin Cassie’s betrayal, Barrie returns from a trip to San Francisco to find the Watson plantation under siege. Ghost-hunters hope to glimpse the ancient spirit who sets the river on fire each night, and reporters chase rumors of a stolen shipment of Civil War gold that may be hidden at Colesworth Place. The chaos turns dangerous as Cassie hires a team of archeologists to excavate beneath the mansion ruins. Because more than treasure is buried there.
A stranger filled with magic arrives at Watson’s Landing claiming that the key to the Watson and Beaufort gifts—and the Colesworth curse—also lies beneath the mansion. With a mix of threats and promises, the man convinces Barrie and Cassie to cast a spell at midnight. But what he conjures may have deadly consequences.
While Barrie struggles to make sense of the escalating peril and her growing feelings for Eight Beaufort, it’s impossible to know whom to trust and what to fight for—Eight or herself. Millions of dollars and the fate of the founding families is at stake. Now Barrie must choose between what she feels deep in her heart and what will keep Watson’s Landing safe in this stunning addition to a series filled with “decadent settings, mysterious magic, and family histories rife with debauchery” (Kirkus Reviews, on Compulsion).
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Persuasion?
The research for the book was long and involved, and delved into all sorts of rabbit holes like hoodoo and the connection between jinn and bottle trees, and the similarities in different magical systems from all around the world, as well as Civil War lost treasures and privateering and Sherman’s march through South Carolina. Obviously, there were more difficult things, too. Reading first hand accounts and journals about slavery, both among enslaved Africans and enslaved Native Americans, was devastating, and researching the statistics about how many people, most of them women and children, are enslaved in the world today made me question whether I was ever going to be able to finish the book. Added to that, since the book is a Southern Gothic with heavier overtones of fantasy, I didn’t want the book to feel like work–I wanted it to “compel” readers to turn the page as has often been said about COMPULSION. Most of all, I wanted it to continue the romance between Barrie and Eight, and the love story between Barrie and her aunt and the magic of Watson’s Landing that she is only just discovering. I wanted so much to write more of the delicious banter and tension between Barrie and Eight, and have them save each other. But to save each other, they had to first each save themselves, and for Barrie, that means saving Watson’s Landing both from the effects of the past as well as the increasing threats in the present. She finds it so hard to know who to trust as she discovers her own strength. Perhaps that was the hardest thing about the writing. As the author, I have to step back and let my characters make mistakes that I could save them from. But saving Barrie and Eight the pain of their lessons wouldn’t be honest. Characters can only do what they would do in their shoes. Barrie’s happen to be kickass designer shoes, but she gets them really dirty in PERSUASION, and when she’s done, she’s not at all the same girl as when she started.
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Under the Lights
by Abbi Glines
Hardcover Giveaway
U.S. Only
Simon Pulse
Released 8/23/2016
In the follow-up to Abbi Glines’s #1 New York Times bestseller Until Friday Night—which bestselling author Kami Garcia called “tender, honest, and achingly real”—three teens from a small southern town are stuck in a dramatic love triangle.
Willa can’t erase the bad decisions of her past that led her down the path she’s on now. But she can fight for forgiveness from her family. And she can protect herself by refusing to let anyone else get close to her.
High school quarterback and town golden boy Brady used to be the best of friends with Willa—she even had a crush on him when they were kids. But that’s all changed now: her life choices have made her a different person from the girl he used to know.
Gunner used to be friends with Willa and Brady, too. He too is larger than life and a high school football star—not to mention that his family basically owns the town of Lawton. He loves his life, and doesn’t care about anyone except himself. But Willa is the exception—and he understands the girl she’s become in a way no one else can.
As secrets come to light and hearts are broken, these former childhood friends must face the truth about growing up and falling in love…even if it means losing each other forever.
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YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS LAST WEEK: WINNERS
Cherry by Lindsey Rosin: Megan C.
MORE YOUNG ADULT FICTION IN STORES NEXT WEEK WITH AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
100 Days
by Nicole McInnes
Hardcover
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Released 8/23/2016
Agnes doesn’t know it, but she only has one hundred days left to live. When she was just a baby, she was diagnosed with Progeria, a rare disease that causes her body to age at roughly ten times the normal rate. Now nearly sixteen years old, Agnes has already exceeded her life expectancy.
Moira has been Agnes’s best friend and protector since they were in elementary school. Due to her disorder, Agnes is still physically small, but Moira is big. Too big for her own liking. So big that people call her names. With her goth makeup and all-black clothes, Moira acts like she doesn’t care. But she does.
Boone was friends with both girls in the past, but that was a long time ago—before he did the thing that turned Agnes and Moira against him, before his dad died, before his mom got too sad to leave the house.
An unexpected event brings Agnes and Moira back together with Boone, but when romantic feelings start to develop, the trio’s friendship is put to the test.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about 100 Days?
Without a doubt, the friendship between Agnes, Moira and Boone is my favorite thing about 100 DAYS. Because their friendship was shattered in an ugly way several years before the book begins, it’s beyond satisfying to see their re-connection take place, even if the path to that re-connection isn’t always smooth.
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MORE YOUNG ADULT NOVELS NEW IN STORES NEXT WEEK
Ghostly Echoes: A Jackaby Novel
by William Ritter
Hardcover
Algonquin Young Readers
Released 8/23/2016
Jenny Cavanaugh, the ghostly landlord of 826 Augur Lane, has enlisted the services of her detective-agency tenants to solve a decade-old murder–her own. Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, R. F. Jackaby, dive into the cold case, starting with a search for Jenny’s fiancé, who went missing the night she died. But when a new, gruesome murder closely mirrors the events of ten years prior, Abigail and Jackaby realize that Jenny’s case isn’t so cold after all, and her killer may be far more dangerous than they suspected.
Fantasy and folklore mix with mad science as Abigail’s race to unravel the mystery leads her across the cold cobblestones of nineteenth-century New England, down to the mythical underworld, and deep into her colleagues’ grim histories to battle the most deadly foe she has ever faced.
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Thieving Weasels
by Billy Taylor
Hardcover
Dial Books
Released 8/23/2016
Cameron Smith attends an elite boarding school and has just been accepted to Princeton University alongside his beautiful girlfriend, Claire. Life for Cameron would be perfect, except that Cameron Smith is actually Skip O’Rourke, and Skip O’Rourke ran away from his grifter family four years ago…along with $100,000 of their “earnings” (because starting a new life is not cheap). But when his uncle Wonderful tracks him down, Skip’s given an ultimatum: come back to the family for one last con, or say good-bye to life as Cameron.
“One last con” is easier said than done when Skip’s family is just as merciless (and just as manipulative) as they’ve always been, and everyone around him is lying. Skip may have given up on crime, but there’s one lesson he hasn’t forgotten: always know your mark. And if you don’t know who your mark is . . . it’s probably you.
Witty and irresistibly readable, this standout debut will always keep you guessing.
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Unscripted Joss Byrd
by Lygia Day Peñaflor
Hardcover
Roaring Brook Press
Released 8/23/2016
Hollywood critics agree. Joss Byrd is “fiercely emotional,” a young actress with “complete conviction,” and a “powerhouse.”
Joss Byrd is America’s most celebrated young actress, but on the set of her latest project, a gritty indie film called The Locals, Joss’s life is far from glamorous. While struggling with her mother’s expectations, a crush on her movie brother, and a secret that could end her career, Joss must pull off a performance worthy of a star. When her renowned, charismatic director demands more than she is ready to deliver, Joss must go off-script to stay true to herself.
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