Waiting On Wednesday: The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee

New York City as you’ve never seen it before. A thousand-story tower stretching into the sky. A glittering vision of the future, where anything is possible—if you want it enough.

Welcome to Manhattan, 2118.

A hundred years in the future, New York is a city of innovation and dreams. But people never change: everyone here wants something…and everyone has something to lose.

Leda Cole’s flawless exterior belies a secret addiction—to a drug she never should have tried and a boy she never should have touched.

Eris Dodd-Radson’s beautiful, carefree life falls to pieces when a heartbreaking betrayal tears her family apart.

Rylin Myers’s job on one of the highest floors sweeps her into a world—and a romance—she never imagined…but will her new life cost Rylin her old one?

Watt Bakradi is a tech genius with a secret: he knows everything about everyone. But when he’s hired to spy by an upper-floor girl, he finds himself caught up in a complicated web of lies.

And living above everyone else on the thousandth floor is Avery Fuller, the girl genetically designed to be perfect. The girl who seems to have it all—yet is tormented by the one thing she can never have.

Debut author Katharine McGee has created a breathtakingly original series filled with high-tech luxury and futuristic glamour, where the impossible feels just within reach. But in this world, the higher you go, the farther there is to fall….

Cover reveal of Mind: The Reckoning by Jenn Nixon

Baldwin Bates has only wanted one thing since joining MIND, to take care of his friends and keep them all safe. While the MIND team is busy dealing with an emergence of psychic and alien activity, Bates takes his first solo assignment searching for a woman who claims to see the future, only to botch it up and let her get away.  

After helping to destroy an alien device called the Transcender, Lexa Quinn wakes from a two-week coma a very different person than she was before. While her abilities grow stronger, her feelings for Bates begin to interfere with the MIND team's mission putting everyone at risk. Secrets from her past threaten the present and future, forcing Lexa to decide who she is and where she belongs.

When a powerful, ancient enemy lays claim to the Earth and brings his judgment upon the population, Bates, Lexa, and the entire MIND team must do whatever it takes to save the human race before the reckoning is complete.

Bio: Jenn's love of writing started the year she received her first diary and Nancy Drew novel. Throughout her teenage years, she kept a diary of her personal thoughts and feelings but graduated from Nancy Drew to other mystery suspense novels.

Need to catch up? Books 1 & 2 are only $2.99!

MIND: The Beginning (Bk1) amzn.com/B017M3IJM8

MIND: The Emergence (Bk2) amzn.com/B01E056ANQ

Cover reveal for The Someday Birds by Sally J. Pla

The Someday Birds by Sally J. Pla | HarperCollins Children's Books | Pub Date: 1/24/2017

Charlie wishes his life could be as predictable and simple as chicken nuggets. And it usually is. He has his clean room, his carefully organized bird sketchbooks, and his safe and comfortable

routines.

But his perfectly ordinary life has been unraveling fast, since his war journalist father was injured. Now, life consists of living with Gram, trips to the hospital, and wishing things were different.

When Dad is flown from California to Virginia for further medical treatment, Charlie ends up having to travel across country with his boy-crazy sister, unruly brothers, and a mysterious new family friend. Along the way, he decides that if he can spot all the birds that he and his father were hoping to see in the wild, someday… Then maybe, just maybe, things will turn out okay.

Debut author Sally J. Pla has written a middle-grade novel that is equal parts madcap road trip, coming-of-age story for a boy who doesn’t quite understand the world, and an uplifting portrait of a family overcoming a crisis.

Sally J. Pla has three sons, a husband, and an enormous fluffy dog. She lives in a house near lots of lemon trees in Southern California, where she’s hard at work on her next novel for HarperCollins. Taylor Martindale Kean of Full Circle Literary represents her.

When my three sons were younger, we took lots of summer road-trips in our old minivan. They weren’t always easy for my autistic middle boy, who didn’t like the change, strange foods and strange places.

So we’d try to make things as smooth as possible. For instance, we’d always eat at places that served his preferred food source—because, as he once put it: “I figure you can survive pretty much anything, as long as you can order the chicken nuggets.”

With that, a story-idea hatched in my brain.

 The Someday Birds is my own neurodiverse heart-gift to kids who are different, kids put in tough situations, kids dragged into journeys they don’t want. It’s about self-acceptance, about learning how to feel more at ease in the world. There’s some humor and some heart-ache, and birds, lots of birds. (Charlie adores birds, and fervently believes that learning bird-behavior is the ultimate key to understanding human behavior.)

 I’m so proud to share this lively, flighty cover of a book about a lively, flighty family with you all. Thank you so much! 

Giveaway of 2 signed copies of Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

In this sparkling debut, magic and mayhem clash with the British elite...

The Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers, one of the most respected organizations throughout all of England, has long been tasked with maintaining magic within His Majesty’s lands. But lately, the once proper institute has fallen into disgrace, naming an altogether unsuitable gentleman—a freed slave who doesn’t even have a familiar—as their Sorcerer Royal, and allowing England’s once profuse stores of magic to slowly bleed dry. At least they haven’t stooped so low as to allow women to practice what is obviously a man’s profession…

At his wit’s end, Zacharias Wythe, Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers and eminently proficient magician, ventures to the border of Fairyland to discover why England’s magical stocks are drying up. But when his adventure brings him in contact with a most unusual comrade, a woman with immense power and an unfathomable gift, he sets on a path which will alter the nature of sorcery in all of Britain—and the world at large…


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Cover reveal for Imaginary Boy by Mark Eldrich

Eleven-year-old Benji Saintaubin dreams of becoming a hero like the ones in the books he reads while banished in the dark attic of his family home. But those heroes are all strong and handsome, not like Benji who uses a crutch and hides his disfigured face. When his father dies, leaving behind an unfinished story about an imaginary boy who must defeat a cruel and mighty dragon, Benji’s safe and secluded world is turned upside down. After venturing out of the attic and onto the perilous streets of 19th century London, Benji finds himself separated from his mother in a frightening and unfamiliar world. Nearly trampled to death and sold into slavery, Benji comes to believe his father’s story may be more fact than fiction after his captor reveals a dragon-tail tattoo around his arm and plans that could destroy Benji. If he ever hopes to escape, be reunited with his mother and finish his father’s cryptic story, Benji must trust that a crippled boy can discover the unseen power needed to defeat a brutal and powerful dragon. Join Benji on his treacherous journey in this compelling, edgy and inspiring middle-grade novel by debut author Mark Eldrich.

Cover reveal for The Great Pursuit by Wendy Higgins

Lochlanach has traded the great beast for something far more terrible, a Lashed enemy veiled in beauty, deception, and a vengeance passed down through generations: Rozaria Rocato. And she’s offering the hunter Paxton Seabolt power and acceptance he could never receive in his homeland. Pax must decide how far he’s willing to go under her tutelage, knowing she is the opponent of Princess Aerity Lochson.

In a land where traditionalists dread change, the Lochlan throne must contend with mysterious foes and traitors, while attempting to keep revolt at bay. As dire circumstances strike the royal family, matters of the castle are left in Aerity’s hands. It's time to put aside her fears and grasp the reign, taking actions that have the potential to save or destroy her people.

One hunt has ended, but the pursuit for love and justice continue. In this sequel to The Great Hunt from New York Times bestselling author Wendy Higgins, political intrigue and romance intensify in another thrilling fantasy. Princess Aerity embraces a quest for identity and passion before making the ultimate sacrifice for her kingdom.

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28370779-the-great-pursuit?ac=1&from_search=true

Wendy's social media links (optional to include)

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Wendy_Higgins

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendyhigginswrites/

THE GREAT HUNT ebook is currently on sale for $3.99

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Great-Hunt-Eurona-Duology/dp/B00ZP5IIPE/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1466598747&sr=8-1&keywords=the+great+hunt+by+wendy+higgins

Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-great-hunt-wendy-higgins/1122135625?ean=9780062381354

Cover reveal of Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

Mary B. Addison killed a baby.

Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: A white baby had died while under the care of a church-going black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? She wouldn’t say.

Mary survived five years in baby jail before being dumped in a group home. The house isn’t really “home”—no place where you fear for your life can be considered a home. Home is Ted, who she meets on assignment at a nursing home.

There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary must find the voice to fight her past. And her fate lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But who really knows the real Mary?

In this gritty and haunting debut, Tiffany D. Jackson explores the grey areas in our understanding of justice, family, and truth, and acknowledges the light and darkness alive in all of us.

Interview with Brenda Rufener, author of Where I Live

Can you tell us about your book?

I’d love to. WHERE I LIVE is about a homeless teen who secretly lives in the halls of her high school. She fights to blend in and live like everyone else, but with friendships, her future, and maybe even a first love at stake, coming clean doesn’t feel like an option. It’s scheduled for publication in 2018 by HarperCollins. I’ll reveal more soon, I promise.

Is it a standalone or duology/series?

Standalone.

When you write do you need background noise or silence?

A mix of both. Certain scenes require music, while others call for silence. I’ve been known to wear earplugs or open the window and listen to a cicada symphony. Recently, I discovered the Ravenclaw Common Room at Ambient Mixer. There’s nothing better than the sounds of Hogwarts.

What books are at the top of your TBR list?

My TBR list is eleven-deep, and those are the books stacked on my nightstand. But, at the top of the skyscraper sits John Corey Whaley’s Highly Illogical Behavior, Adam Silvera’s More Happy Than Not, and Summer Days and Summer Nights with Leigh Bardugo, Libba Bray, Nina LaCour…)

Who are your favorite authors?

There are too many to list! I mean, what’s the definition of favorite, anyway? Books that tug my heartstrings, make me feel something I need or want to feel at the time I’m reading, are the books I’ll define as favorites. These authors have succeeded in ripping my heart out, mending it on some level, and kept me frothing at the mouth for more words. Some I discovered when I was young, and a little less young, and a few I found within the last several months. Maeve Binchy, Sandra Cisneros, Angela Flournoy, John Green, A.S. King, Kerry Kletter, Toni Morrison, Rainbow Rowell, J.K. Rowling, Laura Ruby, Adam Silvera, Nova Ren Suma, Jacqueline Woodson, Jeff Zentner

What piece of advice would you give to querying writers?

I’ve heard that you’re not supposed to query until you’re absolutely ready. But, you’re never going to feel 100% ready, right? If I’d queried-when-ready, my finger would still be hovering over the send button. E.E. Cummings said, “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” I suppose we can apply those words to all facets of our lives. My point? Be courageous and take risks. Invite others to read your work, become a sponge, and soak up words of wisdom from those who’ve paved the publishing path before you. And, no matter what, never give up.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrendaKRufener

Website: http://www.brendarufener.com/

Add WHERE I LIVE on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30102410-where-i-live

Waiting On Wednesday: Metaltown by Kristen Simmons

Kristen Simmons's Metaltown, where factories rule, food is scarce, and hope is in short supply.

The rules of Metaltown are simple: Work hard, keep your head down, and watch your back. You look out for number one, and no one knows that better than Ty. She’s been surviving on the factory line as long as she can remember. But now Ty has Colin. She’s no longer alone; it’s the two of them against the world. That’s something even a town this brutal can’t take away from her. Until it does.

Lena’s future depends on her family’s factory, a beast that demands a ruthless master, and Lena is prepared to be as ruthless as it takes if it means finally proving herself to her father. But when a chance encounter with Colin, a dreamer despite his circumstances, exposes Lena to the consequences of her actions, she’ll risk everything to do what’s right.

In Lena, Ty sees an heiress with a chip on her shoulder. Colin sees something more. In a world of disease and war, tragedy and betrayal, allies and enemies, all three of them must learn that challenging what they thought was true can change all the rules.

An enthralling story of friendship and rebellion, Metaltown will have you believing in the power of hope.

The Bachelorette episode 5 recap

This week's episode of The Bachelorette began with Chad returning to the house where the other men are staying after he was sent home by Jojo. Once Chad was gone things in the house seemed to calm down briefly but it wasn't long before jealousy reared its head again over the fact that Jojo has strong connections with several of the men. Each of the dates, two one on one dates and one group date, seemed to go smoothly until Jojo gave the group date rose to one of the men as a way to reassure him. I'm still not feeling like any of the men are right for Jojo at this point. Then there was that awful article in some rag mag where Jojo's ex from before she was on Ben's season of The Bachelor said that they had been dating the entire time she was on Ben's season. This sent Jojo and the remaining men into a tailspin which caused the men to question whether the article was true or not.
At the rose ceremony three of the men were sent home. I wasn't surprised at all that Jojo sent Evan home because he just seemed so boring and he really didn't put much effort into getting alone time with Jojo. Neither did the other two who were sent packing. I'm not impressed by any of the guys in this season. Not one of them stands out as being someone I could see Jojo spending her life with.

Review of The Light Fantastic by Sarah Combs

Seven tightly interwoven narratives. Three harrowing hours. One fateful day that changes everything. 

Delaware, the morning of April 19. Senior Skip Day, and April Donovan’s eighteenth birthday. Four days after the Boston Marathon bombing, the country is still reeling, and April’s rare memory condition has her recounting all the tragedies that have cursed her birth month. And just what was that mysterious gathering under the bleachers about? Meanwhile, in Nebraska, Lincoln Evans struggles to pay attention in Honors English, distracted by the enigmatic presence of Laura Echols, capturer of his heart. His teacher tries to hold her class’s interest, but she can’t keep her mind off what Adrian George told her earlier. Over in Idaho, Phoebe is having second thoughts about the Plan mere hours before the start of a cross-country ploy led by an Internet savant known as the Mastermind. Is all her heartache worth the cost of the Assassins’ machinations? The Light Fantastic is a tense, shocking, and beautifully wrought exploration of the pain and pathos of a generation of teenagers on the brink—and the hope of moving from shame and isolation into the light of redemption.

Review

The Light Fantastic by Sarah Combs is a brutally honest look into how common school shootings and other violent acts have become in this day and age.  It tells the story of seven teenagers whose lives become intertwined after a terrible plan is set in motion. This book is important because it sheds light on the very real issue of gun violence as well as school shootings. This book is one that absolutely should be required reading for high school students across this country because it raises awareness about a serious problem that has been occuring in high schools all over this country. It's sad and scary but at the same time honest and real.

Review of Still A Work In Progress by Jo Knowles

In a return to middle-grade fiction, master of perspectives Jo Knowles depicts a younger sibling struggling to maintain his everyday life while coping with his sister's secret struggle.

Noah is just trying to make it through seventh grade. The girls are confusing, the homework is boring, and even his friends are starting to bug him. Not to mention that his older sister, Emma, has been acting pretty strange, even though Noah thought she'd been doing better ever since the Thing They Don't Talk About. The only place he really feels at peace is in art class, with a block of clay in his hands. As it becomes clear through Emma's ever-stricter food rules and regulations that she's not really doing better at all, the normal seventh-grade year Noah was hoping for begins to seem pretty unattainable. In an affecting and realistic novel with bright spots of humor, Jo Knowles captures the complexities of navigating middle school while feeling helpless in the face of a family crisis

Review

Still A Work In Progress starts of fairly light hearted but once the story picks up steam it addresses a serious issue that affects countless people. Jo Knowles handles the sensitive topic of eating disorders with grace which is hard to do given the subject matter. Through her words she has given us a look into what people who suffer from eating disorders go through on a regular basis. It's not pretty but it is honest and unflinchingly realistic. Still A Work In Progress shows how eating disorders affect the person who has it but it also shows how it affects the people closest to them.

Comic Book Friday: The Unbelievable GwenPool

2015's overnight internet sensation takes center stage in her own series! Gwen Poole used to be a comic book reader just like you...until she woke up in a world where the characters she read about seemed to be real! But that can't be, right? This must all be fake, or a dream or something, right? And you know what that means...NO CONSEQUENCES! Could Gwenpool truly be Marvel's least responsible and least role-modely character to date? She can if she tries!

COLLECTING: GWENPOOL, THE UNBELIEVABLE 1-6

Cover reveal for Daybreak Rising by Kiran Oliver

Here's the cover for Daybreak Rising by Kiran Oliver. It's being published by Torquere.

Waiting On Wednesday: I'm Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl by Gretchen McNeil

From acclaimed author Gretchen McNeil comes her first realistic contemporary romance—perfect for fans of Kody Keplinger’s The Duff and Morgan Matson’s Since You've Been Gone.

Beatrice Maria Estrella Giovannini has life all figured out. She's starting senior year at the top of her class, she’s a shoo-in for a scholarship to M.I.T., and she’s got a new boyfriend she’s crazy about. The only problem: All through high school Bea and her best friends Spencer and Gabe have been the targets of horrific bullying.

So Bea uses her math skills to come up with The Formula, a 100% mathematically guaranteed path to social happiness in high school. Now Gabe is on his way to becoming Student Body President, and Spencer is finally getting his art noticed. But when her boyfriend Jesse dumps her for Toile, the quirky new girl at school, Bea realizes it's time to use The Formula for herself. She'll be reinvented as the eccentric and lovable Trixie—a quintessential manic pixie dream girl—in order to win Jesse back and beat new-girl Toile at her own game.

Unfortunately, being a manic pixie dream girl isn't all it's cracked up to be, and “Trixie” is causing unexpected consequences for her friends. As The Formula begins to break down, can Bea find a way to reclaim her true identity and fix everything she's messed up? Or will the casualties of her manic pixie experiment go far deeper than she could possibly imagine?

Book Spotlight: Flight Risk by Jennifer Fenn

Teenage trailer trash. Airplane thief. Outlaw. Folk-hero. 18-year-old Robert Jackson Kelley is on the run after fleeing a juvenile home and stealing not one, but three airplanes. Inspired by a true story, FLIGHT RISK is a briskly paced, sophisticated YA novel reminiscent of the film "Catch Me If You Can."

Robert’s exploits make him both a fugitive and a national celebrity. Son of a single mother and jailed father, Robert struggles with severe ADHD, but discovers he can focus in one place: the pilot’s seat. Soon simulated flights don’t offer enough of an escape from his small island community, and Robert finds himself piloting his first stolen aircraft. Told in a collage style using multiple points of view, the myth and the reality of Robert’s flight from the law unfold simultaneously.

Hi! I'm young adult author Jennifer Fenn. I've been filling notebooks since I was in elementary school, and I'm never NOT reading a book! 

I'm a graduate of Lycoming College and Rosemont College's MFA program. I am represented by Amy Tipton of Signature Literary, and live with my husband, daughter and Scottish terrier in Downingtown, PA.

Nine Stories of Ace Spectrum SFF by Claudie Arseneault

Nine Stories of Ace Spectrum SFF

June is a great month. Summer is rolling back in up here in Canada, it’s Québec’s National Birthday, and it’s mine too (and my twin’s, fancy that!!). And as if that wasn’t enough to celebrate, June is also Pride Month!

I’m here today to share some love today. First for my favourite subgenres, science fiction and fantasy, and second for ace spec characters and fellow ace authors. Attachez vos tuques, my friends, you’re all in for some recs!

Novels by ace authors, with ace characters

THE SEA-STONE SWORD, Joel Cornah    Epic fantasy with a gay protagonist, and a great look into the hero’s journey. This universe has a comprehensive worldbuilding with super original races, and sailing! I do love so love crews. This book does not pull its punches, making it an intense story about legends and their costs. But be wary, characters die in it.

CHAMELEON MOON, RoAnna Sylver   Incredible story of resilient hope and friendship in a quarantined city literally standing on top of molten lava, and that could sink in at any moment. We have Word of God that Regan, your local chameleon MC with anxiety, is on the ace spectrum—which might get explored more in future books. Go read and stay tuned! RoAnna calls her novel “dys-hope-ia”, a term I love and will forever stand by. This novel is the kind of story I aspire to write.

FROM UNDER THE MOUNTAIN, Cait Spivey – Another epic fantasy, but this one isn’t Hero’s Quest revisited, it’s Terrible Dark Power Sealed Away is Returning. With a black demisexual lesbian Empress at its heart, and two minor ace characters (word of god for everyone, iirc). FUtM is chock-full of interested women and queer love, and draws its characters into a thrilling and dark adventure. Also a nice look at how one “normal” person matters, even among powerful beings. Be warned, though: lots of characters die!

FOURTH WORLD, Lyssa Chiavari – Mars lovers, mystery lovers, this

one is for you. This YA science-fiction adventure is one of the best written novels I’ve read all year. I love it, and I love it even more for featuring not one, but two ace spectrum leads. Isaak is demisexual (and uses the word) and Nadin is an asexual lady whose storyline showcases one of the most honest, solid rep I’ve seen (read here: I have lived through these exact feelings and want to hug her forever). Along with CHAMELEON MOON, this story might be one of my favourite things ever.

A WORD AND A BULLET, Rachel Sharp. Love stories where the world as we know it goes to shit, but not in a mood for something grim and depressing? A WORD AND A BULLET is your answer! This post-apocalyptic NA follows a trio of friends as they struggle to survive a world of constant earthquakes, and reach a safe haven. The rhythm kind of reminds me of Bilbo the Hobbit – a series of dangerous adventures you’re sure your hero will survive, on a background of darker events, with a final that deepens the characters. Bonus point for having it pass through Québec! I never see my home in fiction <3

Novels by ace spectrum author, without ace characters

ASCENSION, Jacqueline Koyanagi. Always on the lookout for more Awesome Space Opera? Craving for a lead that deals with chronic pain? Who is also a black woman and a lesbian? This  

is your novel. Honestly, if you love space sci-fi, you have to read ASCENSION. It’s a thrilling, deep, and all-around intense adventure that does just about everything right—theme, character arcs, pacing. Everything.

VIRAL AIRWAVES, Claudie Arseneault (I get to mention mine right??). I write books. My first doesn’t feature an asexual character, but it’s good. I promise it is. VIRAL AIRWAVES follows Henry, a noodle-loving reluctant hero, as he tries to overthrow a corrupt government from the top of his hot air balloon. Radio show, explosion, and queer characters included!

Novellas with ace protagonists

THE GALLOWAY ROAD, Catherine Adams Half travel fantasy, half Skyrim, this short book has a great atmosphere and a nice story centred on friendship and grief, with an ace woman who has been in an f/f as your central character. It makes good use of the date format, although if you’re the kind to hate “real world calendar in a fantasy setting”, then maybe think twice about it. I had a lot of fun.

THE CYBERNETIC TEA SHOP, Meredith Katz. Fluff f/f romance between an old robot and an ace engineer. Sweet and short, with very light writing and a nostalgic feel. I started wary of the rep (that happens when you put “ace” and “robot” in the

same sentence) but felt that while this does encourage a narrative I’m not thrilled about (romance with robots), it’s fairly clear within the context of the story that it’s not the Only Happy Ending Possible for an ace. YMMV on this one.

So there you go! There’s so much more out there I haven’t read (like Seanan McGuire’s EVERY HEART A DOORWAY), and some I’ve read but that aren’t out yet (keep an eye out for DAYBREAK RISING, this fall!). Part of me wishes I knew it all, but at the same time, I’m thrilled by every increase in our otherwise minuscule representation.

Enjoy the reads, everyone!