Wishing Jaye Robin Brown all the best on the publication day of her debut, No Place to Fall! Click the picture to find it on Amazon. You’ll love this!
high school
Christmas is Coming! Book Recs for 2014 are here. :)
Want to get the teens in your life a book for Christmas, but don’t want it to end up like the boxed set of Little House on the Prairie books I got when I was young? (They sat on my shelf, untouched, and collected dust for years… I was so NOT a Little House kind of girl. The lack of electricity and modern conveniences sounded more like torture than anything I wanted to read about.) Anyway, one of my passions is connecting young readers with books they’ll actually enjoy. So, look no further than this list.
Note: All of these purchase links will take you to Amazon, but most of these titles should also be available at your favorite book store. Happy shopping!For those who have enjoyed The Hunger Games:
The Divergent
The Across the Universe
For girls who love a good romance:
On the Fence
Better Off Friends
For the music lovers:
Are You Experienced?
No Place to Fall
For those who enjoy a good mystery/thriller:
We Were Liars
Golden
For girls who dream of a Hollywood love connection:
Catch a Falling Star
This Is What Happy Looks Like
For those who would enjoy a classic, but who don’t know where to start:
The Outsiders
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Body Electric by Beth Revis
Beth Revis has a unique ability to write YA scifi that is truly accessible and enjoyable by those, like me, who don’t typically enjoy scifi. I really loved this, right down to the constant references to pastizzi that had me making ghost-shaped cheese pastizzi (see pic below) for Halloween dinner. The story here is exciting, fun, action-packed, sweet, and a little disturbing all at the same time. I’ve long been a fan of Beth’s Across The Universe trilogy, so seeing something new from her was exciting!
Find The Body Electric here
Get Happy by Mary Amato
I’m a fan of Get Happy, in which we follow sixteen-year old Minerva’s quest to buy herself the only gift she really wanted from her birthday (a ukelele) but which her mom is totally ignorant of, to navigate a complicated possible relationship with the father she thought was a deadbeat and his annoyingly perfect stepdaughter, to survive a job in which she has to dress up as a mermaid and perform at little kids’ birthday parties, and to explore a sweetly budding romance. I liked Minerva’s development as a character and think her story is worth reading.
You can find Get Happy here on Amazon
Kiss Kill Vanish by Jessica Martinez
First, here’s the official blurb:
Love. Betrayal. Murder.
Valentina is living a charmed, glittering life in Miami—falling in love for the first time, showered with gifts and affection by her father, surrounded by friends—when one shocking moment shatters everything she thought she knew about herself, her boyfriend, and her world. With no one left to trust, Valentina sheds her identity and flees to Montreal, where she finds work posing for a series of portraits by a pompous young artist. Valentina has always been at home in the art world, but she’s never felt quite so alone.
Valentina’s carefully constructed new life comes crashing down when someone from her past resurfaces, putting her safety in question and her heart on the line. With betrayal at every turn, Valentina must untangle the deceptions of those she once loved and race to find her own truth—before it’s too late.
This book shocked and amazed me in so many ways, the most important of which is that IT ACTUALLY SURPRISED ME. I kept thinking I knew how it would end, or guessing Martinez would put one plot twist too many in there, but nope. She didn’t. It ends perfectly, with a protagonist who is strong and kicks butt, and left me a highly satisfied reader.
Kudos to Martinez on a true, gritty but not gross, hot but not crude or pornish, suspense thriller that literally had me guessing all the way through. This is one YA thriller that I would actually love to see in the hands of my students!
Find Kiss Kill Vanish here on Amazon
Crazy comes out today! Congrats, @LVigenPhillips!
Happy Book Birthday to Crazy! If you don’t have your copy already, click the picture to find it on Amazon!
Of Scars and Stardust by Andrea Hannah
I went back and forth on how I felt about this book. I absolutely loved the cover, which I why I requested it several months ago, and I stand by that. I think it’s really beautiful. The story, though, had me confused for most of the book. The writing was both intricate and intriguing while also disjointed and disorienting. I had a feeling that it was intentional, and came to find out it was. It made the whole feeling of the book ominously unstable, which worked for this story.
Because of casually rampant drinking and some other content (all of which actually works into the plot line but still is excessive), this isn’t one I’d want to see in the hands of my middle schoolers. For upper high school, though, it’ll feel much like a PG-13 or higher scary movie.
Of Scars and Stardust just came out this month – find it here on Amazon
Holly Hearts Hollywood Blog Tour: Excerpt and GIVEAWAY!
Holly Hearts Hollywood
Release Date: 09/23/14
Swoon Romance
Summary from Goodreads:
Seventeen-year-old Holly Hart wants to be a star. She moves to Los Angeles from the small town of Cedar Junction, only to hear she’s too fat and ugly to be a famous singer.
But when Shell Shocked Records looks past Holly’s plus-size and less-than-graceful-personality to offer her a recording contract, Holly cannot believe her good fortune. On closer inspection, however, the record execs want Holly to do all the singing, and a thinner and more beautiful girl, Lacey, would lip-sync and get all the credit. Holly goes for it because after all, she wanted to sing.
Contractually bound to secrecy, Holly is more than happy to sit backstage while Lacey shimmies in the limelight and basks in the fame. Before she knows it, Holly is friends with Serena, the pop-star daughter of a music-mogul, flirting with an intern, and developing a strange half-friendship with Lacey.
When Grayson Frost, the biggest country star in America, and coincidentally, a former school bully begins dating Lacey, Holly hopes that he won’t recognize or torment her.
Through a series of embarrassing and weird events, Holly gets to know Grayson and learns that he is much nicer and more mature than he was four years ago. Holly is horrified when she starts falling for him. When Grayson admits he fell for Lacey’s voice, what is a girl to do when she can’t legally tell the truth at the moment when the truth matters the most?
Buy Links:
GIVEAWAY:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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EXCERPT from near the beginning of the story, as Holly first gets to Hollywood and visits the record label’s offices:
Later, 9:45pm—Pink Palm Motel
I’m in Los Angeles, I’m tired, and I’m in the tackiest motel on the West Coast. I’m also already dreading the trip back home since I’ve decided I hate planes. The motel we’re staying at is painted this weird shade of salmon pink. As far as I can tell, LA is pretty sweet. It’s so different than Cedar Junction. It’s so crowded, and the air is thick with smog, which is something I’ve only read about. I can’t even see the horizon in Los Angeles. There are buildings everywhere I look. I’m also very disappointed to learn that the palm trees here don’t grow coconuts.
Mom has already hung up her favorite dream catchers all throughout the motel room. I don’t know how she managed to do it, but she’s already filled this place with the smell of incense and dried lavender. It smells like home; it’s wonderful.
I don’t know what to wear tomorrow. What does one wear to a meeting with recording studio executives? I suppose my Sketchers won’t really cut it. But I know it won’t make a difference what I wear. I doubt some fancy name-brand clothing will distract people from my gargantuan girth. Ugh, I’ve got to be body positive! Amanda’s always telling me to embrace myself, but that’s easier said than done.
I’m bullied every single day at school in Cedar Junction; why would Los Angeles be any different?
February 3rd, 9:00am—On the way to the Studio
When they said they’d send a car to pick us up, I thought maybe it’d be a nice Volkswagen or a minivan, not a limo. This thing is so flashy—there’s even a little fridge in here with cherry Coke and Snickers! Plus, there’s a ton of room in here, so I can be comfortable without Mom’s hair beads and feathers in my face. Everyone keeps looking at us as we drive by, as if we’re celebrities. I’ve already seen about thirty tourists take pictures of the limo as we cruised past them. I may be an imposter, but it’s kind of fun!
I feel like I’ve been dropped into some alternate universe. I thought places that looked like this only existed in pictures; I’d forgotten that the places in the picture are real. Most of Iowa is pretty hilly, but the little piece of land Cedar Junction is on is so flat and plain. I know I complain about my town a lot, but Iowa really isn’t that bad. Every once in a while, Amanda’s mom drives Meredith, Amanda, and me forty-five minutes into Ankeny so we can see a movie, since Cedar Junction doesn’t have its own theater, and it’s super fun. Cedar Junction is so boring. I’m sure teenagers in other towns probably go to barn dances and party like those kids in Footloose. There are only seventy-five kids at Cedar Junction High, and none of them want to go dancing.
I often feel like my town is a parody of Iowa living. Anywhere else I go in Iowa people seem totally normal. I’d love to live in any other city. During the last presidential election, a teacher had a bumper sticker for the Democratic candidate, and the PTA actually rallied outside that teacher’s house to scare him away.
Meredith and Amanda seem to be the only normal people around. I’m sure many would argue against that theory—after all, they are the only lesbian couple in town, and they rescue stray cats. Oh well. The local animal shelter loves them, and the Baptist church next door doesn’t. You can’t please everyone.
Oh God, we’re here.
Later, 12:30pm—Pink Palm Motel
Oh my God. Oh my God. I can’t believe that just happened. This kind of thing only happens in movies, unless I’m in a movie and don’t know it, like that one movie with Jim Carrey where it turns out his life is actually a reality show, and he didn’t know it.
First, I made a huge mistake by wearing my Old Navy jeans and baby-pink shirt. I’ve never been more underdressed in my life, even more so than when I forgot to wear my cowboy boots to the 12th Annual Cedar Junction Hoedown.
Shell Shocked is a super cool place; everything is covered in stainless steel, even the ceiling! Everyone we saw looked like they’d walked right out of the pages of a magazine, and it made me really uncomfortable. And paranoid. I was certain that as soon as I stepped foot into the lobby, I’d run into him, even though he doesn’t live anywhere near here.
When my mom told the lady at the front desk we were there for our meeting with Mr. Salazar, she gave us a snooty look of the first order. I don’t really blame her; Mom was wearing her favorite pair of Birkenstocks and an orange peasant skirt with little bells. I’m sure the city-bus-sized pimple on my chin didn’t help anything either.
Snooty Secretary led us to this giant conference room that was, you guessed it, covered in stainless steel. I think this was the point where my heart went into overdrive, and my palms began to sweat. There were three men in the room. Two of them looked like twins, with navy blue suits and brown hair.
The man at the head of the table had deep brown skin, was wearing a crisp, expensive-looking suit, and was completely bald. Seriously, his head was even shiner than the stainless steel. He didn’t even have stubble, but his eyebrows made up for that. They were very voluminous.
“Mr. Salazar, Daisy and Holly Hart are here to see you,” the secretary said.
The man at the head of the table stood up and buttoned his suit jacket. “Ms. Hart, I’m glad to meet you. I’m Manuel Salazar, I’m the studio president,” he said. His voice was very gravelly, like Louis Armstrong’s.
Of course, the moment I needed to be cool and actually say the right thing for once, my words got tangled in my throat. I’m usually full of stupid things to say, but this time I couldn’t say anything at all. I was so mortified to be standing there in such a fancy building in a pair of stretched-out jeans and tennis shoes. Why didn’t I change into the polka-dot dress I got from Target last year? It’s my favorite. Luckily, Mom leapt to the rescue.
“Thank you for having us, Mr. Salazar,” she said. Mom shook his bear-paw of a hand.
Mr. Salazar gestured for us to sit down, which was a stressful decision of its own. There were at least eight empty chairs. I didn’t want to settle down right next to Mr. Salazar like we were best friends, but I didn’t want to sit on the far end like he carried the plague or something. I finally just sat down and fought the urge to spin around in circles until I was sick from dizziness. Mr. Salazar placed the tips of his fingers together in an arch, and my stomach churned.
“What song do you have prepared for us?” he asked.
Suddenly my stomach felt like it had turned inside out. “Song?” I repeated, my mouth dry.
Mr. Salazar’s caterpillar eyebrows knitted together. “Yes, you have to sing for us, of course. We need to make sure you’re who we’re looking for before we talk about your future at Shell Shocked.”
I thought I was going to vomit, and that’s not an exaggeration. I’d be more comfortable in a bikini than I would singing in front of strangers. Which of course made me seriously consider what I was doing there in the first place. If I couldn’t sing for those three men, how could I expect to have CDs and concerts?
“Go on, Holly,” Mom said gently. “It’ll be okay.”
I don’t know what came over me, but I must’ve gotten a sudden rush of adrenaline. Next thing I knew, I was standing up and singing “Jesus Take the Wheel” for the entire world to hear. And you know what? It felt great. I mean, I love to sing, I really do! I was so nervous to sing for these people, but once I started singing, I couldn’t stop. I felt unstoppable. I felt like I could take on the rest of high school, my first year of college, and maybe dismantle the patriarchy while I’m at it.
They actually clapped for me when I finished! I wasn’t sure what to do; no one had ever applauded me before. Well, at least applauded nicely. The cafeteria applauds every time I fall or spill something at lunch.
“That was wonderful,” Navy Suit #1 said.
“Amazing rendition,” Navy Suit #2 added.
“We were very lucky to find your videos on YouTube, Holly,” Mr. Salazar said sincerely.
“I’ll say; I think you might’ve been the only one to see my videos.” I wanted to kick myself as the words left my mouth. I sat back down in my chair and cringed when I heard it creak beneath me.
“I’m sure it hasn’t escaped your notice that Country Pop music is on the rise.” He didn’t wait for my response and continued. “Well, unfortunately we aren’t a Nashville studio, and we don’t have a single country artist signed. We here at Shell Shocked really want a piece of the pie, but country artists aren’t exactly knocking down our door.”
“So, you want to give Holly a contract?” Mom suddenly butted in.
Mr. Salazar raised an eyebrow and continued. “Not exactly. In order to be a competitor, we need someone incredible on every level. With your amazing voice, we believe we can create the perfect country-pop artist.”
“Wait,” I said, my throat dry. “You want just my voice?”
Mr. Salazar dropped his hands on the table and leaned back in his chair. “There’s a very particular look we’re aiming for in the artist we sign, and your look isn’t exactly it. Your voice, however, is above and beyond what we’re looking for. We’ve found a girl signed with a local modeling agency, and she’s the perfect person to embody your voice.”
I wasn’t sure if I should be excited or offended. I mean, yeah, he complimented my voice, but in the same breath, he made every other part of me feel horrible.
“I think Holly and I are going to have to talk this over at home, Mr. Salazar,” my mom said, coming to my rescue again. “Is there a contract we can look over?”
“Yes, yes, of course. Check in with my secretary, and she’ll see that you get the right paperwork.”
There was the usual exchanging of nice to meet you and hope to hear from you soon, but I hightailed it out of there as quickly as I could. By the time we climbed back into the limo, I was shaking. I couldn’t even open a can of cherry Coke.
“Holly, are you okay?” Mom asked.
“I don’t know,” I blurted, tears welling in my eyes. I didn’t even know why I was crying; I couldn’t control it.
“Look, if you want to go home, that’s okay.” Mom leaned in close to me, overwhelming me with the smell of hemp, and gently scratched my back. That only made me cry more and not dainty, lady-like tears—these were ugly, heaving sobs.
“I wish Dad were here,” I said through a river of mucus. “He’d know what to do.”
“I wish he were here too. Honey, forget everything he said that hurt your feelings and remember the good things. He gave you a huge compliment; he wants your voice! Doesn’t that make you feel good?”
I wiped my nose. “Kind of. But what’s the point if I don’t get the credit?”
Mom sighed. The beads in her hair clinked with the motion. “But would you really want to put yourself in the public eye like that? If you didn’t like what Mr. Salazar had to say about you, can you imagine what the magazines would be like?”
“That’s true,” I agreed. “Mom, you kind of sound like you like the idea.”
“I do, a little bit.”
“But why? I’d be working for a big corporation and giving some girl all of the credit for something I did. We’d probably have to move out here, and you hate big cities. You’d have to leave the university and work out here.”
Mom slowed the scratching on my back. “Holly, you’ll be surprised to know that I don’t have the right answer to everything. If this is something you want to do, then we’ll do it. It’s a great opportunity for you.”
Now that I think about it, I don’t know why I started to freak out so much. It’s not like I’m some vocal protégée who has been preparing her whole life to step into the spotlight and become a star. I’m not using my voice for anything. Why not let this girl have it?
Mom gave me a tight hug. After she leaned away, she handed me a tissue. “Just think about it. Let’s go home, look through the contract, and talk, okay?”
Then Mom made the limo driver turn on the reggae station, and she lip-synched to every song. Sometimes I really love my mom.
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About the Author
I’m the author of the upcoming YA series Holly Hearts Hollywood, coming September 2014 by Swoon Romance. I’m a twenty-something cat lady who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. When I’m not working my office day job or writing books, you can find me either singing and dancing or binge-watching TV shows on Netflix.
Author Links:
Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook
Debut Authors Bash 2014: Linda Vigen Phillips! (and a giveaway, of course!)
I’m excited to get to help close out the Debut Authors Bash, put on by YA Reads, with an interview from Linda Vigen Phillips. I was fortunate enough to meet her and get a copy of the Crazy ARC after being “Facebook introduced” through a mutual friend, which I am so grateful for. She’s sweet and humble and her writing is absolutely beautiful. I wish you all the publishing success in the world, Linda!
First, because Crazy hasn’t quite been release to the world, here’s the Goodreads summary:
Laura is a typical fifteen-year-old growing up in the 1960’s, navigating her way through classes, friendships, and even a new romance. But she’s carrying around a secret: her mother is suffering from a mental illness.
No one in Laura’s family will talk about her mother’s past hospitalizations or increasingly erratic behavior, and Laura is confused and frightened. She finds some solace in art, but when her mother, also an artist, suffers a breakdown, Laura fears that she will follow in her mother’s footsteps. Left without a refuge, can she find the courage to face what scares her most?
Sounds interesting, right? And it is… it’s just wonderful. I sent Linda a few questions, some about the story itself but also some that focused on the art found in the story. It was intriguing and added a lot to Laura’s character. Check out my questions and Linda’s responses below, then make sure you enter to win a copy of Crazy!
- This interview will publish a few weeks in advance of Crazy’s pub date. Assuming most of the audience hasn’t been fortunate enough to get their hands on an ARC, what would you like them to know about the story going into it?
Crazy is semi-autobiographical, and while the names and certain events are fictional, much of the story is based on my experience growing up with a mother who had undiagnosed bipolar disorder.
2. Crazy is written in verse rather than prose, which I think gives it a quiet sort of elegance. What was your reason for wanting to tell Laura’s story through poetry?
I started writing poetry when I was an adolescent, and it has always been a source of comfort and my favorite way of thinking things through. My father’s love for poetry, as it is mentioned in the book, was genuine and contagious, and that’s how I became hooked on it. Originally I wrote a collection of twenty poems that served as a cathartic means of dealing with the raw emotions and unanswered questions surrounding my mother’s illness. A number of them were published in adult literary journals, and I began thinking in terms of a book of poetry when my best writing buddy suggested they should become a novel. I had the good fortune of working with Patti Gauch, retired senior editor at Philomel, during a 2009 Highlights Foundation workshop at Chautauqua, and she was instrumental in helping me nail the YA voice in verse form for this book.
3. Why did you choose to set the story in the 1960’s, and what do you hope today’s teenagers will take from it?
By now you’ve probably figured out the answer to this question. The 1960’s is actually when it all happened, and I wrote it like it was. An interesting side-note to this time period came during the editorial process, during which I had to throw out over twenty phrases that were certainly appropriate for “the sixties” but apparently not specifically for 1963. It seems that all the “grooviest” catch phrases and slang happened just after 1963, which is the year in which the story is set. That was the year Kennedy was assassinated, and there is a section that features this in the book. I do hope that young readers will get a sense of how that event affected all of us who lived through it, not just families like mine who were dealing with their own crisis. And, as I mentioned in the afterword, I hope that young people who might be affected by mental illness will realize that methods of treatment and available resources have made considerable gains since the sixties.
4. My favorite element to Crazy, hands down, was the art. I so desperately wanted to see the paintings and the sculptures that my brain worked overtime trying to imagine it all, which forced me to pay attention to the details and try to visualize the artwork. What was your inspiration for the artistic elements to Crazy? Does the sculpture family actually exist? Are there pictures, of any of the actual artwork or that served as inspiration, you could share with us?
It wasn’t until after several revisions that I realized the artwork was a metaphor for my own writing. Art was the glue that held Laura together, just as my journaling and poetry helped me to stay intact in my youth.
My mother really was a gifted painter, although we only have two of her pieces. But they are good, and I’ve spent countless hours staring at, appreciating, wondering about, delving into, imagining, and seeing the passion that she had. I guess it is that appreciation of passion that drove me through the artistic part of this book. I, too, in my limited way, appreciate good art, and I have some personal favorites that I mentioned throughout the book. Of course I have a fascination with Van Gogh, not only for his art, but his tormented journey through mental illness. And Hopper is a personal favorite because of his amazing use of light, Monet for his wonderful colors.
I am a visual thinker, and it was relatively easy for me to envision the paintings of the pelicans as well as the sculptures. There was no existing artwork serving as models for any of those pieces other than the pictures I created in my own imagination. It was important that Laura get in touch (literally) with the art that was her new medium, and I thought her creation of the clay figurines was a fitting extension of the ceramics that her mother painted, but did not actually create. It was Laura’s new identity, and her way of working through the family issues and finding peace within the existing structure.
5. Is there anything else you’d like to share about Crazy?
I poured my heart into this book. I hope it might pour back to the reader a healing of memories, a comfort for the present, or a hope for a better future. Persons suffering from bipolar disorder can have normal and productive lives if they seek and follow good medical practices. I hope this book helps get that point across.
And now, make sure you enter to win your own copy of Crazy through a Rafflecopter giveaway! (And if you don’t win, make sure you pick it up when it releases on October 20!)
Happy book birthday to Tessa Marie for Home is Where You Are!
HOME IS WHERE YOU ARE BY TESSA MARIE
RELEASES SEPTEMBER 30, 2014
FIND IT ON AMAZON: http://bit.ly/HomeAmazon
Anna’s life reads like a check list:
Straight A’s (Check)
Editor of the school paper (Check)
Volunteering time at the local soup kitchen (Check)
Ivy League (So close she can taste it)
Falling in love with a homeless boy (Not on the list)
Dean has a plan too. Survive. After being subjected to his foster father’s violent attacks, Dean made the hard choice to leave. Now he lives on the streets doing everything he can to get by, refusing to let people help him. But when he meets Anna, he realizes not everyone is out to hurt him.
Slowly, Anna and Dean let each other in, blending their two worlds into one. But when a series of events brings Dean’s world into perspective, he pushes Anna away. Not willing to accept the line that divides them, Anna sets out to bring Dean back to her. Her determination and faith in their future puts her on the tracks of danger, and he is the only one who can save her.
ADD IT TO YOUR GOODREADS: http://bit.ly/HomeIsGR
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tessa Marie lives in the same town she grew up in on Long Island, NY with her long time boyfriend and their fish. Under her real name, Theresa Paolo, she released her debut novel (NEVER) AGAIN, a NA romance, in Fall 2013 with Berkley (Penguin) and (ONCE) AGAIN released this summer. She is also the coauthor of the Amazon bestseller KING SIZED BEDS AND HAPPY TRAILS and BEACH SIDE BEDS AND SANDY PATHS, a YA contemporary series. She has a hard time accepting the fact she’s nearing thirty, and uses her characters to relive the best and worst years of her life. She put her love of writing on hold while she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from Dowling College. When she’s not writing, she’s behind a camera, reading, or can be found on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook.
Pimples, Popularity, and Protagonists 
