Frenzy Presents: Fall/Winter 14/15 YA Line-up from HarperCollins

It was a Frenzy!

The awesome HarperCollins Canada offices!

Last Sunday I had the great pleasure of joining my fellow YA Canadian bloggers in a Frenzy Presents Event, in which the amazing ladies of the Frenzy HarperCollins team introduced us to their exciting YA line-up for Fall and Winter 14/15! 

And let me tell you, my TBR list has gotten A LOT bigger since :)

Frenzy ladies holding their fav pick of the Fall/Winter Line-up

We chatted about YA got to take some goofy photos with props, oh and let's not forget about the awesome refreshments!

We then got to watch a slideshow presentation of Frenzy's most highly-anticipated upcoming YA releases (I took notes on all the buzz) *Cover images were taken from Harpercollins.ca and Goodreads.com:

ENDGAME: The Calling

by James Frey 

Releasing October 7th/14.

Buzz: The movie rights have already been sold!

-The first of a trilogy

-Includes interactive puzzles that take you around the world (you might want to make some international friends) because the prize is $500,000 - NO IT'S TRUE- YOU COULD WIN HALF A MILLION DOLLARS!

POSITIVE

by Page Rawl

Now Available

Buzz: A memoir of a brave young girl whom is HIV positive

- Important recommendation to Teachers

-Discusses the prevalent and universal issue of bullying

TRANSCENDENT 

by Lesley Livingston

Releasing December 23rd

Buzz: Final chapter in Livingston's thrilling trilogy

-Written by a fabulous fellow Canadian (got to meet her in person- she really is awesome!)

TELL ME AGAIN HOW A CRUSH SHOULD FEEL

by Sara Farizan

Releasing Oct. 7th/14.

Buzz: For fans of IF YOU COULD BE MINE

-Centres around the theme of acceptance

BONE GAP 

by Laura Ruby

Releasing Mar. 3/15.

Buzz: For fans of NO ONE ELSE CAN HAVE YOU

-Contains dual perspective and eccentric characters

-Based on the Greek Myth of Persephone

THE JEWEL (THIS IS MY MOST ANTICIPATED!)

by Amy Ewing

Releasing Sept. 2nd/14 (so close!)

Buzz: AMAZING COVER

-Dystopian

-The Selection meets Handmaids tale

-Similar society to Hunger Games (i.e. rich vs. poor)

VANISHING GIRLS

by Lauren Oliver

Releases Mar. 3/15

Buzz: Contemporary story of two sisters who could be more opposite

-Theme of learning to love yourself

-Contains mystery

FALLING INTO PLACE

by Amy Zhang

Releasing Sept. 9/14.

Buzz: Theme of different versions of yourself

-An unexpected ending!

MY HEART AND OTHER BLACK HOLES (THIS ONE SOUNDS INTRIGUING!)

by Jasmine Warga

Releasing Feb. 10/15.

Buzz: Deals with relevant mental heath issues

-Physics nerd obsessed with plotting her own death

RED QUEEN (A HIGHLY ANTICIPATED RELEASE!)

by Victoria Aveyard

Releases Feb. 10th/15.

Buzz: Suman is obsessed with this book!

-Full of betrayal, death and love

-Fans of Game of Thrones will enjoy the tons of scheming that takes place in this book!

THE PERFECTIONISTS

by Sara Shepard

Releases Oct. 7th/14.

Buzz: 5 completely different girls are thrown together and share a common dislike for one guy

-Contains murder and mystery

THE LAST TIME WE SAY GOODBYE

by Cynthia Hand

Releases Feb. 10th/15.

Buzz: Very emotional read

- Deals with the prevalent issue of suicide

So which release are you most excited for?!

That wasn't the end though! No, we had a great surprise waiting - YA trivia game hosted by the amazing EVE SILVER!!!

I'm ashamed to say that I didn't know my YA as well as I thought, but luckily my teammates (the awesome Ottawa bloggers) REALLY knew their stuff, and let me ride their coat tails to the win! Thank ladies! Haha

Eve signed finished copies of RUSH for everyone and we got to go home with a swag bag full of amazing goodies!

Here's what I got to go home with:

-Signed finished copies of CRUEL BEAUTY and RUSH

-An ARC of ENDGAME

-An ARC of A WICKED THING

-A DVD of Divergent (so excited to watch!)

- A gorgeous swag bag (that I will use over and over again)

-Tons of awesome swag (postcards, bookmarks, hairbrush/mirror, lip balm)

-I also won a copy of the Soundtrack to Divergent but gave it away 

It truly was a Frenzy and I enjoyed EVERY minute of it!

Thank you so much Suman and the amazing ladies of the Frenzy team for an amazing afternoon!

Happy Reading!!!

Waiting on Wednesday: Willowgrove by Kathleen Peacock

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Breaking the Spine

Please forgive the pun but, wow it's been a LONG time since I posted my last WOW- I'm thinking over a year (shameface) but I'm so excited to announce WILLOWGROVE as my first WOW pick of 2014!

I'm addicted to this series and can't wait to see how Peacock will conclude Mac's story! Team Kyle! :)

Willowgrove (Hemlock #3)

by: Kathleen Peacock

Release Date: Jan. 6th/15 - Ahh!!! Too long, too long!

Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books (HarperCollins)

Synopsis and photo courtesy of Goodreads.com:

Willowgrove is Kathleen Peacock's riveting conclusion to the Hemlock trilogy, a dark, romantic, paranormal suspense series that pits friendship against survival, and trust against love.

Ever since Mac's best friend, Amy, was murdered, Hemlock has been a dangerous place. But now that Mac, her boyfriend, Kyle, and Amy's ex, Jason, have investigated a mass breakout from Thornhill, a werewolf "rehabilitation" camp, the danger has only grown. Fear of the infection spreading is now at an all-time high, and anyone with a scar is suspected of being a wolf.

What makes Mac even more afraid, though, are the dark experiments that the warden of Thornhill was performing on wolves in a secret asylum called Willowgrove. Uncovering the truth about what happened may be the only way for Mac to save everyone she loves and end her nightmares for good.

What titles are you looking forward to this week?

Happy Reading!!!

Depth of Field Blog Tour Stop: Excerpt and Giveaway

Hey Everyone! I'm so pleased to be the next stop on ECW Press's blog tour to celebrate the release of Chantel Guertin's second YA release, DEPTH OF FIELD!!! 

Depth of Field (Pippa Greene #2)
by: Chantel Guertin
Now Available!!!
Publisher: ECW Press
Purchase your copy: Amazon | Chapters/Indigo | B & N | Kobo
Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads:
Warning!!! May contain spoilers for The Rule of Thirds...
Two weeks in New York City should be the time of Pippa’s life: she’s attending the prestigious Tisch Photography Camp, her boyfriend, Dylan McCutter (two months and counting!) is coming with her, and their parents are 500 miles away. Talk about lights, camera, (swoony, unchaperoned) action! But what should be 14 unforgettable days of bliss turns into chaos when her one and only nemesis, Ben Baxter, proves to be surprisingly more complex than she could’ve ever imagined, and her Tisch mentor, a renowned photographer, seems to have a lot more to do with her parents’ past than anyone wants her to know. Is Pippa out of her depth?

Picking up where she left off in The Rule of Thirds, Pippa Greene returns in Depth of Field, in a story full of the same heart, comedic touches, and romance that made readers fall in love with Chantel Guertin’s charming YA series. 

Excerpt from Chapter 1

THE PLAN

                                   

1.     Go to NYC! For the first time in my life! (Aside from the 72 hours I lived there after traveling down the birth canal — TMI? probably — and being born, but I was 0–72 hours old, so I don’t remember much. Correction: I don’t remember anything.)

2.     To Tisch photography camp! Yes! Because even though Ben Bastard (a.k.a. Ben Baxter) came first place at Vantage Point this year by using my photos, I came second!

3.     Ignore Ben Baxter because there will be 22 other students there from the East Coast. And …

4.     There will be Dylan! A.k.a. Official Boyfriend. (Or OB, as Dace is now calling him, which makes him sound like a feminine hygiene product.) Dylan’s going to work for his uncle, the Manhattan-based concert merchandise mogul, and totally see the ins and outs of working in the music industry. And meet a ton of bands. Maybe even pitch his own music to a record producer? Pipe dream, probably, but then he could forget about college—what Harvard?—and move to New York, with me (if I get into Tisch for college of course, small detail). Bottom line: Dylan + me + NYC = pretty much as awesome as it gets.

5.     And Dace! Who’s coming along to find an agent and start her path toward becoming the next Cara Delevingne. Minus the drug scandal.

6.     So, in sum: 336 Hours. 1 Big Apple. 0 Rules.

                                   

THE REVISED PLAN

                                   

1.     Go to New York alone. Why? Because:

2.     Dace’s mom decided that the likelihood of Dace becoming the next Cara Delevingne with the drug scandal was possibly greater than her becoming C-Diddy without. Or that all she’d end up doing was shopping. (Likely.) And that algebra was more important than all of the above. (Debatable.) And:

3.     Dylan isn’t coming either. Turned out Dylan’s uncle isn’t going to be in NYC because he’s going to be on the road managing merch sales for the Cherry Blasters. Feeling guilty, maybe, about kiboshing Dylan’s NYC trip, he offered Dylan the chance to join him and the Cherry Blasters on tour. And Dylan took it. (Obvi.)

4.     So now I’m going to be in New York WITHOUT my BFF or my OB. And instead:

5.     Stuck in New York WITH the single person I despise most in the world: Ben Baxter.

                                   

                                   

“I have to say, for someone who hasn’t stopped talking about Vantage Point and Tisch and New York for, like, months, you are totally missing the point right now,” Dace says, winding a section of my hair around her new five-attachment curling wand. It’s the kind without the clamp, which gives you great waves, only you have to wear the glove or you’ll burn your fingers off, which is why Dace is curling my hair for me while I moan. It’s late Saturday afternoon and we’re in my room—me on my desk chair, Dace standing behind me.

            “I’d like to feel sorry for you,” she says, “but I don’t think I need to remind you that I’m the one who’s stuck in Spalding, while you’re in the greatest city in the world. Even your emo boyfriend is traveling across the East Coast with one of his favorite bands. So can I get a little pity party over here, please?” she says, making sad eyes at me in the mirror.

I laugh. “OK, OK. You have a point.”

            “Aaaaaand you’re done. Shake it out.” I flip my head over and shake my head as instructed, then flip it back again. Dace smoothes it and nods her approval just as the doorbell rings.

            “It’s your big night,” she says excitedly.

            What she means is it’s my final date with Dylan pre-departure. He’s planned something—no idea what. Dace thinks it includes sex. Which I’ve told her a billion times it doesn’t, on account of my three-month rule. She thinks I’m just holding out so that she can have sex before me, since she’s always claimed she’d be first, but she doesn’t even have any prospects at this point. Which would be totally fine with me, because I’m in no rush. I mean, OK, I’m not exactly the poster child for virginity at this point—er, technically—but Dyl and I haven’t actually done it. No Capital S sex. Yet. And I do think that’s a big deal, which is why I’m determined to stick it out for three months before I turn in my official V-card. Three months is kind of arbitrary I suppose, but when Dylan and I finally became exclusive BF/GF, I decided on it: Three Months. It seemed like a respectable amount of time to wait—more than, say, summer vacation, but less than an entire semester of English class, which is where we seem to only read about star-crossed lovers: Catherine and Heathcliff, Lancelot and Guinevere, Romeo and Juliet. Anyway, tonight is our last night together before we’re separated for two whole weeks. Parting really is such sweet sorrow.

            I check my outfit one last time—scoop T, black crop jeggings, brown booties, brown military jacket—and dab on some lipgloss before I run downstairs to open the door. Dylan. Those green eyes. Swoon. He grins at me, then holds out a cactus—one of those ones with the round bulb on top so it kind of looks like the Space Needle. “Needs no water while you’re gone.” I back up so he can come inside. He kicks his snowy boots against the doorway’s metal ledge—today was December’s first snowfall—as I take the cactus and place it on the small table where we throw our keys.

            “You look gorgeous.”

            “Dace did my hair,” I say awkwardly.

            “I wasn’t looking at your hair.” He grabs me by the hips and pulls me in to him. My breath catches as he leans forward, and then his lips are on mine.

           Excerpt from Depth of Field by Chantel Guertin © 2014 by ECW Press. Used with permission from the publisher.

Wanna continue Pippa's story? Well here's you chance, enter the rafflecopter below, for a chance to win a finished copy of DEPTH OF FIELD by Chantel Guertin!

Please read the terms and conditions and the bottom of the form!!!

Good luck to all that enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't miss the beginning of Pippa's journey in THE RULE OF THIRDS, click here to read my review of Guertin's YA debut!

Be sure to stop by other stops on the DEPTH OF FIELD blog tour, for reviews, excerpts, guest posts and SO MUCH MORE!!!

Words of Mystery - Friday, August 1 - Giveaway & Review

Sukasa Reads - Saturday, August 2 - Review & Giveaway

Stay Bookish - Monday, August 4 - Tisch Camp post, Dream Cast, Giveaway

Booking it with Hayley G - Tuesday, August 5 - Excerpt & Giveaway

The Book Belles - Wednesday, August 6 - Review

Read My Breath Away - Thursday, August 7 - Review

Write All the Words! - Friday, August 8 - Review & Guest Blog

Ramblings of a Daydreamer - Sunday, August 10 - Review & giveaway

The Book Bratz - Monday, August 11 - Review & Giveaway

Special thanks to Chantel and ECW Press for allowing me to participate in this tour!

Middle Grade Monday with Ava: The Wolf Princess by Cathryn Constable

The Wolf Princess
by: Cathryn Constable
Now available!!!
Publisher: Chicken House (Scholastic)
Source: ARC received from publisher
Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads:
Alone in the world, Sophie dreams of being someone special, but she could never have imagined this.

On a school trip to Russia, Sophie and her two friends find themselves on the wrong train. They are rescued by the beautiful Princess Anna Volkonskaya, who takes them to her winter palace and mesmerises them with stories of lost diamonds and a tragic past. But as night falls and wolves prowl, Sophie discovers more than dreams in the crumbling palace of secrets.


Ava's Thoughts:

"The Wolf Princess" is about a girl named Sophie. She is a nobody compared to her two friends, a brainiac and a fashionista. She has always felt out of place, whether it be with her friends, her guardian or even in drab, rainy London. She dreams of going to Russia. Snowy Russia, where dreams come true.

When she seizes the chance to fulfill her dream, she takes it without second thought. The travel goes wrong, and is brought to the Volkonsky Winter Palace with her friends Delphine and Marianne. The princess who lives there seems a little off to Sophie, especially how serious she gets when the talk about finding the last wolf princess' string of diamonds, long enough to hang a man.

In  this book, Sophie finds her true identity and what the meaning of friendship really is.

I give this book a 9/10 because it was very captivating but I had to read it a couple times to understand the details as it went along.

This book is great for people who like fantasy and mysteries with a little bit of tragedy, sorrow and courage.

Ciao,

        Ava