THIS WEEK’S GIVEAWAY
Cleopatra Ascending (A Shadow’s Edge Novel)
by Maureen Lipinski
2 Paperback Originals
Sweet Sixteen = You’re a Queen
Despite living with a shaman, a witch, and a muse for sisters, Rhea Spencer feels like a normal teenager—even if she is the reincarnation of Cleopatra. But all that changes on Rhea’s sixteenth birthday, when her visions of the Egyptian queen start unraveling a very different version of history, and Declan, a hot representative of the secret Order of Antony, shows up on the doorstep to keep her from being kidnapped. Together, Rhea and Declan travel to Egypt to stop the Octavians, a dark cabal trying to tap into Rhea’s growing powers. The cabal seeks to access the magic deep below the desert sands, a potentially devastating force that only Rhea can protect.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Cleopatra Ascending (A Shadow’s Edge Novel)?
My favorite thing about CLEOPATRA ASCENDING is the Egyptian history. To research this book, I spent hours reading about Cleopatra and the ancient Egyptian world, something that I found really enjoyable. Ancient Egyptians were surprisingly modern–they used cosmetics such as face cream, had private bathrooms and used mirrors when dressing. Women also benefited from forward-thinking (for the time) attitudes about holding land and education. I think although Cleopatra lived thousands of years ago, we will never stop being fascinated by her story
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Shades of Earth (Across the Universe)
by Beth Revis
Hardcover (US Only)
The final book in the New York Times bestselling trilogy, perfect for fans of Battlestar Gallactica and Prometheus!
Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceship Godspeed behind. They’re ready to start life afresh–to build a home–on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience.
But this new Earth isn’t the paradise Amy had been hoping for. There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, purple flowers with mind-numbing toxins, and mysterious, unexplained ruins that hold more secrets than their stone walls first let on. The biggest secret of all? Godspeed‘s former passengers aren’t alone on this planet. And if they’re going to stay, they’ll have to fight.
Amy and Elder must race to discover who–or what–else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. They will have to look inward to the very core of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed–friends, family, life on Earth–will have been for nothing.
FUELED BY LIES.
RULED BY CHAOS.
ALMOST HOME.
Praise for the ACROSS THE UNIVERSE trilogy:
“Entirely original, deeply compelling, and totally unputdownable–I’ve found a new favorite!” –Carrie Ryan, New York Times bestselling author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth
“A murder mystery, a budding romance, and a dystopian world gracefully integrated into a sci-fi novel that blows away all expectation.” –Melissa Marr, New York Times bestselling author of Wicked Lovely
“A fast-paced, action-packed follow-up . . . that explores not only the nature of authority and loyalty but fear of the unknown and fulfilling one’s personal destiny.” —LA Times
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Shades of Earth (Across the Universe)?
In Across the Universe, my favorite chapter was one sentence long. In A Million Suns, my favorite page had only one word on it. And in Shades of Earth, my favorite bit of the whole book is the blank page.
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Return to Me
by Justina Chen
2 ARCs (US Only)
Nothing is going as planned for Rebecca Muir. She’s weeks away from starting college–at a school chosen specifically to put a few thousand miles of freedom between Reb and her parents. But her dad’s last-minute job opportunity has her entire family moving all those miles with her! And then there’s the matter of her unexpected, amazing boyfriend, Jackson, who is staying behind on the exact opposite coast.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Return to Me?
Return to Me is a love letter to my children. Inspired by the events in my own life, the novel follows one girl’s journey as she becomes better, not bitter after a betrayal. I loved writing with raw, urgent honesty about how a broken heart heals.
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LAST WEEK’S GIVEAWAY WINNERS
Doomed
by Tracy Deebs
Signed Hardcover
WINNER: Victoria Zumbrum
Pandora’s
just your average teen-glued to her cell phone and laptop, surfing
Facebook and e-mailing with her friends-until the day her long-lost
father sends her a link to a mysterious site featuring twelve photos of
her as a child. Unable to contain her curiosity, Pandora enters the
site, where she is prompted to play her favorite virtual-reality game,
Zero Day. This unleashes a global computer virus that plunges the whole
world into panic: suddenly, there is no Internet. No cell phones. No
utilities, traffic lights, hospitals, law enforcement. Pandora teams up
with handsome stepbrothers Eli and Theo to enter the virtual world of
Zero Day. Simultaneously, she continues to follow the photographs from
her childhood in an attempt to beat the game and track down her
father-her one key to saving the world as we know it. Part The Matrix, part retelling of the Pandora myth, Doomed has something for gaming fans, dystopian fans, and romance fans alike.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Doomed?
This
is actually a hard question for me to answer simply because I both
really love and really hate this book. Doomed was the hardest book I’ve
ever written (and I’ve written 27) and I cursed it every day I was
writing it– and every day for six months after it was done. But it’s
also the book I am most proud of. If I have to choose one thing that I
love about the book now that it’s finished, it’s my three main
characters. I think Pandora is a kick-ass female heroine who is trying
to do her best to undo her mistakes even as the world falls apart around
her. Theo and Eli, who are my modern day take on the Titans Prometheus
and Epimetheus, are also really strong in the face of continuing
adversity. Both play a huge part in the Pandora myth and in Doomed. It
was a challenge to capture their personalities for 2012 as depicted in
the myths about them, but I’m really pleased with how they turned out
(especially Theo, who I think is an awesome YA hero). I really hope my
readers agree 🙂
Anatomy of a Single Girl
by Daria Snadowsky
Hardcover
WINNER: Bethany Morrow
With Judy Blume-like honesty and insight, this sequel to Anatomy of a Boyfriend is about life after first love–romance, sex, friendship, family, and the ups and downs of life as a single girl.
After everything that happened—my first boyfriend, my first time, my first breakup—jumping back into the dating game seemed like the least healthy thing I could do. It’s not that I didn’t want to fall in love again, since that’s about the best feeling ever. But as a busy college premed still raw from heartbreak, which is the worst feeling ever, I figured I’d lie low for a while. Of course, as soon as I stopped looking for someone, an impossibly amazing—and devastatingly cute—guy came along, and I learned that having a new boyfriend is the quickest way to recover from losing your old one.
The moment we got together, all my preconceptions about romance and sex were turned upside down. I discovered physical and emotional firsts I never knew existed. I learned to let go of my past by living in the present. It was thrilling. It was hot. It was just what the doctor ordered.
But I couldn’t avoid my future forever.
In Daria Snadowsky’s daring follow-up to Anatomy of a Boyfriend, eighteen-year-old Dominique explores the relationship between love and lust, and the friendships that see us through.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Anatomy of a Single Girl
I have three favorite things! 1) The love scenes. As with Anatomy of a Boyfriend, nothing’s sensationalized or glossed over, and they show teen intimacy in all its awkwardness, hilarity, solemnity, and magic. 2) The realism. In her quest for a “happily ever after” ending, Dominique instead experiences life as a series of “and then, what?” transitions. 3) The continuity with the first book. Both Anatomy of a Boyfriend and Anatomy of a Single Girl work as stand-alone titles, but you can read them back-to-back with it feeling seamless, as if they’re two volumes of the same novel.
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Then You Were Gone
by Lauren Strasnick
Signed Hardcover
WINNER: Tiffany Johnson
In the tradition of 13 Reasons Why, a suspenseful and heart-wrenching novel from the author of Nothing Like You and Her and Me and You.
Two years ago, Adrienne’s best friend walked out of her life. One week ago, she left Adrienne a desperate, muffled voicemail. Adrienne never called back.
Now Dakota is missing. She left behind a string of broken hearts, a flurry of rumors, and a suicide note.
Adrienne can’t stop obsessing over what might have happened if she’d answered Dakota’s call. And she’s increasingly convinced that Dakota must still be alive.
Maybe finding and saving Dakota is the only way Adrienne can save herself.
Or maybe it’s too late for them both.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Then You Were Gone?
Writing this book was therapeutic — I got to work out some massive
envy issues surrounding the world of rock and its performers and
writers. When I started in on this story I was completely obsessed with
the power of song — how three minutes of music can literally undo a
person! As a novelist, I’m envious of that — the ability to move
millions with pretty vocals, a catchy chorus and a couple of choice
chords! Such jealousy! I am a huge music lover and have obsessed over
many a musician in my lifetime — this book helped me exorcise a demon
or two. I’m a much more balanced individual, having written it. Really
truly.
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The 13th Sign
by Kristin O’Donnell Tubb
Signed Hardcover
WINNER: Debbie Smythe
What if there was a 13th zodiac sign?
You’re no longer Sagittarius, but Ophiuchus, the healer, the 13th sign.
Your personality has changed. So has your mom’s and your best friend’s.
What about the rest of the world?
What if you were the one who accidentally unlocked the 13th sign, causing this world-altering change, and infuriating the other 12 signs?
Jalen did it, and now she must use every ounce of her strength and cunning to send the signs back where they belong. Lives, including her own, depend upon it.
View The 13th Sign on Goodreads
IN STORES NEXT WEEK WITH AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
Level 2 (Memory Chronicles)
by Lenore Appelhans
Hardcover
In this gripping exploration of a futuristic afterlife, a teen discovers that death is just the beginning.Since her untimely death the day before her eighteenth birthday, Felicia Ward has been trapped in Level 2, a stark white afterlife located between our world and the next. Along with her fellow drones, Felicia passes the endless hours reliving memories of her time on Earth and mourning what she’s lost—family, friends, and Neil, the boy she loved.
Then a girl in a neighboring chamber is found dead, and nobody but Felicia recalls that she existed in the first place. When Julian—a dangerously charming guy Felicia knew in life—comes to offer Felicia a way out, Felicia learns the truth: If she joins the rebellion to overthrow the Morati, the angel guardians of Level 2, she can be with Neil again.
Suspended between Heaven and Earth, Felicia finds herself at the center of an age-old struggle between good and evil. As memories from her life come back to haunt her, and as the Morati hunt her down, Felicia will discover it’s not just her own redemption at stake… but the salvation of all mankind.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Level 2 (Memory Chronicles)?
LEVEL 2 is exactly the kind of book I love to read: a high-concept, genre-bending thriller with lots of twists, hidden agendas, swoony romance and high stakes.
I enjoyed the process of putting LEVEL 2 together. It was almost like a puzzle, figuring out which life memories to include that would best illuminate Felicia’s current situation and character arc. My favorite of her memories is when she takes a trip to the Turkish coast with her father. There is just so much joy to be gotten out of travel, and I hope I conveyed that.
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Touch of Death
by Kelly Hashway
Paperback
Jodi Marshall isn’t sure how she went from normal teenager to walking disaster. One minute she’s in her junior year of high school, spending time with her amazing boyfriend and her best friend. The next she’s being stalked by some guy no one seems to know. After the stranger, Alex, reveals himself, Jodi learns he’s not a normal teenager and neither is she. With a kiss that kills and a touch that brings the dead back to life, Jodi discovers she’s part of a branch of necromancers born under the 13th sign of the zodiac, Ophiuchus. A branch of necromancers that are descendants of Medusa. A branch of necromancers with poisoned blood writhing in their veins. Jodi’s deadly to the living and even more deadly to the deceased. She has to leave her old, normal life behind before she hurts the people she loves. As if that isn’t difficult enough, Jodi discovers she’s the chosen one who has to save the rest of her kind from perishing at the hands of Hades. If she can’t figure out how to control her power, history will repeat itself, and her race will become extinct.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Touch of Death?
I loved being able to portray Medusa in a different light. Most myths make her out to be a monster, but there are other myths that are very different, and those are the ones I focused on. In Touch of Death, Medusa is beautiful and very motherly. She’s also extremely powerful. Jodi and her Ophi family are proud to be descendants of Medusa.
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MORE RELEASES IN STORES NEXT WEEK
Gates of Paradise (A Blue Bloods Novel)
by Melissa de la Cruz
Hardcover
Schuyler Van Alen is running out of time. The Dark Prince of Hell is storming the Gates of Paradise, intent
on winning the heavenly throne for good. This time he has his greatest angels by his side, Abbadon and Azrael—Jack and Mimi Force, as they are known in the Coven.
Or so he thinks. Even as Lucifer assigns Jack and Mimi the tasks of killing their true loves, the Force twins secretly vow to defeat the Dark Prince once and for all. But how far will Mimi and Jack go to conceal their real loyalties?
Meanwhile, former vampire Bliss Llewellyn has joined forces with Lawson, the greatest wolf of the underworld, to free his people from their imprisonment in Hell. As they struggle against impossible odds, an ancient message, woven into the very fabric of time, reveals just how much depends on the success of their mission.
Lucifer seeks the key to the Gate of Promise, and when Schuyler is taken captive and delivered straight to Hell, she must make an unthinkable choice—the same one the archangel Michael was forced to make during the Crisis in Rome. Will Schuyler find the strength to do what he could not? The epic, heartbreaking Blue Bloods series comes to a close with this final novel about staggering courage, unbearable sacrifice, and the immortality of true love.
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Vortex: A Tempest Novel
by Julie Cross
Hardcover
Julie Cross’s Vortex is the thrilling second installment of the Tempest series, in which the world hangs in the balance as a lovelorn Jackson must choose who to save.
Jackson Meyer has thrown himself into his role as an agent for Tempest, the shadowy division of the CIA that handles all time-travel-related threats. Despite his heartbreak at losing the love of his life, Jackson has proved himself to be an excellent agent. However, after an accidental run in with Holly—the girl he altered history to save—Jackson is once again reminded of what he’s lost. And when Eyewall, an opposing division of the CIA, emerges, Jackson and his fellow agents not only find themselves under attack, but Jackson begins to discover that the world around him has changed and someone knows about his erased relationship with Holly, putting both their lives at risk all over again.
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Uses For Boys
Anna remembers a time before boys, when she was little and everything made sense. When she and her mom were a family, just the two of them against the world. But now her mom is gone most of the time, chasing the next marriage, brining home the next stepfather. Anna is left on her own—until she discovers that she can make boys her family. From Desmond to Joey, Todd to Sam, Anna learns that if you give boys what they want, you can get what you need. But the price is high—the other kids make fun of her; the girls call her a slut. Anna’s new friend, Toy, seems to have found a way around the loneliness, but Toy has her own secrets that even Anna can’t know. Then comes Sam. When Anna actually meets a boy who is more than just useful, whose family eats dinner together, laughs, and tells stories, the truth about love becomes clear. And she finally learns how it feels to have something to lose—and something to offer. Real, shocking, uplifting, and stunningly lyrical, Uses for Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt is a story of breaking down and growing up.
