YA Thursday - Exciting Summer Releases!

You Don't Know Me, But I Know You by Rebecca Barrow (HarperTeen hardcover, 29 August 2017).

There’s a box in the back of Audrey’s closet that she rarely thinks about.

Inside is a letter, seventeen years old, from a mother she’s never met, handed to her by the woman she’s called Mom her whole life. Being adopted, though, is just one piece in the puzzle of Audrey’s life—the picture painstakingly put together by Audrey herself, full of all the people and pursuits that make her who she is.

But when Audrey realizes that she’s pregnant, she feels something—a tightly sealed box in the closet corners of her heart—crack open, spilling her dormant fears and unanswered questions all over the life she loves.

Almost two decades ago, a girl in Audrey’s situation made a choice, one that started Audrey’s entire story. Now Audrey is paralyzed by her own what-ifs and terrified by the distance she feels growing between her and her best friend Rose. Down every possible path is a different unfamiliar version of her life, and as she weighs the options in her mind, she starts to wonder—what does it even mean to be Audrey Spencer?

What to Say Next by Julie Buxbaum (Delacort Press hardcover, 11 July 2017).

When an unlikely friendship is sparked between relatively popular Kit Lowell and socially isolated David Drucker, everyone is surprised, most of all Kit and David. 

Kit appreciates David’s blunt honesty—in fact, she finds it bizarrely refreshing. 
David welcomes Kit’s attention and her inquisitive nature. 

When she asks for his help figuring out the how and why of her dad’s tragic car accident, David is all in. 

But neither of them can predict what they’ll find. Can their friendship survive the truth?


Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moïra Fowley-Doyle (Kathy Dawson Books hardcover, 8 August 2017).

One stormy Irish summer night, Olive and her best friend, Rose, begin to lose things. It starts with simple items like hairclips and jewelry, but soon it’s clear that Rose has lost something much bigger, something she won’t talk about, and Olive thinks her best friend is slipping away.

Then diary pages written by a girl named Laurel begin to appear all over town. And Olive meets three mysterious strangers: Ivy, Hazel, and her twin brother, Rowan, secretly squatting in an abandoned housing estate. The trio are wild and alluring, but they seem lost too—and like Rose, they’re holding tight to painful secrets.

When they discover the spellbook, it just might be their chance to find what they each need to set everything back to rights. Unless it’s leading them toward things that were never meant to be found…


The Lake Effect by Erin McCahan (Dial Books hardcover, 11 July 2017).

It’s the summer after senior year, and Briggs Henry is out the door. He’s leaving behind his ex-girlfriend and his parents’ money troubles for Lake Michigan and its miles of sandy beaches, working a summer job as a personal assistant, and living in a gorgeous Victorian on the shore. 

It’s the kind of house Briggs plans to buy his parents one day when he’s a multi-millionaire. But then he gets there. And his eighty-four-year-old boss tells him to put on a suit for her funeral.

So begins a summer of social gaffes, stomach cramps, fraught beach volleyball games, moonlit epiphanies, and a drawer full of funeral programs. Add to this Abigail, the mystifying girl next door on whom Briggs’s charms just won’t work, and “the lake effect” is taking on a whole new meaning.


Lucky in Love by Kasie West (Point hardcover, 25 July 2017). 

Maddie's not impulsive. She's all about hard work and planning ahead. But one night, on a whim, she buys a lottery ticket. And then, to her astonishment --

She wins!

In a flash, Maddie's life is unrecognizable. No more stressing about college scholarships. Suddenly, she's talking about renting a yacht. And being in the spotlight at school is fun... until rumors start flying, and random people ask her for loans. Now, Maddie isn't sure who she can trust.

Except for Seth Nguyen, her funny, charming coworker at the local zoo. Seth doesn't seem aware of Maddie's big news. And, for some reason, she doesn't want to tell him. But what will happen if he learns her secret?

One stormy Irish summer night, Olive and her best friend, Rose, begin to lose things. It starts with simple items like hairclips and jewelry, but soon it’s clear that Rose has lost something much bigger, something she won’t talk about, and Olive thinks her best friend is slipping away.

Then seductive diary pages written by a girl named Laurel begin to appear all over town. And Olive meets three mysterious strangers: Ivy, Hazel, and her twin brother, Rowan, secretly squatting in an abandoned housing estate. The trio are wild and alluring, but they seem lost too—and like Rose, they’re holding tight to painful secrets.

When they discover the spellbook, it changes everything. Damp, tattered and ancient, it’s full of hand-inked charms to conjure back things that have been lost. And it just might be their chance to find what they each need to set everything back to rights.

Unless it’s leading them toward things that were never meant to be found…

One stormy Irish summer night, Olive and her best friend, Rose, begin to lose things. It starts with simple items like hairclips and jewelry, but soon it’s clear that Rose has lost something much bigger, something she won’t talk about, and Olive thinks her best friend is slipping away.

Then seductive diary pages written by a girl named Laurel begin to appear all over town. And Olive meets three mysterious strangers: Ivy, Hazel, and her twin brother, Rowan, secretly squatting in an abandoned housing estate. The trio are wild and alluring, but they seem lost too—and like Rose, they’re holding tight to painful secrets.

When they discover the spellbook, it changes everything. Damp, tattered and ancient, it’s full of hand-inked charms to conjure back things that have been lost. And it just might be their chance to find what they each need to set everything back to rights.

Unless it’s leading them toward things that were never meant to be found…

YALSA 2016 Teens' Top Ten Nominees

YA Thursday

The Keeper of the Mist by Rachel Neumeier (Knopf hardcover, 8 March 2016).

Everyone knows that Keri's father is the Lord of Nimmira, even though she's had nothing to do with him since she was born. 

Since her mother's death, Keri has been running their bakery on her own, just managing to keep it afloat. So she has reason to be surprised when the country's Timekeeper walks through the door and informs her that Lord Dorric Ailenn has died and Nimmira has chosen her as the new Lady. 

When she tries to protest, the Timekeeper reiterates that Keri is the chosen one and whisks her off to the Lord's--now Lady's--House in the center of the town. Keri's three older half-brothers, who were raised in Lord Dorric's House, are not happy at being overlooked and treat her as a silly girl, attempting to undermine her at every chance. 

When visitors from outside the country arrive, she discovers that her father was not an honest man. Keri realizes that she's the only one with the common sense to rule Nimmira, but she has to determine whom she can trust to support her. 

VERDICT This is a beautifully written story that emphasizes intelligence and diplomacy. Recommend to fans of Patricia Wrede and Tamora Pierce, as well as lovers of traditional fantasy.





FTC Full Disclosure:  I received an Advance Review Copy of the book from School Library Journal for review purposes.  

This review was originally published in School Library Journal:
Beebe, Marlyn. "Neumeier, Rachel. The Keeper of the Mist." School Library Journal Jan. 2016: 100. 

YA Thursday

The Possibility of Now by Kim Culbertson (Scholastic hardcover, 26 January 2016).

Mara James has been a perfectionist and over-achiever as long as she can remember. She's on track to be class valedictorian at her private school in San Diego, until she has a meltdown in calculus class.  

Not just any meltdown, a tear-up-the-test-paper-and-walk-out-of-class meltdown.  When asked to explain it, she really can't.  She just knows that she can't go back to school because someone recorded the whole thing on their phone and uploaded it to YouTube. The video has a gazillion views, and she needs to get away.

Mara's solution is to suggest to her mother and stepfather that she spend the next term in Lake Tahoe with her father, whom she hasn't seen since she was around seven.  She's hoping to kill two birds with one stone:  to escape from Ranfield Academy, and to get to know her father.

The school's condition is that she continue to do her schoolwork through their home study program; her mother's is that she see a counselor.  Mara doesn't think either of those will be a problem, since she doesn't seem to have much in common with the kids her age that she meets in Lake Tahoe.

As a high school teacher for over 18 years, Kim Culbertson is well-qualified to write about the pressures that today's teens (and even younger kids) are subjected to in their day-to-day lives:  to excel in school subjects, but still have enough extra-curricular activities that they appear "well-rounded" on their university applications. The Possibility of Now would be helpful for high school students and their parents, as well as their teachers.

FTC Full Disclosure:  I borrowed this book from my local library.

YAThursday

First & Then by Emma Mills (Henry Holt hardcover, 13 October 2015).

Devon loves Jane Austen.  So much so that almost all her thoughts go through the  WWJD (What Would Jane Do?) filter.  Of course, she doesn't always act on it, especially in her everyday speech patterns.

But she does keep her crush on her best friend Cas to herself.  She's pretty sure he doesn't know about it, seeing as he treats her almost like one of the guys.

In her senior year, her fourteen-year-old cousin Foster comes to stay with them.  Foster doesn't like Cas, but Devon doesn't like Foster.  He's a skinny geek who belongs to the Future Science Revolutionaries Club, and is relentlessly cheerful despite the fact that his father recently died and he's been more or less abandoned by his addict mother.  

Because she hasn't taken her required year of PE yet, she's forced to be in a class with a bunch of freshmen, including Foster.  But one other senior is in the class:  obnoxious football star Ezra Lynley, who seems to think Devon is a lower life form.

But when Foster unexpectedly displays an incredible talent for kicking a football, Ezra takes him under his wing, and Devon is forced to learn more about Ezra than she ever wanted to.

Vlogger Emma Mills' debut novel is a charmer, with believable characters and a sly wit that channels Jane.  It has been described as Pride and Prejudice meets Friday Night Lights, and was recommended in John Green's 2015 Holiday Book Giving Guide.  Green's fans, as well as Janeites will love this book.




FTC Full Disclosure:  I borrowed this book from my local library.

YA Thursday

Wow!  The first two books I read in 2016 were so good, I need to add them to my 2015 "Favorites" list!


Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prineas (HarperTeen hardcover, 15 September 2015).

The cover implies that this is a pastiche of the Cinderella story, but it takes a long time before we recognize it.

The book opens with a nameless young woman has just been deposited into a row of seamstresses, bent over fine stitchwork.  The girl doesn't know who she is, or how she got there.  She does know that she's not a very good seamstress, and that she is in possession of a silver thimble that no one else knows about.

The seamstresses are shoeless, dressed only in coarse cotton shifts, and are fed meager rations of cold porridge.  The threat of "The Godmother"  discourages then to conversing, but they manage anyway, in the occasional whisper.

The girl, who has decided to call herself "Pin", resolves to escape, but how?  When one of her fellow seamstresses attempted it, she met with a gruesome fate.

Then, opportunity presents itself when The Godmother tells her to act as a model for the Shoemaker, since she has such small feet.  Suddenly, Pin has a reason to move around the building, and communicate with other workers.

This riveting story does begin slowly, but after the few pages, the reader is hooked.  Make sure to set aside a few hours to read this; you won't want to put it down.



Ink and Bone (The Great Library #1) by Rachel Caine (NAL hardcover, 7 July 2015).

Jess Brightwell is a "runner": he smuggles rare books for his wealthy father, who is ostensibly an importer.  This, of course, provides a perfect cover for the illicit nature of his real line of work.

In this reality, in the year 2025, it is not allowed for individuals to own original manuscripts.  All are stored in The Great Library, in Alexandria.  There are other, smaller, libraries in major cities, which are allowed to store books, but they are strictly controlled.

People are allowed to read, texts are delivered to the electronic "blanks" that everyone owns, but personal ownership of physical books is forbidden.

Thus, Jess's job is very dangerous.  By the time he's sixteen, he's been doing it for over half a decade, hating every minute of hit.  His greatest fear is that his father will expect him, as the older son, to take over the business.

Fortunately, Brightwell père recognizes that Jess does not have a flair for the business, and arranges (at some expense) for Jess to go to Alexandria and train to work in the Library. 

Since private ownership of books is not allowed, working for the Library can be a hazardous occupation, something Jess doesn't fully comprehend until he's actually settled in the students' dorm.

This was another book I wanted to read through without stopping, yet at the same time I didn't want it to end.  

The second book in the series, Paper and Fire, is due in July.  It's going to be a long seven months.




FTC Full Disclosure:  I borrowed both these books from my local library.

YA Thursday: Last-minute gifts

It may be too late to order in time for Christmas without paying huge express-shipping fees, but here are some books you should be able to find at your local bookstore.  And they're published recently enough that your giftee may not already have them (but include a gift receipt just in case).




The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen by Katherine Howe (G.P. Putnam Books for Young Readers hardcover, 15 September 2015).

The cover makes the book seem scarier than it is.  Iin fact, it's not frightening at all.
This is the story of 19-year-old Wes Auckerman, in New York City to take a summer filmmaking class.  While helping a classmate shoot a séance in the East Village, he meets two young women, Annie and Maddie.  
He's attracted to both of them, but is more intrigued by the mysterious Annie, who seems to hear and see things he can't. 
She asks to help her find a ring she's lost, which leads him to learn more than he thought possible about the history and geography of New York.




Ana of California by Andi Teran (Penguin paperback, 30 June 2015).

I loved this modern adaptation of Anne of Green Gables, about a Mexican-American teen from East L.A.  Ana has been thrown out of yet another foster home.  She has one chance left before she ends
up in a group home.  A brother and sister who run a farm in Central California need help for the summer; if things work out, they might let her stay on for the school year and eventually apply for emancipation.
Like Anne, Ana is imaginative, if somewhat accident-prone, but eminently likeable.





Trouble is a Friend of Mine by Stephanie Tromly (Kathy Dawson Books hardcover, 4 August 2015).

After Zoe's parents divorce, she and her mother move to a small town.  They've been there only a few months, and Zoe hasn't made any friends at school, but she doesn't care because she plans to study hard so she can get into Princeton.
When Philip Digby shows up on her doorstep, Zoe's intent is to stay as far away from him as possible.  But she can't help be be interested in his crazy schemes aimed at finding a local girl who has been kidnapped.  It takes her a while to figure out why he's so interested, but when she does, she wants to help him, even though he's rude and takes her for granted.
This has been described as Sherlock Holmes meets Veronica Mars meets Ferris Bueller, and is, indeed, a humorous caper-style mystery.

YA Thursday

Books I'm looking forward to in early 2015:

Mapmaker by Mark Bomback and Galaxy Craze (Soho Teen hardcover, 15 April 2015).

When Tanya Barrett takes an internship at MapOut, she expects emotional landmines. Her father co-founded the digital mapping company, and he died for it—on a cartographic expedition he didn’t even need to take.

Her father’s business partner and his son, Connor, welcome her with open arms. Connor may be the only person who can make Tanya feel normal these days. But Tanya and Connor stumble onto a deadly secret, and the next day Connor disappears.

It’s soon clear that people at MapOut are willing to kill for what they discovered. Alone again—and on the run—Tanya must rely on her wits to find out what happened to him. In the world MapOut envisions, no one stays lost for long.



Bet Your Life: A Jess Tenant mystery by Jane Casey (St. Martin's Griffin hardcover, 3 February 2015).

Jess Tennant has now been living in a tiny town on the English seaside for three months, and is just beginning to relax and think of it as home after the traumatic events of last summer. 

But in the small hours of Halloween night, a teenage boy is left for dead by the side of the road. Seb Dawson has a serious head injury and may not survive. Jess might not have liked Seb much, but surely he didn’t deserve this. The police don’t seem to be taking the attack very seriously, but Jess can’t just let it go, and she takes matters into her own hands.

As she investigates, Jess discovers that Seb was involved in some very dangerous games. A secret predator around girls, he would do whatever it took to abuse them, from lying and blackmail to spiking drinks. Could a group of vengeful victims be behind his attack? Or is there someone else with a grudge against Seb, who will stop at nothing to silence him?



Vivian Apple at the End of the World by Katie Coyle (HMH Books for Young Readers hardcover, 6 January 2015).

Seventeen-year-old Vivian Apple never believed in the evangelical Church of America, unlike her recently devout parents. But when Vivian returns home the night after the supposed "Rapture," all that’s left of her parents are two holes in the roof. Suddenly, she doesn't know who or what to believe.

With her best friend Harp and a mysterious ally, Peter, Vivian embarks on a desperate cross-country roadtrip through a paranoid and panic-stricken America to find answers. 

Because at the end of the world, Vivan Apple isn't looking for a savior. She's looking for the truth.

ETA:  My review of this book was published in School Library Journal, Oct 1, 2014; Vol. 60, No. 10, p. 117.



Boys Don't Knit by T.S. Easton (Feiwel & Friends hardcover, 24 March 2015).

After an incident regarding a crossing guard and a bottle of Martini & Rossi (and his friends), 17-year-old worrier Ben Fletcher must develop his sense of social alignment, take up a hobby, and do some community service to avoid any further probation.

He takes a knitting class (it was that or his father’s mechanic class) with the impression that it’s taught by the hot teacher all the boys like. Turns out, it’s not. Perfect. 

Regardless, he sticks with it and comes to discover he’s a natural knitter, maybe even great. It also helps ease his anxiety and worrying. The only challenge now is to keep it hidden from his friends, his crush, and his soccer-obsessed father. What a tangled web Ben has weaved . . . or knitted.




Dream a Little Dream by Kristen Gier and Anthea Bell (Henry Holt & Co. hardcover, 14 April 2015).

Mysterious doors with lizard-head knobs. Talking stone statues. A crazy girl with a hatchet. Yes, Liv’s dreams have been pretty weird lately. Especially the one where she’s in a graveyard at night, watching four boys conduct dark magic rituals. 

The strangest part is that Liv recognizes the boys in her dream. They’re classmates from her new school in London, the school where she’s starting over because her mom has moved them to a new country (again). 

But what's really scaring Liv is that the dream boys seem to know things about her in real life, things they couldn't possibly know—unless they actually are in her dreams?  
Luckily, Liv never could resist a good mystery, and all four of those boys are pretty cute....




All the Rage by Courtney Summers (St. Martin's Griffin hardcover, 14 April 2015).

The sheriff’s son, Kellan Turner, is not the golden boy everyone thinks he is, and Romy Grey knows that for a fact. Because no one wants to believe a girl from the wrong side of town, the truth about him has cost her everything—friends, family, and her community. 

Branded a liar and bullied relentlessly by a group of kids she used to hang out with, Romy’s only refuge is the diner where she works outside of town. No one knows her name or her past there; she can finally be anonymous. 

But when a girl with ties to both Romy and Kellan goes missing after a party, and news of him assaulting another girl in a town close by gets out, Romy must decide whether she wants to fight or carry the burden of knowing more girls could get hurt if she doesn’t speak up. Nobody believed her the first time—and they certainly won’t now—but the cost of her silence might be more than she can bear.