I’m so excited to be participating in the Debut Authors Bash, hosted by YA Reads! Check out the complete schedule to see extras, interviews and more from your favorite debut authors!
My stop on the tour was hosted by Carly at Across the Bookiverse, and I was thrilled to share “Iron and Silk”, a short story from Jonis’s point of view about his first attempt to recruit Raisa to the Resistance. You can read it here. There’s a giveaway too, so click on the link above to enter!
Summary: It’s friends-at-first-sight for Jessie and Annie, proving the old adage that opposites attract. Shy, anxious Jessie would give anything to have Annie’s beauty and confidence. And Annie thinks Jessie has the perfect life, with her close-knit family and killer grades. They’re BFFs…until suddenly they’re not.
Any female can tell you that friendships – especially best friendships – during adolescence can be as full of drama as any romantic relationship. And it can hurt a lot more when they implode, too. Very rarely are the nuances of female friendship so well explored as they are in HOW IT ENDS, where we see the alternating points of view of Jessie and Annie as they meet, connect, become best friends, and fall apart. I went in expecting, based on the title, that this would be chronicle of Jessie and Annie’s friendship from beginning to end; as I neared the end of the book, I was dreading the idea, because both girls were such winning characters and watching their friendship fall apart was painful. I am happy to report that the title doesn’t refer to what you think it does, and the book ends exactly as it needs to. Both Jessie and Annie have complex family lives and personalities that both drive them together and try to tear them apart. They face very real challenges – mental illness, teen pregnancy, bullying, a parent’s remarriage – but these elements never feel tacked on or heavy-handed.
I admit that, as a bookish introvert, I identified far more with Jessie than with Annie. I especially appreciated the way the author explores the intricacies of girl bullying, with the character of Courtney picking on Jessie so subtly, maliciously, and chronically that Annie doesn’t even see it. This story felt both universal and extremely personal and specific – these girls aren’t anybody’s symbols, but fully realized people struggling to figure out what’s most important in life.
HOW IT ENDS is out now.
Please Don’t Tell by Laura Tims
Summary: Joy killed Adam Gordon—at least, that’s what she thinks. The night of the party is hazy at best. But she knows what Adam did to her twin sister, Grace, and she knows he had to pay for it. What Joy doesn’t expect is that someone else saw what happened. And one night a note is shoved through her open window, threatening Joy that all will be revealed. Now the anonymous blackmailer starts using Joy to expose the secrets of their placid hometown. And as the demands escalate, Joy must somehow uncover the blackmailer’s identity before Joy is forced to make a terrible choice.
These characters! Joy and Grace are twins, both ripped apart and bound together by the secrets they keep for and from each other. Some of those secrets are dramatic (what really happened the night that Adam Gordon fell to his death?) and some are of the everyday variety (what if they never discover who they are without the context of each other?), but all of them weave into a story that will keep you up late turning the pages. The two girls alternate in their narration, with Joy telling about the aftermath of Adam’s death and Grace filling in the details of the months before. Some of my favorite characters were the girls’ friends, especially November, the bold high school newspaper editor who has more in common with the quiet Grace than she thinks, and kindhearted, self-deprecating, sweet, and funny Levi, half-brother of the dead boy (and OMG MY NEW BOOK BOOKFRIEND). With taut writing and characters you will want to spend time with, this is a compelling debut you won’t want to miss.
PLEASE DON’T TELL is out now.
A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall
Summary: The creative writing teacher, the delivery guy, the local Starbucks baristas, his best friend, her roommate, and the squirrel in the park all have one thing in common—they believe that Gabe and Lea should get together. Lea and Gabe are in the same creative writing class. They get the same pop culture references, order the same Chinese food, and hang out in the same places. Unfortunately, Lea is reserved, Gabe has issues, and despite their initial mutual crush, it looks like they are never going to work things out. But somehow even when nothing is going on, something is happening between them, and everyone can see it. Their creative writing teacher pushes them together. The baristas at Starbucks watch their relationship like a TV show. Their bus driver tells his wife about them. The waitress at the diner automatically seats them together. Even the squirrel who lives on the college green believes in their relationship. Surely Gabe and Lea will figure out that they are meant to be together….
I usually only review recent releases on this blog, and this book came out in 2014, but it’s SO GOOD I HAD TO TELL EVERYONE ABOUT IT! The concept – a love story told from fourteen points of view, none of which are the core couple’s – is just enchanting, and Hall populates the story with winning characters that show us many different angles. We come to adore Gabe and Lea after meeting them through the eyes of their friends, enemies, and acquaintances, and if you don’t want them to get together as much as the diner waitress, their creative writing professor, the Starbucks barista, and the squirrel on the green do, you might not have a heart. This book had me grinning from start to finish.
A LITTLE SOMETHING DIFFERENT is out now.
Several lucky contest winners received early access to this extra a few months ago, but now it’s time to unveil it for everyone! I hope you enjoy this story, which begins in the year between chapters 1 and 2 of Sword and Verse, and features Mati wrestling with the question: What do you do when the one person you shouldn’t be with is the one who captures your heart?
Stories By Hand with Kathy MacMillan 