What I'm reading this summer (Carolyn)

This past Wednesday was my last day of school, so I'm now officially on summer break! You know what that means... I have so much more time for reading. Here's a list of books I'm planning on reading this summer.

Avalon Rising by Kathryn Rose (Flux, May 8, 2015)
and Camelot Burning by Kathryn Rose (Flux, May 8, 2014)

As a fan of the BBC show Merlin, someone recommended Camelot Burning last year, but I didn't get around to reading it. Since the sequel, Avalon Rising, just came out, I'm planning on picking up a copy of both and binge-reading them in one sitting.

P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han (Simon & Schuster, May 26, 2015)

I loved Jenny Han's hilariously poignant To All the Boys I've Loved Before, so I'm definitely excited for the release of the sequel. I'm not the biggest fan of contemporary YA, but the perfect mixture of humor and heart makes the first book one of my favorites of 2014, and I can't wait to see what happens next to Lara Jean

The Selection Series by Kiera Cass

I *still* haven't got around to reading the Selection series, but hear me out: I've been waiting until I could read them all in one sitting. So now that I'm finally out of school, I can easily carve out a chunk out time and just read the entire series, cover to cover.

A Girl Undone by Catherine Linka (St. Martin's Griffin, June 23, 2015) 

One of my favorite debuts of 2014 was A Girl Called Fearless, and so one of the books I'm most looking forward to is A Girl Undone, the sequel to Catherine Linka's brilliant first novel. I'm intrigued to see what will happen to Avie, the main character, after the events of the first book.

Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George (Bloomsbury, July 7, 2015)

I am a huge fan of Jessica Day George's other books (The Dragon Slippers Series, The Princesses of Westfalin Trilogy, Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow), so when I saw that she was writing another fantasy book, I was thrilled. This is one of the many books I can't wait to get my hands on this summer.

The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (Harper, June 9, 2015)
and The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (Harper, July 8, 2014)

Several people have already recommended The Queen of the Tearling to me, but I just haven't had time to read it yet...The release of the sequel, though, gives me the perfect opportunity to read both. I'm also a huge fan of Emma Watson, so hearing that she was cast as the main character in the movie adaptation just gives me more motivation to read the books.

Daughter of Dusk by Livia Blackburne (Disney-Hyperion, August 4, 2015)

Midnight Thief, the first book in the series, was another one of my favorite books of 2014, so I can't wait for the release of the sequel. Daughter of Dusk will be released right before I have to go back to school, so it'll be the last book I get to read on summer break. However, summer as a season still lasts through September... 

Maid of Wonder by Jennifer McGowan (Simon & Schuster, August 25, 2015)

I recently read the first two books in the Maids of Honor series, and I'm intrigued to see what will happen in the third book, especially what'll happen to the mysterious Sophia (who this book focuses on). As much as I love fantasy, I really enjoy historical fiction now and then.

Ash and Bramble by Sarah Prineas (HarperTeen, September 15, 2015)

My abiding love for fairy-tale retellings (documented here and here) is no secret, so when I came across this dark retelling of Cinderella while browsing through Goodreads, I was pretty excited. 

Walk the Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson (September 22, 2015)

A mixture of historical fiction and fantasy? Count me in! I love both genres, and I especially love cross-genre books (although I never know where to put them on my bookshelf...). As much as I disliked learning about the gold rush in elementary school, I've found that I actually really enjoy historical fiction set in that era (such as Under a Painted Sky).  

Carolyn is a teen blogger who shares her favorite YA reads and favorite book related finds with readers on Fridays.

Pasadena Loves YA Recap

I had the privilege of attending the Pasadena Loves YA Teen Book Festival this past weekend at the Pasadena Public Library. We had a great group of twenty different YA authors, with five panels covering a diverse group of topics over four hours.

The event kicked off in the Auditorium at noon, where the fantastic Mary McCoy delivered a touching keynote speech on the power of reading and the importance of libraries to teens. 

The first panel was upstairs in the teen central area (complete with a full-size TARDIS, which can be seen in the background of some of the signing pictures); I enjoyed the temporary change in venue, and it also allowed for a quicker turnaround time between panels, since panels alternated between the auditorium and the teen central. The only downside was that if you weren't close enough to the front of the signing line, you would miss the beginning of the next panel, but that only happened to me once (since I didn't have that many books to be signed).

Signing with Lauren Miller (you can see the TARDIS in the background!).

You can find a list of each author and their respective works on the Pasadena Loves YA website, but the five panel topics, in order, were as follows: Second Chances, The First Time - From First Draft to Finish Line, YA Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Dial "M" for Murder, and Tough Topics.

Each panel was followed by a signing; while some of the signing lines went by efficiently, others (usually signings for bigger-name authors, such as Kody Keplinger and Stephan Chbosky) were out the door.

The day went smoothly and everyone, from the authors to the attendees, seemed to really enjoy the event. Big thanks to Jane Gov at the Pasadena Public Library and Bridge to Books for coordinating the event, as well as everyone else who helped out. I can't wait for the next Pasadena Loves YA book fest, and I hope to see some of you there!

Photo credits go to Katie Ferguson, who generously allowed me to use her photos of the event.

 Carolyn is a teen blogger who shares her favorite YA reads and favorite book related finds with readers on Fridays.

YA Friday Book Review: Skandal

Skandal 
by Lindsay Smith
Macmillan (April 7, 2015)
Audience: Young Adult
IndieBound | WorldCat

Description from GoodReads:

"The dramatic sequel to Sekret, this psychic Cold War espionage thriller follows Yulia to Washington, DC, where she fights to discover the truth about her family without losing control of her mind.

My mind is mine alone.

Life in Washington, D.C., is not the safe haven Yulia hoped for when she risked everything to flee communist Russia. Her father is reckless and aloof, and Valentin is distant and haunted by his past. Her mother is being targeted by the CIA and the US government is suspicious of Yulia's allegiance. And when super-psychics start turning up in the US capitol, it seems that even Rostov is still a threat. Ultimately, Yulia must keep control of her own mind to save the people she loves and avoid an international Skandal."

Carolyn's thoughts on the book:

I adored Lindsay Smith's first novel, Sekret, and Skandal is a fantastic sequel. A sharp contrast to the harsh setting of the KGB compound in Moscow, Skandal takes place in the groovy environment of 1960s Washington DC, but a change in scenery doesn't mean any less intrigue or secrets. Yulia is caught between countries, neither of which has her best interests at heart, but if she has any hope of rescuing her mother and her brother, she's forced to play both sides. While America is vastly different from Russia, her situation is strikingly similar: forced to work for a government agency she doesn't quite trust or agree with, alongside colleagues loath to trust her. Finally reunited with her father and free to love her boyfriend, Valentin, Yulia is with two of the people who love her most and yet feels isolated in this strange new country.  The choice of loyalty is really a choice between those Yulia loves most: her father or her mother, her boyfriend or her brother. But when members of the psychic team she's working with are attacked, Yulia realizes that there's a lot more at stake than the lives of those she loves. Fraught relations with North Vietnam bring the East-West conflict to a head between the Russian and American psychic teams, though everything is blanketed in lies and subterfuge. Cold War tensions culminate in the 1964 Pathway for Peace, where the KGB and the CIA vie for control over the politicians who will decide whether or not to plunge the world into war. Ultimately, Yulia's choices will forever impact her future, her family, and the entirety of both the US and the USSR.  

Carolyn is a teen blogger who shares her favorite YA reads and favorite book related finds with readers on Fridays.

YA Friday Book Review: Dead to Me

Dead to Me
by Mary McCoy
Disney-Hyperion (March 3, 2015)
Audience: Young Adult
IndieBound | WorldCat

Description from GoodReads:

"LA Confidential for the YA audience. This alluring noir YA mystery with a Golden Age Hollywood backdrop will keep you guessing until the last page.

"Don't believe anything they say."

Those were the last words that Annie spoke to Alice before turning her back on their family and vanishing without a trace. Alice spent four years waiting and wondering when the impossibly glamorous sister she idolized would return to her--and what their Hollywood-insider parents had done to drive her away.

When Annie does turn up, the blond, broken stranger lying in a coma has no answers for her. But Alice isn't a kid anymore, and this time she won't let anything stand between her and the truth, no matter how ugly. The search for those who beat Annie and left her for dead leads Alice into a treacherous world of tough-talking private eyes, psychopathic movie stars, and troubled starlets--and onto the trail of a young runaway who is the sole witness to an unspeakable crime. What this girl knows could shut down a criminal syndicate and put Annie's attacker behind bars--if Alice can find her first. And she isn't the only one looking.

Evoking classic film noir, debut novelist Mary McCoy brings the dangerous glamour of Hollywood's Golden Age to life, where the most decadent parties can be the deadliest, and no drive into the sunset can erase the crimes of past."

Carolyn's thoughts on the book:
There are so many things that I love about this book (let me count the ways...). The writing is brilliant, the plot sharp, and setting perfect. Even in the first chapter the writing is superb; Alice's mentality towards Hollywood and California resonates with me so much (partially because I am a more-than-slightly cynical resident of Southern California myself and partially because this book is so perfect). Alice explains that

"I kind of lost my taste for movies about young love and horses and silly misunderstandings that ended with confetti and kisses. My favorite movies had titles like Notorious and Nightmare Alley, and I started reading detective novels by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, too. I like them because they don't lose their heads over how great California is. They know it's not all sunshine and oranges and movie stars. In their books, the people who live in the nicest houses have the dirtiest secrets, and those laughing blond California girls get used up and crushed under someone's heel like cigarette butts. I know it's ugly, but at least it's not a lie."

Let me tell you, it only gets better from there. 

In order to solve the mystery of the last four years of her sister's life, Alice dives headfirst into the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, a hazy world filled with crime and corruption. There are no rose colored glasses; murder and secrecy abound in the lushly filthy city. A vast and complex cast of characters adds another level of intrigue to the story, between the sordid backstories and secret agendas and seemingly ever-shifting loyalties. The numerous thematic ideas serve to further deepen the story, with commentary on various different relationships and on the twisted culture that the story is set within standing out as the most remarkable messages.

DEAD TO ME is a superb read, perfect for fans of noir, mystery, and historical fiction alike. I can't wait to read Ms. McCoy's future works, and  those of you who will be attending Pasadena Loves YA in a couple of weeks will have a chance to meet this fantastic author in person then. 

Carolyn is a teen blogger who shares her favorite YA reads and favorite book related finds with readers on Fridays.

Mary McCoy: Author Interview

We are happy to welcome Mary McCoy to the blog. For those of you who will be attending Pasadena Loves YA in a couple of weeks, you will have the opportunity to meet Mary McCoy in person.  For readers of the blog, you get a virtual meeting with our interview.  Thank you Mary for graciously answering some questions for us about your debut novel, Dead to Me (Disney-Hyperion, March 2015).

What was the researching and writing process like for writing DEAD TO ME? How did you originally come up with the premise? 

DEAD TO ME is a film noir-inspired YA mystery. In film noir, the stakes are really high, emotions are heightened, everybody has their guard up, and I think that noir ethos fits into a high school setting really well.

I'm a librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library, so I knew about all these great research collections. Shameless library plug time! I used the online photo collection and map collection. I even used the online menu collection to find out what was on the menu at Musso & Frank in 1948 and how much things cost. The library made is very easy to pepper all those historical details through the book.

The description from GoodReads says that the book is great for fans of LA Confidential. What are some of your favorite noir films and/or mystery novels? Are there any that inspired DEAD TO ME?

I love LA Confidential so much - one of those rare cases where both the book and the movie are equally good! I was also really inspired by the movie Brick, which stars Joseph-Gordon Levitt and is about a high school loner-turned-detective who's trying to find out who killed his ex-girlfriend. As far as old movies go, some of my favorites are D.O.A., Double Indemnity, and In A Lonely Place.

I really love noir and hardboiled detective stories, but all the stock femme fatales and sexist tough guys can get a little grating. So I love it when stories like that are written from a woman's point of view or have really interesting, complicated female characters. Some of my favorites are The Song Is You by Megan Abbott and The Last Embrace by Denise Hamilton.

What drew you to the vibrant setting of 1940s Hollywood - especially the ugly underbelly of the film industry?

There's this incredible book called City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s by Otto Friedrich, and it's filled with every piece of gossip and every juicy scandal, but it's also a really well-researched history of the movie industry. Everyone should read it! It will suck you in.

DEAD TO ME features a cast of vastly differing characters, each with his or her own fascinating backstory. How did you create all of these back stories and entwine them into the plot so seamlessly?

I wrote long, involved backstories for lots of the characters in DEAD TO ME. Some of those stories made it in to the book (e.g. how Alice's mother got her big break in Hollywood), but a lot didn't (e.g.. how Jerry became a private detective). One character, Millie, was actually inspired by a real 1940s starlet named Lila Leeds whose acting career was ruined after she was caught smoking marijuana with Robert Mitchum (his career bounced back just fine).

My secret to writing a mystery is this: forge ahead to the end even if you don't know how it's going to turn out. Then once you're finished, you can go back and plant all the clues along the way. The thing that makes it all look seamless is working through round after round after round of revisions.

Any upcoming projects or books? Are you planning to write any more books about Alice Gates or 1940s mysteries?

The last line of DEAD TO ME is pretty much my favorite thing that I've ever written, so for now, I'm happy to leave that story and those characters right where they are.

I'm working on something new right now. It's also set in Los Angeles and it's about a history-obsessed main character, but otherwise, it's a whole nother thing.

Pasadena Loves YA
Date: May 23, 2015 | Time: 12 noon - 4 pm
Meet 20 YA authors 
Panels & Book Signings 
Giveaways and Refreshments  
Free tote bags for the first 150 guests!

This is a FREE event at Pasadena Public Library, Central Branch, 285 East Walnut Street, Pasadena, CA 91101

Keynote speaker Mary McCoy (author of Dead to Me) with Katie Alender, Victoria Aveyard, Alexis Bass, Julie Berry, Livia Blackburne, Virginia Boecker, Jessica Brody, Stephen Chbosky, Brandy Colbert, Ava Dellaira, Kody Keplinger, Liz Maccie, Morgan Matson, Lauren Miller, Alexandra Monir, Jennifer Niven, Romina Russell, Sarah Tomp, & Kiersten White

For more info, visit www.pasadenateenbookfestival.com
Check out the flyer here. 

Vroman's Bookstore be selling the books beginning at 11 am. The event is co-sponsored by Bridge to Books.

Though there is no registration required, we would greatly appreciate it if you would post, share, tweet, and tell everyone you know about the upcoming event! Please use the hashtag #PLYA2015.

Enter our Giveaway: Any 3 books from the 2015 Pasadena Loves YA authors, US only, ends 5/20/2015.

Thank you Alethea at Read Now Sleep Later for hosting and organizing the giveaway.