Is NIL on your Summer TBR List?:) Now you can win it!

Today on the YA Valentines blog, the Vals are talking #summerreads….

We're sharing our favorite #summerreads and giving away sekrit summer scoop about our MCs. AND, we're giving away a copy of one of our books--your choice!

Hop over to the Vals' clubhouse and find out why the Vals books make the perfect books for your beach bag!!!:)

Oh, and NIL? (alert: shameless plug ahead :D) It's PERFECT for summer. Set on a mysterious island with a LOST vibe, it's full of shirtless hotties, gorgeous sunrises, and deadly animals   . . . and oh yeah, each character has exactly one year -- to escape, or die.

BOOM.

Join the #NILtribe this summer. I'll be rooting for you. :)

Happy Friday!!!

Happy Halloween!

Today over at the YA Valentines, we're spilling book sekrits about our main characters. JUICY sekrits. SCARY skerits. :) BUT THE BEST PART? It's like a book sneak peek!

So, if you head over to the YA Valentines' blog, you'll find our what Charley, one of my main characters in NIL, is most afraid of.:) Go ahead and peek...I'll wait.

*waits*

*noms Kit Kats* 

Great! You're back! :)

Did you read all the other great scoop on the other Valentines MC's? I'll bet you found some sweet books to add to your 2014 TBR list.:)

But today--it's Halloween! As soon as my boys are home from school, we're going to carve our pumpkins, then dress up and do some trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.

Pumpkin carving is one of my favorite things. Every year we do something different...and I love surfing the internet for inspirations.

Like these:

What's your favorite pumpkin design? I tend to go more fun than creepy.

Whatever you're carving or doing, have a safe and happy night! 

Happy Halloween everyone!

xoxo

Lynne

Cover shout out for DAUGHTER OF CHAOS

Ok, so over at the YA Valentines blog today, my fellow Valentine, Jen McConnel had a BIG reveal: the cover of her YA debut, DAUGHTER OF CHAOS!

AND IT'S GORGEOUS. :)

So gorgeous, in fact, that I'm going to give it a shout-out here! I can't help it; it's just so pretty.

But first, the book blurb from Goodreads:

Witches must choose the path they will follow, and Darlena Agara is no exception. She’s been putting it off long enough, and in her case, ignoring it has not made it go away. In a moment of frustration, Darlena chooses to follow Red Magic, figuring she had outsmarted the powers that be, since there’s no such thing as Red Magic. But alas, Darlena’s wrong (again) and she becomes a newly declared Red Witch.

Her friends are shocked and her parents horrified by the choice Darlena has made. As a Red Witch, she now governs one third of the world’s chaos. She is the walking personification of pandemonium, turmoil, and bedlam, just as the patrons of Red Magic would have it to be.

But Darlena believes there must be more to Red Magic than chaos and destruction, and she sets out on a journey to achieve balance. Only doing so puts her at odds with the dark goddess Hecate, who simply will not allow Darlena to quit. She encourages Darlena to embrace who and what she is and to leave good magic to the good witches. If only Darlena could, life would be simple, and she would not be the Daughter of Chaos.


Cool huh? :) And FYI: DAUGHTER OF CHAOS is the first in a YA paranormal trilogy.

And even though you have to wait until 2014 to read it, you can swoon over the cover now:

So. PRETTY.:)

Woohoo!

Congratulations Jen! Go head over to the cover reveal party happening RIGHT NOW at the YA Valentine blog and you can enter to win two sweet YA books! 

And don't forget to enter to win 2 awesome YA summer reads on me--just check out my previous post.:)

*throws YA book love all over the blogosphere*

In the meantime, want to know more about Jen? Here's the links:

Website: http://www.jenmcconnel.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jen_McConnel
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18106165-daughter-of-chaos
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jenmcconnelauthor

Happy reading!!!!

Cover Love for BURN OUT

Eeeep! Fellow Valentine Kristi Helvig's debut BURN OUT has a cover . . . and it's AMAZING!!!

But before I show you the awesomeness-that-is-Kristi's cover, here's BURN OUT's description:

Most people want to save the world; seventeen-year-old Tora Reynolds just wants to get the hell off of it. One of the last survivors in Earth's final years, Tora yearns to escape the wasteland her planet has become after the sun turns "red giant," but discovers her fellow survivors are even deadlier than the hostile environment.

Earth's last survivors? Hostile environment? And escape?

WANT!:)

BURN OUT releases April 8, 2014.

*sniff*

I know, I know--the wait is l-o-n-g.:) But until then, you can swoon over Kristi's cover:

*stares at the pretty cover*

My favorite part? The tagline: The last girl on Earth . . . just got company.

Oh, snap. I can't wait for BURN OUT to hit the shelves. :)

To help held you over until then, the YA Valentines are sharing the YA book love and hosting another epic cover-reveal giveaway! Hop over to the YA Valentines blog, join the BURN OUT cover party, and you could win 2 sweet YA reads.

Happy Tuesday!

An EPIC YA Valentine COVER REVEAL + GIVEAWAY!!!!

Ok, y'all, I'm SO EXCITED. Like beyond-crazy excited.

Because Sara B. Larson's DEFY cover is just that awesome.

And today YOU get to see it.

Amazing, I know, right?!

But before I show you the gorgeous cover of DEFY, here's a little more about the book itself:

A warrior and a protector, the prince's best guard is also a girl in hiding. No one knows who she really is--or so she thought. But when her world suddenly changes, and two men begin vying for her heart, one girl must stand up against a terrible evil or risk losing everything.

DEFY will hit stores on January 1, 2014. That's right: January, 1, 2014.  New Years Day. It's be the first sweet YA release of 2014! :)

Ok, y'all have waited long enough.

So here it is...



the epic cover of DEFY...

wait for it...

wait for it...

BOOM.

The amazing cover of Sara B. Larson's novel DEFY:

Isn't it amazing?

To celebrate the epicness of DEFY's cover, the YA Valentines are hosting a sweet giveaway of two books that rock: GRACELING and SHADOW AND BONE. Why those books? Because if you love those books, you will swoon over DEFY.:)  To check out the The Valentines giveaway, go here.

And to make the DEFY-epic-cover-reveal-celebration even more fun, I'm giving away my copy of BITTERBLUE, the sequel to GRACELING. I figure that now that we've made you drool over DEFY and forced you to wait, I could send you something to ease the pain.:)

To enter to win BITTERBLUE, just leave a comment about the DEFY cover below. Using the random number generator, I'll pick a random comment to win.:)  Contest* closes Thursday, June 20 at midnight, EST. Winner announced next Friday (June 21st)

*Contest open to North American residents only. Sorry y'all. Got to keep my shipping costs low...it's a hardback copy too.:)


***UPDATE: The contest is closed and WE HAVE A WINNER!!!! Thanks to the random number generator, lucky comment #3 was the winner! Congratulations Winterfaerie! Winterfaerie...shoot me an email or tweet or leave another comment to get your copy of BITTERBLUE. Thanks to all who stopped by to give Sara some cover love.:)

Shout out to Robin Mellom, author of DITCHED

Hey sweet YA readers!

YA contemporary is so hot right now, and so fun. Lots of great reads out there, like . . .

JUST ONE DAY by Gayle Forman
(and a sequel is coming soon!)

LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR by Stephanie Perkins
(companion novel to ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS . . . so good!)

BODY AND SOUL by Stacey Kade
(the finale of THE GHOST AND THE GOTH series--just love!)








But here's one you definitely shouldn't miss:

I know Robin personally (we actually went to high school together, can you believe it?!) and she's as sweet as she is talented. Crazy thing is, I read DITCHED (and LOVED it!) before I realized this Robin was the same Robin I went to high school with. It was that whole maiden-name-changed-to-married-name thing that threw me off. 

So let me say it again--I LOVED THIS BOOK, even before I realized I loved the author.  

Here's the blurb from Goodreads:

There's a girl.
Justina Griffith was never the girl who dreamed of going to prom. Designer dresses and strappy heels? Not her thing. That said, she never expected her best friend, Ian Clark, to ask her.

And there's a boy.
Ian, who always passed her the baseball bat, handle first.
Ian, who knew exactly when she needed red licorice.
Ian, who promised her the most amazing night at prom.

Then there's a ditch.
But when Justina is ditched, figuratively and literally, she must piece together--stain-by-stain on her thrift store dress--exactly how she ended up dateless...with only the help of some opinionated ladies at the 7-Eleven.

To get the whole store, Justina will have to face the boy who ditched her. Can losing out at her prom ultimately lead to finding true love?

Doesn't it sound amazing? *nods* It really is.:)

I'm over at the YA Valentine blog today getting the full scoop from Robin. Pop over if you can, find out Robin's favorite scene, and say hi.:) 

Plus, if you've got middle-grade readers, Robin had a new MG book coming out next month from Disney-Hyperion! Woot!

Happy Tuesday y'all!

Biggest Week EVAH

I take a break from this:

Copyedits...I OWN you. (Well, I'll at least finish you.:D)

to bring you epic snack-cake, music, and interview goodness. Here's what's happening this week:

NIL!!!!!!!

I'm over at One Four Kid Lit talking about NIL and sharing how NIL was conceived.:) (And did I mention I got my copyedits on Monday, had a fantastic chat with my amazing editor on Wednesday, and am shipping these goodies back by Monday? Yeah. BRING IT.:D Sleep is SO over-rated.:D)

Music love and free tunes:

Over at All The Write Notes, I shared the awesomeness of AWOLNATION and Blondfire live. As y'all may know, I'm a huge Blondfire fan. Hop over if you missed the post because you've still got time to enter the Discover Blondfire giveaway and win $10 in free iTunes.:)

#TakeMyTwinkie contest:

So yesterday I posted my Cupid's Arrow on The YA Valentines blog, where I waxed poetic about the death of the beloved Twinkie (and also shared my newfound knowledge of the Twinkie Deconstructed, which may have been an over-share). :)

Anyway! I'd ordered a Twinkie in advance of my post--and my Twinkie never came. Now I know I don't want to can't selfishly keep this snack-cake goodness to myself.  So the #TakeMyTwinkie contest was born.

Follow my #TwinkieTrack tweets on Twitter as I track my Twinkie, and when it arrives, I'll tweet #TakeMyTwinkie. Be the first to reply with the hashtag #TakeMyTwinkie and it's yours! But the best part? You'll also win a copy of one of my favorite YA releases with a MAC with hair the color of the iconic golden sponge cake.:)

Ok, the rest of my week has been insane with family stuff. Now back to copyedits.:)

Happy weekend and good luck!:)

Monday Madness

Hi everyone! Happy President's Day!

My boys are home from school, it's cold out (well, cold for us here in Jacksonville. It's 32 degrees outside and the frost has made our grass crunchy.:D) and with clear skies, I can feel it's going to be a great day.

A quick post today, about tunes and Valentines and NIL and my morning epiphany.:)

Top five things on my mind this morning:

5. My first post over at All The Write Notes. I blogged about fresh new artist finds, featuring a British singer-songwriter Hannah Trigwell. I LOVE HER. Go check out the post. It's worth it, I promise, just to hear her voice.

4. Tomorrow is my first post over the The Valentines! I'm interviewing the awesome Anita Grace Howard, the authored of the epically cool novel, SPLINTERED. There will be goodness and giveaways, because Anita is that amazing.

3. I am freezing.

Which leads me to the revelation that...

2. I am a wimp. I should go running yet I can't bring myself to go out when it's still under 40 degrees, which is ridiculous.:)

1. NIL. I woke up thinking about it's cover. Or what it's cover might look like. I've had a million different ideas, and I can't wait to see what Henry Holt does with it, because they are AWESOME with covers.

I don't know when the cover reveal will be, but I'll let you know as soon as I do. :) In the meantime, I'm, going to start sharing my NIL playlist soon. Some songs are for Thad, and some are for Charley. And the songs, like the two characters, are very different, but hopefully equally awesome.:)

Happy day! What's on your mind today?

A Sweet Treat

Tomorrow is going to be full of AWESOME.

Why, you ask?

I know what you're thinking... It's Valentine's Day, the same day flowers inexplicably shoot up to 10x their usual price, chocolate is guzzled like water and people are suddenly overcome by the desire to write sappy haikus.

All true. (And I have homemade hearts and goofy stuff all over my house to prove it, which I totally love.:D) But the main reason I'm stoked for tomorrow is that The Valentines blog goes live!

Woohoo! It's a sweet site to find cool YA books debuting in 2014.  Fourteen cool YA authors Valentines with books dropping in 2014. You can find out their sweetest/goofiest/most memorable Valentine's Day memory, and enter to win heaps of our very favorite YA books.

Pop on over today if you have a minute. But definitely pop over tomorrow and in the days to come. We'll be talking books, interviewing authors and agents, engaging in shenanigans and possibly definitely embarrassing ourselves. :)

And it will be AWESOME.

So happy almost February 14th! And get ready to share the YA book love...