FREAKSVILLE by Kitty Keswick

• Publication Season/Year: Winter 2010
• Publisher: Leap Books
• Release Date: January 8, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): TBD
• ISBN (paperback): ISBN-13:978-1-61603-001-8

FREAKSVILLE

A group of teenagers, trapped in a haunted theater on the night of a full moon, discover that ghosts are the least of their worries…

Every woman in the Maxwell family has the gift of sight. A talent sixteen-year-old Kasey would gladly give up. All she wants is a normal life. Shopping and talking about boys with her best friend and long-time sidekick, Gillie Godshall, consume her days. Until Kasey has a vision about Josh Johnstone, the foreign exchange student from England. The vision leads her into new realms, a lead in a play, a haunted theater … and into the arms of Josh. Yet, both Kasey and Josh have secrets lurking in dark corners. Can Kasey’s new romance survive FREAKSVILLE?

BANISH by Gretchen McNeil

• Publication Season/Year: Winter 2012
• Publisher: Balzer + Bray
• Release Date: TBD
• ISBN (hardcover): TBD
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

Fifteen-year-old Bridget Liu just wants to be left alone: by her overprotective mom, by the hunky son of the police officer who got her father killed, and by the eerie voices which she can suddenly and inexplicably hear.  Turns out the voices are demons – the Biblical kind, not the Buffy kind – and Bridget possesses the rare ability to banish them.

San Francisco’s senior exorcist and his newly assigned partner from the Vatican enlist Bridget’s help with increasingly bizarre and dangerous cases of demonic possession.  But just when she is starting to come to terms with her freakish new role, Bridget receives a startling message from one of the demons: Don’t trust the Priest.

When one of Bridget’s oldest friends turns up dead in a ritualistic sacrifice that mirrors her father’s murder, Bridget realizes she can’t trust anyone. An interview with her father’s murderer reveals a link between Bridget and the Emim: a race of part-demons intent on raising their forefathers to the earth in human form.  Now Bridget must unlock the secret to the Emim’s plan before someone else close to her winds up dead, or worse – the human vessel for a Demon King.

OTHER WORDS FOR LOVE by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal

• Publication Season/Year: Spring, 2011
• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Release Date: January 11, 2011
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-0-385-73901-6
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

Ari Mitchell feels invisible at her Brooklyn high school. Her hair is too flat, her style too preppy, and her personality too quiet. And outside school, Ari feels outshined by her beautiful, confident best friend, Summer. Their friendship is as complex and confusing as Ari’s relationship with her troubled older sister, Evelyn, a former teenage mom whose handsome firefighter husband fills Ari’s head with guilty fantasies.

When an unexpected inheritance enables Ari to transfer to an elite Manhattan prep school, she makes a wealthy new friend, Leigh. Leigh introduces Ari to the glamorous side of New York—and to her gorgeous cousin, Blake. Ari doesn’t think she stands a chance, but amazingly, Blake asks her out. As their romance heats up, they find themselves involved in an intense, consuming relationship. Ari’s family worries that she is losing touch with the important things in life, like family, hard work, and planning for the future. Meanwhile, Summer warns her that what she feels for Blake is just an infatuation. Not real love. But Ari’s world is awash with new colors, filled with a freshness and an excitement she hasn’t felt in years.

When misfortune befalls Blake’s family, he pulls away, and Ari’s world drains of color. As she struggles to get over the breakup, Ari must finally ask herself: were their feelings true love . . . or something else?

Nick Gardner is having a rough year. His brother’s a jerk, his big fat dad has hit the road, and his sort-of best friend is dying. When a feverish hallucination puts Nick on a collision course with a water tower, a television news crew, and one Jaycee Amato, a girl with Siberian Husky eyes, his whole life begins to change. Together, they  set out on a secret journey to keep a promise to their dying friend. Will they accomplish what they set out for, or merely discover the beauty of Steinbeck, the crappy truth about plans and a few small facts about gravity? The Pull of Gravity is a coming-of-age story about first love, friendship, and the true nature of family.

ISLAND STING by Bonnie J. Doerr

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: Leap Books
• Release Date: January 6, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): TBD
• ISBN (paperback): 978-1-61603-002-5

Island Sting is a contemporary eco-mystery set in the Florida Keys. Though it is fiction, details about the natural environment and endangered species are authentic. It’s a tale of intrepid teens who change the effects of disappointment and heartache by taking positive action.

Kenzie Ryan has been forced to move from New York City to Nana’s cottage on an island in the Florida Keys. Talk about culture shock! She’s been torn away from her circle of lifetime friends at St. Joseph’s Academy for girls, her swim and softball teams, and her rapid-fire city life.

On her first day in the Keys, Kenzie rescues a drowning animal with the help of Angelo, a young Cuban-American local, whose rock-star face and savvy attitude are as exotic to Kenzie as her new environment. She learns the animal is an tiny endangered  Key deer that was chased into the canal by a poacher’s hound. But there’s more trouble on the island than the senseless slaughter of an endangered species: trap thefts threaten fishermen’s livelihoods; boaters destroy sea grass habitats; discarded garbage on land and sea kills wildlife. And Kenzie thought this place would be dull…

Kenzie and Angelo make a pact to expose the vicious deer killer and clean up the environment. They recruit a team, organize Keys Teens Care, plan an environmental cleanup crusade, and wage a dangerous undercover operation to solve the Key-deer-killer mystery. Though they work with a team to tackle their mission, each silently deals with traumatic loss. Throughout the investigation, Angelo and Kenzie experience a confusing magnetic attraction while struggling with cultural differences. But bit by bit they learn how much they have in common, and as Angelo and Kenzie work to protect the fragile tropical environment and its wildlife, both begin the slow process of healing.

Book Trailer

Publication Season/Year: Spring 2011

CLARITY by Kim Harrington

Clarity “Clare” Fern sees things. Things no one else can see. Things like stolen kisses and long-buried secrets. All she has to do is touch an object and the visions come to her. It’s a gift.

And a curse.

When a teenage girl is murdered, Clare’s ex-boyfriend wants her to help solve the case – but Clare is still furious at the cheating jerk. Then Clare’s brother – who has supernatural gifts of his own – becomes the prime suspect, and Clare can no longer look away. Teaming up with Gabriel, the smoldering son of the new detective, Clare must venture into the depths of fear, revenge, and lust in order to track the killer. But will her sight fail her just when she needs it most?

OF ALL THE STUPID THINGS by Alexandra Diaz

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: Egmont USA
• Release Date: December 22, 2009
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-60684-034-4
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

When a rumor starts circulating that Tara’s boyfriend has been with one of the guy cheerleaders, the innuendo doesn’t just hurt Tara. It marks the beginning of the end for three lifelong friends.

Tara’s training for a marathon, but also running from her fear of abandonment from her father.

Whitney Blaire seems to have everything, but an empty mansion and absentee parents leave her looking for her own value in the wrong places.

And Pinkie has a compulsive need to mother everyone to make up for the mama she’s never stopped missing.

Then the new girl arrives in school and Tara starts to feel things she’s never felt for before for a girl. Can the girls’ friendship survive when all the rules have changed?

FREEFALL by Mindi Scott

• Publication Season/Year: Fall 2010
• Publisher: Simon Pulse
• Release Date:  October 5, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): N/A
• ISBN (paperback): 1442402784 / (isbn13: 9781442402782)

How do you come back from the point of no return?

Seth McCoy was the last person to see his best friend Isaac alive, and the first to find him dead. It was just another night, just another party, just another time where Isaac drank too much and passed out on the lawn. Only this time, Isaac didn’t wake up.

Convinced that his own actions led to his friend’s death, Seth is torn between turning his life around . . . or losing himself completely.

Then he meets Rosetta: so beautiful and so different from everything and everyone he’s ever known. But Rosetta has secrets of her own, and Seth will soon realize he isn’t the only one who needs saving . . .

TELL ME A SECRET by Holly Cupala

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: HarperTeen
• Release Date: June 22, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-0061766664
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

It’s tough, living in the shadow of a dead girl…

In the five years since her bad-girl sister Xanda’s death, Miranda Mathison has wondered about the secret her sister took to the grave, and what really happened the night she died. Now, just as Miranda is on the cusp of her dreams—a best friend to unlock her sister’s world, a ticket to art school, and a boyfriend to fly her away from it all—Miranda has a secret all her own.

Then two lines on a pregnancy test confirm her worst fears. Stripped of her former life, Miranda must make a choice with tremendous consequences and finally face her sister’s demons and her own.

In this powerful debut novel, stunning new talent Holly Cupala illuminates the dark struggle of a girl who must let go of her past to find a way into her own future.

THE BODY FINDER by Kimberly Derting

• Publication Season/Year: Winter 2010
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release Date: March 16, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-0061779817
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

THE BODY FINDER is about Violet Ambrose, a 16-year-old girl who can locate dead bodies. Or at least, those that have been murdered. She can sense the echoes they leave behind … and the imprints they leave on their killers.  As if that weren’t enough to deal with during her junior year, she also has a sudden, inexplicable, and consuming crush on her best friend since childhood, Jay Heaton.

Now a serial killer has begun terrorizing Violet’s small town . . . and she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

The Book Trailer

PRINCESS FOR HIRE by Lindsey Leavitt

• Publication Season/Year: Winter 2010
• Publisher: Hyperion
• Release Date: March 16, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-4231-2192-3
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

When an flawlessly dressed woman steps out of an iridescent bubble and wants to know, like, now if you’d like to become a substitute princess, do you

a) run
b) faint
c) say Yes!

For Desi Bascomb, who’s been longing for a bit of glamour in her Idaho life, the choice is a definite C–that is, once she can stop pinching herself. As her new agent Meredith explains, Desi has a rare magical ability: when she applies the ancient Egyptian formula “Royal Rouge,” she can transform temporarily into the exact lookalike of any princess who needs her subbing services. Dream come true, right?

Well, Desi soon discovers that subbing involves a lot more than wearing a tiara and waving at cameras. Like, what do you do when a bullying older sister puts you on a heinous crash diet? Or when the tribal villagers gather to watch you perform a ceremonial dance you don’t know? Or when a princess’s conflicted sweetheart shows up to break things off–and you know she would want you to change his mind?

In this hilarious, winning debut, one girl’s dream of glamour transforms into something bigger: the desire to make a positive impact. And an impact Desi makes, one royal fiasco at a time.

HUSH HUSH by Becca Fitzpatrick

• Publication Season/Year: Fall 2009
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Release Date: October 13, 2009
• ISBN (hardcover): 1416989412
• ISBN (paperback): 978-1416989417

A sexy and dangerous love story about a teenage girl who falls for a fallen angel with a dark agenda to get his wings back.

SILVER PHOENIX: BEYOND THE KINGDOM OF XIA

• Publication Season/Year: Summer 2009
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books / HarperCollins
• Release Date: April 28, 2009
• ISBN (hardcover): TBD
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

No one wanted Ai Ling. And deep down she is relieved-despite the dishonor she has brought upon her family-to be unbetrothed, free, and not some stranger’s subservient bride banished to the inner quarters.

But now, something is after her. Something terrifying-a force she cannot comprehend. And as the pieces of the puzzle start to fit together, Ai Ling begins to understand that her journey to the Palace of Fragrant Dreams in search of her beloved father-missing these many months-is so much more than that. Bravery, intelligence, the will to fight and fight hard . . . she will need all of these things. Just as she will need the new and mysterious power growing within her. She will also need help.

It is Chen Yong who finds her partly submerged and barely breathing at the edge of a deep lake. There is something of unspeakable evil trying to drag her under. On a quest of his own Chen Yong offers that help… and perhaps more.

HARMONIC FEEDBACK by Tara Kelly

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: Henry Holt BYR
• Release Date: March 25, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): TBD
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

Doctors have pinned 16-year-old Drea Horvath with everything from ADHD to Asperger’s Syndrome. She has an obsession with sound design, a tendency to blurt out whatever she’s thinking, and a problem making friends, but likes to think of this as following her own rhythm in a confusing world.

Drea is hesitant to befriend purple-haired Naomi Quinn, her teenage neighbor with a kamikaze personality. But Naomi is the first person to treat her like she isn’t a world class dork. Then there’s Justin Rocca, the persistent boy in her film class. If she’s learned anything from her mom, it’s that boys are trouble.

Still, Drea bonds with both of them when she discovers Naomi’s love for drums and Justin’s piano prodigy status, and the three form a trip-hop band. Fearing that her new friends will find out about her disabilities, Drea makes up stories about boyfriends she never had–all in an effort to seem ‘normal’. But Naomi and Justin have issues of their own. And Drea starts to question what ‘normal’ really means.

Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2009
• Publisher: HarperCollins Children’s Books
• Release Date: April 28, 2009
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-0061554742
• ISBN (paperback): 978-0061554749

Youngest and boldest of all the faeries of the Oak, Knife fearlessly battles the savage crows and other predators who threaten her dying people. But when she strikes up a forbidden friendship with a human named Paul, she arouses the wrath of the powerful Faery Queen herself. With the help of some unexpected allies, Knife sets out to solve the mystery of the Oakenfolk’s missing magic – but she soon discovers that the truth may cost her everything…

Also available in the UK as KNIFE in January 2009.