The woods were insane in the dark, terrifying and magical at the same time. But best of all were the stars, which trumpeted their light into the misty dark.Castella Cresswell and her five siblings-Hannan, Caspar, Mortimer, Delvive, and Jerusalem- know what it's like to be different. For years, their world has been confined to their ramshackle family home deep in the woods of upstate New York. They abide by the strict rule of God, whose messages come directly from their father.
Slowly, Castley and her siblings start to test the boundaries of the laws that bind them. But, at school, they're still the freaks they've always been to the outside world. Marked by their plain clothing. Unexplained bruising. Utter isolation from their classmates. That is, until Castley is forced to partner with the totally irritating, totally normal George Gray, who offers her a glimpse of a life filled with freedom and choice.
Castley's world rapidly expands beyond the woods she knows so well and the beliefs she once thought were the only truths. There is a future waiting for her if she can escape her father's grasp, but Castley refuses to leave her siblings behind. Just as she begins to form a plan, her father makes a chilling announcement: the Cresswells will soon return to their home in heaven. With time running out on all of their lives, Castley must expose the depth of her father's lies. The forest has buried the truth in darkness for far too long. Castley might be their last hope for salvation.
May 7, 1896. Dusk. A swaggering seventeen-year-old gangster named Zebulon Finch is gunned down on the shores of Lake Michigan. But after mere minutes in the void, he is mysteriously resurrected.
His second life will be nothing like his first.
Zebulon’s new existence begins as a sideshow attraction in a traveling medicine show. From there, he will be poked and prodded by a scientist obsessed with mastering the secrets of death. He will fight in the trenches of World War I. He will run from his nightmares—and from poverty—in Depression-era New York City. And he will become the companion of the most beautiful woman in Hollywood.
Love, hate, hope, and horror—Zebulon finds them. But will he ever find redemption?
Ambitious and heartbreaking, The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume One: At the Edge of Empire is the epic saga of what it means to be human in a world so often lacking in humanity.
Rebellion has always been in the O’Reilly family’s blood. So when faced with the tragic death of her brother during Northern Ireland’s infamous Troubles, a teenage Nora joined the IRA to fight for her country’s freedom. Now, more than a decade later, Nora is haunted by both her past and vivid dreams of a man she has never met.
When she is given a relic belonging to Brigid of Kildare, patron saint of Ireland, the mystical artifact transports her back eighty years—to the height of Ireland’s brutal civil war. Here she meets the alluring stranger from her dreams, who has his own secrets—and agenda. Taken out of her own time, Nora has the chance to alter the fortunes of Ireland and maybe even save the ones she loves. In this captivating and adventurous novel from Jodi McIsaac, history belongs to those with the courage to change it.
Hey, everyone! I'm really excited to share an excerpt from one of my most anticipated reads of the year, The Way to Game the Walk of Shame.
I don't know about you all, but this book caught my attention months and months ago. I didn't know if I'd be able to read and review it for you for the Sunday Street Team, but I did know that I had to join in on the fun because this is one book that I just need to read!
Things were hard enough when her single-minded dedication to her studies earned her the reputation of being an Ice Queen, but after getting drunk at a party and waking up next to bad boy surfer Evan McKinley, the entire school seems intent on tearing Taylor down with mockery and gossip.
Desperate to salvage her reputation, Taylor persuades Evan to pretend they’re in a serious romantic relationship. After all, it’s better to be the girl who tames the wild surfer than just another notch on his surfboard.
Hannah Cho and Nick Cooper have been best friends since 8th grade. They talk for hours on the phone, regularly shower each other with presents, and know everything there is to know about one another.
There's just one problem: Hannah and Nick have never actually met.
Hannah has spent her entire life doing what she's supposed to, but when her senior year spring break plans get ruined by a rule-breaker, she decides to break a rule or two herself. She impulsively decides to road trip to Las Vegas, her older sister and BFF in tow, to surprise Nick and finally declare her more-than-friend feelings for him.
Hannah's surprise romantic gesture backfires when she gets to Vegas and finds out that Nick has been keeping some major secrets. Hannah knows the real Nick can't be that different from the online Nick she knows and loves, but now she only has night in Sin City to figure out what her feelings for Nick really are, all while discovering how life can change when you break the rules every now and then.
Hey, everyone! I've got an extra special post lined up for you today in celebration of Alwyn Hamilton's debut novel, Rebel of the Sands. Alwyn's novel releases in about two weeks, and I am so so so incredibly excited for this one! In Rebel of the Sands, the main character, Amani, starts to find herself becoming a myth in the making. She's known for her sharpshooting skills, and pretty soon, her reputation is known throughout Maraji.
The folks at Penguin Teen thought it would be cool to think of blogger reputations to celebrate the uniqueness in the community. But before we get to mine, let's get acquainted with Hamilton's book!
She’s more gunpowder than girl—and the fate of the desert lies in her hands.
Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mystical beasts still roam the wild and barren wastes, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinni still practice their magic. But there's nothing mystical or magical about Dustwalk, the dead-end town that Amani can't wait to escape from.
Destined to wind up "wed or dead," Amani’s counting on her sharpshooting skills to get her out of Dustwalk. When she meets Jin, a mysterious and devastatingly handsome foreigner, in a shooting contest, she figures he’s the perfect escape route. But in all her years spent dreaming of leaving home, she never imagined she'd gallop away on a mythical horse, fleeing the murderous Sultan's army, with a fugitive who's wanted for treason. And she'd never have predicted she'd fall in love with him...or that he'd help her unlock the powerful truth of who she really is.
A modern cupid story set in present-day Wisconsin combining the fantastical elements of Greek mythology with the contemporary drama of MTV's Teen Mom.
People don’t understand love. If they did, they’d get why dance prodigy Karma Clark just can’t say goodbye to her boyfriend, Danny. No matter what he says or does or how he hurts her, she can’t stay angry with him . . . and can’t stop loving him. But there’s a reason why Karma is helpless to break things off: she’s been shot with a love arrow.
Aaryn, son of Cupid, was supposed to shoot both Karma and Danny but found out too late that the other arrow in his pack was useless. And with that, Karma’s life changed forever. One pregnancy confirmed. One ballet scholarship lost. And dream after dream tossed to the wind.
A clueless Karma doesn’t know that her toxic relationship is Aaryn’s fault . . . but he’s going to get a chance to make things right. He’s here to convince Danny to man up and be there for Karma. But what if this god from Mount Olympus finds himself falling in love with a beautiful dancer from Wisconsin who can never love him in return?
This fast-paced debut novel explores the internal & external conflicts of a girl who finds herself inexplicably drawn to a boy who seemingly doesn't reciprocate her feelings, touching on the issues of love, sex and responsibility, with a heroine struggling to control her destiny--perfect for fans of Katie McGarry's novels and MTV’s 16 and Pregnant.
YA author Liza M. Wiemer has a special announcement for everyone this Valentine's Day weekend. You can grab a copy of her book, Hello? for just $0.99! That's right! You can curl up with Hello? for under one dollar this weekend! That sounds like an epic Valentine's Day deal to me!
One HELLO can change a life. One HELLO can save a life.
Tricia: A girl struggling to find her way after her beloved grandma's death.
Emerson: A guy who lives his life to fulfill promises, real and hypothetical.
Angie: A girl with secrets she can only express through poetry.
Brenda: An actress and screenplay writer afraid to confront her past.
Brian: A potter who sets aside his life for Tricia, to the detriment of both.
Linked and transformed by one phone call, Hello? weaves together these five Wisconsin teens' stories into a compelling narrative of friendship and family, loss and love, heartbreak and healing, serendipity, and ultimately hope.
Told from all five viewpoints: narration (Tricia), narration (Emerson), free verse poetry (Angie), screenplay format (Brenda), narration and drawings (Brian).
Henry Denton doesn’t know why the aliens chose to abduct him when he was thirteen, and he doesn’t know why they continue to steal him from his bed and take him aboard their ship. He doesn’t know why the world is going to end or why the aliens have offered him the opportunity to avert the impending disaster by pressing a big red button.
But they have. And they’ve only given him 144 days to make up his mind.
Since the suicide of his boyfriend, Jesse, Henry has been adrift. He’s become estranged from his best friend, started hooking up with his sworn enemy, and his family is oblivious to everything that’s going on around them. As far as Henry is concerned, a world without Jesse is a world he isn’t sure is worth saving. Until he meets Diego Vega, an artist with a secret past who forces Henry to question his beliefs, his place in the universe, and whether any of it really matters. But before Henry can save the world, he’s got to figure out how to save himself, and the aliens haven’t given him a button for that.
Sometimes, an author speaks to a generation because they just know all of the right things to say. They bring out the best in their readers, but they also provide some much needed wisdom in times of tragedy, heartbreak, or even bliss. That's what Gayle Forman does. She artfully weaves beautiful life lessons into her books, and teaches her readers a lot about life and love.
To celebrate the paperback release of Gayle's latest YA book, I Was Here, bloggers are sharing some of the many lessons they've learned from Gayle's books.
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Psychology, Realistic Fiction, Mental Illness
Morgan didn’t mean to do anything wrong that day. Actually, she meant to do something right. But her kind act inadvertently played a role in a deadly tragedy. In order to move on, Morgan must learn to forgive—first someone who did something that might be unforgivable, and then, herself.
But Morgan can’t move on. She can’t even move beyond the front door of the apartment she shares with her mother and little brother. Morgan feels like she’s underwater, unable to surface. Unable to see her friends. Unable to go to school.
When it seems Morgan can’t hold her breath any longer, a new boy moves in next door. Evan reminds her of the salty ocean air and the rush she used to get from swimming. He might be just what she needs to help her reconnect with the world outside.
Underwater is a powerful, hopeful debut novel about redemption, recovery, and finding the strength it takes to face your past and move on.
Have you heard the amazing news? About Rainbow Rowell? Oh come on...
You must have heard something about her upcoming book, Carry On? You know what I'm talking about...the Simon and Baz story!
No?! Well then what are you waiting for? You need to do some research on
this book (or just read this post) because it's coming out soon!
Rainbow Rowell's latest book, Carry On, releases on October 6,
but if you pre-order it now, you're entitled to some pretty awesome
swag! Trust me... you won't want to miss out on this.
Last Monday, I announced that I'd be participating in Penguin Teen's summer blog feature entitled The Blog Most Likely To. The feature, which asks bloggers to come up with a superlative for their blog, showcases the many bloggers who are excited for Huntley Fitzpatrick's upcoming book, The Boy Most Likely To, a companion novel to Huntley's My Life Next Door.
Have you heard that Huntley Fitzpatrick and Dial Books for Young Readers (Penguin Teen) are releasing a new book in August? Seriously... if you haven't you should probably read this post so you are prepared for The Boy Most Likely To when it releases on August 18, 2015.
Bloggers all across the Book Blogsosphere are celebrating the release of The Boy Most Likely To by participating in a blog event called The Blog Most Likely To. Each blogger has chosen his or her own superlative to help Penguin and Huntley celebrate the release of The Boy Most Likely To. My superlative for the event is The Blog Most Likely to Read My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick. You'll see why I chose that as my superlative later in the post!
Penelope Landlow has
grown up with the knowledge that almost anything can be bought or
sold—including body parts. She’s the daughter of one of the three crime
families that control the black market for organ transplants.
Penelope’s
surrounded by all the suffocating privilege and protection her family
can provide, but they can't protect her from the autoimmune disorder
that causes her to bruise so easily.
And in her family's line of work no one can be safe forever.
All
Penelope has ever wanted is freedom and independence. But when she’s
caught in the crossfire as rival families scramble for prominence, she
learns that her wishes come with casualties, that betrayal hurts worse
than bruises, that love is a risk worth taking . . . and maybe she’s not
as fragile as everyone thinks.
Book Trailer
Excerpt
There was always a moment as I rolled
down the long driveway toward the high fence surrounding the estate when my breath
caught in my chest and I doubted my decision to leave. Anything could
happen to me outside the perimeter of our property.
Carter interrupted my thoughts. “I told
Mother we’re going to see a musical. You know what’s playing and can pick one, right?”
Of course I did. I spent hours on NYC
websites, blogs, and forums. Someday I’d go into a long remission. Someday I’d
live there and walk the streets of promise, freedom, and opportunity they sang
about in Annie, a play I’d seen with Father on Broadway right before my
life turned purple and red.
“Really?” It made sense that Mother
would agree to a play. It would be safe, a seated activity. The chairs would
mark out defined personal space, and I’d be perfectly cocooned between my
brother and his best friend/guard, Garrett Ward. It made a whole lot less sense
that Carter would voluntarily attend the theater.
He lowered his window and called a greeting
to Ian, the guard on gate duty. Once his window was closed and the gate was
shutting behind us, he snorted. “No, not really. That’s just what I said to buy
you some extra time.”
“You should at least listen to the
score then,” I countered. “You know she’s going to want to discuss it. Or, if
she doesn’t, Father will. He’ll probably perform it if I ask.”
“Then don’t ask,” said Carter. “Fine.
Pick a show and Garrett can download the soundtrack. We’ll listen to it once,
then I get the radio for the rest of the drive—no complaints.”
It was more than I’d expected; he truly
felt guilty about being so MIA. “There’s a revival of Once Upon a Mattress that’s
getting great reviews.”
They snickered.
“Once Upon a Mattress? That
sounds like—”
I cut my brother off. “Don’t go there!
It’s a fairy tale, gutterbrain.”
“Of course it is,” laughed Garrett.
I’m pretty sure the subtext of that
laugh was you’re such a child. I swallowed a retort. Freedom was too
rare a thing towaste arguing. And I’d never had Korean barbecue. I’d
nevereven heard of it. There were so many things I’d never seen,tasted,
experienced . . . Tension melted into giddy anticipation,bubbling in my
stomach like giggles waiting to escape.
“So, how’d your super-secret errand
go?” I asked. “Was it something exciting? Something illegal?”
Garrett met my gaze in the rearview
mirror and shook his head.
But it was too late. Carter’s
expression darkened. “Everything we do is illegal. It’s not a game where
you get to pick and choosewhich crimes you’re okay with.”
“So it didn’t go well,” I muttered
under my breath.
I knew it wasn’t a game, and I knew the
Family Business was against the law. I’d known it for so long it was easy to
forget. Or remember only in a vague way, like knowing the sky is blue without paying
any attention to its blueness.
Only in those moments when things went
wrong—when lazy clouds were replaced by threats and storms, when someone got
hurt or killed—only then did I stare down the reality of the Business through a
haze of grief and funeral black. My fingers tensed on the edge of the seat.
“Ignore him,” said Garrett. “He’s just
pissy because the people we were supposed to meet with stood us up.”
“Someone dared to no-show for a
meeting with the mighty Carter Landlow?” I teased, hoping to break the gloom
settling in the car like an unwelcome passenger. “I assumed it was a Business errand,
but if someone stood you up, it must be a girl.”
“No offense, Pen, but you don’t have a
clue what’s going on in the Business.”
“No offense, Carter, but you’re
being a—”
“Who wants to hear some songs about
mattresses?” interrupted Garrett. He reached for the stereo, but Carter swatted
his hand away.
“I’m not an idiot,” I said. And wishing
for things that had been denied for so long was idiotic. No less so than
repeatedly bashing your head against a wall or touching a hot iron. I knew the
answer was no, was always going to be no, so asking to be included
in Family matters was like volunteering to be a punch line for one of the Ward
brothers’ jokes.
But I knew the basics. It wouldn’t be
possible to live on the estate, spend so much time in the clinic, and not know.
The first person to explain it to me had been my grandfather; fitting, since he
was the man who’d reacted to the formation of FOTA—the Federal Organ and Tissue
Association—by founding our Family.
The same day I’d demanded a kidney for
Kelly Forman, he’d sat me down and demonstrated using a plate of crackers and cheese.
“When donation regulation was moved from the FDA to FOTA, they added more
restrictions and testing.” He ate a few of the Ritz-brand “organs” on his plate,
shuffled the empty cheese slices that represented humans who needed
transplants. “This, combined with a population that’s living longer than ever
before”—he plunked down several more slices of
cheese—“created a smaller, slower supply and greater demand.” He built me an inside-out
cheese-cracker-cheese sandwich. “It was a moment of opportunity, and when you
see those in life, you take them.”
This felt
like a moment of opportunity. And not to prove that I wasn’t an idiot by
listing all the facts I knew—about how the Families provided illegal
transplants for the many, many people rejected from or buried at the bottom of
the government lists. How more than two-thirds of those who made it through all
the protocols to qualify for a spot on the official transplant list died before
receiving an organ. Or to recite the unofficial Family motto: Landlows help
people who can’t afford to wait, but can afford to pay.
“Fine, tell me what I don’t know,” I
said. “Tell me what’s going on, why you and Father are fighting, and what’s
keeping you so busy. Tell me everything.”
Garrett muttered something that sounded
suspiciously like “Don’t do this,” but since my brother ignored him, I did too.
Carter’s eyes met mine in the rearview
mirror. “None of this leaves the car, Pen. I’m trusting you.”
“I understand.” I sat a little
straighter. “And I promise.”
A phone beeped with a text alert,
almost immediately followed by a ringtone that made them jump. Carter picked up
his cell, swore, showed the screen to Garrett, then swore again. All the
buoyancy of freedom seemed to evaporate from the car.
“Now? They blow us off earlier and
expect us to answer now?” said Garrett.
“Well, it’s not like these things can
be scheduled,” replied Carter, jabbing the screen of his cell. “Hello?”
He muttered low and furious into the
phone, then hung up, still cursing. “We have to do the pickup.”
Garrett’s frowned. “No one else can do
it?”
He shook his head.
“Pick up what?” I asked.
Carter opened his mouth, but Garrett
put a hand on his arm. “She’s seventeen. Let her be seventeen. There’s
plenty of time to get her involved later.”
“When we were seventeen we were
already sitting on council, visiting the clinics, meeting with patients. She
can’t even tell a kidney scar from a skin graft—she needs to catch up.”
“She can make her own decisions,
she is sitting right here, and she is coming along to what ever
this mysterious pickup is, so she’s already involved,” I snapped.
“You are not coming,” said
Garrett.
“We don’t have a choice, unless you
want me to leave her on the side of the highway. This is our exit.” Carter was
clutching his cell phone, shaking it as if that could erase what ever the text instructed
him to do.
Garrett groaned. “You’re staying in the
car.”
I hid my smile by looking out the
window. It had gotten dark while we were driving, the dusky purple of summer
evenings. On the estate these nights buzzed with a soundtrack of cicadas and
crickets, but there was no nature outside the car. Nothing but concrete and
pavement and cinder-block industrial construction. We pulled into a parking
lot. A poorly lit, empty parking lot.
“Where are we? What are we picking up?”
I examined Garrett’s stiff posture and the bright gleam in my brother’s eyes. “Does
Father know about this Business errand?”
“No, and you’re not going to tell him,”
Carter answered.
“Oh, really? So what am I going to do?”
“Stay in the car. Lock the doors. Keep
the windows up.” Carter turned around to look me in the eye. “This isn’t a
joke, Pen. If I’d known this was going to come up, I would’ve left you at
home.”
“Please, princess,” added Garrett in a
soft voice, but his eyes didn’t leave the windshield, didn’t stop their scan of
the parking lot.
“Fine, but when you’re done, you’re filling
me in. Then I can decide if I want to be part of it or not.” It was all
false bravado. Each one of Carter’s statements tied another knot in my stomach;
Garrett’s plea pulled them tighter.
Carter dumped a half dozen mints from
the plastic container in his cup holder into his mouth—like his breath
mattered, like this was a date not a disaster. He waved the container at us,
but we shook our heads. He crunched the candies and said, “Gare,
you’re hot, right?”
I blurted out, “You can turn on the
A/C, I’m not cold,” before I caught on: Garrett pulled a gun from a holster
below the back of his shirt.
They laughed, but it wasn’t funny to
me. I’d been to too many funerals—they’d been to more. I wanted to ask how long
he’d been “hot.” If he always had a gun on him. Had he when we went mini golfing
at Easter? Or the time last summer when I slipped on the pool deck and he’d
carried me to the clinic? No. He couldn’t have then. He’d been wearing a
swimsuit too—there’s no way he could’ve hidden a gun.
So what had happened in the past year,
and why was he carrying one now?
Garrett was Family, he was a Ward, but
he wasn’t supposed to follow his brothers’ footsteps. Or his father’s. They
were enforcers, but he didn’t belong in their grim-faced, split knuckles ranks.
That was why he was in college with Carter—Garrett was going to be his right-hand
man when my brother took over the Business.
Not a thug with a gun.
“Stay here, Pen,” Carter said again,
then slipped out into the night. His keys still dangled from the ignition, the
engine still hummed.
Garrett lingered an extra moment. “This
shouldn’t take long. And everything’s okay. I don’t want you to worry.”
“I’m not.” I would’ve sounded
believable if my voice wasn’t quivering. If I weren’t clutching fistfuls of my
dress.
“You’re cute when you’re worried.”
Garrett winked, and then he too was out in the darkness and humidity and I was alone.
I tried to lower my window—just a
crack, enough to let in voices but not even mosquitoes—except Carter must’ve
engaged some sort of child lock. I stared out the tinted glass, watched as their
shadows grew gigantic on the wall as they approached the
ware house, then disappeared around its corner.
No matter how hard I concentrated, my
eyes couldn’t adjust enough to make sense of the dark. Maybe it was the
placement of the parking lot lights—how I had to peer through them to see the
warehouse beyond.
After they’d left this afternoon, I’d
rushed to the clinic to model different outfits for Caroline. She’d teased. We’d
laughed. I’d blushed and daydreamed about the lovely combination of me, Garrett,
and NYC.
But in my daydreams, Garrett hadn’t
been wearing a gun.
And now we were parked somewhere made
of shadows and secrets and fear that sat on my tongue like a bitter hard candy that
wouldn’t dissolve.
The car still smelled like them. Their
seats were still warm when I leaned forward and pressed my hands against the
leather. But I couldn’t see them. What if the dark decided never to spit them
back out again?
This wasn’t the Business as I knew it:
secret transplant surgeries that took place at our six “Bed and Breakfasts” and
“Spas” in Connecticut, Vermont, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, and South
Carolina, where we saved people like Kelly Forman. She’d been ten when she
needed a kidney transplant, but her chromosomal mutation—unrelated to her renal
impairment—earned her a rejection from the Federal Organ and Tissue Agency’s
lists. According to them, Down syndrome made her a “poor medical investment.”
FOTA wrote her a death warrant. We saved her life.
She graduated from high school a few
weeks ago. The past nine years since we’d met—she wouldn’t have had those
without the Family Business.
That was enough. That was all I needed
to know. Illegal or not, that was good.
I heard something. A crack so sharp it
echoed and seemed to fill the spaces between my bones, making me shiver. I
prayed it was a car backfiring.
Then
it happened again.
About Tiffany Schmidt
Tiffany Schmidt lives in Pennsylvania
with her saintly husband, impish twin boys, and a pair of mischievous
puggles. She's not at all superstitious... at least that's what she
tells herself every Friday the thirteenth.
SEND ME A SIGN is her first novel. BRIGHT BEFORE SUNRISE will follow in
Winter, 2014. The ONCE UPON A CRIME FAMILY series begins with HOLD ME
LIKE A BREATH in 2015. You can find out more about her and her books at:
TiffanySchmidt.com, TiffanySchmidtWrites.Tumblr.com or by following her
on Twitter @TiffanySchmidt.
This spring, Bloomsbury is sending four amazing authors — Trish Doller, A.C. Gaughen, Emery Lord, and Tiffany Schmidt — to bookstores together for our Boldly Bookish tour. To celebrate it, they are giving away some goodies! All you have to do is buy one of the following books: The Devil You Know, Lion Heart, The Start of Me and You and/or Hold Me Like A Breath and email your receipt to teensusa@bloomsbury.com, in order to receive one of the following prizes:
Preorder one of the books pictured above, and get a Boldly Bookish logo sticker.
Preorder two of the books pictured above, and get a Boldly Bookish sticker and bookmark.
Preorder three of the books pictured above, and get a Boldly Bookish sticker, bookmark, and button.
Preorder all four books pictured above, and get a Boldly Bookish sticker, bookmark, button, and magnet.
Remember - the more books you preorder, the more Boldly Bookish swag you get!
Giveaway
Enter to win a finished copy of Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt
It’s been four months since seventeen-year-old Livy Cloud lost her
younger sister, but she isn’t quite ready to move on with her life — not
even close. She’d rather spend her time at the Seattle Children’s
hospital, reading to the patients and holding onto memories of the
sister who was everything to her and more.
But when she meets the mysterious and illusive Meyer she is drawn into a world of adventure, a world where questions abound.
Is she ready to live life without her sister? Or more importantly, is she brave enough to love again?
Will Livy lose herself to Neverland or will she find what she’s been searching for?
About Shari Arnold
Shari Arnold grew up in California and Utah but now resides in
Connecticut, with her husband and two kids, where she finds it difficult
to trust a beach without waves. She writes Young Adult fiction because
it's her favorite. And occasionally she takes photographs.
I know that it seems like everyone in the world (or at least school) only reads what they have to for school, but don't let that discourage you from reading what you want and when you want. Just because the kids at school don't read doesn't mean that you shouldn't. English is your favorite class, right? Reading is an important task, and it will help you keep an open mind now and into the future. And don't worry if you're not cool. You'll soon find out that you'll meet people who love reading. I'm not telling you who these people will be, but many of them may come to you in college or after. They will help you to learn that you don't have to be ashamed of what you read.
Speaking of being ashamed... you've been on a Nicholas Sparks kick for a while. Like six years! You've been reading practically everything of his since you were in sixth grade when you read A Walk to Remember and The Notebook. Are there even any Nicholas Sparks books left?! It's perfectly okay to read his books, but there are a lot more authors out there. There are even some who write YA, which is something you haven't really read yet. Why don't you give them a try? How about Harry Potter? Remember how you started Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in sixth grade? I think it's time to go back. The final book is about to come out, and you've missed so much. Or you know... wait just a few more years... when you finally think you need something to help you overcome your fears and anxiety.
I know you're just about to start your senior year of high school, and with that, you're feeling scared, anxious, and excited all at once. It's a completely normal feeling! Because I'm you from the future, I also know that as of this very moment, you're thinking of studying journalism in school. Something in you will change, and right before your college applications are due, you'll discover that you'd rather teach than try to write informative articles for a living.
Soon, you'll find yourself in college, and studying the classics, but there will be a required course that you won't be too excited for... Young Adult Literature. Remember how I told you to give it a try? Well you'll have to! How are you supposed to take a class on YA, especially when you haven't really read any? (I mean seriously... Didn't you pretty much only read The Perks of Being a Wallflower and a few middle grade books?) Don't be scared. In fact, embrace the change that will happen because you will discover a love for reading that you didn't know you had in you. You'll find out that there's more to get excited about than just getting an A in the class. (Spoiler alert... you get an A, so don't fret about not making the grade.)
Because of this class, and the required reading, you'll end up on Amazon a lot. You'll also meet an amazing author who you read before having to take the class - Stephen Chbosky. He'll sign your book, so keep it close to you at all times! Even though many of the books for class will be science fiction and dystopia, you'll find some contemporary books to read. Some of the amazing contemporary YA and middle grade books that you'll love from your class will be:
Change of Heart by Shari Mauer
Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn
Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
After graduating college, you'll be a teacher, and you'll be looking for work. Sadly those honors you had won't make it much easier to find a job. As you're looking and substitute teaching, you'll continue to read a lot of YA because you know that you'll be able to recommend books to students. Some of the contemporary books that you'll love to read and recommend will include but not be limited to:
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
Damsel Distressed by Kelsey Macke
The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler
Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler
Anna and the French Kiss, Lola and the Boy Next Door, and Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins
To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Panic by Lauren Oliver
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
The stories in these books will stay with you for a while, and you'll know that a lot of young girls who aren't necessarily fans of science fiction and dystopia will need to find books that they will like. You'll even meet a sixth grader who will thank you for helping her find Before I Fall because she's over middle grade and ready to discover YA.
Your life always has and always will be defined by books. You'll be known as the reader or the "Belle" wherever you go, and you'll love it. You might not get approval from your mother all of the time, but she will brag about how much you read, even into your adult years. Keep reading, and don't be afraid to talk about books with others. Some people that you meet in your life's journey will have a lot of things in common with you, and you'll see that there are many YA readers among adults.
