Note: Because I am an idiot, I didn’t realize I didn’t put in the form on Friday. If you have left a comment before 11/20/12, I will manually enter you in the giveaway. After 11/20, please complete the form. Thanks so much and my apologies!
Martina
THIS WEEK’S GIVEAWAY
Elemental
by Antony John
Signed Hardcover
A mysterious and powerful fantasy adventure from a Schneider Award winner.
In the near future, most of the population of the United States has been destroyed by the plague. The few remaining survivors live in colonies on the barrier islands off the East Coast. In one colony near Cape Hatteras, almost all the members have elemental powers and can control wind, water, earth, and fire. All but sixteen-year-old Thomas. When the Guardians, the powerful adult leaders, are kidnapped by pirates seeking to take over their colony, it is up to Thomas and a small group of teens to save them and preserve the mysteries of the island.
Fast action, strategy, and mystery churn together into a bold and fresh fantasy from an award-winning author.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Elemental?
More than any book I’ve written, ELEMENTAL is the novel I want to give to teen me. Until time travel happens, I guess that’s not really feasible, which is a shame. Teen me had a short concentration span and was scared of long books. Teen me craved adventure and a healthy dose of suspense. Teen me wasn’t terribly special in most of the ways that teen boys wish they were special. And it’s exactly these ingredients that I threw into the mix of ELEMENTAL: a main character who is an outsider faces a dangerous situation and must work out what’s going on, even though it seems he is the least suited to do so. And all of this is packaged in a book that is fast-moving and suspenseful. What I love about this is that even though I won’t get to enjoy ELEMENTAL as a teen, I know plenty of teen boys who are the same as I used to be. This is my book for them.
ALSO IN STORES NEXT WEEK
Middle Ground
by Katie Kacvinsky
Hardcover
In this provocative cautionary tale for teens, the sequel to Awaken, seventeen-year-old Maddie’s rebellion against the digital-only life grows dangerous. Maddie is in Los Angeles, trying to stay out of trouble. But one night, a seemingly small act of defiance lands her in the place she fears the most: a detention center. Here, patients are reprogrammed to accept a digital existence. Maddie is now fighting for her mind, her soul, and her very life. Once again, Katie Kacvinsky paints a disturbing picture of our increasingly technology-based society.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Middle Ground?
My favorite thing about Middle Ground is probably the psychological aspects of the story. Maddie spends time in a detention center, where scientists are trying to scare students into accepting the digital life by downloading “memories” into their brains. I think the brain and psychology are fascinating, so it was really fun to do research and incorporate these things in my novel.
View Middle Ground on Goodreads
LAST WEEK’S GIVEAWAY WINNERS
LEAGUE OF STRAYS
by L. B. Schulman
WINNER: Tore
This suspenseful debut follows a group of teenage misfits in their delicious quest for revenge on those who have wronged them at their high school. When a mysterious note appears in Charlotte’s mailbox inviting her to join the League of Strays, she’s hopeful it will lead to making friends. What she discovers is a motley crew of loners and an alluring, manipulative ringleader named Kade. Kade convinces the group that they need one another both for friendship and to get back at the classmates and teachers who have betrayed them. But Kade has a bigger agenda. In addition to vandalizing their school and causing fights between other students, Kade’s real intention is a dangerous plot that will threaten lives and force Charlotte to choose between her loyalty to the League and her own conscience.
Praise for League of Strays
“A group of misfits is drawn together by a charismatic, sinister boy for friendship and revenge.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Buy LEAGUE OF STRAYS Now on Amazon
View LEAGUE OF STRAYS on Goodreads
Lovely, Dark and Deep
by Amy McNamara
Signed Hardcover
WINNER: Stephanie27
A resonant debut novel about retreating from the world after losing everything—and the connections that force you to rejoin it.Since the night of the crash, Wren Wells has been running away. Though she lived through the accident that killed her boyfriend Patrick, the girl she used to be didn’t survive. Instead of heading off to college as planned, Wren retreats to her father’s studio in the far-north woods of Maine. Somehwere she can be alone.
Then she meets Cal Owen. Dealing with his own troubles, Cal’s hiding out too. When the chemistry between them threatens to pull Wren from her hard-won isolation, Wren has to choose: risk opening her broken heart to the world again, or join the ghosts who haunt her.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Lovely, Dark and Deep?
My favorite thing about Lovely, Dark and Deep might be the setting. I’ve imagined that house or variations on it since I was about thirteen or so. And the wild, powerful landscape around it – the dark and crazy verticality of the pines and the counterbalanced weighty geometry of a black-rock coastline. Not to mention the area around it, populated with all types of people, including people who make art a central and essential part of their lives. If I had the means, I’d try to start something like Mercy House. As a writer, it’s a dream to imagine a place both isolated and populated with kindred spirits.
Order Lovely, Dark and Deep on Amazon
View Lovely, Dark and Deep on Goodreads
My Beautiful Failure
by Janet Ruth Young
Signed Hardcover
WINNER: Lori M. Lee
A haunting account of a teen boy who volunteers at a suicide hotline and falls for a troubled caller.
Billy is a sophomore in high school, and twice a week, he volunteers at Listeners, a suicide hotline.
Jenney is an “incoming,” a caller, a girl on the brink.
As her life spirals out of control, Jenney’s calls become more desperate, more frequent. Billy, struggling with the deteriorating relationship with his depressed father, is the only one who understands. Through her pain, he sees hope. Through her tears, he feels her heart. And through her despair, he finds love. But is that enough?
Acclaimed author Janet Ruth Young has written a stunning and powerful story with no easy answers; it is about pain and heartbreak, reality and illusion, and finding redemption and the strength to forgive in the darkest of times.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about My Beautiful Failure?
My favorite thing about My Beautiful Failure is that it lays out the rules for working at a suicide hotline and then my main character breaks nearly all of them one by one. I can just picture my readers cringing as they watch him rationalize his decisions to form a personal relationship with one of the callers. He thinks he has justification for crossing the hotline’s boundaries but his motivation is a selfish and romantic one.
Order My Beautiful Failure on Amazon
View My Beautiful Failure on Goodreads
Execution: Escape from Furnace 5
by Alexander Gordon Smith
Signed Hardcover
WINNER: Rosi
Alex Sawyer has escaped his underground nightmare to discover the whole world has become a prison, and Alfred Furnace is its master. Monsters rule the streets, leaving nothing but murder in their wake. Those who do not die become slaves to Furnace’s reign of cruelty. Alex is a monster too. He is the only one who can stop Furnace but in doing so he could destroy everything. Is he the executed or the executioner? Who will die? All Alex knows is that one way or another, it all ends now.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Execution: Escape from Furnace 5?
My favourite thing about Execution: Escape From Furnace 5… I think it has to be the fact that everything leads up to this book. It has been a roller coaster of a ride over the first four books – discovering the horrors of the prison, the nightmares that go on inside Furnace, the desperate battle to break free and stay free. It’s non-stop action and horror, and it all reaches an unbelievable, unforgettable climax in Execution. There are so many mysteries across the series, but they are all answered right here. We finally get to meet Alfred Furnace, and learn the truth about his plans for humankind. Writing these books was an incredible journey, I really felt like I lived every chase, every punch, every horror, every moment of laughter and relief. I experienced this story alongside Alex and his friends, and I was just happy to reach the end with them. Some characters made it, some didn’t, but we got there together. It was our story, and this is how it ends. I really hope you enjoy it! 🙂
Order Execution: Escape from Furnace 5 on Amazon
View Execution: Escape from Furnace 5 on Goodreads
Miss Fortune Cookie
by Lauren Bjorkman
Signed Hardcover
WINNER: SarahO
Meet Erin. Smart student, great daughter, better friend. Secretly the mastermind behind the popular advice blog Miss Fortune Cookie. Totally unaware that her carefully constructed life is about to get crazy.
It all begins when her ex-best friend sends a letter to her blog—and then acts on her advice. Erin’s efforts to undo the mess will plunge her into adventure, minor felonies, and possibly her very first romance.
What’s a likely fortune for someone no longer completely in control of her fate? Hopefully nothing like: You will become a crispy noodle in the salad of life.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Miss Fortune Cookie?
After spending years learning Mandarin at UC Berkeley and Davis, I rarely use it except for the occasional conversation at a Chinese restaurant. In the book, I get to show off my dwindling knowledge of the language. I also loved sifting through my vast fortune cookie fortune collection for ideas. But my favorite part is this. In the story, Erin blossoms from someone who hides from life to someone takes risks to pursue her dreams, much like I did at her age.
