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About Prada and Prejudice:
Fifteen year old Callie just wants to impress the popular girls when she buys a pair of Prada heels on her class trip to London. She didn’t plan on tripping, conking her head, and waking up in 1815! Now she’s wearing corsets with her designer pumps, eating bizarre soups, and breaking up engagements. If only the nineteen year old Duke of Harksbury wasn’t so bloody annoying, she might have a little fun in Austen-Era England…
I can’t imagine any girl reading that synopsis and not wanting to pick up the book. I’ve had the pleasure of reading it, and I can affirm that it’s totally charming and fun!
Breaking news: Mandy received some exciting news about PRADA AND PREJUDICE yesterday – here, I’ll let her tell you herself: http://mandywriter.livejournal.com/1978
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About : FAIRY TALE:
Morgan Sparks and Cam Browne are a match made in heaven. They've been best friends since birth, they tell each other everything, and oh yeah - they're totally hot for each other. But a week before their joint Sweet Sixteen bash, everything changes. Cam's awkward cousin Pip comes to stay, and Morgan is stunned when her formerly perfect boyfriend seems to be drifting away. When Morgan demands answers, she's shocked to discover the source of Cam's distance isn't another girl … it's another world. Pip claims that Cam is a fairy. No, seriously. A fairy. And now his people want Cam to return to their world and take his rightful place as Fairy King.
Determined to keep Cam with her, Morgan plots to fool the fairies. But as Cam continues to change, she has to decide once and for all if he really is her destiny, and if their "perfect" love can weather an uncertain future.
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About TWENTY BOY SUMMER:
While on vacation in California, sixteen-year-old best girlfriends Anna and Frankie conspire to find a boy for Anna’s first summer romance, but Anna harbors a painful secret that threatens their lighthearted plan and their friendship.
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She’s like that.
Heehee!
Sarah is one of my “oldest” LiveJournal friends; I still remember the day she finally admitted to me that she’d sold her YA novel, DULL BOY. She was shy about publicizing the big news, so I got to celebrate with her in super-sekrit fashion for awhile. At the time, I had no idea my own YA novel would sell, and we would end up sharing a debut year. Yay! Although Sarah chose New York over me, we'll always have 2009. :-D
About DULL BOY:
Superpowers are awesome -- unless you actually have them, like Avery does. There's only so much he can pass off as "adrenaline" before people start to get suspicious. Probably it's best to lie low, so guys in white lab coats don't come to carry him away, to find out what makes his freakish body tick. Who wants to be vivisected? But flying under the radar becomes a whole lot harder when you can actually fly. It's dangerous to be different, so for now he'll pretend to be normal, unremarkable Avery -- a dull boy -- anything to keep his secret safe.
What he doesn't expect is the horrifying truth about where his powers came from, who else might have them, and the madness of one villain's plan to turn this superpowered dull boy into something even more powerful and amazing.
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Aprilynne Pike's WINGS is the first of four books about an ordinary girl named Laurel who discovers she is a faerie sent among humans to guard the gateway to Avalon. When Laurel is thrust into the midst of a centuries-old battle between faeries and trolls, she's torn between a human and a faerie love, as well as her loyalties to both worlds.
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It was my pleasure to read Lee’s YA novel, SLIDING ON THE EDGE, in manuscript form. I’m proud to have played a small part in its success, and there is no doubt in my mind that Lee’s editorial insights helped make my novel better.
Alone and broke, Shawna Stone feels she has nothing left to live for. Her daily life is a struggle to survive … and now she is a heartbeat away from giving up. Kay Stone is the grandmother Shawna has never known, and at sixty-four, Kay too feels she has is little left worth fighting for. When the two are thrown together, they circle each other in a crucible of secrets and distrust until saving a doomed horse unites them and gives each a reason to live.
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In One Wish, Wrenn desperately wants to be popular and snag a hot boyfriend. Her singing talent lands her a lead role in the high school musical, which sparks a rush to lose weight by opening night. As Wrenn’s waistline shrinks, her circle of friends grows to include the popular girls. But what will be the cost of her drastic new self-improvements?
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About Silver Phoenix:
On the day of her first betrothal meeting--and rejection--Ai Ling discovers a power welling deep within her. She can reach into other people's spirits, hear their thoughts, see their dreams...and that's just the beginning.
Ai Ling has been marked by the immortals; her destiny lies in the emperor's palace, where a terrible evil has lived, stealing souls, for centuries. She must conquer this enemy and rescue her captive father, while mythical demons track her every step. And then she meets chen yong, a young man with a quest of his own, whose fate is intertwined with hers. Here is a heart-stopping, breathtaking tale for fans of action, fantasy, and romance--of anything with the making of legend.
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In Shrinking Violet , every day is an ordeal for painfully shy Teresa Adams, a high school senior who lives in dread of having to answer questions in class, or even speak to anyone in hallways. But in the privacy of her own bedroom, she rocks the pretend-mike with her mock radio broadcasts. When an intern job opens up at Miami’s hottest FM station, Tere works up the nerve to ask her stepfather – the owner – to give her a chance. Before long, shy Tere has adopted the on-air persona of Sweet T, a sexy, confident DJ. She’s a hit. But success doesn’t come without a price. To Tere’s dismay, the radio station announces a songwriting promotion with the grand prize of a prom date with Sweet T. When Tere's secret is revealed, will it ruin her chances with the guy of her dreams?
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FORTUNE’S FOLLY reads like an old-fashioned fairy tale, and I mean that in the best sense of the word. There’s a motherless main character (Fortunata), a doting father, enforced servitude to a villain, an impossible prophecy that must be fulfilled, and a handsome young prince. Luckily for contemporary readers, Nata is far more resourceful, imaginative, and brave than the heroines of the classics. There are twists and turns and breathless adventures. I loved it, and can’t wait to put it into the hands of every tween girl I know!
Kirkus Reviews agrees: "Readers will relish the clever allusions to stories from "Rapunzel" to "Cinderella," rendering the first line of this winning debut novel that much more terrific: "Life would have been much easier if I believed in fairy tales."
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I’m delighted to host my fellow debut author, Cheryl Renee Herbsman, today on Authorial Intrusion.
What if the guy who took your breath away was the only one who could help you breathe?
In Breathing , Savannah would be happy to spend the summer in her coastal Carolina town lying in a hammock reading romance novels and working at the library. But then she meets Jackson. Once they lock eyes, she’s convinced he’s the one—her true love, her soul mate, a boy different from all the rest. And at first it looks like Savannah is right. Jackson abides by her mama’s strict rules, and stays by her side during a hospitalization for severe asthma. But when he’s called away to help his family—and seems uncertain about returning—Savannah has to learn to breathe on her own, both literally and figuratively.
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Sydney’s YA novel, My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters, is about seventeen-year-old Jory Michaels, who wakes up on the first day of summer vacation with her same old big nose and her same old lackluster life. Vowing to save enough money for a nose job – which will solve all her problems, naturally! – she takes a job as a driver, delivering wedding cakes and flowers. Along her route, she meets an intriguing new boy … maybe her summer won’t be so boring, after all.
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In Shine, Coconut Moon, Samar–a.k.a. Sam–is an Indian-American teenager whose mom has kept her away from her old-fashioned family. It's never bothered Sam, who is busy with school, friends, and a demanding boyfriend. But things change after 9/11. A guy in a turban shows up at Sam's house–and turns out to be her uncle. He wants to reconcile the family and teach Sam about her Sikh heritage. Sam is eager, but when boys attack her uncle, chanting "Go back home, Osama!," Sam realizes she could be in danger–and also discovers how dangerous ignorance is.
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In This is What I Want to Tell You, fraternal twins Nadio and Noelle share a close connection—and as Noelle's best friend since they were five, Keeley Shipley fits perfectly into their world. But everything changes after Keeley spends the summer before junior year at Oxford. When Keeley returns, Nadio falls in love with her. Noelle, ripped apart by resentment, sees her as an ungrateful rich girl. But Keeley has a painful story that she can't tell yet. As Nadio and Keeley hide their romance, Noelle dives into something of her own—a destructive affair with an older boy.
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In Carrie's YA novel The Forest of Hands and Teeth, (maybe you've heard of it?) :-) Mary lives in a post-apocalyptic village surrounded by fences. She has never been beyond the fences. For all she knows, the people who live in this village are the only living people left in the world. Outside the fences, the Forest of Hands and Teeth stretches out endlessly, a world of moaning, hungry Unconsecrated.
On a sunny day, as Mary is about to receive her first kiss, the siren goes off.
“All my life I have been trained by that siren. Before I could walk I knew the siren meant death. It meant somehow the fences had been breached and the Unconsecrated were shuffling among us. It meant grab weapons, move to the platforms and pull up the ladders – even if it necessitated leaving the living behind.”
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“Nothing ever happened in Ondine, Louisisana, not even the summer Elijah Landry disappeared,” is the opening line of the book. But the summer fourteen-year-old Iris and her best friend Collette decide to call up a ghost, too much happens in Ondine. Buried secrets come to light, old wounds are reopened, and a persistent ghost will not leave Iris in peace.
This is not just a ghost story. It is a novel full of treasures – glinting humor, shimmering descriptions, and a beautifully realized exploration of that aching time in the lives of girls, when they are poised between childhood and adolescence.
On a personal note, becoming friends with Saundra has been one of the best things about joining the Feast of Awesome. She’s not only a brilliant writer, but hysterically funny and quick. She also seems to know how to do, oh, everything. Any time I’m sitting in front of my laptop giggling, my husband is pretty sure I’m chatting online with Saundra. Want a sample of her wit? Check out her response to my request for a spam subject line. Best ever.
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About The Great Call of China:
Chinese-born Cece was adopted when she was two years old by her American parents. Living in Texas, she's bored of her ho-hum high school and dull job. So when she learns about the S.A.S.S. program (Students Across the Seven Seas) to Xi'an, China, she jumps at the chance. She'll be able to learn about her passion—anthropology—and it will give her the opportunity to explore her roots. But when she arrives, she receives quite a culture shock. And the closer she comes to finding out about her birth parents, the more apprehensive she gets. Enter Will, the cute guy she first meets on the plane. He and Cece really connect during the program. But can he help her get accustomed to a culture she should already know about, or will she leave China without the answers she's been looking for?
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Winnie’s War is a middle grade novel set against the backdrop of the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918.
Life in Winnie's sleepy town of Coward Creek, Texas, is just fine for her. Although her troubled mother's distant behavior has always worried Winnie, she's plenty busy caring for her younger sisters, going to school, playing chess with Mr. Levy, and avoiding her testy grandmother. Plus, her sweetheart Nolan is always there to make her smile when she's feeling low. But when the Spanish Influenza claims its first victim, lives are suddenly at stake, and Winnie has never felt so helpless. She must find a way to save the people she loves most, even if doing so means putting her own life at risk.
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J.E. MacLeod is the author of WAITING TO SCORE, a YA novel which comes out in three days!
Here’s what Janet has to say about writing in general, and for young adults in particular:
“You know how some people are really quick witted and clever things seem to just float right off their tongues, like they’ve got a tiny speechwriter living inside their brains or something? Well, I’m totally not like that. Sometimes I’m a little slow on the comeback. It’s one of the reasons I love to write. I can always go back and add things later.”
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Stacey Jay is a workaholic with three pen names, four kids, and a decidedly macabre sense of humor. She loves zombies, creepies, crawlies, blood, guts, gore, and of course, romance. YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME is her debut paranormal YA novel.
“Welcome to your after-death session. My name is Megan. May I have your name, last name first?”
How could anyone not love a book with those lines in it? YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME is busting with dark humor – my favorite kind. And I've got good news: there's a sequel. UNDEAD MUCH? is scheduled for release in 2010. Yay!
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