Here's a round up of the latest book news, deals and some cover reveals that I've discovered over the past few weeks! It's also basically a digest of all the exciting news stories that come my way and which I've mostly already posted on my twitter and Facebook feeds, so if you want up-to-the-minute book news and you don't want to have to wait around for me to type this up, you can follow me on those sites!
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To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han || Release date: April 2014
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters…
Book Deals, Book Deals, Book Deals....
Infinite Sky by C.J. Flood - US Deal!
Namrata Tripathi at Atheneum Books for Young Readers has acquired Infinite Sky by debut novelist Chelsey "C.J." Flood, a book that asks if it is possible to keep loving somebody when they kill someone you love. In the novel, 13-year-old Iris watches a family of gypsies set up an illegal camp near her house. When Iris's secret friendship with the gypsy boy, Trick, blooms into something more, tensions run high, and Iris struggles to find where her loyalties lie. The book is scheduled for May 2014; Catherine Drayton of InkWell Management did the deal on behalf of Catherine Clarke at Felicity Bryan.
Forget-Me-Not Summer by Leila Howland
Alexandra Cooper at HarperCollins bought world English rights to Nantucket Blue author Leila Howland's middle-grade debut, called Forget-Me-Not Summer. It's the story of three sisters who leave L.A. to spend the summer at their aunt's rambling cottage on Cape Cod – where they must trade their separate bedrooms for a rustic attic, chic parties for clambakes, and smartphones for sailboats. Publication is slated for 2015; Sara Crowe at Harvey Klinger did the three-book deal.
To Believe in David Bowie by Mary Jane Beaufrand
Maggie Lehrman at Abrams/Amulet has signed Edgar Award nominee Mary Jane Beaufrand for the tentatively titled To Believe in David Bowie. Set against the gritty backdrop of Portland, Ore., it's the story of best friends, music, and murder. A spring 2015 publication is planned; Steven Chudney from the Chudney Agency brokered the deal for world English rights.
The Third Twin by C.J. Omololu
Wendy Loggia at Delacorte has bought a YA novel called The Third Twin by Dirty Little Secrets author C.J. Omololu. In the story, identical twins invent a third sister as a cover to date and dump hot but temporary boys, only to find themselves stalked and impersonated by the sister who doesn't exist, while their ex-dates turn up dead. Publication is scheduled for 2015; Sarah Davies at the Greenhouse Literary Agency did the deal for North American rights.
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More Book Covers of Awesome....
The Museum of Intangible Things by Wendy Wunder || Release date: April 2014
Loyalty. Envy. Obligation. Dreams. Disappointment. Fear. Negligence. Coping. Elation. Lust. Nature. Freedom. Heartbreak. Insouciance. Audacity. Gluttony. Belief. God. Karma. Knowing what you want (there is probably a French word for it). Saying Yes. Destiny. Truth. Devotion. Forgiveness. Life. Happiness (ever after).
Hannah and Zoe haven’t had much in their lives, but they’ve always had each other. So when Zoe tells Hannah she needs to get out of their down-and-out New Jersey town, they pile into Hannah’s beat-up old Le Mans and head west, putting everything—their deadbeat parents, their disappointing love lives, their inevitable enrollment at community college—behind them.
As they chase storms and make new friends, Zoe tells Hannah she wants more for her. She wants her to live bigger, dream grander, aim higher. And so Zoe begins teaching Hannah all about life’s intangible things, concepts sadly missing from her existence—things like audacity, insouciance, karma, and even happiness.
An unforgettable read from the acclaimed author of The Probability of Miracles, The Museum of Intangible Things sparkles with the humor and heartbreak of true friendship and first love.
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The Promise of Amazing by Robin Constantine || Release date: December 2013
Wren Caswell is average. Ranked in the middle of her class at Sacred Heart, she’s not popular, but not a social misfit. Wren is the quiet, “good” girl who's always done what she's supposed to—only now in her junior year, this passive strategy is backfiring. She wants to change, but doesn’t know how.
Grayson Barrett was the king of St. Gabe’s. Star of the lacrosse team, top of his class, on a fast track to a brilliant future—until he was expelled for being a “term paper pimp.” Now Gray is in a downward spiral and needs to change, but doesn’t know how.
One fateful night their paths cross when Wren, working at her family’s Arthurian-themed catering hall, performs the Heimlich on Gray as he chokes on a cocktail weenie, saving his life literally and figuratively. What follows is the complicated, awkward, hilarious, and tender tale of two teens shedding their pasts, figuring out who they are—and falling in love.
********** Being Sloane Jacobs by Lauren Morrill || Release date: January 2014.
Meet Sloane Emily Jacobs: a seriously stressed-out figure-skater from Washington, D.C., who choked during junior nationals and isn’t sure she’s ready for a comeback. What she does know is that she’d give anything to escape the mass of misery that is her life.
Now meet Sloane Devon Jacobs, a spunky ice hockey player from Philly who’s been suspended from her team for too many aggressive hip checks. Her punishment? Hockey camp, now, when she’s playing the worst she’s ever played. If she messes up? Her life will be over.
When the two Sloanes meet by chance in Montreal and decide to trade places for the summer, each girl thinks she’s the lucky one: no strangers to judge or laugh at Sloane Emily, no scouts expecting Sloane Devon to be a hero. But it didn’t occur to Sloane E. that while avoiding sequins and axels she might meet a hockey hottie—and Sloane D. never expected to run into a familiar (and very good-looking) face from home. It’s not long before the Sloanes discover that convincing people you’re someone else might be more difficult than being yourself.
The Edge of Falling by Rebecca Serle || Release date: March 2014
Growing up in privileged, Manhattan social circles, Caggie’s life should be perfect, and it almost was until the day that her younger sister drowned when Caggie was supposed to be watching her. Stricken by grief, Caggie pulls away from her friends and family, only to have everyone misinterpret a crucial moment when she supposedly saves a fellow classmate from suicide. Now she’s famous for something she didn’t do and everyone lauds her as a hero. But inside she still blames herself for the death of her sister and continues to pull away from everything in her life, best friend and perfect boyfriend included. Then Caggie meets Astor, the new boy at school, about whom rumours are swirling and known facts are few. In Astor she finds someone who just might understand her pain, because he has an inner pain of his own. But the more Caggie pulls away from her former life to be with Astor, the more she realises that his pain might be darker, and deeper, than anything she’s ever felt. His pain might be enough to end his life…and Caggie’s as well.
Asylum by Susan Vaught || Release date: February 2014
Never, Kentucky is not your average scenic small town. It is a crossways, a place where the dead and the living can find no peace. Not that Forest, an 18-year-old foster kid who works the graveyard shift at Lincoln Hospital, knew this when she applied for the job. Lincoln is a huge state mental institution, a good place for Forest to make some money to pay for college. But along with hundreds of very unstable patients, it also has underground tunnels, bell towers that ring unexpectedly, and a closet that holds more than just donated clothing....When the dead husband of one of Forest's patients makes an appearance late one night, seemingly accompanied by an agent of the Devil, Forest loses all sense of reality and all sense of time. Terrified, she knows she has a part to play, and when she does so, she finds a heritage that she never expected.
With her deep knowledge of mental illness and mental institutions, Susan Vaught brings readers a fascinating and completely creepy new book intertwining the stories of three young people who find themselves haunted beyond imagining in the depths of Lincoln Hospital.
********** Great by Sara Benincasa || Release date: April 2014 This young adult novel, the author’s first, is inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic The Great Gatsby, a novel still read by just about every American student in middle school or high school. In this novel, there are parallel stories of deceit and tragedy—one between the narrator and her celebrity, nouveau riche mother; the other concerning one mysterious young woman’s campaign to insinuate herself into the life of a beautiful ingénue. Set in the Hamptons over the course of one tragic summer, the novel’s narrator witnesses and becomes fascinated by the efforts of the mysterious young woman, and becomes partly implicated in a tragedy that shakes the summer community and probably punctuates the end of her adolescence and the beginning of her adulthood.
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Before Jamaica Lane (On Dublin Street #3) by Samantha Young || Release date: Jan 2014
Despite her outgoing demeanor, Olivia is painfully insecure around the opposite sex—usually, she can’t get up the nerve to approach guys she’s interested in. But moving to Edinburgh has given her a new start, and, after she develops a crush on a sexy postgrad, she decides it’s time to push past her fears and go after what she wants.
Nate Sawyer is a gorgeous player who never commits, but to his close friends, he’s as loyal as they come. So when Olivia turns to him with her relationship woes, he offers to instruct her in the art of flirting and to help her become more sexually confident.
The friendly education in seduction soon grows into an intense and hot romance. But then Nate’s past and commitment issues rear their ugly heads, and Olivia is left broken-hearted. When Nate realizes he’s made the biggest mistake of his life, he will have to work harder than he ever has before to entice his best friend into falling back in love with him—or he may lose her forever…
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All the pretty covers! Which one is your fave? The new Jenny Han has to have one of the prettiest covers of all time, but it's got a rival in the new Wendy Wunder! The cover for The Promise of Amazing is also super cute and I love the sound of Leila Howland's (Nantucket Blue) new MG series. Let me know what you think in comments.
Please note that book covers may not be final and may be subject to change. Additional sources: PW Children's Bookshelf, Goodreads..
