Category Archives: Young Adult

Excerpt: Biggie by Derek E. Sullivan

4 March, 2015 2:43 am , 3 Comments ,

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biggieBiggie
By: Derek E. Sullivan
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
Published: March 1, 2015
Genre: Contemporary YA

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Henry “Biggie” Abbott is the son of one of Finch, Iowa ‘s most famous athletes. His father was a baseball legend and his step-dad is a close second. At an obese 300+ pounds though, Biggie himself prefers classroom success to sports. As a perfectionist, he doesn’t understand why someone would be happy getting two hits in five trips to the plate. “Forty percent, that’s an F in any class,” he would say. As Biggie’s junior year begins, the girl of his dreams, Annabelle Rivers, starts to flirt with him. Hundreds of people have told him to follow in his dad’s footsteps and play ball, but Annabelle might be the one to actually convince him to try. What happens when a boy who has spent his life since fourth grade trying to remain invisible is suddenly thrust into the harsh glare of the high school spotlight?

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Posted in: Excerpt, YA Contemporary , Tagged: ,

Review: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

3 March, 2015 3:08 am , 10 Comments ,

7600924Forbidden
By: Tabitha Suzuma
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: May 27, 2010
Genre: YA
Rating:
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Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings. As defacto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. And the stress of their lives–and the way they understand each other so completely–has also also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be. So close, in fact, that they have fallen in love. Their clandestine romance quickly blooms into deep, desperate love. They know their relationship is wrong and cannot possibly continue. And yet, they cannot stop what feels so incredibly right. As the novel careens toward an explosive and shocking finale, only one thing is certain: a love this devastating has no happy ending.

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Posted in: YA Contemporary , Tagged: ,

Excerpt & Guest Post: Death Wish by Megan Tayte

20 February, 2015 8:49 am , Leave a Comment ,

DWDeath Wish
(Ceruleans, #1)
By: Megan Tayte
Publisher: Heaven Afire
Published: Feb. 7, 2015
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

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IN SEARCH OF THE MEANING OF DEATH, SHE’LL FIND THE MEANING OF LIFE.

The Ceruleans: mere mortals infused with power over life and death. Five books; one question: If the might of the heavens were in your hands, would you be sinner or saint?

Seventeen-year-old Scarlett Blake is haunted by death. Her estranged sister has made the ultimate dramatic exit. Running away from school, joining a surfing fraternity, partying hard: that sounds like Sienna. But suicide? It makes no sense.

Following in her sister’s footsteps, Scarlett comes to the isolated cove of Twycombe, Devon, with grand plans to uncover the truth. Alone. But she hasn’t reckoned on meeting two boys who are determined to help her. Luke: the blue-eyed surfer who’ll see the real Scarlett, who’ll challenge her, who’ll save her. And Jude: the elusive drifter with a knack for turning up whenever Scarlett’s in need.

As Scarlett’s quest for the truth unravels, so too does her grip on reality as she’s always known it. Because there’s something strange going on in this little cove. A dead magpie circles the skies. A dead deer watches from the undergrowth. Hands glow with light. Warmth. Power.

What transpires is a summer of discovery. Of what it means to conquer fear. To fall in love. To choose life. To choose death.

To believe the impossible.

 
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Posted in: Excerpt, guest post, Paranormal Romance, YA Fantasy, Young Adult

Review: Collide by Melissa West

18 February, 2015 3:08 am , Leave a Comment ,

CollideCollide
(The Taking, #3)
By: Melissa West
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Published: Dec. 2, 2014
Genre: Sci-Fi Young Adult
Rating:
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Military legacy Ari Alexander has survived alien spies, WWIV, and a changing world order. But when the new leader of Earth uses Jackson—the only boy she’s ever let herself care about—to get to her, Ari has no choice but to surrender.

To free Jackson, she agrees to travel to the national bases to train others to fight. What she discovers is a land riddled with dying people. Ari has the power to heal by turning the fighters into aliens—half-breeds like her. If she succeeds, together, they have a chance at overthrowing the alien leader, Zeus. But if she fails, everyone she holds dear will be wiped away forever.

Once again, everything Ari’s come to believe is thrown into question. In a world of uncertainty, loyalties are tested, lies are uncovered, and no one can be trusted. If Ari and Jackson have any hope at survival and at preserving a life for the future, they must fight the final war with their eyes wide open.

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Posted in: YA Fantasy, Young Adult

Review: Some Boys by Patty Blount

16 February, 2015 9:30 am , 3 Comments ,

18509683Some Boys
By: Patty Blount
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Published: Aug. 5, 2014
Genre: Young Adult
Rating:
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Some boys go too far. Some boys will break your heart. But one boy can make you whole.

When Grace meets Ian she’s afraid. Afraid he’ll reject her like the rest of the school, like her own family. After she accuses the town golden boy of rape, everyone turns against Grace. They call her a slut and a liar. But…Ian doesn’t. He’s funny and kind with secrets of his own.

But how do you trust the best friend of the boy who raped you? How do you believe in love?

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Posted in: YA Contemporary, Young Adult

Review: One of the Guys by Lisa Aldin

6 February, 2015 9:22 am , 1 Comment ,

22957535One of the Guys
By: Lisa Aldin
Publisher: Spencer Hill Press
Release Date: Feb 10, 2015
Genre: Contemporary YA
Rating:
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Tomboy to the core, Toni Valentine understands guys. She’ll take horror movies, monster hunts and burping contests over manicures. So Toni is horrified when she’s sent to the Winston Academy for Girls, where she has to wear a skirt and learn to be a “lady” while the guys move on without her. Then Toni meets Emma Elizabeth, a girl at school with boy troubles, and she volunteers one of her friends as a pretend date. Word spreads of Toni s connections with boys, and she discovers that her new wealthy female classmates will pay big money for fake dates. Looking for a way to connect her old best friends with her new life at school, Toni and Emma start up Toni Valentine s Rent-A-Gent Service. But the business meets a scandal when Toni falls for one of her friends–the same guy who happens to be the most sought-after date. With everything she’s built on the line, Toni has to decide if she wants to save the business and her old life, or let go of being one of the guys for a chance at love.”

 

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Posted in: YA Contemporary, YA Romance, Young Adult

Review: The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski

3 February, 2015 4:06 am , 2 Comments ,

16069030The Winner’s Curse
(The Winner’s Trilogy, #1)
By: Marie Rutkoski
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Published: March 4, 2014
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating:
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As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions.

One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin.

But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.

 

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Posted in: YA Fantasy

Review: The Bargaining by Carly Anne West

31 January, 2015 1:12 pm , 1 Comment ,

22456909The Bargaining
By: Carly Anne West
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: Feb 17, 2015
Genre: YA Horror
Rating:
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The fact that neither of her parents wants to deal with her is nothing new to Penny. She’s used to being discussed like a problem, a problem her mother has finally passed on to her father. What she hasn’t gotten used to is her stepmother…especially when she finds out that she’ll have to spend the summer with April in the remote woods of Washington to restore a broken-down old house.

Set deep in a dense forest, the old Carver House is filled with abandoned antique furniture, rich architectural details, and its own chilling past. The only respite Penny can find away from April’s renovations is in Miller, the young guy who runs the local general store. He’s her only chance at a normal, and enjoyable, summer.

But Miller has his own connection to the Carver House, and it’s one that goes beyond the mysterious tapping Penny hears at her window, the handprints she finds smudging the glass panes, and the visions of children who beckon Penny to follow them into the dark woods. Miller’s past just might threaten to become the terror of Penny’s future….

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Posted in: Young Adult

Review: How (Not) to Fall in Love by Lisa Brown Roberts

28 January, 2015 8:05 am , 4 Comments ,

22392967How (Not) to Fall in Love
By: Lisa Brown Roberts
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Release Date: Feb 3, 2015
Genre: Contemporary YA
Rating:
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Seventeen-year-old Darcy Covington never had to worry about money or where her next shopping spree was coming from. Even her dog ate gourmet. Then one day, Darcy’s car is repossessed from the parking lot of her elite private school. As her father’s business hit the skids, Dad didn’t just skip town, he bailed on his family.

Fortunately, Darcy’s uncle owns a thrift shop where she can hide out from the world. There’s also Lucas, the wickedly hot fix-it guy she can’t stop crushing on, even if she’s not sure they’ll ever get out of the friend zone.

But it’s here among the colorful characters of her uncle’s world that Darcy begins to see something more in herself…if she has the courage to follow it.

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Posted in: YA Contemporary, Young Adult

Review: Invaded by Melissa Landers

20 January, 2015 3:01 am , 7 Comments ,

17316770Invaded
(Alienated, #2)
By: Melissa Landers
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Release Date: Feb 3, 2015
Genre: Fantasy YA
Rating:
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The romantic sequel to Alienated takes long-distance relationships to a new level as Cara and Aelyx long for each other from opposite ends of the universe…until a threat to both their worlds reunites them.

Cara always knew life on planet L’eihr would be an adjustment. With Aelyx, her L’eihr boyfriend, back on Earth, working to mend the broken alliance between their two planets, Cara is left to fend for herself at a new school, surrounded by hostile alien clones. Even the weird dorm pet hates her.

Things look up when Cara is appointed as human representative to a panel preparing for a human colony on L’eihr. A society melding their two cultures is a place where Cara and Aelyx could one day make a life together. But with L’eihr leaders balking at granting even the most basic freedoms, Cara begins to wonder if she could ever be happy on this planet, even with Aelyx by her side.

Meanwhile, on Earth, Aelyx, finds himself thrown into a full-scale PR campaign to improve human-L’eihr relations. Humans don’t know that their very survival depends on this alliance: only Aelyx’s people have the technology to fix the deadly contamination in the global water supply that human governments are hiding. Yet despite their upper hand, the leaders of his world suddenly seem desperate to get humans on their side, and hardly bat an eye at extremists’ multiple attempts on Aelyx’s life.

The Way clearly needs humans’ help . . . but with what? And what will they ask for in return?

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Posted in: YA Fantasy, Young Adult