YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS THIS WEEK

Replica
by Jenna Black
Paperback Giveaway
Tor Teen; 1 edition
Released 7/16/2013

Breathtaking new YA SF from the author of the Faeriewalker series

Sixteen-year-old Nadia Lake comes from a high-class Executive family in the Corporate States. Her marriage has been arranged with the most powerful family in her state, which means she lives a life of privilege but also of public scrutiny, followed everywhere by photographers, every detail of her private life tabloid fodder. But her future is assured, as long as she can maintain her flawless public image — no easy feat when your betrothed is a notorious playboy.

Nathan Hayes is the heir of Paxco — controller of the former state of New York, and creator of human replication technology, science that every state and every country in the world would kill to have. Though Nadia and Nate aren’t in love, they’ve grown up close, and they (and the world) are happy enough with their match.

Until Nate turns up dead, and as far as everyone knows, Nadia was the last person to see him alive.

When the new Nate wakes up in the replication tanks, he knows he must have died, but with a memory that only reaches to his last memory backup, he doesn’t know what killed him. Together, Nadia and Nate must discover what really happened without revealing the secrets that those who run their world would kill to protect.

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Replica?

There are a lot of things I love about this world and this concept, but the thing I like best is the contrast between my two protagonists, Nadia and Nate. Nadia begins the book being painfully proper and hyper-responsible–all for good reason, considering her high-profile and precarious position and how much her family’s future is riding on her shoulders. Nate is lovable and good-natured, but irresponsible and oblivious to other people’s feelings. He’s so used to being at the top of the food chain that he can’t quite comprehend why other people can’t get away with the kind of behavior he can, and why Nadia has to be so cautious with everything she says and does. He frequently gets frustrated by her caution, and she frequently gets frustrated by his lack of it.

What’s fun about it is that each of them has to become a little more like the other to get through the events of this story. Nadia has to abandon some of her caution and stick her neck out to do the right thing–even if that means risk to herself and her family. Nate has to learn to control himself and think about the consequences before he blunders forward. It’s a very hard lesson for both of them to learn. They’ve been best friends for practically all their lives and it turns out neither of them understands the other as well as they thought. It’s also a lot of fun when Nadia loses some of her caution and finally tells Nate what she really thinks about his behavior.

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Imperfect Spiral
by Debbie Levy
Hardcover Giveaway
Walker Childrens; 1 edition
Released 7/16/2013

Danielle Snyder’s summer job as a babysitter takes a tragic turn when Humphrey, the five-year-old boy she’s watching, runs in front of oncoming traffic to chase down his football. Immediately Danielle is caught up in the machinery of tragedy: police investigations, neighborhood squabbling, and, when the driver of the car that struck Humphrey turns out to be an undocumented alien, outsiders use the accident to further a politically charged immigration debate. Wanting only to mourn Humphrey, the sweet kid she had a surprisingly strong friendship with, Danielle tries to avoid the world around her. Through a new relationship with Justin, a boy she meets at the park, she begins to work through her grief, but as details of the accident emerge, much is not as it seems. It’s time for Danielle to face reality, but when the truth brings so much pain, can she find a way to do right by Humphrey’s memory and forgive herself for his death?

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Imperfect Spiral?

You mean other than Humphrey’s name, right?

My favorite thing is the unlikely relationship between teenage Danielle and five-year-old Humphrey. Danielle feels, as teenagers (and adults!) often do, that she is a major oddball, when in fact she is just a little bit of an oddball, as so many of us are. Humphrey thinks Danielle is just the greatest. The reader sees how Danielle grows to love the little guy during the summer that she spends working as Humphrey’s babysitter, and grows to love his own funny little oddities. His greatest gift to her is, eventually, the ability to see herself through his accepting and admiring eyes. So, when Humphrey encourages Danielle to join him in doing a do-not-rain dance in the park, and when she does he exclaims, “You look like a beautiful daddy longlegs!”–she can feel just fine about that.

Ask me again tomorrow and I’ll have a different favorite thing.

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Vigilante Nights
by Erin Richards
Signed Hardcover Giveaway
Merit Press
Released 7/18/2013

A “good boy” will do anything for vengeance when a gang rite kills his twin sister. Will Lucas win, or follow his sister Silver into the darkness?

After a hideous car wreck, Lucas wakes from a coma to find that his world is gutted. Not only is his beloved twin sister, Silver, gone forever, but Lucas is broken in body and spirit. He will never be a college athlete, and is robbed of what he now realizes was the most important bond of his life. Although they weren’t identical twins, Lucas and Silver shared a bond so fierce it defied reason, and was nearly supernatural.

After her death, that bond seems to endure when Lucas sees Silver everywhere he turns. Either he’s crazy, or Silver is trying to tell him something about the California gang initiation they stumbled into that cost Silver her life. Lucas is bent on revenge, turning on Raymond, Silver’s former boyfriend; the one Lucas never wanted her to date. He forms a posse of vigilantes to take out the gangsters responsible for Silver’s death, but he risks not only his own life, but the love of the new girl on his block, who knows more about Lucas and Silver than can be accounted for by mere chance.

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Vigilante Nights?

What I liked best about Vigilante Nights is the emergence into adulthood through the eyes of a seventeen-year-old boy as a result of tragedy. There are many coming-of-age stories featuring great female main characters, and I wanted to write something different. The events of Vigilante Nights were far outside the adulthood he’d planned! Lucas is haunted by his sister and faces tragedy, grief, and a burning need for vengeance. I wanted to pile a lot on top of him and see how his actions and reactions snowballed–for good or bad. I also wanted Lucas to deal with his new upside down world as he fell in love for the first time–and finally realize he’d risked more than he expected.

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Conjured
by Sarah Beth Durst
Advance Reader Copy Giveaway
Walker Childrens; 1 edition
Released 9/3/2013

Eve has a new home, a new face, and a new name-but no memories of her past. She’s been told that she’s in a witness protection program. That she escaped a dangerous magic-wielding serial killer who still hunts her. The only thing she knows for sure is that there is something horrifying in her memories the people hiding her want to access–and there is nothing they won’t say–or do–to her to get her to remember.

At night she dreams of a tattered carnival tent and buttons being sewn into her skin. But during the day, she shelves books at the local library, trying to not let anyone know that she can do things–things like change the color of her eyes or walk through walls. When she does use her strange powers, she blacks out and is drawn into terrifying visions, returning to find that days or weeks have passed–and she’s lost all short-term memories. Eve must find out who and what she really is before the killer finds her–but the truth may be more dangerous than anyone could have ever imagined.

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YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS LAST WEEK: WINNERS

Shallow Pond
by Alissa Grosso
Paperback Giveaway
Flux
Released 7/8/2013

Winner: Vivien

Sisters uncover an unbelievable family secret

Barbara “Babie” Bunting is constantly mistaken for her sisters, but she’s determined not to end up like her family. She doesn’t plan to stick around Shallow Pond after graduation, and she certainly won’t be ruined by a broken heart. That is, until fellow orphan Zach Faraday walks into the picture, and Babie can’t deny their chemistry.

When her oldest sister, Annie, comes down with a mysterious illness–initially dismissed as “love sickness’–Babie and Zach start investigating what exactly killed the girls’ mother and why their late father became so consumed by grief. What they find changes everything.

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Shallow Pond?

Well, not to be too vague, but I think my favorite thing about Shallow Pond is the characters. Of course, I have a soft spot for Barbara, the novel’s protagonist, but I also enjoyed creating some of the other characters that people this book: Zach, Annie, Gracie and Cameron. One thing that makes this a little different from my other books is that there are quite a few adult characters. There’s probably a good reason for that.

Before Shallow Pond was a novel it was a short story, and it was told from a completely different perspective. Cameron, who is still in the novel, was the short story’s protagonist. I reworked the story several times trying to get it right, until I suddenly realized that Cameron was the wrong character to tell the story. Everything came together when I decided to put Barbara in charge. Then this short story got a bit more complicated and turned into a novel.

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Plague in the Mirror
by Deborah Noyes
Advance Reader Copy Giveaway
Candlewick
Released 7/9/2013

Winner: Janina

In a sensual paranormal romance, a teen girl’s doppelganger from 1348 Florence lures her into the past in hopes of exacting a deadly trade.

It was meant to be a diversion — a summer in Florence with her best friend, Liam, and his travel-writer mom, doing historical research between breaks for gelato. A chance to forget that back in Vermont, May’s parents, and all semblance of safety, were breaking up. But when May wakes one night sensing someone in her room, only to find her ghostly twin staring back at her, normalcy becomes a distant memory. And when later she follows the menacing Cristofana through a portale to fourteenth-century Florence, May never expects to find safety in the eyes of Marco, a soulful painter who awakens in her a burning desire and makes her feel truly seen. The wily Cristofana wants nothing less of May than to inhabit each other’s lives, but with the Black Death ravaging Old Florence, can May’s longing for Marco’s touch be anything but madness? Lush with atmosphere both passionate and eerie, this evocative tale follows a girl on the brink of womanhood as she dares to transcend the familiar — and discovers her sensual power.

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Plague in the Mirror?

I think Cristofana was my favorite part of the book. She’s dark and sly and kept me guessing. I love the idea of having a twin out there in what she calls “the wilds of time” who’s also your opposite, the yin to your yang. May, the main book’s main character, is a self-proclaimed good girl used to doing what’s right and expected. But she also takes her life for granted. It’s like a part of her is sleeping. And Cristofana is wide awake. She’s selfish and mean but passionate and brave, too, unafraid to go after what she wants, and May has something to learn from that, just as Cristofana learns about loyalty and family from May. A lot of dualities — good and evil, light and dark — are extremes, but I think what the universe wants from us, in the end, is balance. May and Cristofana complete each other.

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Project Cain
by Geoffrey Girard
Advance Reader Copy Giveaway
Simon & Schuster
Released 9/3/2013

Winner: Kimberley Griffiths Little

Fifteen-year-old Jeff Jacobson had never heard of Jeffrey Dahmer, the infamous serial killer who brutally murdered seventeen people more than twenty years ago. But Jeff’s life changes forever when the man he’d thought was his father hands him a government file telling him he was constructed in a laboratory only seven years ago, part of a top-secret government cloning experiment called “Project CAIN”.

There, he was created entirely from Jeffrey Dahmer’s DNA. There are others like Jeff–those genetically engineered directly from the most notorious murderers of all time: The Son of Sam, The Boston Strangler, Ted Bundy . . . even other Jeffrey Dahmer clones. Some raised, like Jeff, in caring family environments; others within homes that mimicked the horrific early lives of the men they were created from.

When the most dangerous boys are set free by the geneticist who created them, the summer of killing begins. Worse, these same teens now hold a secret weapon even more dangerous than the terrible evil they carry within. Only Jeff can help track the clones down before it’s too late. But will he catch the “monsters” before becoming one himself?

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Project Cain?

PROJECT CAIN started as a teen novel about cloned serial killers with a strange first-person-but-not narration that my agents asked me to rewrite into an adult thriller. Which I did (CAIN’S BLOOD), and we all liked, but then they asked: “Hey, we loved this Jeff character. Any interest in doing a YA novel just about him?” Absolutely! In PROJECT CAIN, Jeff Jacobson is the first-person protagonist and teenage clone of the murderer Jeffrey Dahmer. Dahmer at sixteen was a shy midwest kid, book smart, Boy Scout, interested in science and lifting weights, fighting depression alone, not quite sure how to make friends, parents always fighting, realizing he was homosexual in a time/place even way more difficult than it can be today. THAT kid I kinda liked. THAT kid was breaking my damn heart. Fiction is all about What Ifs. My favorite thing about PROJECT CAIN is that I got to get into the head/heart of THAT kid as Jeff Jacobson ultimately became the “idealized” version of what Dahmer could/should have been. Those same frailties, temperament, and promise. What If Dahmer’s parents had simply divorced sooner instead of screaming at each other for a decade? What if a concerned teacher’d noticed he was showing up to school drunk? What if Dahmer were raised in the 2000s and there were a couple more people around to say: “You’re homosexual, huh? You’ll find much love here too and it’s the most natural thing in the world.” What if he’d gotten some therapy, been put on the right depression meds, etc. I’ve rarely written in first-person, but the opportunity to speak as Jeff Jacobson and explore this curious “What If?” and his own search for self was very much welcomed.

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fml
by Shaun David Hutchinson
Hardcover Giveaway
Simon Pulse
Released 6/25/2013

Winner: Heather Cranmer

There’s more than one way to get the girl in this fun and fast-paced novel about one epic party and a kiss that could change everything.

Tonight’s the night: Simon’s big chance to finally get with Cassie. Cassie, who he’s loved for ages. Cassie, who is newly boyfriend-free. Cassie, who just happens to be throwing the biggest party of the year. Simon’s plan is simple: He’ll go to the party, she’ll fall in love with him, they’ll make out like crazy, and the night will be a complete success.

But things don’t ever go as planned–especially when it comes to Cassie.

In two alternating plotlines, Simon goes after the girl of his dreams and stumbles toward his destiny. It’s one night, one party, and a thousand ways for things to go wrong–but a million ways for them to go right.

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about fml?

There are so many things to love about FML that it’s nearly impossible to choose just one. For a book about a party, where the stakes are simply one guy’s quest to secure a kiss, there’s a lot of my heart in these pages. I think that’s what I love most about it. The heart.

FML is made up of characters who all have a lot of heart. There are no stereotypes here. Readers may think they know who the characters are at first glance, but every character in FML will surprise them.

The biggest and most important lesson I learned in high school is that no one is what they seem to be. That jerk who pushed you around might have his reasons. That girl you like might not be the best person for you. That geek you make fun of might be the coolest kid you’ll ever know. Everyone has issues no one else knows about, everyone has the potential to be the hero in the story of their own life.

Heart. These characters have it. Simon and Cassie and Ben & Coop and Stella and Aja and Eli. They’re all so different and amazing. They can all be jerks at times, but they can also be awesome.

Writing FML was like being at a party I never wanted to end.

In a way, I guess it never will.

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Half Lives
by Sara Grant
Signed Bookplate (2)
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Released 7/9/2013

Winners: Jemi Fraser & Raven

I learned that surviving isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. If you survive, you’ve got to live with the guilt, and that’s more difficult than looking someone in the eye and pulling the trigger. Trust me. I’ve done both. Killing takes a twitch of the finger. Absolution takes several lifetimes.

Seventeen-year-old Icie’s parents have given her $10,000 in cash, a map of a top-secret bunker, and instructions to get there by any means necessary. They have news of an imminent viral attack and know that the bunker is Icie’s only hope for survival. Along with three other teens, she lives locked away for months, not knowing what’s happening in the outside world or who has survived. And are they safe in the bunker after all?
Generations in the future, a mysterious cult worships the very mountain where Icie’s secret bunker was built. They never leave the mountain, they’re ruled by a teenager…and they have surprising ties to Icie.
This high-stakes, original, and thought-provoking adventure from Sara Grant follows two unlikely heroes, hundreds of years apart, as they fight to survive.

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Half Lives?

I wrote Half Lives as two separate, yet interlocked, novels. I loved the challenge of revealing the complete story only when both narratives were read together. I created a matrix to outline each, noting the points of connectivity. I wanted to orchestrate the give and take of information between the stories. I wrote Icie’s story first and then Beckett’s. Once I was satisfied with each story, I knitted them together and considered them as a whole. Editing even a line in one story could create a ripple of changes in the other. This writing and revising–ripping the two stories apart and then putting them back together again–was a challenge, but I hope readers agree that it’s worth the effort.

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IN STORES NEXT WEEK WITH AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

Belladonna
by Fiona Paul
Hardcover
Philomel
Released 7/16/2013

In Renaissance Italy, love, lust, intrigue and secret societies converge to stunning results!

In the second in the stunning Secrets of the Eternal Rose series, Cassandra Caravello is trying to forget Falco, the wild artist who ran off with her heart, as she grows closer to her strong, steady fiance, Luca. But Luca seems to have his own secrets. When he’s arrested by soldiers in the middle of the night, Cass’s life is once again thrown into chaos. She must save Luca, and that means finding the Book of the Eternal Rose–the only evidence that will prove he’s innocent.

So begins her journey to Florence, a city haunted by whispers of vampirism, secret soirees and clandestine meetings of the Order of the Eternal Rose. And home to Falco, who is working for the Order’s eerily stunning leader, the Belladonna herself.

Can Cass trust her heart to lead her to the truth this time?

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Belladonna?

My favorite thing about Belladonna is the development of Cass’s character. In Venom she starts out as an unorthodox, but basically oppressed young woman who has some of her own thoughts but no real idea how to integrate them into her life. She vacillates between obeying her aunt and obeying her older male love interest. It’s not until the end of the book that she actually makes a choice based on her own beliefs. In Belladonna, Cass continues to grow. At the end of the book she attempts a huge, life-changing thing, something Cass from Venom never would have had the strength to try. Even though all does not go as planned, I was proud to see Cass recognize that it’s all right to be more than just a girl ordered around by other people, that sometimes you have to be the one who springs into action when no one else is willing.

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MORE YOUNG ADULT BOOKS IN STORES NEXT WEEK

Dangerous Girls
by Abigail Haas
Hardcover
Simon Pulse
Released 7/16/2013

Paradise quickly gets gruesome in this thrilling page-turner with a plot that’s ripped from the headlines and a twist that defies the imagination.

It’s Spring Break of senior year. Anna, her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise, and a few other close friends are off to a debaucherous trip to Aruba that promises to be the time of their lives.

But when Elise is found brutally murdered, Anna finds herself trapped in a country not her own, fighting against vile and contemptuous accusations. As Anna sets out to find her friend’s killer, she discovers harsh revelations about her friendships, the slippery nature of truth, and the ache of young love.

Awaiting the judge’s decree, it becomes clear to Anna that everyone around her thinks she is not only guilty, but also dangerous. And when the whole story comes out, reality is more shocking than anyone ever imagined…

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No Easy Way Out
by Dayna Lorentz
Hardcover
Dial
Released 7/16/2013

It’s Day 7 in the quarantined mall. The riot is over and the senator trapped inside is determined to end the chaos. Even with new rules, assigned jobs, and heightened security, she still needs to get the teen population under control. So she enlists Marco’s help–allowing him to keep his stolen universal card key in exchange for spying on the very football players who are protecting him.

But someone is working against the new systems, targeting the teens, and putting the entire mall in even more danger. Lexi, Marco, Ryan, and Shay believe their new alliances are sound.

They are wrong. Who can be trusted? And who will be left to trust?

The virus was just the beginning.

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