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Showing posts from February, 2011

You Killed Wesley Payne

You Killed Wesley Payne is a YA crime noir novel written by Sean Beaudoin. Dalton Rev is a hard-boiled, seventeen-year-old private detective that transfers to the incredibly corrupt Salt River High to investigate a murder. He doesn't do it out of the goodness of his heart. He does it to get paid. And Dalton always gets paid. Dalton always solves the crime. But this case involves crooked cops, power-hungry cliques, and danger around every turn. The mean hallways of Salt River may indeed be a tough venue for solving a murder no one wants to talk about - but Dalton is tougher... Okay, so it is hard to write a synopsis of such a noir heavy, awesomely melodramatic novel without almost copying the back cover description - so please forgive its lack of oomph, if it is lacking. Just trust me: it's cool. Really cool. You Killed Wesley Payne has absolutely fantastic wit and humor, making for a deliciously dark comedy. It's smart, extremely well-executed, and intricately plotte

New Inkpop.com Challenge!

Time for an update on Inkpop.com 's Weekly Writing Challenge!!! This time around it will be in accordance with Penny Blubaugh's Blood & Flower , which pairs a theatre troupe with a fantasy. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is thus: Write a story, poem or essay that takes a realistic element and pairs it with fantastical element. You'll find all the delicious details here : http://www.inkpop.com/forums/threads/53858/real-fantasy-the-blood-amp-flower-writing-challenge/ But the real question is what you have the potential to win, right? How about FOUR winners, two of which are intelligent and intuitive commenters, two of which are talented writer extraordinaires - all of whom will get a copy of Blood & Flower and three other books from HarperCollins catalog of their choice!!! Sounds pretty awesome to me! I would enter myself, if I weren't so blissfully head over heels in books! The deadline is March 3rd so hurry and get writing, bibliophiles!!! And,

And Then I Found Out the Truth

And Then I Found Out the Truth is the sequel to the delightful And Then Everything Unraveled , by the now beloved-by-me author Jennifer Sturman. If you have not yet picked up and read your copy of And Then Everything Unraveled after Monday's review, then you need to go yonder and do so - avoiding this review like the plague. This review will hold nothing but spoilers of the first book and will burn your eyes if you try to read it (or I wish I could make it do that - as I hate people spoiling their personal reading experience!). You have been warned. Okay - so all of us who HAVE read And Then Everything Unraveled clamored for the sequel, right? Right. Let's do a little recap of where we left off - Delia found out that she was correct in her assertions and her mother was truly alive and well and hiding out in South America with a potential new boyfriend (which Delia wasn't so sure she liked, but whatever, her Mom is alive!). Some Bad People wanted T. K. dead and believe

The Big Show Stopper Blog Tour!!!

Welcome to the Bibliophile Support Group Ken Dalton! You are the author of The Big Show Stopper (which I will review below) - can you tell us a little about the book? The book opens with the accidental death of Brady Blackstone, a famed and popular concert performer, but Bear spots indications of murder. Pinky defends the accused killer by traveling to a fascinating location while Bear and Flo are relegated to investigating in the stifling heat of another desert. The hilarious romp concludes when the dynamic trio uncovers the murderer of America's top recording star on a dark night in a sandy waste by the Colorado River. How many novels are you planning on writing in the Pinky and the Bear series? At least four and I hope for more. The third is nearly complete and I am begining to work through the plot points of the fourth. What are some of your favorite crime-solving duos in movies and TV? The BBC team of Morse and Sgt. Lewis—White Collar with Peter (FBI) and Neal (white collar c

And Then Everything Unraveled

And Then Everything Unraveled is a YA mystery dramedy by author Jennifer Sturman. Delia Truesdale is used to her Internet tycoon mother, T. K., being anything but ordinary. So, when said mother leaves the country for an exploration of environmental concerns in Antarctica, Delia hardly bats an eye. She takes advantage of the time to surf the California waves and avoid studying math, as the brilliant gene seems to have skipped her generation. But then, all of a sudden, everything unravels. T. K.'s ship has gone missing - has literally disappeared. And everyone believes she is dead - leaving Delia an orphan. But Delia is convinced that they're all wrong - that her mother is still alive out there, that she would know if her Mom was indeed dead. However, the protestations of a sixteen-year-old girl don't hold up against the evidence of adults, and Delia has to have a guardian, so T. K.'s will is read. Delia gets another shock when she finds out she's going to be sen

Wishful Thinking

Wishful Thinking is a YA fantasy, and a sequel of sorts to Wish , by Alexandra Bullen. Hazel Snow has learned to fend for herself. She was adopted as a baby, but the smiling woman in the pictures holding Hazel as a baby died before Hazel has any sure memories of her - leaving Hazel to shuffle from home to home, person to person. Never feeling particularly wanted or loved. But on Hazel's eighteenth birthday she is given a startling gift - her birth certificate, featuring the name of her birth mother. She does a search on the name and is shocked to find out that this woman, her mother, is not far from her at all and will be hosting a fancy event - an event she plans on going to - to see her mother for the first time. Thing is, the only dress she has that is even close to fancy-event material is the one she purchased at a high school thrift store and has a huge rip, making it affordable. But there's a card for a seamstress on the dress, a card she's never noticed before.

Guest Post with Author Karen Metcalf!

Howdy y'all! Today we should be honored to welcome Karen Metcalf author of the brand new YA digital novella, In the Storm , a speculative YA fiction novella! Here's some info about the book: Abandoned by the world around her, Carly believes she is fated to a life of torment at the hands of her stepfather and is desperate for an escape. When she can bear the abuse no longer and gives in to a thunderous rage, she suddenly finds herself in an unfamiliar, yet beautiful, storm world. This limbo between dimensions appears to be her private sanctuary, but it may just be her purgatory. No one escapes fate without sacrifice, but is the price more than Carly is willing to pay? Ooooh, sounds intriguing, right?! And Karen Metcalf herself is here to tell us abit about herself in a GUEST POST ! Take it away, Karen - For me, before YA, came sci-fi and good old fashioned tearjerkers. My father was a huge sci-fi fan. We didn’t share a lot books for the first half of my life, but during my child

The False Princess

The False Princess is a YA fantasy adventure written by debut author Eilis O'Neal. Nalia is the princess and heir to the throne of Thorvaldor - she has been groomed for the role since infancy with classes in deportment, history, and languages. She is polite and demure, maybe not as outgoing as a princess should be - but she does her best, and tries to keep her natural clumsiness at bay. She spends her days on the palace grounds, comfortable in the close friendship of Kiernan, a nobleman's son. However, soon after her sixteenth birthday Nalia is called to her parents and dealt a blow. The prophecy that was made regarding baby Nalia was that she would be killed before she turned sixteen. They hid the baby away for her protection and replaced her with a false princess, a stand-in. Now that danger appears to have passed, they will send for the true Nalia, who has been raised with education believing herself to be an orphan, and the girl who has been the princess for sixteen year

Bitter Melon

Bitter Melon is a YA literary fiction novel, written by debut author Cara Chow. Frances needs to get all As in her classes. She needs to improve her SAT score. She needs to take calculus. She needs to get into Berkeley and become a doctor. She needs to do this, because this is what her mother has been working towards all these years and set her sights on. Frances accepts this and recognizes how hard her mother works, how bad her mother's health is becoming, and tries her best to meet the standards her mother demands. But when Frances finds herself electrified and inspired by a new teacher, she's nearly devastated to realize she's in the wrong class. Instead of calculus, she was enrolled accidentally into a speech class. She knows she should fix it right away, and get into the calculus class that may be her key to getting into Berkeley, but this is the first class Frances has ever been interested in. And soon she realizes she has a talent she'd never known before. A t

Witch & Wizard: The Gift

Witch & Wizard: The Gift is the second book in James Patterson's YA series, cowritten with Ned Rust. If you haven't read Witch & Wizard , I encourage you to avoid this review because of the inevitable spoilers, and instead read my review of the aforementioned book on Monday's post. To all of you who have read Witch & Wizard : well, you know what's going on, right? Wisty and Whit have just gone through a rollercoaster ride of imprisonment's, execution orders, finding out they have uncontrollable magical powers, passing through different dimensions they never knew existed, and a desperate and fruitless attempt to find their parents. Now they find themselves as unappointed, unofficial leaders of the resistance to the New Order. Unfortunately, the resistence is a group of under-18 individuals. But they're doing their best - rescuing as many as possible. Trying to lose as few as possible... But the New Order is persistent and powerful. And it seems t

Inkpop.com!

Hi there my beloved Bibliophiles! So, this is a special Tuesday post about a special topic - writing. Most of us crazy, absent-minded, cross-eyed with book-love bibliophiles also have some aspirations to be writers ourselves, right? And quite often the genre we're interested in writing is YA - am I still on the right track? I'm thinking I am - great minds think alike! ;) Here's the deal: HarperCollins has a writing website called inkpop.com , where all of you amateur authors can participate in writing challenges that go hand in hand with books they are currently publishing. The focus is YA, and the Editors at HarperCollins actively look to publish books found on the site! In fact, they just acquired The Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon, which started off being just a writing exercise by a gal just like you on inkpop.com , and will now be PUBLISHED in the fall of 2011. Excited yet? The current Weekly Writing Challenge is running in accorance with the soon-to-be-released

Witch & Wizard

Witch & Wizard is a YA dystopian fantasy by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet. Fifteen-year-old Wisty Allgood and her almost eighteen-year-old brother Whit went to bed that night believing the world was still normal. That they'd wake up the next morning to an ordinary day with an ordinary breakfast with their parents. Instead, they're roughly awoken by swarms of soldiers and arrested for, believe it or not, accusations of being a witch and wizard. Despite the ridiculousness of the charges and the fact that it's not Puritan times, Whit and Wisty are taken away, leaving their heartbroken, but surprisingly unsurprised, parents in their wake. It's the New Order - a political party that has slowly but surely taken over every area of government and control and has a tangent against magical powers. But Whit and Wisty don't believe in magic, let alone wield it! Or do they? Either way, the siblings need to escape before they or their parents are killed - as t

Logic of Demons: The Quest for Nadine's Soul

Logic of Demons: The Quest for Nadine's Soul , written by H. A. Goodman, is a hybrid YA/adult novel that takes the fantasy genre to a different place. Devin is reeling with grief and anger after his pregnant wife's murder - he is haunted by the future that was at their fingertips and suddenly ripped from him. At her funeral, Devin tries to accept the calming words of his loving father-in-law, but can't help but be consumed by his need for justice towards the man who killed his wife - the man who is still out there free - the man he might have the approximate whereabouts of... In a moment of near-insanity, Devin makes a choice to confront his wife's murderer and the deadly results find him in a creepy office building - a place where he is wearing a pinstripe suit and told he is now a demon. All Devin wants is to take back his final choice in life and reunite with his wife - but he's told that in order to do that, he must sell a "Formula" to a mysterious a

Shadow Grail #1: Legacies

Legacies is the first novel in a new paranormal YA series called Shadow Grail , written by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill. It all happened so fast. One second Spirit White was carefree and comfortable, driving in the backseat of the car with her Mom, Dad, and little sister - next second all she can feel is pain, physically and mentally. When she wakes up in the hospital, she finds out her entire family has died in the accident, and she is alone. Her parents had no family, no relatives to take her in. Plus, after the accident a fire inexplicably burned her home and all her belongings to ash. In her anguish, Spirit is nearly catatonic as the nurses try to help her heal her body - until the news comes. Apparently her parents arranged for Spirit to be taken in by Oakhurst Academy, a private combination school and orphanage. She's never heard of it, nor does she care. Spirit's mind is otherwise occupied with her grief. But when the hospital is ready to release her, a limo