Here's a round up of the latest book news, deals and some cover reveals
that I've discovered over the past month or so. 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!
Like
DaisyChainBookReviews on Facebook || Follow @
daisychainbooks on Twitter and then you'll never miss a thing!
Rooms by Lauren Oliver || Release date: September 2014
The New York Times
bestselling author of Before I Fall and the Delirium trilogy makes her
brilliant adult debut with this mesmerizing story in the tradition of
The Lovely Bones, Her Fearful Symmetry, and The Ocean at the End of the
Lane—a tale of family, ghosts, secrets, and mystery, in which the lives
of the living and the dead intersect in shocking, surprising, and moving
ways
Wealthy Richard Walker has just died, leaving behind his
country house full of rooms packed with the detritus of a lifetime. His
estranged family—bitter ex-wife Caroline, troubled teenage son Trenton,
and unforgiving daughter Minna—have arrived for their inheritance.
But
the Walkers are not alone. Prim Alice and the cynical Sandra, long dead
former residents bound to the house, linger within its claustrophobic
walls. Jostling for space, memory, and supremacy, they observe the
family, trading barbs and reminiscences about their past lives. Though
their voices cannot be heard, Alice and Sandra speak through the house
itself—in the hiss of the radiator, a creak in the stairs, the dimming
of a light bulb.
The living and dead are each haunted by painful
truths that will soon surface with explosive force. When a new ghost
appears, and Trenton begins to communicate with her, the spirit and
human worlds collide—with cataclysmic results.
Elegantly
constructed and brilliantly paced, Rooms is an enticing and imaginative
ghost story and a searing family drama that is as haunting as it is
resonant.
********
Conversion by Katherine Howe || Release date: July 2014
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane comes a chilling mystery—Prep meets The Crucible.
It’s senior year at St. Joan’s Academy, and school is a pressure
cooker. College applications, the battle for valedictorian, deciphering
boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends are expected
to keep it together. Until they can’t.
First it’s the
school’s queen bee, Clara Rutherford, who suddenly falls into
uncontrollable tics in the middle of class. Her mystery illness quickly
spreads to her closest clique of friends, then more students and
symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. St. Joan’s
buzzes with rumor; rumor blossoms into full-blown panic.
Soon
the media descends on Danvers, Massachusetts, as everyone scrambles to
find something, or someone, to blame. Pollution? Stress? Or are the
girls faking? Only Colleen—who’s been reading The Crucible for
extra credit—comes to realize what nobody else has: Danvers was once
Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from a similarly
bizarre epidemic three centuries ago . . .
Inspired by true events—from seventeenth-century colonial life to the halls of a modern-day high school—Conversion casts a spell. With her signature wit and passion, New York Times
bestselling author Katherine Howe delivers an exciting and suspenseful
novel, a chilling mystery that raises the question, what’s really
happening to the girls at St. Joan’s?
Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick || Release date: October 2014
*Cover Exclusively Revealed at Entertainment Weekly*
Sometimes danger is hard to see... until it’s too late.
Britt
Pfeiffer has trained to backpack the Teton Range, but she isn't
prepared when her ex-boyfriend, who still haunts her every thought,
wants to join her. Before Britt can explore her feelings for Calvin, an
unexpected blizzard forces her to seek shelter in a remote cabin,
accepting the hospitality of its two very handsome occupants—but these
men are fugitives, and they take her hostage.
In exchange for
her life, Britt agrees to guide the men off the mountain. As they set
off, Britt knows she must stay alive long enough for Calvin to find her.
The task is made even more complicated when Britt finds chilling
evidence of a series of murders that have taken place there... and in
uncovering this, she may become the killer’s next target.
But
nothing is as it seems in the mountains, and everyone is keeping
secrets, including Mason, one of her kidnappers. His kindness is
confusing Britt. Is he an enemy? Or an ally?
BLACK ICE is New
York Times bestselling author Becca Fitzpatrick’s riveting romantic
thriller set against the treacherous backdrop of the mountains of
Wyoming. Falling in love should never be this dangerous…
********
Book Deals, Book Deals, Book Deals....
Sapphire Skies by Becca Fitzpatrick
17-year-old Stella
Gordon lives with her mother in a lovely country manor near
Philadelphia’s ‘old money’ Main Line. But one fateful night, Stella’s
life is shattered by a single gunshot. Stella witnesses a crime, forcing
her into the U.S. Federal Witness Protection Program to testify against
the perpetrator—a crime boss named Danny Bolando.
Stella is
whisked away to the sleepy town of Thunder Basin, Nebraska, and forced
to start life over as someone else. She soon meets Chet Falconer, her
boyishly handsome ranch hand neighbor, who swears he’s going to have her
wearing cowgirl boots and riding horses before the summer’s over. While
Chet’s flirting is a welcome distraction from her miserable plight,
Stella is most certainly not into cowboys, and she lets him know it. But
deep down, and against her better judgment, Stella can’t help but feel
she’s falling under Chet’s spell.
Unfortunately, she also has to
deal with Dusty Falconer, Chet’s hotheaded and rule-breaking younger
brother whom Stella feels an unwanted but irresistible attraction to. As
the hot Nebraskan summer wears on, Stella tries to settle into her new
life.
But when she receives a threatening message on her
doorstep, she fears she might never outrun her past. Is it possible
she’s not as safe in small town Nebraska as the authorities would have
her believe?
Expected publication: 2015.
Safe and Sound by Cat Clarke
Quercus have signed a major new two-book deal with Cat Clarke, author of YA novels Entangled, Torn and Undone.
Safe and Sound, publishing in spring 2015, is a taut psychological thriller, and marks a new direction for Clarke. It is about a girl whose young sister was abducted and returns to the family as a teenager.
Roisin Heycock, Publishing Director, bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Julia Churchill at AM Heath.
Roisin Heycock says: ‘We are very excited about Cat’s new novel. She excels at suspense and ambivalent characters and has clearly enjoyed working these into a thriller narrative, to brilliant effect. Cat’s writing is both subtle and utterly compelling and we believe she is going from strength to strength.’
Between Us and the Moon by Rebecca Maizel
Jocelyn Davies at HarperTeen has acquired Rebecca Maizel's
Between Us and the Moon, a contemporary YA romance about a self-proclaimed
science nerd who, over the course of one summer, falls for an older boy and
learns that there's more to life than what can be seen through a telescope, and
more to herself than equations and experiments, along with a second
contemporary YA standalone. The first book's projected pub date is summer 2015;
Margaret Riley King at William Morris Endeavor held the auction for North
American rights.
Edgewater by Courtney Sheinmel
Tamar Brazis at Abrams/Amulet acquired world English rights
to Courtney Sheinmel's Edgewater, billed as a “YA Grey Gardens,”
about a teen who lives in squalor in a crumbling mansion on Long
Island and subsists on a mysterious trust fund – but who stands to
lose everything when the secrets, lies, and scandals of the people around her
are revealed. Publication is planned for fall 2015; Laura Dail of the Laura
Dail Literary Agency was the agent.
The Law of Loving Others by Kate Axelrod
Rebecca Kilman at Razorbill acquired world rights to The
Law of Loving Others, a YA novel by debut author Kate Axelrod. Emma
returns home from boarding school to find that her mother is having a
schizophrenic breakdown, and her boyfriend pulls away when she needs him most.
Emma mingles newfound freedoms with the devastating implications of her
mother's illness. The book is set for publication in January 2015; Melissa
Flashman at Trident Media Agency did the deal.
Shuffle, Repeat by Jen Klein
Michelle Nagler at Random House has acquired Jen Klein's
Shuffle, Repeat, a contemporary romance in the vein of When Harry Met
Sally, if Harry were a loner teen girl and Sally were the popular boy
forced to drive her to school every day. When their epic battle over the music
playlist develops into friendship and eventually love, no one is more surprised
than these two opposites. Chelsea Eberly will edit, for publication in spring
2016. Lisa Gallagher at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates brokered the deal for
world rights.
********
More Book Covers of Awesome...
No Place to Fall by Jaye Robin Brown || Release date: December 2014
Jaye Brown's NO PLACE TO
FALL, about a young girl's dreams of escaping a small town and
dysfunctional family to pursue her love of song, to Sarah Dotts Barley
at Harper Teen, in a two-book deal, by Alexandra Machinist at Janklow
& Nesbit (World English):
Amber Vaughn is a good girl. She
sings solos at church, babysits her nephew after school, and spends
every Friday night hanging out at her best friend Devon’s house. It’s
only when Amber goes exploring in the woods near her home, singing camp
songs with the hikers she meets on the Appalachian Trail, that she feels
free—and when the bigger world feels just a little bit more in reach.
When
Amber learns about an audition at the North Carolina School of the
Arts, she decides that her dream—to sing on bigger stages—could also be
her ticket to a new life. Devon’s older (and unavailable) brother, Will,
helps Amber prepare for her one chance to try out for the
hypercompetitive arts school. But the more time Will and Amber spend
together, the more complicated their relationship becomes . . . and
Amber starts to wonder if she’s such a good girl, after all.
Then,
in an afternoon, the bottom drops out of her family’s world—and Amber
is faced with an impossible choice between her promise as an artist and
the people she loves. Amber always thought she knew what a good girl
would do. But between “right” and “wrong,” there’s a whole world of
possibilities.
********
Even in Paradise by Chelsey Philpot || Release date: October 2014
When Julia Buchanan
enrolls at St. Anne’s at the beginning of junior year, Charlotte Ryder
already knows all about the former senator’s daughter. Most people do...
or think they do.
Charlotte certainly never expects she’ll be
Julia’s friend. But almost immediately, she is drawn into the larger
than-life-new girl’s world—a world of midnight rendezvous, dazzling
parties, palatial vacation homes, and fizzy champagne cocktails. And
then Charlotte meets, and begins falling for, Julia’s handsome older
brother, Sebastian.
But behind her self-assured smiles and toasts
to the future, Charlotte soon realizes that Julia is still suffering
from a tragedy. A tragedy that the Buchanan family has kept hidden …
until now.
********
Get Even by Gretchen McNeil || Release date: September 2014
Follows the secretive
exploits of four high school juniors - Kitty, Olivia, Margot and Bree -
at an exclusive Catholic prep school.
To all outward appearances,
the girls barely know each other. At best, they don't move in the same
social circles; at worst, they're overtly hostile.
Margot Mejia – academically ranked number two in her class, Margot is a focused overachiever bound for the Ivy League.
Kitty
Li – captain of the California state and national champion varsity
girls' volleyball team, she's been recruited by a dozen colleges and has
dreams of winning an Olympic gold medal.
Olivia Hayes – popular
star of the drama program, she's been voted "most eligible bachelorette"
two years running in the high school yearbook and has an almost lethal
combination of beauty and charm.
Bree Deringer – outcast, misfit
and the kind of girl you don't want to meet in a dark alley, the stop
sign red-haired punk is a constant thorn in the side of teachers and
school administrators alike.
Different goals, different friends,
different lives, but the girls share a secret no one would ever guess.
They are members of Don't Get Mad, a society specializing in seeking
revenge for fellow students who have been silently victimized by their
peers. Each girl has her own reason for joining the group, her own set
of demons to assuage by evening the score for someone else. And though
school administration is desperate to find out who is behind the DGM
"events", the girls have managed to keep their secret well hidden.
That
is until one of their targets – a douchebag senior who took advantage
of a drunk underclassman during a house party, videotaped it on his
phone, and posted it on YouTube – turns up dead, and DGM is implicated
in the murder.
Now the girls don't know who to trust, and as
their tenuous alliance begins to crumble, the secrets they've hidden for
so long might be their ultimate undoing.
********
The Bodies We Wear by Jeyn Roberts || Release date: September 2014
People say when you
take Heam, your body momentarily dies and you catch a glimpse of heaven.
Faye was only eleven when dealers forced Heam on her and her best
friend, Christian. But Faye didn’t glimpse heaven—she saw hell. And
Christian died.
Now Faye spends her days hiding her secret from
the kids at school, and her nights training to take revenge on the men
who destroyed her life and murdered her best friend. But life never goes
according to plan. When a mysterious young man named Chael appears,
Faye’s life suddenly gets a lot more complicated. Love and death. Will
Faye overcome her desires or will revenge consume her?
********
All Lined Up by Cora Carmack || Release date: May 2014
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cora Carmack follows up her trio of hits—Losing It, Faking It, and Finding It—with this thrilling first novel in an explosive series bursting with the Texas flavor, edge, and steamy romance of Friday Night Lights.
When
your dad is a coaching legend in Texas high school football, your life
isn’t your own. That’s why Dallas Cole can’t wait to get to Rusk
University and finally get out of her father’s shadow. But when he makes
the jump to college ball—at her school no less—it’s déjà vu all over
again.
Now, half the team (and all their groupies) avoid her like
the plague, convinced she’ll tattle to her notoriously hardass father
about a frat party or a bent curfew. The other half just wants to use
her to get closer to the coach.
And then there’s Carson McClain,
the supremely hot, newly transferred second-string quarterback.
Oblivious of her identity, he approaches her at a party, and for once in
her life Dallas decides to kiss first and ask questions later.
While
the heat between them is undeniable, Dallas and Carson have more than a
few issues to tackle. He’s a football player with a lot to prove. She’s
the coach’s daughter who just wants a life of her own. How can they
possibly win when they’ve both got so much to lose?
********
Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover || Release date: March 2014
From #1 New York Times
bestselling author Colleen Hoover, a passionate tale of friendship,
betrayal, and romance—and the enchanting music that inspires one young
woman to put her life back together.
At twenty-two years old,
aspiring musician Sydney Blake has a great life: She’s in college,
working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and
rooming with her good friend, Tori. But everything changes when she
discovers Hunter cheating on her with Tori—and she is left trying to
decide what to do next.
Sydney becomes captivated by her
mysterious neighbor, Ridge Lawson. She can’t take her eyes off him or
stop listening to the daily guitar playing he does out on his balcony.
She can feel the harmony and vibrations in his music. And there’s
something about Sydney that Ridge can’t ignore, either: He seems to have
finally found his muse. When their inevitable encounter happens, they
soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one…
From
the author of the New York Times bestsellers Slammed, Point of Retreat,
Hopeless, This Girl, and Losing Hope, Maybe Someday is destined to
become another bestseller and long-lasting fan favorite.
 |
| US Cover |
********
Phew! And that is it for this month's round-up. I could have kept going with the covers, but I decided to stop right where I was before things got out of hand! So many good books featured this time round. I'm very excited to read Conversion by Katherine Howe. I think that one sounds AMAZING. Unfortunately I was declined on Netgalley. Hate when that happens!
Edgewater also sounds AMAZING. I love anything Grey Gardens. Can't wait to get my hands on that one. Also, LOVE the sound of Even in Paradise.
Let me know your favourites in comments!
Oh, and new Cat Clarke. Super duper excited!
Please note that book covers may not be final and may be subject to change. Additional sources: PW Children's Bookshelf, Entertainment Weekly, The Bookseller, Edelweiss & Goodreads.
