Read All About It: News, Deals and Cover Reveals from Lauren Oliver, Becca Fitzpatrick, Gretchen McNeil, Cat Clarke & More!

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!

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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.

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 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?

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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…

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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? 

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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? 

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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

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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.