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The following titles will be released next week. Select any title to learn more or to request a copy. Be sure to visit our Hot Titles webpage for more exciting upcoming titles.
In Jessica Warman's new teen mystery, The Last Good Day of the Year, 7-year-old Samantha is startled to see a man dressed as Santa Claus enter the basement of her home while her parents host a New Year's Eve party upstairs. When he abducts her little sister, Turtle, Sam is paralyzed with fear. She thinks she can identify the man as her older sister's boyfriend, Steven, and she does to police.
Ten years later, Turtle's body has never been found and Steven sits in jail, convicted of her murder. Sam's family returns to the house where their nightmare took place. Her older sister, coping with a broken marriage, has been acting strangely. Now, a new little girl in a town not so far away has gone missing. Sam has started to question whether or not she was right in pointing the finger at Steven all those years ago.
As the story alternates between the night of Turtle's abduction and 10 years later, Warman weaves an unsettling tale of one family's tragedy and its far-reaching implications — not just for those closest to the victim, but for an entire neighborhood. As old neighbors try to rekindle their long-dormant friendships, secrets emerge from that night, leaving Sam, with the help of her childhood best friend Remy, to sift through the clues that may lead her to the truth about her sister's disappearance.
Fans of April Henry's The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die or Chris Crutcher's Period 8 will enjoy this mystery with its sharp twists and turns.
Laura Ruby's Bone Gap is a beautifully told story that teen and adult readers alike will enjoy. Finn O'Sullivan and his older brother Sean have lived in the town of Bone Gap by themselves since their mother abandoned them a few years before the novel begins — that is until Roza appears as if by magic. After a nasty storm, Finn finds Roza, a Polish immigrant, hiding in a bale of hay in their barn. Roza is clearly hurt, but refuses to explain how or give any other information about herself. The brothers let her stay with them, and eventually she becomes like another member of the family, helping around their farm and becoming a well-liked member of their small town.
A year later, Roza is kidnapped, and Finn, the only witness, can't give a good enough description to help police find her kidnapper. To add to his problems, no one believes that the distractible, "moon-faced" boy is actually a credible witness. Despite their apprehension about Finn's claims, it turns out that he is correct — Roza has, in fact, been kidnapped by a terrible man who refuses to let her go. Roza tries her best to escape from captivity, but she can barely understand the place she's being held, let alone escape from it. Meanwhile, as Finn investigates Roza's disappearance, he becomes engrossed in a relationship with the prickly Priscilla, who only wants to be known as Petey. Petey, an odd-looking, self-conscious girl who is ridiculed by her classmates, believes that Finn's obsession with finding Roza stems from romantic feelings for the missing girl.
Bone Gap alternates between the perspectives of Finn, Roza and Petey seamlessly. Ruby has woven a story that is wholly unique and utterly engrossing. Finn, Roza and Petey are each characters that the reader won't want to leave behind when they close the book.
Lauren Oliver's latest novel Vanishing Girls, is told from the perspective of two sisters: Nick, short for Nicole, and Dara. Nick and Dara have always been close — that is, until the accident that leaves Dara with a nasty scar and the sisters emotionally distant. Vanishing Girls is a mysterious novel filled with suspense and a bit of romance.
The story begins before the accident that ruins their relationship when Nick is simply worried about her party-girl younger sister. However, it quickly jumps to after the accident when their lives have fallen to pieces. After living with her father for a few months after the accident, Nick moves home with her mother and Dara again. Dara, however, does whatever she can to avoid Nick, staying in her room all day and sneaking out of the house at night. Meanwhile, their mom forces Nick to work at the local amusement park, Fantasy Land. There, Nick reconnects with her former best friend and Dara's ex-boyfriend, Parker. As Nick falls into the routine of work, her friendship with Parker picks up where it left off before the accident. But when Madeline Snow disappears, followed by Dara a few days later, Nick investigates the suspicious disappearances and learns that her sister had more secrets than she thought — secrets that may connect her to Madeline Snow.
Vanishing Girls is a suspenseful story that will keep readers guessing until the very end. Fans of E. Lockhart's We Were Liars will enjoy this new novel from Lauren Oliver.
The first in a planned trilogy, The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall is the start to a fast-paced thriller series that readers won't be able to put down. When the book begins, Avery West is a fairly typical teenager, with the exception of the all-too-frequent moves she and her mom make for her mom's job. However, when Jack Bishop shows up at her high school and asks her to prom, her whole life changes in a way she never would have expected.
What should be a happy moment in her school year is turned upside down when Jack reveals that her absent father's family is incredibly powerful and a part of a secret society, the Circle, that dates back to the time of Alexander the Great. Avery learns that the Circle controls many of the world's governing bodies and has extreme power in other areas as well, which she witnesses first hand. She's whisked away to Paris, and the Circle shuts down Prada so she can shop by herself for an afternoon. As Avery learns more about her family background and the secret society they're a part of, she is drawn even deeper into the Circle's lore. Meanwhile, Jack begins to realize Avery's importance to the Circle, leading the two on a whirlwind, worldwide adventure.
The Conspiracy of Us is filled with mystery, suspense and romance. Maggie Hall has created a story that will delight readers looking for a new thriller. Check out Hall's Pinterest account for a fun board of inspiration for the fashion and travel locations for the series.
High school author, Amy Zhang's first book Falling into Place is filled with twists and turns, taking readers inside the head of high school student Liz Emerson and some of her closest friends. Liz is an unlikable character, a mean girl who has decided that she is going to take her own life, making it look like an accident by driving off a cliff. The book goes back and forth between before and after the crash, unravelling the mystery of what led Liz to such a drastic choice. Before starting Zhang's book, read what she had to tell Between the Covers about her first novel.
Between the Covers: The book shifts back and forth between before and after Liz's crash, how did you handle writing a book that shifted in time so frequently?
Amy Zhang: Lots and lots of outlines. I drew diagrams and color-coded and made charts before I started writing, I did it again while I was writing, I did it before I revised, I did it after I revised and revised again. The last chart had something like seven colors on it for all of the different "time zones" of the book, and it reached from ceiling to floor when I hung it up.
BTC: Liz is such a complex character, where did you draw your inspiration for her struggles?
AZ: I guess when I thought of Liz, the characteristic that stood out was her loneliness. One of the first things I saw when I first began outlining the book was the image of her sitting in her closet on the night before her suicide attempt, and that isolation is what made me understand her. You're always isolated as a teenager. You feel alone in your thoughts, as though you're the only one to ever think, really think—you're afraid to have the opinions you're developing and you're afraid to share them. You also feel sort of isolated in time, because you're not thinking about consequences. You only exist in the moment. I think high school can be one of the loneliest places in the world. For me, being alone was sort of at the heart of Liz's character, and her other struggles all stemmed off of that in some way. Liz, Kennie and Julia were all hiding some really serious issues, but it was pretty easy for me to relate because it was my reality. I think a lot of parents would be shocked if they knew what their kids were really going through every day, and what they feel the need to hide.
BTC: Were you able to draw on your experiences in high school to write about Liz's high school experience?
AZ: Definitely. The scenes that stand out are Liam's, which were especially hard for me to write. My school has this horrible tradition of voting people on to dance courts as jokes, and I remember sitting in class and hearing courts announced and just kind of wincing every time. And how do you stop something like that? I was pretty average in high school—I was never really bullied, and I hope I never bullied anyone like Liz did. I had great friends and great teachers, but up until junior year or so, I never really thought about the fact that I sat around a lot. I watched a lot of crap happen and I didn't do much to stop it, except push a pencil around, and Falling into Place is an apology for that.
BTC: What is your writing process like, as a younger writer who's still in school?
AZ: Late nights, early mornings, and enough coffee to drown out desire for sleep until the book is done. I write a lot during summer, and, um, during school. At least half of my notes for Falling into Place were scribbled in the margins of my physics notebook. I guess it really just comes down to making a schedule and sticking to it. I have a jar of chocolates on my desk to bribe myself when I need to — one piece per thousand words!
BTC: Who are some of your influences as a writer?
AZ: Music is a pretty heavy influence on my writing—before I start a project, I put a lot of effort into tailoring a playlist. For Falling into Place, it was a lot of Bon Iver, Imagine Dragons and Keane. For my current project, I actually have two: one of classical music, and one of mostly Birdy, Regina Spektor, Iron & Wine and Vincent James McMorrow.
For Falling, though, I think my biggest influence was the death of a classmate during my junior year. For my grade in particular, I think that was the moment we started realizing that we weren't invincible, and all of the emotions from that were very influential while I wrote the book.
BTC: This is your first book; do you have anything else planned?
AZ: I'm currently working on a project tentatively titled This Is Where the World Ends, which is about a boy who's obsessed with apocalypses and a girl who's trying to make the entire world fall in love with her.
"My full name is Cadence Sinclair Eastman. I live in Burlington, Vermont, with Mummy and three dogs. I am nearly eighteen. I suffer migraines. I do not suffer fools."
So begins and ends E. Lockhart's new book We Were Liars. Yet, by the end, the reader will have a much clearer perspective on the narrator's words. Cadence is part of the powerful and distinguished Sinclair family of New England. Every summer, the extended families vacation on their private island, each family set up in their own beautiful house. Idyllic? There's been an unchallenged stoicism to the Sinclair family, but modernism with its myriad of issues is breaking to the surface: divorce, debt, addiction, the welcoming of outsiders — and the family hasn't handled it well.
Then there's Cadence herself. Every summer, she has been with her two cousins – Mirren and Johnny, later joined by Gat, the nephew of one of her aunt's new husbands. They became known as "The Liars" for the trouble they caused as a group. But something happens on the island at the end of Cadence's 15th summer, something of which she has no recollection, except that she almost drowned. Plagued by health issues, she doesn't return until her 17th summer. She tried to reach out to her cousins and friend during her absence but heard nothing. No one else will talk about what happened that year, or what led up to her near death. Everyone tells her she must remember herself. Slowly, she recovers memories of her life that summer and puts pieces together to reveal a much darker family history. By the end, she will be face-to-face with grief and the full horror of events.
Told with beautiful poetic lyricism and sparse wording conveying rich description, this book shouldn't be overlooked by adults or book clubs. Rife with character introspection, family dysfunction and mystery layered with fractured reality, in its final pages, We Were Liars packs a powerful punch.
When you are harboring a sinister secret, who better to hear the confession than a convicted murderer on death row? In Annabel Pitcher's new teen novel, Ketchup Clouds, that's what British teenager Zoe is doing as a cathartic way of telling what happened when she became romantically involved with two brothers and ultimately was responsible for the death of one of them.
To sort out her thoughts and feelings, Zoe begins writing to Mr. Stuart Harris, who killed his wife in a jealous rage and is awaiting execution in Texas. Through a series of letters, Zoe (which is not her real name) chronicles her seemingly typical teen drama of the previous year. There was rising tension at her home, due in part to her father's unemployment and her mother's control issues. At a party, she met an amazingly unique guy, Aaron. What she didn't realize until later was that Aaron was Max's older brother – Max being the guy she is semi-enthusiastically dating. As the story progresses, her true feelings about Aaron and Max and the series of events leading to Max's death come to light, as do some missing pieces of her family's history. Suspense builds as Stuart's looming execution date coincides with the anniversary of Max's death.
Pitcher's first novel, My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece, was highly acclaimed for its down-to-earth approach to a unique premise, and in Ketchup Clouds she likewise employs engaging, candid writing to solve a compelling mystery: Why does Zoe feel she's to blame for Max's death? A refreshingly honest character with a unique outlook on the world, Zoe will resonate with teen and adult readers as someone struggling toward resolution after long internalizing her fear and guilt.
Sarah Zettel's Palace of Spies tells the story of Peggy Fitzroy who was orphaned as a child and has lived with her Uncle and Aunt Pierpont and her beloved cousin Olivia ever since. At 16, her Uncle Pierpont announces that she is to marry Sebastian, the second son of Lord Sandford, and a much desired husband by her peers. Peggy is dismayed at the news but reluctantly agrees, despite never having met Sebastian. When they do meet at the social event of the season, he tries to assault her, and she is saved by a man named Mr. Tinderflint. Tinderflint tells her that he once knew her mother and implores her to take a post at the court that he has arranged for her. She refuses and runs back to the party. When Sebastian demands an apology the next day, she refuses and calls off the engagement, leading her uncle to kick her out of his house.
Left with no other options, Peggy remembers Mr. Tinderflint's offer and decides to pay him a visit. When she reaches his address, she finds out that his offer is more complicated than it initially seemed. Her job is to assume the identity of the deceased Lady Francesca Wallingham, to whom she bears a striking resemblance. Francesca, one of Princess Caroline's maids of honor, and a spy for Tinderflint and his associates Mr. Peele and Mrs. Abbott, passed away while visiting her home, leaving them without their spy at court. After enough training to portray Francesca, Peggy sets off for Hampton Court where she begins to question whether the real Lady Francesca Wallingham died of natural causes, as she was told, or if the lady was murdered. As she investigates Francesca's demise and the loyalties of the court, readers are treated to a captivating mystery filled with intrigue, suspense and romance.
Life on the run might appear glamorous. Travelling to new places, assuming new names and identities, and trying out new living arrangements all seem like obvious perks. But as the young heroines of two new teen novels learn, the truth is far from that.
In The Rules for Disappearing, by Ashley Elston, "Meg" (her latest identity) and her family have been in the Witness Protection Program for eight months, and have already lived in six different places. She is tired of the subpar housing and lifestyle, but mostly she is worried about the toll the program is taking on her family: her mom is drowning her anxieties and depression in alcohol, her little sister is a shell of her former self, and her father seems oblivious to it all. Mainly, Meg just wants to know what her father did to land them in the program in the first place. Elston creates grounded characters, realistic depictions of small-town high school life and a suspenseful mystery that draws the reader in.
In Elizabeth Kiem's debut novel, Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy, Marina is a young dancer living in the lap of luxury in the Soviet Union, thanks to her famous ballerina mother's connections. But when her mother disappears, Marina and her father must defect to the United States to protect themselves. As Marina tries to continue her dance training, she must also juggle more practical responsibilities, navigate Manhattan and Brooklyn and adapt to the new capitalist culture. At the same time, Soviet secrets are casting a long shadow from halfway around the world, and what her family knows about the government cover-ups becomes the crux of this dark tale. Kiem brings the 1980s landscapes of gritty Brooklyn and frozen Moscow to life with a suspenseful story of overprotected teenager meets international intrigue.
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