Happy Debut YA Book Birthday

I was afraid this week might be anti-climatic given all the releases last week, but there are some great debuts this week too!  Happy debut YA book birthday to:

Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon

Their love was meant to be.

When Megan Rosenberg moves to Ireland, everything in her life seems to fall into place. After growing up in America, she's surprised to find herself feeling at home in her new school. She connects with a group of friends, and she is instantly drawn to darkly handsome Adam DeRÍs.

But Megan is about to discover that her feelings for Adam are tied to a fate that was sealed long ago—and that the passion and power that brought them together could be their ultimate destruction.

Variant by Robinson Wells

Benson Fisher thought that a scholarship to Maxfield Academy would be the ticket out of his dead-end life.

He was wrong.

Now he’s trapped in a school that’s surrounded by a razor-wire fence. A school where video cameras monitor his every move. Where there are no adults. Where the kids have split into groups in order to survive.

Where breaking the rules equals death.

But when Benson stumbles upon the school’s real secret, he realizes that playing by the rules could spell a fate worse than death, and that escape—his only real hope for survival—may be impossible.

October 8th
Mercy Lily by Lisa Albert

I take the bees outside, unscrew the lid of the bee jar, and listen to their angry buzzing.
"I hate you," I whisper.

Lily's mother has slowly been losing herself to multiple sclerosis. After traditional treatment fails, she uses bee sting therapy, administered by Lily, to alleviate her pain. Lily is trained as a veterinary assistant, so she can easily handle the treatments. What she can't handle is what happens when the bee sting therapy fails and it becomes clear that her mom wants to die.

One beautiful spring day, Lily's mother asks her for the most impossible thing of all—mercy. While navigating first love, friendship, and other normal worries faced by high school sophomores, Lily also has to choose: help her mom go, or cling to her fading life for all it's worth.

Friday Inspiration

Over at Oasis for YA, we've been playing some writing prompt games these past couple of Thursdays and I think they're a blast.  We've either had a picture or a sentence to use as a jumping off point for 250 words.

For me, it's been very freeing not to have to think about things like plot and character arcs.  This is just 250 to tell a story - whatever story - that first pops into your brain.  It's fun, and so I thought we'd give it a try over here.

Who wants to play?  I'll give you a sentence and a picture.  Feel free to use either or both -- and leave me your creative writing in the comments.  I love to see how the Muse can strike everyone so differently.

Photo Credit

Sentence ~ Use this quote from Jean-Paul Sarte:

“Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal.”

Here's mine:

The baked and barren earth beneath my feet didn't feel half as dry as my heart.  There used to be a time when my life was like Spring. My eyes unfurled to the morning sunlight like blossoming petals. My senses were crisp and alive and warm in a subtly cool way. My blood raged like a cresting river, fat and over-full on music.

Our music.

Where once our violins had sung together, fevered and entranced, now mine whispered alone.  Since you left, doing anything more than caressing the strings has shredded me. I want to play again. I want my music to light me up again like a Spring afternoon and fill me with the warmth of tulips and cherry blossoms.  But everything now is darkness.

Dark in my soul. Dark when I close my eyes. Dark filling my ears. 

Perhaps it's because I know there's no coming back from where you've gone. My only consolation is that one day I will join you there.  Funny how life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal.

Happy Debut YA Book Birthday

You know the drill. Tuesday = debut YA book birthday party.  Break out your cake and piñata to celebrate with these debut YA novelists:

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkins (finally!)

Mara Dyer doesn't believe life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. It can.                  

                                                                                                                                

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed. There is.   

                                                                                                    

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. She's wrong.

A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies

On the night of Skye’s seventeenth birthday, she meets two enigmatic strangers. Complete opposites—like fire and ice—Asher is dark and wild, while Devin is fair and aloof. Their sudden appearance sends Skye’s life into a tailspin. She has no idea what they want, or why they seem to follow her every move—only that their presence coincides with a flurry of strange events. 

Soon she begins to doubt not just the identity of the two boys, but also the truth about her own past.

In the dead of a bitingly cold Colorado winter, Skye finds herself coming to terms with the impossible secret that threatens to shatter her world. Torn between Asher, who she can’t help falling for, and Devin, who she can’t stay away from, the consequences of Skye’s choice will reach further than the three of them could ever imagine.

A Beautiful Dark is the first book in a captivating trilogy by debut author Jocelyn Davies.

The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton

Debut novelist Kiki Hamilton takes readers from the gritty slums and glittering ballrooms of Victorian London to the beguiling but menacing Otherworld of the Fey in this spellbinding tale of romance, suspense, and danger. 

The year is 1871, and Tiki has been making a home for herself and her family of orphans in a deserted hideaway adjoining Charing Cross Station in central London. Their only means of survival is by picking pockets. One December night, Tiki steals a ring, and sets off a chain of events that could lead to all-out war with the Fey. For the ring belongs to Queen Victoria, and it binds the rulers of England and the realm of Faerie to peace. With the ring missing, a rebel group of faeries hopes to break the treaty with dark magic and blood—Tiki’s blood.

Unbeknownst to Tiki, she is being watched—and protected—by Rieker, a fellow thief who suspects she is involved in the disappearance of the ring. Rieker has secrets of his own, and Tiki is not all that she appears to be. Her very existence haunts Prince Leopold, the Queen’s son, who is driven to know more about the mysterious mark that encircles her wrist.

Prince, pauper, and thief—all must work together to secure the treaty…

The Mephisto Covenant: The Redemption of Ajax by Trinity Faegan

Sasha is desperate to find out who murdered her father. When getting the answer means pledging her soul to Eryx, she unlocks a secret that puts her in grave danger—she is an Anabo, a daughter of Eve, and Eryx’s biggest threat.

A son of Hell, immortal, and bound to Earth forever, Jax looks for redemption in the Mephisto Covenant—God’s promise he will find peace in the love of an Anabo. After a thousand years, he’s finally found the girl he’s been searching for: Sasha.

With the threat of Eryx always looming, Jax knows he has to keep Sasha safe and win her over.  But can he? Will Sasha love him and give up her mortal life?

Shifting by Bethany Wiggins

After bouncing from foster home to foster home, Magdalene Mae is transferred to what should be her last foster home in the tiny town of Silver City, New Mexico. Now that she's eighteen and has only a year left in high school, she's determined to stay out of trouble and just be normal. Agreeing to go to the prom with Bridger O'Connell is a good first step. Fitting in has never been her strong suit, but it's not for the reasons most people would expect-it all has to do with the deep secret that she is a shape shifter. But even in her new home danger lurks, waiting in the shadows to pounce. They are the Skinwalkers of Navajo legend, who have traded their souls to become the animal whose skin they wear-and Maggie is their next target.

Full of romance, mysticism, and intrigue, this dark take on Navajo legend will haunt readers to the final page.

With a Name Like Love by Tess Hilmo

When Ollie’s daddy, the Reverend Everlasting Love, pulls their travel trailer into Binder to lead a three-day revival, Ollie knows that this town will be like all the others they visit— it is exactly the kind of nothing Ollie has come to expect. But on their first day in town, Ollie meets Jimmy Koppel, whose mother is in jail for murdering his father. Jimmy insists that his mother is innocent, and Ollie believes him. Still, even if Ollie convinces her daddy to stay in town, how can two kids free a grown woman who has signed a confession?  Ollie’s longing for a friend and her daddy’s penchant for searching out lost souls prove to be a formidable force in this tiny town where everyone seems bent on judging and jailing without a trial. 


Which of these will you add to your TBR pile?  I've pre-ordered Mara Dyer for my Kindle, so it should be there waiting for me when I get home.  :)  I've been looking forward to The Faerie Ring and The Mephisto Covenant too.

So Close to 600

So I looked this morning, and I'm only 1 follower away from 600.  That's cause for celebration, I think!!

Here's the deal.  Leave a comment below with: (1) your e-mail address and (2) a link to your tweet or FB post about the contest and you'll be entered to win an e-ARC of Destined.  Of course, I have to get to 600 followers before I give away the e-copy AND you must be a follower to enter. 

But that's it... THANK YOU to all of you who listen to my posts and comment back.  I love y'all!

*UPDATE* Contest is now closed.  Kim won the eARC. Thanks to all who entered and helped me get over the 600 hump.

Hype: Help or Hinderance?

Next week, my most highly-anticipated book of the year will be released.  The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer.  The description sounds great, and the cover is even better.  You can't help but know this book is coming because its cover image is EVERYWHERE.  There are animated countdown widgets:

Fan-made Mara Monday banners.

T-shirts.

I loved the cover-art so much, I even bought a phone cover from the same line of photographs.

So yeah, there's been some serious marketing clout behind this novel, both from the publisher and on a grass-roots level.  And certainly, the initial sales will probably spike following next week's release (I know I've already got it pre-ordered for my Kindle).

But what I wonder is, after the initial purchasing tsunami, will all the hype help or hurt the book?  And what I mean is, I've built this book up so much in my mind based on the hype and so-far glowing reviews, that if it doesn't absolutely blow me out of the water, I'll be disappointed.

And I know this has happened to me for other books: like how excited I was to get my hands on Meg Cabot's Abandoned and then only felt luke-warm about it.  I wonder if I would've felt differently about it -- and given it a better review -- if I wasn't so convinced going into the book that it was going to be simply amazing.

For now, I'm staying optimistic about Mara Dyer.  There's no going back for me.  But in the back of my mind, I'm still a little worried.  Will my opinion of the novel live up to the impossibly-high expectations that I've built for it?

Does this ever happen to you?  Do you think a book can receive too much hype?  Or is all publicity good publicity?