Guest Post: A Season for Fireflies by Rebecca Maizel

A Season for Fireflies by Rebecca Maizel
June 28, 2016 from HarperTeen

A year ago, Penny Berne was the star of her high school’s theater department, surrounded by a group of misfit friends and falling in love for the first time. Now her old friends won’t talk to her, her new best friend is the most popular girl in school, and her first love, Wes, ignores her. Penny is revered and hated. Then, in a flash, a near-fatal lightning strike leaves Penny with no memory of the past year—or how she went from drama nerd to queen bee. 

As a record number of fireflies light up her town and her life, Penny realizes she may be able to make things right again—and that even if she can’t change the past, she can learn to see the magic where she never could before.

This captivating new novel about first love, second chances, and the power of memory is perfect for fans of Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall and Katie Cotugno’s How to Love.

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Find Maizel at her website

Excited to have Rebecca Maizel on the blog today talking about her Top 5 Favorite Memories!

5. Achieving my MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. 2010-2012 were some of the worst years of my life. Health wise I was not doing well and professionally, let’s say I was learning a lot! The bright spot in my life was attending Vermont College of Fine Arts. I interacted and met such brilliant writers and worked with mentors who forever changed me as a writer & teacher. VCFA is magic.

4. Rock Harbor Orleans, MA. My favorite memories here are from either this past summer or a few years ago. This is a really magical place on Cape Cod. It’s a beach/marina where trees were implanted into the sand as buoys. When it’s low tide at Rock Harbor, the sand stretches for (what seems like) miles. But you can walk out to the pine trees and swim around them. Also tons of teeny, tiny hermit crabs. The sand is purple and pink. You can bring your dog after 4pm, so it’s just a special experience, a special moment, and it might be what heaven looks like. Sorry for the hyperbole, but it’s true.

3. Guns N’Roses first row this past July 19th. For those who follow my Instagram -- you know how much I love this band. So you can imagine my insane happiness when Slash & Duff rejoined Axl Rose completing the most successful incarnation of GNR since the original line-up 25 years ago. I wish Izzy Stradlin and Steven Adler had been there but it’s not happened yet. If the original line-up reunites completely- I might freak out. I also saw them in Vegas back in April and that was incredible. Sebastian Bach joined them on “My Michelle” and I cried the entire show. Literally. I might need help.

2. The births of my niece and nephew. It’s cliché because so many people would say this, but I didn’t know how much I could love another human and so immediately. The moment I held them both, I fell in love. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them.

1. Publishing my first book, Infinite Days. One of the most important moments in my life was getting the phone call that my book had sold. My agent, at the time, called and when he said the words, “Brazil has offered you a deal!” I was standing outside my part-time teaching job. The air was still decently cool from the late spring air and I jumped up and down on the block. My book later sold in 11 territories around the world (including the US). That phone call remains one of the happiest moments in my life.

Giveaway, Review, + Guest Post: Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash

Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash

September 8th, 2015 from Candlewick Press

All-girl camp. First love. First heartbreak. At once romantic and devastating, brutally honest and full of humor, this graphic-novel memoir is a debut of the rarest sort.

Maggie Thrash has spent basically every summer of her fifteen-year-old life at the one-hundred-year-old Camp Bellflower for Girls, set deep in the heart of Appalachia. She’s from Atlanta, she’s never kissed a guy, she’s into Backstreet Boys in a really deep way, and her long summer days are full of a pleasant, peaceful nothing . . . until one confounding moment. A split-second of innocent physical contact pulls Maggie into a gut-twisting love for an older, wiser, and most surprising of all (at least to Maggie), female counselor named Erin. But Camp Bellflower is an impossible place for a girl to fall in love with another girl, and Maggie’s savant-like proficiency at the camp’s rifle range is the only thing keeping her heart from exploding. When it seems as if Erin maybe feels the same way about Maggie, it’s too much for both Maggie and Camp Bellflower to handle, let alone to understand.

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You can find Thrash at her website

Thrash is heading to Texas Book Festival 2015!

Giveaway & Guest Post: Cast Off: The Strange Adventures of Petra de Winter and Bram Broen by Eve Yohalem

Cast Off: The Strange Adventures of Petra de Winter and Bram Broen
May 19th, 2015 from Dial Books

A tale of pirates, mutiny, and friendship on the high seas, perfect for fans of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

It’s 1663 and there is an extra passenger on board a Dutch merchant ship setting sail for the East Indies. Twelve-year-old Petra has stowed away to escape her abusive father. But she quickly realizes that surviving for months at sea will be impossible without help. So when Bram, the half-Dutch / Half-Javanese son of the ship’s carpenter, finds her hiding spot, Petra convinces him to help her stay hidden . . .and help disguise her as a boy.

If Petra is discovered and exposed as a girl, she could be tossed overboard, or worse . . . returned to her father. And if Bram is exposed for helping her, he could lose the only home—and family—he has. As tensions rise on the ship, with pirates attacking, deadly illness, and even mutiny, Petra and Bram face impossible decisions that test their friendship and threaten their dreams of freedom.

Told in alternating voices and filled with secrets and intrigue, this richly researched novel is historical fiction at its best.

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You can find Yohalem at her website

Guest Post & Giveaway: Racing Hearts by Laura Lascarso

Racing Hearts by Laura Lascarso
February 10th 2015 by Leap Books

Start your engines…

Eighteen-year-old Jesse Copeland learns of a local car race sponsored by his father's nemesis, Shep Bradley, and the prize money might be enough to keep his family from losing their home—if he can win.

Brooke, Shep’s daughter, is also aiming to compete, with or without her father’s approval. She’ll do whatever it takes to persuade Jesse to make her car race ready. Both are driven, both are risk-takers, and soon it’s more than engines getting fired up. Jesse tells himself their relationship is strictly business, until it isn't.

Can two star-crossed lovers overcome a family feud as old as Ford vs. Chevy, or will the competition become too explosive for these racing hearts?

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You can find Lascarso at her website

Giveaway + Guest Post: Spirit of the Wolves (Wolf Chronicles #3) by Dorothy Hearst

Spirit of the Wolves (Wolf Chronicles #3) by Dorothy Hearst
December 1st, 2014 from Simon & Schuster

The third and final title in The Wolf Chronicles: Kaala the young wolf fulfills her destiny—to either help humans and wolves to live in peace, or bring war that will destroy them all.

Fourteen thousand years ago in southern Europe, a wolf cub named Kaala discovers that she alone can link wolves and humans, thus keeping humans from growing distant from and destroying the world around them. In Promise of the Wolves and Secrets of the Wolves, Kaala came to understand her role. Born of a forbidden, mixed blood litter, and alone after her mother’s exile, Kaala struggled to earn her place in the Swift River pack. When she saved the life of a human girl, she put her hard-won place in the pack at risk, and responsibility for keeping peace between wolf and humankind fell to her. So far, she has failed.

Now, in Spirit of the Wolves, Kaala has one last chance. She leaves her home in the Wide Valley with her packmates, the human girl she loves, and an obnoxious raven. Together, they travel to the land outside the valley, only to discover that new challenges await them. Kaala’s mother has no answers, a faction of ruthless Greatwolves will stop at nothing to maintain control, odd little wolves seek to take Kaala’s place, and, in the mysterious village of Kaar, humans are undergoing a transformation that could destroy everything she is working for. Only by calling on all of her strength and on the bonds of love with her human, raven, and wolf companions can Kaala hope to succeed. But it might not be enough.

Guest Post: #AtlantiaBelow Inspiration by Ally Condie

For as long as she can remember, Rio has dreamt of the sand and sky Above—of life beyond her underwater city of Atlantia. But in a single moment, all her plans for the future are thwarted when her twin sister, Bay, makes an unexpected decision, stranding Rio Below. Alone, ripped away from the last person who knew Rio’s true self—and the powerful siren voice she has long hidden—she has nothing left to lose.

Guided by a dangerous and unlikely mentor, Rio formulates a plan that leads to increasingly treacherous questions about her mother’s death, her own destiny, and the complex system constructed to govern the divide between land and sea. Her life and her city depend on Rio to listen to the voices of the past and to speak long-hidden truths.

Atlantia by Ally Condie

October 8th, 2014 by Dutton Juvenile

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You can find Condie at her website

The Little Mermaid was the beginning inspiration point for the story of Rio in ATLANTIA. It is, in my opinion, one of the saddest and most beautiful fairy tales of all. I am one of the lucky people who encountered what I think of as the real version, the Hans Christian Anderson version, before I encountered the Disney version. As was so often the case with the good things in my life, this happened because of my grandmother, Alice Todd Braithwaite.

Guest Post & Giveaway: Secrets, Spies, and Sherlock Tour

Welcome to Day 2 of the SECRETS, SPIES & SHERLOCK BLOG TOUR, featuring two exciting new middle grade mystery series: Sherlock, Lupin & Me: The Dark Lady by Irene Adler and Secrets & Spies: Treason by Jo Macauley. Each stop on the 2-week tour will feature fun posts and a chance to win a set of finished copies of the books!  Today’s post features Treason by Jo Macauley.

Fact and Fiction in Treason

Treason is set during a particularly tumultuous time in English history, after civil wars had led to the beheading of Charles I, allowing the militant Puritan Oliver Cromwell to rule the country for 18 years before Charles II was restored to the throne. In the first year of the Restoration, Cromwell was posthumously convicted of treason, disinterred, hanged and beheaded. Since then his head has passed from hand to hand, and to this day only a handful of people in the world know where it is. In Treason, Beth Johnson, a young actress and spy, must race against the clock in this climate of fear and bloodlust to prevent the assassination of the newly reinstated King.

Guest Post & Giveaway: Fallout (The Compound #2) by S. A. Bodeen

Fallout (The Compound #2) by S. A. Bodeen

September 24th, 2013 from Feiwel and Friends

After barely escaping from the compound where Eli’s dad kept his family for six years, they’re learning to acclimate to “normal” life—whatever that is for them. It seems like the entire world wants to know what happened to this high profile family.

Slowly they begin to make their way back into the world, but Eli can’t escape the creeping feeling that they’re being watched everywhere they go. But by who?

Eli’s anxiety is heightened as unnerving information continually surfaces about Eli’s dad’s company. Not to mention the sketchy new friend his twin brother Eddy has. Nothing seems to be “normal” anymore. New people are entering their lives—but who can Eli and his family trust?

You can find Bodeeen at her website

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For the rest of the tour visit Mac Teen Books

I'm thrilled to have S. A. Bodeen on the blog today! AND we can't wait for her to come to the 5th Annual Austin Teen Book Festival on 9.28.13! Join us!

Guest Post & Giveaway: The Problem with Being Slightly Heroic by Uma Krishnaswami & Abigail Halpin

The Problem with Being Slightly Heroic by Uma Krishnaswami & Abigail Halpin
August 13th, 2013 from Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Dini and Maddie, very best friends, are back in the same country at the same time! Better still, Dolly Singh, the starriest star in all of Bollywood, is in America too. Dini’s only just returned from India, and already life is shaping up to be as delicious as a rose petal milk shake. Perfect. Then why can’t she untie the knot in her stomach? Because so much can go wrong when a big star like Dolly is in town. All Dini has to do is make sure Dolly has everything she needs, from a rose petal milk shake to her lost passport to…a parade? And an elephant?

Uh-oh… It’s time to think. What Would Dolly Do? If Dini can’t figure it out, Dolly might take matters into her own hands—and that will surely lead to the biggest mess of all!

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You can find Krishnaswami at her website
Check out the booktrailer

Guest Post & Giveaway: The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathi Appelt

The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathi Appelt
July 23rd, 2013 Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Meet Bingo and J’miah, raccoon brothers on a mission to save Sugar Man Swamp in this tale from Newbery Honoree Kathi Appelt. 

Raccoon brothers Bingo and J’miah are the newest recruits of the Official Sugar Man Swamp Scouts. The opportunity to serve the Sugar Man—the massive creature who delights in delicious sugar cane and magnanimously rules over the swamp—is an honor, and also a big responsibility, since the rest of the swamp critters rely heavily on the intel of these hardworking Scouts.

Twelve-year-old Chap Brayburn is not a member of any such organization. But he loves the swamp something fierce, and he’ll do anything to help protect it.

And help is surely needed, because world-class alligator wrestler Jaeger Stitch wants to turn Sugar Man swamp into an Alligator World Wrestling Arena and Theme Park, and the troubles don’t end there. There is also a gang of wild feral hogs on the march, headed straight toward them all.

The Scouts are ready. All they have to do is wake up the Sugar Man. Problem is, no one’s been able to wake that fellow up in a decade or four…

Guest Post & Giveaway: The Theory of Everything by Kari Luna

The Theory of Everything by Kari Luna

July 11th, 2013 from Philomel

Sophie Sophia is obsessed with music from the late eighties. She also has an eccentric physicist father who sometimes vanishes for days and sees things other people don’t see. But when he disappears for good and Sophie’s mom moves them from Brooklyn, New York, to Havencrest, Illinois, for a fresh start, things take a turn for the weird. Sophie starts seeing things, like marching band pandas, just like her dad.

Guided by Walt, her shaman panda, and her new (human) friend named Finny, Sophie is determined to find her father and figure out her visions, once and for all. So she travels back to where it began—New York City and NYU’s physics department. As she discovers more about her dad’s research on M-theory and her father himself, Sophie opens her eyes to the world’s infinite possibilities—and her heart to love.

Guest Post & Giveaway: The Glass Puzzle by Christine Brodien-Jones

The Glass Puzzle by Christine Brodien-Jones

Eleven-year-old Zoé Badger, imaginative, carefree and adventurous, lives a transient life, moving with her mother from one town to the next-except for summers, when she stays with her granddad in Tenby, Wales. But when she and her cousin Ian discover a glass puzzle that's been hidden away for decades, ancient forces are unleashed that threaten to change their safe-haven summer town in sinister ways.

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You can find Brodien-Jones at her website
Check out the book trailer HERE

Why We Love Quirky Characters
By Christine Brodien-Jones

Blog Tour & Giveaway: Star Cursed (The Cahill Witch Chronicles #2)

Star Cursed (The Cahill Witch Chronicles #2) by Jessica Spotswood
June 18th, 2013 from Putnam Juvenile

With the Brotherhood persecuting witches like never before, a divided Sisterhood desperately needs Cate to come into her Prophesied powers. And after Cate's friend Sachi is arrested for using magic, a war-thirsty Sister offers to help her find answers—if Cate is willing to endanger everyone she loves.

Cate doesn't want to be a weapon, and she doesn't want to involve her friends and Finn in the Sisterhood's schemes. But when Maura and Tess join the Sisterhood, Maura makes it clear that she'll do whatever it takes to lead the witches to victory. Even if it means sacrifices. Even if it means overthrowing Cate. Even if it means all-out war.

In the highly anticipated sequel to BORN WICKED, the Cahill Witch Chronicles continue Cate, Maura and Tess's quest to find love, protect family, and explore their magic against all odds in an alternate history of New England.

As part of the blog tour, each day Jess is revealing an annotated snippet from STAR CURSED:

Guest Post & Giveaway: The Barftastic Life of Louie Burger by Jenny Meyerhoff

The Barftastic Life of Louie Burger by Jenny Meyerhoff

Fifth grader Louie Burger figures that with a goofy name like his, he mustbe destined to be a king of comedy like his idol Lou Lafferman. But he’s only ever performed his stand-up act in his closet, where he and his dad created the most exclusive comedy club ever—if by “exclusive” you mean that no one’s ever allowed inside. With the school talent show coming up, Louie’s wondering if now is his moment to kill (that’s comedian talk for “make actual people laugh”). And maybe, if he brings down the house, he’ll win back his former best friend Nick—who seems to be turning into one of those annoying sporty types—and fend off his dad’s home-improvement obsession, which threatens to remodel Louie’s comedy closet into a private bedroom for his older sister. Barftrocious!

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You can find Meyerhoff at her website
Visit Green Bean Teen Queen for the next stop on the tour

Guest Post & Giveaway: The Neptune Project by Polly Holyoke

The Neptune Project by Polly Holyoke
May 21st, 2013 from Disney Hyperion

With her weak eyes and useless lungs that often leave her gasping for air, Nere feels more at home swimming with the dolphins her mother studies than she does hanging out with her classmates. Nere has never understood why she is so much more comfortable and confident in the water than on land until the day she learns the shocking truth—she is one of a group of kids who have been genetically altered to survive in the ocean. These products of the "Neptune Project" are supposed to build a better future under the waves, safe from the terrible famines and wars and that rock the surface world.

But there are some big challenges ahead of her: no one ever asked Nere if she wanted to be part of a science experiment; the other Neptune kids aren't exactly the friendliest bunch, and in order to reach the safe haven of the new Neptune colony, Nere and her fellow mutates must swim across hundreds of miles of dangerous ocean, relying on their wits, their loyal dolphins and one another to evade terrifying undersea creatures and a government that will stop at nothing to capture the Neptune kids ... dead or alive.

Fierce battle and daring escapes abound as Nere and her friend race to safety in this action-packed marine adventure.

Guest Post: The Sweet Dead Life by Joy Preble

The Sweet Dead Life by Joy Preble

May 14th, 2013 from Soho Teen

“I found out two things today. One, I think I’m dying. And two, my brother is a perv.”

So begins the diary of 14-year-old Jenna Samuels, who is having a very bad eighth-grade year. Her single mother spends all day in bed. Dad vanished when she was eight. Her 16-year-old brother, Casey, tries to hold together what’s left of the family by working two after-school jobs— difficult, as he’s stoned all the time. To make matters worse, Jenna is sick. When she collapses one day, Casey tries to race her to the hospital in their beat-up Prius and crashes instead.

Jenna wakes up in the ER to find Casey beside her. Beatified. Literally. The flab and zits? Gone. Before long, Jenna figures out that Casey didn’t survive the accident at all. He’s an “A-word.” (She can’t bring herself to utter the truth.) Soon they discover that Jenna isn’t just dying: she’s being poisoned. And Casey has been sent back to help solve the mystery that not only holds the key to her survival, but also to their mother’s mysterious depression and father’s disappearance.

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You can find Preble at her website

Join us for Preble's release party at BookPeople May 18th! 

Super happy to have my friend and fantastic author Joy Preble on the blog today!! Joy chats about why she included drugs in her novel and gives readers a compliment in regards to being able to decipher what is right and wrong on their own. Welcome, Joy! 

Giveaway: A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty

A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty
April 1st, 2013 from Arthur A. Levine (Scholastic)

A tale of two worlds, told in brilliant color.

Readers have loved bestselling author Jaclyn Moriarty since The Year of Secret Assignments. Now she gives them A Corner of White, the first in a suspenseful, funny, genre-busting trilogy that brings her fantastic characters, laugh-out-loud descriptions, and brilliant plotting to a fantasy setting.

Madeleine and her mother have run away from their former life and settled in a rainy corner of Cambridge, England (in our world).

In another world, in the Kingdom of Cello, Elliot is in search of his father, who disappeared on the night his uncle Jon was found dead. The talk in the town is that Elliot's dad may have killed Jon and run away with the physics teacher. But Elliot refuses to believe it. And he is determined to find both his dad and the truth.

As Madeleine and Elliot move closer to unraveling their mysteries, they begin to exchange messages across worlds — through an accidental gap that hasn't appeared in centuries. On both sides of the gap, even greater mysteries are unfolding — with more than one life at stake.

Guest Post & Giveaway: Orleans by Sherri L. Smith

Orleans by Sherri L. Smith

March 7th, 2013 from Putnam Juvenile

I am happy to host Sherri on the blog today to chat about some good 'ole fashion ways to survive an apocalyptic hurricane! First, let's find out more about ORLEANS and stay tuned for a giveaway.

After a string of devastating hurricanes and a severe outbreak of Delta Fever, the Gulf Coast has been quarantined. Years later, residents of the Outer States are under the assumption that life in the Delta is all but extinct… but in reality, a new primitive society has been born.

Fen de la Guerre is living with the O-Positive blood tribe in the Delta when they are ambushed. Left with her tribe leader’s newborn, Fen is determined to get the baby to a better life over the wall before her blood becomes tainted. Fen meets Daniel, a scientist from the Outer States who has snuck into the Delta illegally. Brought together by chance, kept together by danger, Fen and Daniel navigate the wasteland of Orleans. In the end, they are each other’s last hope for survival.

Kirkus calls it "A harrowing and memorable ride."

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You can find Smith at her website

5 ways to survive an apocalyptic hurricane

This should be funny. A million zingers should be coming to mind on how to survive a hurricane apocalypse. Sadly, I can’t think of a single one. Instead, I’m going to be the Girl Scout I am and take this opportunity to tell you how to try to survive an apocalyptic hurricane. Granted, I’m not an expert, but I have taken a few preparedness classes, helped my mom evacuate after Katrina, and thought about it a lot. I don’t know that much will help anyone if it’s actually an apocalyptic hurricane, but any port in a storm, eh? So, here goes:

Guest Post & Giveaway: The Chronicles of Egg by Geoff Rodkey

Welcome to Stop #4 on The Chronicles of Egg Blog Tour! Author Geoff Rodkey is currently on a blog tour to promote the paperback release of the first book in The Chronicles of Egg series, Deadweather and Sunrise. Today Geoff reveals how Deadweather and Sunrise came to be. Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of this post for a great giveaway I am hosting and to find out where in the blogosphere Geoff will be next!

THE STORY BEHIND DEADWEATHER AND SUNRISE

Hi! I'm Geoff Rodkey, author of the adventure-comedy-mystery-romance Deadweather and Sunrise, the first book in the Chronicles of Egg trilogy. Most of the other stops on this blog tour are about the book itself, but I thought I'd spend this stop talking a little about how I came to write it.

I've been a working writer since my early 20's, and I spent most of my career writing for movies. Screenwriting can be a very frustrating business, creatively speaking, and by a few years ago, I'd started to feel so burned out that I began to wonder if I even wanted to keep writing for a living.

But I had this one idea that I really loved, and which I knew would never work as a screenplay because it had three elements that movie studios hate: a period setting, a 13-year-old protagonist, and no clear genre. It was an adventure story, but it also had a lot of comedy, along with a little mystery, a bad case of puppy love, some dysfunctional family dynamics, and a fair amount of colonial-era political intrigue.

Guest Post & Giveaway: Triple Threat Blog Tour

Welcome to Stop #13 on the Triple Threat Blog Tour featuring Myra McEntire, Kate Ellison and Jennifer Lynn Barnes! Today we welcome Jennifer Lynn Barnes, author ofNobody and Every Other Day. Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of this post for a great giveaway I am hosting and for details on the Triple Threat Blog Tour grand prize giveaway!

First up, an amazing piece of the Infinity Glass puzzle! Ohhhhh, ahhhhh!