Happy Debut YA Book Birthday

 Ok - so I missed a week, but I'm back and ready to celebrate.  Who's with me?!?!  Let's give a huge shout out to this debut YA novelist celebrating her first ever book birthdays:

August 18th:
Sign Language by Amy Ackley (this book won the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for YA Fiction)
Inspired by the loss of her father and two close friends to cancer, Sign Language tells the story of twelve-year-old Abby North. Her first hint that something is wrong with her dad is the scar that appears on his stomach after he goes in for kidney surgery. Soon, the thing she calls "It" has a real name: cancer. Before, her biggest concerns were her annoying brother, the crush unaware of her existence, and her changing feelings for her best friend, Spence. Now, her mother cries in the shower, her father is exhausted, and nothing is normal anymore. Nancy Werlin said the novel "tells its story beautifully and movingly, and it earns its hopeful ending. Ackley is without question a talented writer."

Review: FALLING UNDER by Gwen Hayes

Hello debut novelist!  (And let me just bow down to this cover for a moment.)

Theia Alderson has always led a sheltered life in the small California town of Serendipity Falls. But when a devastatingly handsome boy appears in the halls of her school, Theia knows she's seen Haden before- not around town, but in her dreams. 

As the Haden of both the night and the day beckons her closer one moment and pushes her away the next, the only thing Theia knows for sure is that the incredible pull she feels towards him is stronger than her fear. 

And when she discovers what Haden truly is, Theia's not sure if she wants to resist him, even if the cost is her soul.

Hayes has created a paranormal world that's amazingly different from anything I've read before.  While it's become somewhat cliche to use dreams too much in books, Hayes does it really well.  When I started the book, I thought it was going to be like "Meet Joe Black" for YA.  I mean, come on, his name is Haden Black and there's a lot of too-good-to-be-true about him.  But the more I read, the more I realized it was more like a romance plunged into the world of "A Nightmare Before Christmas."  Believe me when I tell you this is a good thing.  :)

Some things about the characters bothered me a little bit - Theia was too sheltered, one of her smart friends was too in love with a guy who barely had a heartbeat, and the other friend was too bitchy (especially to her boy friend, who seemed to really like her anyway).  Oh yeah, and we had another dead mom.

But other than these minor gripes, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  The chemistry between Theia and Haden is smoking hot.  There's this one scene where they're trying so hard not to touch each other (without much success) that I practically felt like I was smoldering myself.

It's really hard to tell you much more without giving away some plot twists.  Just be prepared to fall down the proverbial rabbit hole along with the characters and wonder if Hayes majored in tragic irony.  I loved the ending and truly am looking forward to seeing what happens in the next book in the sequel.  

Overall, I give this stunning debut novel 4 Greek coins -- and OMG! rating.  If you love your stories dark but your romances flaming hot, you'll want to check out this book.  You might also be interested in some of Hayes' short stories -- which you can learn more about on her webpage.  There, you can also read an excerpt from FALLING UNDER and watch the trailer.  Hope you enjoy!!

2011 Debut Author Challenge

Talk about a Teaser Tuesday... try looking at all the mouth-watering debuts hitting the shelves in 2011.  I feel squirmy all over just waiting to get my hot little hands on some of these reads.

The 2011 Debut Author Challenge is hosted by The Story Siren.  Her goal: encourage you to read at least 12 YA or MG novels by debut authors during 2011.  That's only 1 per month -- shouldn't be too much to ask!  (Full details on her blog.)  She has a wonderful list which provides titles by release month, and I've got quite a little list built for myself after just spending a few minutes scrolling through.  Some of the titles I can't wait to read:

Hourglass - Myra McIntyre
Warped - Maurissa Guibord
Timeless - Alexandra Monir
A Touch Mortal - Leah Clifford
Darkness Becomes Her - Kelly Keaton
The Fourth Stall - Chris Rylander (I already have the ARC, but will have to wait until 2011 to read it)
Wither - Lauren DeStefanos
Angelfire - Courtney Allison Moulton
Blood Magic - Tessa Gratton
Starcrossed - Josephine Angeline
Divergent - Veronica Roth
Die for Me - Amy Plum

Can you tell my tastes run to paranormal?  There's 12 right there.  And I'm sure I'll be lulled in by even more beautiful covers and tantalizing reviews.  If you'd like to take part in the challenge - and support debut authors - head over to The Story Siren to sign up.