On November 20, Penguin Teen revealed the cover to Olivia Abtahi’s 2021 Contemporary debut titled Perfectly Parvin!
This hilarious and heartfelt debut follows 14-year-old Parvin Mohammadi, who falls for a guy at her new high school, Matty Fumero and wants to ask him to homecoming. Then, she also starts a budding friendship with another guy in her Farsi class. When she also decides to start acting like the heroines in her favorite romcom’s to win over Matt, she soon realizes a new friend likes her just as she is.
Alongside the cover reveal, an excerpt was also revealed. Abtahi’s debut is set to be book one of a duology!
Parvin has just had her heart broken when she meets the cutest boy at her new high school, Matty Fumero–with an emphasis on fumero, because he might be the smoking hot cure to all of her boy troubles. If Parvin can get Matty to ask her to homecoming, she’s positive it will erase all the awful and embarrassing feelings He Who Will Not Be Named left her with after the summer. The only problem is Matty is definitely too cool for bassoon-playing, frizzy-haired, Cheeto-eating Parvin. Since being herself has not worked for her in the past (see aforementioned relationship), she decides that to be the girl who finally gets the guy, she should start acting like the women in her favorite rom-coms. Those girls aren’t loud, they certainly don’t cackle when they laugh, and they smile much more than they talk. Easy enough, right?
But as Parvin struggles through her parent-mandated Farsi lessons on the weekends, a budding friendship with a boy she can’t help but be her unfiltered self with, and dealing with the ramifications of the Muslim Ban on her family in Iran, she realizes that being herself might just be the perfect thing after all.
Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi is set to be released May 18, 2021!
On November 10, revealed through a Deadline exclusive, it was announced that Renée Ahdieh’s 2015 debut and #1 NYT Bestseller The Wrath And The Dawn has been optioned as a television series with 1212 Entertainment.
The media and entertainment company 1212 is teaming up with “former Bron Studios EVP of Domestic Television and ex-WME agent” Pippa Lambert alongside producers Roberto Grande and Joshua Long.
According to the article, it’s stated that Ahdieh’s fantasy novel will be in the works through Lambert’s recently launched production company, Hellcat.
Lambert shared that “Ahdieh weaves fresh gender narratives into her romantic and magical retelling of Arabian Nights to create a rich world that feels wholly original and modern. Shahrzad is a heroine I can’t wait to see on screen: clever, outspoken, loyal, an epic archer and an addicting storyteller. The TV adaptation of Ahdieh’s beloved novels will bring the classic tales to a new global audience in a spectacular and contemporary way.”
Ahdieh mentioned she is “thrilled” to see The Wrath And The Dawn come to life on screen. She also said “Tales like Aladdin and Ali Baba are already well-known, but there are so many beautiful and harrowing stories to share that younger generations may not be familiar with, many of them from all different parts of the world. This is a dream come true for me, and I can’t think of a better team to make it happen.”
1212 Entertainment is the production company behind ‘Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark’ and has also picked up House Of Salt And Sorrows by Erin A. Craig.
One Life to One Dawn.
In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad’s dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph’s reign of terror once and for all.
Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she’d imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It’s an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid’s life as retribution for the many lives he’s stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?
The Wrath And The Dawn by Renée Ahdieh is out now!
On September 10, it was announced that Marie Lu’s Warcross was optioned for a television series with Bruna Papandrea’s ‘Made Up Stories’ and producer John Cameron attached.
Warcross follows a young hacker by the name of Emika Chen whose struggling to survive, but does so by making a profit hunting down players who bet on the worldwide phenomenon ‘Warcross.’ After hacking herself into the game’s biggest tournament, she quickly rises to fame catching the attention of the creator Hideo Tanaka who recruits her as a spy to track down an elusive hacker, but in doing so uncovers a mischievous plot along the way.
Through Varietyit was mentioned that executive producers have also been confirmed with the project. Steve Hutensky, Casey Haver, alongside Adam Lash and Cori Uchida, the latter two who’ve also been attached to write the series. Janice Park will also be producing and Cameron is set to direct the pilot.
It was also stated that Lu will be an executive producer.
“As a massive fan of so many of the stories that Bruna Papandrea, Made Up Stories, and John Cameron have produced, I am delighted and deeply honored to have ‘Warcross’ in their talented hands. They are masters of their craft in every way; every story they have brought to life has been done with exquisite care. I can’t wait to collaborate and see them work their magic on Emika, Hideo, and the world of ‘Warcross,’” said Lu, according to Variety.
Papandera’s projects include HBO’s Big Little Lies to a 2019 zombie-horror comedy titled Little Monsters. Lash and Uchida have worked on projects such as Altered Carbon and Reprisal. Cameron is an award-winning producer whose known for the FX series Fargo and Legion.
For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life.
The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down Warcross players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. To make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.
Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.
Today on The Booked Shelf we’ll be wrapping up some of the wonderful Young Adult covers revealed during the month of July!
1. Afterlove by Tanya Byrne
Revealed through the author’s Twitter on July 1, this UKYA contemporary is pitched as “the lesbian love story you’ve been dying to read.” The story follows Ash Persaud who is about to become a reaper in the afterlife. But, she’s determined to see her first love Poppy Morgan again, with only death separating them.
Cover designer is Sarah Maxwell. Afterlove is set to be released June 10, 2021!
Car headlights.
The last thing Ash hears is the snap of breaking glass as the windscreen hits her and breaks into a million pieces like stars.
But she made it, she’s still here. Or is she?
This New Year’s Eve, Ash is gets an RSVP from the afterlife she can’t decline: to join a clan of fierce girl reapers who take the souls of the city’s dead to await their fate.
But Ash can’t forget her first love, Poppy, and she will do anything to see her again … even if it means they only get a few more days together. Dead or alive …
NOT EVEN DEATH CAN TEAR THEM APART.
2. Roaring by Lindsey Duga
On July 7, Duga revealed the cover to her upcoming Paranormal/Historical Fantasy set during the 1920s on Twitter. The story focuses on monster hunter and a siren who cross paths.
Colt Clemmons is an agent in a specialized division within the Bureau of Investigation—one that hunts down not just mobsters, but also monsters.
For reasons that are kept top secret, Colt is the only person who can resist a siren’s voice. But he’s never had a chance to test this ability. The last siren left in the world mysteriously disappeared years ago.
Then one night, with a single word, she reveals herself. It seems too good to be true.
And it is. Because nothing about this siren—her past, her powers, or her purpose—is what it seems…
3. Lore by Alexandra Bracken
As of July 8, Entertainment Weekly revealed the cover (and excerpt) to Alexendra Bracken’s upcoming fantasy-mythology standalone pitched as “a sweepingly ambitious, high-octane tale of power, destiny, love and redemption.” Inspired by Greek mythology, Bracken’s new novel will follow gods who are forced to walk the earth as mortals.
Cover designer is Marci Senders and artist is Bill Elis. Lore is set to be released January 5, 2021!
Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals, hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality. Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world in the wake of her family’s sadistic murder by a rival line, turning her back on the hunt’s promises of eternal glory. For years she’s pushed away any thought of revenge against the man–now a god–responsible for their deaths.
Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek out her help: Castor, a childhood friend of Lore believed long dead, and a gravely wounded Athena, among the last of the original gods.
The goddess offers an alliance against their mutual enemy and, at last, a way for Lore to leave the Agon behind forever. But Lore’s decision to bind her fate to Athena’s and rejoin the hunt will come at a deadly cost–and still may not be enough to stop the rise of a new god with the power to bring humanity to its knees.
4. The Cost Of Knowing by Brittney Morris
Revealed through Entertainment Weekly on July 20, was the cover to Morris’s upcoming sophomore novel pitched as Dear Martin x They Both Die At The End where 16-year-old Rufus struggles to keep up with the demands of his part-time job, girlfriend, and little brother. And he can see into the future. After seeing a vision of his brother’s death, he now has to grapple with what it means.
Cover designers are Laura Eckes and Sarah Creech. The Cost Of Knowing is set to be released March 16, 2021!
A gripping, evocative novel about a Black teen who has the power to see into the future, whose life turns upside down when he foresees his younger brother’s imminent death, from the acclaimed author of SLAY.
Sixteen-year-old Alex Rufus is trying his best. He tries to be the best employee he can be at the local ice cream shop; the best boyfriend he can be to his amazing girlfriend, Talia; the best protector he can be over his little brother, Isaiah. But as much as Alex tries, he often comes up short.
It’s hard to for him to be present when every time he touches an object or person, Alex sees into its future. When he touches a scoop, he has a vision of him using it to scoop ice cream. When he touches his car, he sees it years from now, totaled and underwater. When he touches Talia, he sees them at the precipice of breaking up, and that terrifies him. Alex feels these visions are a curse, distracting him, making him anxious and unable to live an ordinary life.
And when Alex touches a photo that gives him a vision of his brother’s imminent death, everything changes.
With Alex now in a race against time, death, and circumstances, he and Isaiah must grapple with their past, their future, and what it means to be a young Black man in America in the present.
5. House Of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland
Penguin Teen revealed the cover to Sutherland’s upcoming dark, twisty, modern fairytale about three sisters and the disappearance that left some of them “unquestionably strange.” Alongside the cover was a Q&A with the author.
Cover artist is Aykut Aydoğdu. House Of Hollow is set to be released April 6, 2021!
Seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow has always been strange. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they can’t quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats.
Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind.
As Iris retraces Grey’s last known footsteps and follows the increasingly bizarre trail of breadcrumbs she left behind, it becomes apparent that the only way to save her sister is to decipher the mystery of what happened to them as children.
The closer Iris gets to the truth, the closer she comes to understanding that the answer is dark and dangerous – and that Grey has been keeping a terrible secret from her for years.
6. A Universe Of Wishes edited by Dhonielle Clayton
As of July 23, Teen Vogue revealed the cover to Clayton’s upcoming fantasy anthology with a wonderful line-up featuring authors like: Nic Stone, VE Schwab, Anna-Marie McLemore, Libba Bray, Mark Oshiro, Tara Sim, and more! Alongside the cover reveal was also an excerpt.
Cover artist is Katt Phatt. A Universe Of Wishes is set to be released January 5, 2021!
In the fourth collaboration with We Need Diverse Books, fifteen award-winning and celebrated diverse authors deliver stories about a princess without need of a prince, a monster long misunderstood, memories that vanish with a spell, and voices that refuse to stay silent in the face of injustice.
This powerful and inclusive collection contains a universe of wishes for a braver and more beautiful world.
AUTHORS INCLUDE: Samira Ahmed, Libba Bray, Dhonielle Clayton, Zoraida Córdova, Tessa Gratton, Justina Ireland, Kwame Mbalia, Anna-Marie McLemore, Tochi Onyebuchi, Mark Oshiro, Natalie C. Parker, Rebecca Roanhorse, Victoria Schwab, Tara Sim, Nic Stone, and a to-be-announced debut author/short-story contest winner.
7. Together Apart: Anthology about finding love during lockdown
On July 31, it was announced through Twitter that authors: Erin A. Craig, Auriane Desombre, Erin Hahn, Bill Konigsberg, Rachael Lippincott, Brittney Morris, Sajni Patel, Natasha Preston, and Jennifer Yun will be part of a a YA Contemporary anthology releasing this fall! Authors revealed some hints to their stories via Twitter.
The publisher will be donating to Active Minds, an organization dedicated to mental health awareness.
A collection of original contemporary love stories set during life in lockdown by some of today’s most popular YA authors.
Erin Craig “delivers” on a story about a new girl in town and the cute pizza delivery boy, Auriane Desombre captures our hearts with teens communicating through window signs, and Bill Konigsberg takes us along on daily walks with every step bringing us closer to love. There’s flirting and romance from Rachael Lippincott, a tale of a determined girl with a mask-making business from Erin Hahn, and a music-inspired love connection from Sajni Patel. Brittney Morris turns enemies to lovers with the help of a balcony herb garden, Jennifer Yen writes an unconventional romance that starts outside a hospital, and Natasha Preston’s teens discover each other–and their love story–in a storybook oak tree.
Romantic, realistic, sweet and uplifting, TOGETHER, APART is a collection of finding love in unexpected places during an unprecedented time . . . each with the one thing we all want: a guaranteed happy ending.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Emergency Contact, which Rainbow Rowell called “smart and funny,” comes an unforgettable new romance about how social media influences relationships every day.
On paper, college dropout Pablo Rind doesn’t have a whole lot going for him. His graveyard shift at a twenty-four-hour deli in Brooklyn is a struggle. Plus, he’s up to his eyeballs in credit card debt. Never mind the state of his student loans.
Pop juggernaut Leanna Smart has enough social media followers to populate whole continents. The brand is unstoppable. She graduated from child stardom to become an international icon and her adult life is a queasy blur of private planes, step-and-repeats, aspirational hotel rooms, and strangers screaming for her just to notice them.
When Leanna and Pablo meet at 5:00 a.m. at the bodega in the dead of winter it’s absurd to think they’d be A Thing. But as they discover who they are, who they want to be, and how to defy the deafening expectations of everyone else, Lee and Pab turn to each other. Which, of course, is when things get properly complicated.
For as long as she can remember, Tova has lived among the Svell, the people who found her washed ashore as a child and use her for her gift as a Truthtongue. Her own home and clan are long-faded memories, but the sacred symbols and staves inked over every inch of her skin mark her as one who can cast the rune stones and see into the future. She has found a fragile place among those who fear her, but when two clans to the east bury their age-old blood feud and join together as one, her world is dangerously close to collapse.
For the first time in generations, the leaders of the Svell are divided. Should they maintain peace or go to war with the allied clans to protect their newfound power? And when their chieftain looks to Tova to cast the stones, she sets into motion a series of events that will not only change the landscape of the mainland forever but will give her something she believed she could never have again—a home.
High school senior Frank Li is a Limbo–his term for Korean-American kids who find themselves caught between their parents’ traditional expectations and their own Southern California upbringing.
His parents have one rule when it comes to romance–“Date Korean”–which proves complicated when Frank falls for Brit Means, who is smart, beautiful–and white. Fellow Limbo Joy Song is in a similar predicament, and so they make a pact: they’ll pretend to date each other in order to gain their freedom. Frank thinks it’s the perfect plan, but in the end, Frank and Joy’s fake-dating maneuver leaves him wondering if he ever really understood love–or himself–at all.
In the early 1900s, a young woman embarks on a fantastical journey of self-discovery after finding a mysterious book in this captivating and lyrical debut.
In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored, and utterly out of place.
Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.
Told in two distinct and irresistible voices, Junauda Petrus’s bold and lyrical debut is the story of two black girls from very different backgrounds finding love and happiness in a world that seems determined to deny them both.
Trinidad. Sixteen-year-old Audre is despondent, having just found out she’s going to be sent to live in America with her father because her strictly religious mother caught her with her secret girlfriend, the pastor’s daughter. Audre’s grandmother Queenie (a former dancer who drives a white convertible Cadillac and who has a few secrets of her own) tries to reassure her granddaughter that she won’t lose her roots, not even in some place called Minneapolis. “America have dey spirits too, believe me,” she tells Audre.
Minneapolis. Sixteen-year-old Mabel is lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to figure out why she feels the way she feels–about her ex Terrell, about her girl Jada and that moment they had in the woods, and about the vague feeling of illness that’s plagued her all summer. Mabel’s reverie is cut short when her father announces that his best friend and his just-arrived-from-Trinidad daughter are coming for dinner.
Mabel quickly falls hard for Audre and is determined to take care of her as she tries to navigate an American high school. But their romance takes a turn when test results reveal exactly why Mabel has been feeling low-key sick all summer and suddenly it’s Audre who is caring for Mabel as she faces a deeply uncertain future.
If your interested in signing up for your first Book Of The Month YA Box, you can do so using my affiliate link here! + use the promo code ‘GROW’ to get your first box for $9.99 during the month of September!
You can pick from any of the books listed here or if you aren’t sure which book you’d like, you can carry over your credits to the next month!
On June 28, Entertainment Weeklyrevealed the cover to Marie Lu’s first historical fantasy novel, The Kingdom Of Back.
Lu’s novel TheKingdom Of Back, is “about a musical prodigy and the dangerous lengths she’ll go to make history remember her. And it isn’t just any musical prodigy: Her heroine, Nannerl, is Mozart’s sister…”
” [The Kingdom Of Back] is a standalone historical fiction, which is different from what I’m used to and has been an intimidating experience. It’s a book about Wolfgang Mozart and his sister, Nannerl. Not a lot of people know about Nannerl, but she was a very accomplished pianist and composer and toured with Wolfgang. The book is about their adventures when they were younger, with some fantasy elements. It’s a huge departure for me and has required a heavier amount of research than past books…”
Alongside the cover reveal (designed by David Curtis), EW also revealed an exclusive excerpt from The Kingdom Of Back!
The Kingdom Of Back Official Cover via Entertainment Weekly
Born with a gift for music, Nannerl Mozart has just one wish: to be remembered forever.
But even as she delights audiences with her masterful playing, she has little hope she’ll ever become the acclaimed composer she longs to be. She is a young woman in 18th century Europe, and that means composing is forbidden to her. She will perform only until she reaches a marriageable age; her tyrannical father has made that much clear. And as Nannerl’s hope grows dimmer with each passing year, the talents of her beloved younger brother, Wolfgang, only seem to shine brighter. His brilliance begins to eclipse her own, until one day a mysterious stranger from a magical land appears with an irresistible offer. He has the power to make her wish come true. But his help may cost her everything.
The Kingdom Of Back by Marie Lu is set to be released March 3, 2020!
Nikita Gill, poet and author, revealed through her twitter on June 11, the cover for her upcoming poetry book titled: Great Goddesses.
Her upcoming poetry collection, Great Goddesses: Life Lessons From Myth And Monsters, features retold legends and history of Ancient Greece.
According to Gill’s twitter post, the collection will focus on “reimagined tales from Greek Mythos about radical women, goddesses and monsters!”
Similar to her previous collections, Great Goddesses will also feature hand-drawn illustrations.
“Bestselling poet, writer, and Instagram sensation Nikita Gill returns with a collection of poetry and prose retelling the legends of the Goddesses, both great and small, in their own words.
With lyrical prose and striking verse, beloved poet Nikita Gill (Fierce Fairytales, Wild Embers) uses the history of Ancient Greece and beyond to explore and share the stories of the mothers, warriors, creators, survivors, and destroyers who shook the world. In pieces that burn with empathy and admiration for these women, Gill unearths the power and glory of the very foundations of mythology and culture that have been too-often ignored or pushed aside.
Complete with beautiful hand-drawn illustrations, Gill’s poetry and stories weave old and forgotten tales of might and love into an empowering collection for the modern woman.“
Great Goddesses: Life Lessons From Myth And Monsters by Nikita Gill is set to be released September 3, 2019!
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