Spotlight and Giveaway: LIFELINE by Abbey Lee Nash

LIFELINE
by Abbey Lee Nash

Published by Tiny Fox Press

Publication Date: May 8, 2018

292 Pages

About the Book

Popular high school senior Eli Ross has the perfect life. He’s captain of the lacrosse team at LionsHeart Academy, and he’s dating Savannah, the hottest, most popular girl at school. But that life comes crashing down when he overdoses at a party and is sent to LakeShore Recovery Center, an inpatient substance abuse treatment program where he’ll spend the next twenty-eight days.

It's there that Eli meets Libby, the sharp-edged artist, whose freshly tattooed scars mirror the emotional scars Eli tries his best to ignore. Eli soon learns that if he's to have any chance at a future, he'll first have to confront his past.

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Read an Excerpt from ‘LIFELINE’

2:30 AM

The air outside hums with music. All the lights in the house are on. If Alex’s parents have gotten any smarter since the infamous rager we threw after Winter Formal, the neighbors are on the lookout for suspicious activity. Everything inside me says we’re going to get busted any minute, and I have the worst possible timing in the world.

But right now, I don’t care about the neighbors or the cops or even Savannah. I just...WANT.

A couple of minutes are all I need. And then I’ll get Savannah out of the house, tell her to get home before the shit hits the fan. Just a couple of minutes.

I scrounge under my seat for the empty CD case, then reach into the glove compartment for theBurger King straw I’ve cut down to size. I hook a finger under the mat and feel around for the baggie. My phone buzzes in my pocket, but I ignore it. Sweat beads on my upper lip.

I crack open a pill, sprinkle it onto the plastic case. It doesn’t look like very much, definitely not enough, so fuck it, I crack open another.

My hands shake as I cut the powder with my driver’s license, scrape it into twin tracks.

A distant siren sounds.

Hurry, hurry.

There’s yelling from the house, and somebody’s turned off the music.

I prop the case on my knee, duck my head, and snort the powder through the straw.

One line. Then the other.

I squeeze my eyes shut until the burn in my nostrils fades to a steady chemical drip at the back of my throat, and the surge of heat spreads through my frozen body like liquid sunshine.

A siren screams; blue and red stars light up the night. Bodies flood out of Alex’s house like it’s on fire.

I shut my eyes and lean back against my seat.

The noise from the house fades. My body melts like crayons in the sun, colors merging in a puddle of rainbow wax. And I…

...can’t…

...feel…

...anything.

About the Author

Born to parents with a serious case of wanderlust, Abbey Nash has lived in some pretty weird places, including a Christian farming commune in rural Georgia, above a third-world craft store in Kentucky, and on a Salvation Army retreat center in the Pennsylvania mountains. She currently lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband, two daughters, and one very rambunctious Australian Shepherd. She received her MA in English from Arcadia University in 2011 and currently works at Bryn Athyn College where she teaches writing and literature. She is an active member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. “LIFELINE” is her first novel.

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Spotlight and Giveaway: FREEFALL SUMMER by Tracy Barrett

Amp up your summer reading with 

FREEFALL SUMMER by Tracy Barrett

FREEFALL SUMMER
by Tracy Barrett

Published by Charlesbridge Teen

Publication Date: April 3, 2018

272 Pages

About the Book

Clancy Edwards has always been "the good girl." Her father has watched her like a hawk ever since her mother died in a skydiving accident when Clancy was young. Between her dad's rules and her boyfriend's protectiveness, she's longing for an escape this summer, and her job packing chutes at the family-owned drop zone isn't exactly exciting stuff.

Clancy must also deal with unresolved feelings of guilt over her mother's death. Part of her healing process means being honest and following her passions, wherever that may lead.

Then Clancy meets Denny, a new skydiving student and college freshman. Clancy lets Denny think they're the same age—and that she's old enough to make her own decisions. But the lies snowball, relationships are damaged, and suddenly Clancy isn't the person she wants to be. If only making choices were as simple as taking a leap out of a plane. Before Clancy can make things right, one last act of rebellion threatens her chance to do so—maybe forever.

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An Interview with Tracy Barrett

What inspired you to write a YA novel about skydiving? ​

I’ve always wanted to write a skydiving novel, but I wanted skydiving to be an important part of the story, not just something added on for thrills. For a long time I couldn’t come up with anything. I also like to write retellings of fairy tales and Greek myths, and it occurred to me that a modern-day retelling of the myth of Icarus (the teenager who flew too close to the sun and died) could work as the basis for a novel. I started off playing with that idea, and without a clear idea of where the story would go. Pretty soon it veered off from the myth, and I let it veer! You can still see echoes of the myth here and there, though, especially in the names of the characters and the locations.

Have you ever been skydiving? What was your experience like?

​I’ve made eighteen jumps, seventeen of them when I was in my 20s, and one while I was writing Freefall Summer. I’m glad I did it, but I don’t think I’ll ever jump again! I never stopped being scared, and I figured that if the fear didn’t start going down after seventeen jumps, it wasn’t worth it. But I met my husband at the drop zone when he offered to help me pack my parachute! I never had any accidents and never saw a serious one, just some sprained ankles and things like that. Skydiving is actually a very safe sport, and it gets safer all the time as equipment and training improve. The fear comes not from a rational place, but from that instinct that has been telling you DON’T FALL ever since you were a toddler.

I love your epigrams from ​The Whuffo’s Guide to Skydiving​ in the book. What made you decide to add those?

​I knew that for the narrative to be authentic I’d have to use a lot of skydiving jargon, and I didn’t want the action to grind to a halt while I defined what a character was saying. I played with a few different ways to explain the terms I needed to use, but I’ve always disliked glossaries in novels (nonfiction is a different matter, of course), and Clancy struck me as the kind of nerd (takes one to know one!) who would keep a notebook like The Whuffo’s Guide to Skydiving. It was fun matching definitions and fun facts with the story action of each chapter.

Clancy and her dad have a really complicated relationship dynamic. How did this develop over the course of your writing process? ​

When I began to build that relationship, I was still basing the story on the myth of Icarus, where the father, Daedalus, both makes the wings for Icarus and cautions him about them. I really related to that, having raised teenagers myself. I know how much you want your young-adult child to be bold and independent, while simultaneously wanting them to be careful. It’s a hard balance, and Clancy’s father, while he goes overboard in his hovering, certainly has reason to be overprotective, as the reader finds out.

What inspired you to write a contemporary YA novel and move away from some of your previous topics related to myths and fairytales?

​I’ve written lots of kinds of books: nonfiction (mostly history and biography), historical fiction, a mystery series, an anthology of little-known Greek myths, fantasy, ghost stories, time travel, myth and fairy-tale retellings—you name it! I get bored easily and always want to try something new. I hadn’t written a contemporary YA novel, and of course skydiving has to be set in at least the twentieth century, so I went for it. Writing Freefall Summer was partially a challenge to myself to see if I could make an ancient, and strange, story relevant to today. It was a challenge, but I’m happy with the result!

How long did it take you to write ​Freefall Summer​?​

I wrote the first draft in 30 days during National Novel Writing Month in 2012. NaNoWriMo, as it’s called, is a challenge to write a 50,000-word novel (or 50,000 words of a novel) in the month of November. Needless to say, when you write that fast, what comes out is usually pretty bad, and that
was true in this case. So I took some time revising the messy manuscript I had written. I had other projects going on at the time, so whenever I had a few weeks where I didn’t have to work on one of my other books, I’d work on Freefall Summer, which at that time was called The Icarus Complex. I signed the contract with Charlesbridge Teen in the spring of 2016, and then of course I had lots more edits to do, so you could say I was still writing it for quite a while after that. Its publication date is April, 2018, so Freefall Summer took me either 30 days or six years to write, depending on how you look at it!

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Spotlight On: SEVEN DAYS OF US by Francesca Hornak

NEW RELEASE!!

SEVEN DAYS OF US
by Francesca Hornak
Publication Date: October 17, 2017
Published by Berkley Books
Pages:368

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Synopsis

A warm, wry, sharply observed debut novel about what happens when a family is forced to spend a week together in quarantine over the holidays...

It's Christmas, and for the first time in years the entire Birch family will be under one roof. Even Emma and Andrew's elder daughter--who is usually off saving the world--will be joining them at Weyfield Hall, their aging country estate. But Olivia, a doctor, is only coming home because she has to. Having just returned from treating an epidemic abroad, she's been told she must stay in quarantine for a week...and so too should her family.

For the next seven days, the Birches are locked down, cut off from the rest of humanity--and even decent Wi-Fi--and forced into each other's orbits. Younger, unabashedly frivolous daughter Phoebe is fixated on her upcoming wedding, while Olivia deals with the culture shock of being immersed in first-world problems.

As Andrew sequesters himself in his study writing scathing restaurant reviews and remembering his glory days as a war correspondent, Emma hides a secret that will turn the whole family upside down.

In close proximity, not much can stay hidden for long, and as revelations and long-held tensions come to light, nothing is more shocking than the unexpected guest who's about to arrive...

AUTHOR BIO

Francesca Hornak is a journalist and writer, whose work has appeared in newspapers and magazines including The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Elle, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and Red. She is the author of two nonfiction books, History of the World in 100 Modern Objects: Middle Class Stuff (and Nonsense) and Worry with Mother: 101 Neuroses for the Modern Mama. 

Visit her online @FrancescaHornak.

 

Spotlight On: REMEMBER ME ALWAYS by Renee Collins w/Giveaway

Remember Me Always 

 by Renee Collins

Sourcebooks Fire

Publication Date: October 3, 2017

 Synopsis

Shelby is nervous to start her senior year after spending the whole summer away from home. After all, it’s hard to be carefree when you’re trying to protect a secret.

Shelby was in a devastating car accident, and everyone in town thinks that she was undergoing more physical therapy in Denver.  Instead, Shelby’s mother enrolled her in a clinical program to stop the panic attacks that started after the crash. The treatment erased Shelby’s memory of the accident, but she can’t help feeling as if a piece of herself is missing, that the treatment took more than the doctors claimed.

So when Shelby starts hallucinating a boy with dark and mysterious eyes, she knows it must be a side-effect of the clinical program. Except you can’t kiss hallucinations. And this boy insists that they know each other and are in love...

Purchase Links

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2yoJVhd

Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/2hMZYhJ

Book Depository: http://bit.ly/2y15Ee1

IndieBound: http://bit.ly/2fIAhdy

Meet the Author

Renee Collins grew up in Hawaii, where she played Lady Capulet in her high school production of Romeo and Juliet. In college, she decided to abandon her dreams of being a famous actress to study history and become a writer, but she’ll always have a soft spot in her heart for drama kids. Renee currently lives in Colorado with her family. 

Visit her at http://reneecollinsauthor.com/

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Spotlight and Giveaway: The Sacrifice of Sunshine Girl by Paige McKenzie

Finale of NYT Bestselling HAUNTING OF SUNSHINE GIRL Trilogy

Available April 4, 2017

THE SACRIFICE OF SUNSHINE GIRL

TV Series Based On Sunshine Phenomenon in Active Development

by The Weinstein Company

NEW YORK (January 2017) – She was supposed to die today... reads the chilling opening of The Sacrifice of Sunshine Girl. But thewildly successful paranormal young adult series is alive and flourishing: the final installment is due in stores April 4, 2017 and hot on its heels is a television series coming from The Weinstein Company.

The Sacrifice of Sunshine Girl picks up the suspenseful story from Books 1 and 2 in the trilogy: the original The Haunting of SunshineGirl, which spent four weeks among the top ten Young Adult paperback bestsellers on The New York Times, and its sequel, TheAwakening of Sunshine Girl. The first two books have sold more than 200,000 copies.

The Sunshine Girl series was created in 2010 by then sixteen-year-old high school junior, Paige McKenzie, who began playing Sunshine in a series of paranormal-themed videos on her YouTube channel of the same name. The bestselling author and YouTube star now boasts more than 250 million views on the channel, averages 7.5 million unique views per month, and maintains more than 500,000 active subscribers.

In The Sacrifice of Sunshine Girl, Sunshine Griffith returns for the gripping finale with full control of her powers as a luiseach, an ancient race who have lived among humans for centuries, protecting them from dark spirits. Having barely survived an abyss full of demons in Book 2, Sunshine must now figure out who- or what- has been organizing the forces of darkness against her. Thanks to her brainiac boyfriend, Nolan, they not only unearth that Sunshine's death would trigger a calamitous event, but that all civilization depends on her survival. So when an unexpected event unleashes a fierce war between the luiseach and the demon army, Sunshine will learn a shocking truth about herself. Can she bring herself to make the ultimate sacrifice to save humankind?

While The Sacrifice of Sunshine Girl marks the culmination of the book trilogy, this suspenseful story is in active development for television by The Weinstein Company. With a pilot now in place, The Weinstein Company is hopeful for a Fall 2017 television premiere.

Written in McKenzie’s familiar voice that has earned her millions of fans, and with its “creeptastic” storyline that will keep readers at theedge of their seats until the very last page, The Sacrifice of Sunshine Girl is the grand finale of this much-celebrated young adult series. 

Book 1

Book 

About Paige McKenzie: Paige McKenzie is the YouTube star and NYT Bestselling author behind the enormously successful Sunshine Girl series. In 2010, thethen sixteen-year-old McKenzie teamed up with producer Nick Hagen and her mother, actress Mercedes Rose, to record an episodic series of paranormal-themed videos, which soon had millions of fans. Signed to The Weinstein Company, McKenzie has been covered by Entertainment Weekly, The Today Show, Seventeen, The New York Times, USA Today, TIME and others. Her YouTube channel today boasts more than 250 million total views, averages 7.5 million unique views per month and maintains more than 500,000 monthly subscribers. McKenzie lives in Portland, Oregon. 

Visit Sunshine Girl online:Website:

http://thehauntingofsunshinegirl.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/hauntedsunshinegirl

Twitter: https://twitter.com/hauntedsunshine

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHauntingOfSunshineGirl

Instagram: http://instagram.com/hauntedsunshine/

Visit Weinstein Books online:

Website: http://www.weinsteinbooks.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeinsteinBooks

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WeinsteinBooks

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Spotlight and Giveaway: Rockin' the Boat

Rockin’ the Boat: 50 Iconic Revolutionaries – from Joan of Arc to Malcolm X 

by Jeff Fleischer 

Publication Date: March 3, 2015

Published by Zest Books; distributed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 

224 pages

Ages 14+

Rockin’ the Boat: 50 Iconic Revolutionaries – from Joan of Arc to Malcolm X

We love to root for the underdog, and when it comes to underdogs, few are more impressive than the world’s great revolutionaries.

After all, it’s pretty hard to find a more powerful opponent than the world’s biggest empires and emperors. And that’s part of why we’re drawn to the stories of revolutionaries. Many of these men and women were born into virtual dystopias, and they fought throughout their lives, against all odds, to forge a path to a better future. And whether they succeeded, failed, or succeeded only to become a new kind of enemy, there’s something inherently fascinating about that effort to change the world.

Rockin’ the Boattells the stories of fifty such iconoclasts — including the gladiator Spartacus, the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca, the inspired religious fighter Joan of Arc, the abolitionist John Brown, women’s rights icon Margaret Sanger, and Maori chief Hono Heke — from an incredibly diverse set of places and times. Each entry includes a mix of history, biography, and analysis, and is supplemented with photos, sidebars, and an incredible amount of trivia as well.

As a result, Rockin’ the Boat provides a unique and powerful view of history — a view from the bottom up, through the eyes of people who dared to imagine a different world from the one in which they lived.

Find Rockin’ the Boat: 50 Iconic Revolutionaries – from Joan of Arc to Malcolm X:

• Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rockin-Boat-Iconic-Revolutionaries-Malcom/dp/1936976749

• Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rockin-the-boat-jeff-fleischer/1121062079

• IndieBound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781936976744

• The Book Depository (for those readers outside of the USA, this site offers free shipping internationally to any country)http://www.bookdepository.com/Rockin-Boat-Jeff-Fleischer/9781936976744

• On the Zest Books site has “buy now” options: http://zestbooks.net/rockin-the-boat/

• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22825475-rockin-the-boat

• Library Thing: http://www.librarything.com/work/15696647/book/115912704

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jeff Fleischer is a Chicago-based journalist and author, who has written for Mother Jones, the Sydney Morning Herald, National Geographic Traveler, Mental Floss, and Chicago Magazine.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR ROCKIN’ THE BOAT

"A gallery of historical troublemakers starting with Hannibal and ending with Martin Luther King, Jr. …Snarky picture captions (‘Emma Goldman is not interested in your nonsense’) and sidebar references to pop culture further lighten the overall tone. … Salutary portraits in radicalism." – Kirkus Reviews

“A lively narrative, an accessible length (while the profiles are dense, they are kept to roughly four pages each), and deadpan humor—particularly in captions (George Washington is ‘tight in tights’ and Sitting Bull ‘sits bullishly’)—allow for irreverent, edifying reading." – Publishers Weekly

GIVEAWAY

Thanks to Zest Books I am giving away a copy of Rockin' the Boat

• To enter for a chance to win: Leave a comment about why you want to read Rockin' the Boat and a method to contact you (twitter handle, blog link, etc)
• Must be 16 years or older to enter
• Ends 3/31/15 11:59 est

FOLLOW ZEST BOOKS ONLINE

Facebook profile: http://www.facebook.com/zestbook 

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/BooksWithATwist

Zest Books website: http://www.zestbooks.net and Blog Tour hub page: http://zestbooks.net/true-stories-blog-tour

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/zestbooks

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/zestbooks

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/zestbooks/how-to/

Instagram: http://instagram.com/zestbooks

Tumblr: http://zestbooks.tumblr.com

ABOUT ZEST BOOKS: Zest Books is an award-winning publisher of smart and edgy nonfiction books and memoirs for young and new adults. Distributed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, you can learn more about Zest Books at http://www.zestbooks.net

Spotlight on POPULATTI by Jackie Nastri Bardenwerper

POPULATTI

by Jackie Nastri Bardenwerper

Publication Date: October 7, 2014

Published by Taotug Press

Pages: 340

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Synopsis 

 Getting in is hard. Staying in is harder...

Joining social network Populatti.com let sixteen-year-old Livi Stanley trade her awkward middle school past for the social life of her dreams. Because Populatti isn't just a social network. It's a club, providing access to friends. Parties. And Livi's crush, star baseball player Brandon Dash. Yet lately, online rumors have been threatening Livi's place in the group. And not even her friends are doing much to stop them. Leaving Livi to prove them wrong, and fast.

Before her life as a popster is over.

 Q & A with Jackie Nastri Bardenwerper

Where did you get the idea for Populatti?

This story came to me when I learned about the dating website www.beautifulpeople.com back in 2010. It was about how you had to be voted into the site and could be voted out if your looks changed and the community decided you were no longer beautiful. It sounded terrible – and very much like something high school kids might do! So I adapted the concept to work in a high school setting. I also really wanted to take a look at both the overt and more subtle types of bullying that often occur in high school settings. We hear a lot about the more overt incidents, but a lot of bullying really is more subtle and can often come from kids’ so-called friends!

How did you come up with the name for the book and the social media site, Populatti.com?

I tried to put myself in my characters’ shoes and think about what they would want in a name if

they were creating a site. I figured they’d want something that spoke to the site’s exclusiveness,

sounded unique and had a URL that was actually available. After some serious brainstorm sessions

with friends and family, Populatti was the clear winner.

The main character Livi is easy to root for. How did you shape her character?

Shaping Livi into a likeable character was probably one of my biggest challenges throughout the writing and revising process. Because while Populatti.com has many elements that are cruel, I

wanted it to be clear that Livi herself was not a mean person. I tried to accomplish this by showing that Livi was a well-rounded girl who cared about academics, her family and her friends, yet struggled with insecurities stemming from bullying she experienced in middle school which she attended in another town.

I found Livi’s insecurities to be a very important part of her character as they helped explained

why she cared so deeply about Populatti, while also demonstrating the subjectivity – and irrationality – of popularity. Nothing about Livi changed when she moved towns except for the people, yet in one town she was popular and in the other she was bullied. I found this was an important point to make, and one Livi herself didn’t really understand until the conclusion of the book.

Why after a career in public relations did you decide to start writing young adult fiction?

I actually first started writing young adult fiction during my free time in college and spent many

years after writing manuscripts and improving my craft. Both On the Line and Populatti were written at night while I was working full time. After the birth of my daughter, I knew there were not enough hours in the day to work full time, write at night, and be the type of mom I wanted to be. So I had to make a choice – continue in marketing and put my writing on hold, or take a risk and keep writing. I decided it was finally time to pursue my passion, and every day I wake up feeling incredibly lucky that I get to be with my daughter while pursuing my dream.

Has your daughter influenced your writing?

Definitely! While I have always shied away from profanity and explicit material in my writing,

having my daughter has really solidified my stance on this issue. Now whenever I sit down to write, I

think about whether it’s something I’d want her to read in 10 or 15 years. And if the thought of her

reading makes me feel a little queasy, then I know I need to reconsider. Because while I want my

stories to be realistic and truthful, I also want them to help girls feel good about being themselves.

Finding the right balance can be challenging, but I believe it is important, especially as I hear from

more preteen and tween readers.

What advice do you have for parents (or their teens) in making social media decisions?

• Accept that social media is here to stay, but recognize that it shouldn’t be all-consuming.
• Create a social media policy together with your teen. Whether it’s limiting time spent on sites, agreeing to parent-monitored profile pages, or avoiding certain sites altogether, make sure you have their buy-in.
• Begin the conversation way before the teen years. Make sure kids know about the permanence of what is posted online, and how online anonymity can make bullying much easier and more painful. Teach kids that you are there to help, not judge, if a difficult situation ever arises.
• Work to create an open dialogue with your teen about all facets of their lives, not just their online profiles.
• Encourage participation in real-world activities such as sports, clubs and other extracurriculars that can help teens build confidence and relationships based on more than just social status.
• Let your teen know you are their biggest cheerleader, and you will always support them no matter what.

Are you planning to write more young adult fiction?

Yes! I am currently hard at work on a new novel about a high school sailing champion living in

another small beach community in Connecticut. Right now I am researching some local legends and

working on tying them into the plot. I am really excited about this new novel and can’t wait to share

more details soon!

 

Find Jackie Online

Author Website

Book Website
Twitter  (@jnbwrite)
Facebook

Goodreads

Amazon

Virtual Tour Page 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Win a Digital Copy of Populatti and a $10 Amazon gift card

 

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