Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Top Ten Debuts in 2013 (Top Ten Tuesday)

Thanks, as always, to The Broke and the Bookish for hosting such a fabulous weekly feature. This week the topic is debut authors in 2013. And it was hard one for me. I pulled half of my list from my UKYA in 2013 list and the others are titles that I've been hearing about for awhile and would love to read.

I've already read Infinite Sky by CJ Flood and Pantomime by Laura Lam, but they're both so wonderful that I'm excited for other people to read them when they are both published in February! 



Linked by Imogen Howson (June, Quercus)

Elissa used to have it all: looks, popularity, and a bright future. But for the last three years, she’s been struggling with terrifying visions, phantom pains, and mysterious bruises that appear out of nowhere.

Finally, she’s promised a cure: minor surgery to burn out the overactive area of her brain. But on the eve of the procedure, she discovers the shocking truth behind her hallucinations: she’s been seeing the world through another girl’s eyes.

Elissa follows her visions, and finds a battered, broken girl on the run. A girl—Lin—who looks exactly like Elissa, down to the matching bruises. The twin sister she never knew existed.

Now, Elissa and Lin are on the run from a government who will stop at nothing to reclaim Lin and protect the dangerous secrets she could expose—secrets that would shake the very foundation of their world.

Riveting, thought-provoking and utterly compelling, Linked will make you question what it really means to be human.



Dead Jealous by Sharon Jones (July, Orchard)

People think of Mother Nature as a gentle lady. They forget that she's also Death...Sixteen-year-old Poppy St John believes in quantum particles, not tarot cards, in Dawkins, not druids. Last summer, in a boating accident in the Lake District, Poppy had a brush with death. But the girl she finds face down in Scariswater hasn't been so lucky. As she fights to discover the truth behind what she believes is murder, Poppy is forced to concede that people and things are not always what they seem and, slipping ever deeper into a web of lies, jealousy and heart-stopping danger, she comes to realise - too late - that the one thing that can save her has been right there, all the time.


Soulmates by Holly Bourne (Autumn, Usborne)

A cynical 17-year-old called Poppy falls in love with a guitarist, Noah. Every so often two people are born who are the perfect matches for each other. Soulmates. But the repercussions of soulmates getting together are huge and, unbeknown to Poppy and Noah, they are being watched by a secret international agency responsible for separating them.

Poppy and Noah will soon have to decide whether to stay together and potentially end the world, or live without love for the rest of their lives.



The S-Word by Chelsea Pitcher (May, Gallery Books)

First it was SLUT scribbled all over Lizzie Hart’s locker.

But one week after Lizzie kills herself, SUICIDE SLUT replaces it—in Lizzie's looping scrawl.


Lizzie’s reputation is destroyed when she's caught in bed with her best friend’s boyfriend on prom night. With the whole school turned against her, and Angie not speaking to her, Lizzie takes her own life. But someone isn’t letting her go quietly. As graffiti and photocopies of Lizzie’s diary plaster the school, Angie begins a relentless investigation into who, exactly, made Lizzie feel she didn’t deserve to keep living. And while she claims she simply wants to punish Lizzie’s tormentors, Angie's own anguish over abandoning her best friend will drive her deep into the dark, twisted side of Verity High—and she might not be able to pull herself back out.

Debut author Chelsea Pitcher daringly depicts the harsh reality of modern high schools, where one bad decision can ruin a reputation, and one cruel word can ruin a life. Angie’s quest for the truth behind Lizzie’s suicide is addictive and thrilling, and her razor-sharp wit and fierce sleuthing skills makes her impossible not to root for—even when it becomes clear that both avenging Lizzie and avoiding self-destruction might not be possible.



Playing Tyler by TL Costa (July, Strange Chemistry)

When is a game not a game?

Tyler MacCandless can’t focus, even when he takes his medication. He can’t focus on school, on his future, on a book, on much of anything other than taking care of his older brother, Brandon, who’s in rehab for heroin abuse… again.

Tyler’s dad is dead and his mom has mentally checked out. The only person he can really count on is his Civilian Air Patrol Mentor, Rick. The one thing in life it seems he doesn’t suck at is playing video games, and, well, that’s probably not going to get him into college.

Just when it seems like his future is on a collision course with a life sentence at McDonald’s, Rick asks him to test a video game. If his score’s high enough, it could earn him a place in flight school and win him the future he was certain that he could never have. And when he falls in love with the game’s designer, the legendary gamer Ani, Tyler thinks his life might finally be turning around.

That is, until Brandon goes MIA from rehab and Tyler and Ani discover that the game is more than it seems. Now Tyler will have to figure out what’s really going on in time to save his brother… and prevent his own future from going down in flames.

Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans


ACID by Emma Pass (April, Random House Children's)

ACID - the most brutal police force in history.
They rule with an iron fist.
They see everything. They know everything.
They locked me away for life.

My crime?
They say I murdered my parents.
I was fifteen years old.

My name is Jenna Strong.



The Oathbreaker's Shadow by Amy McCulloch (June, Random House)

Fifteen-year-old Raim lives in a world where you tie a knot for every promise that you make. Break that promise and you are scarred for life, and cast out into the desert.

Raim has worn a simple knot around his wrist for as long as he can remember. No one knows where it came from, and which promise of his it symbolises, but he barely thinks about it at all - not since becoming the most promising young fighter ever to train for the elite Yun guard. But on the most important day of his life, when he binds his life to his best friend (and future king) Khareh, the string bursts into flames and sears a dark mark into his skin.

Scarred now as an oath-breaker, Raim has two options: run, or be killed.

A gripping YA action-adventure fantasy, the first part of a planned duology.



Infinite Sky by CJ Flood (February, Simon and Schuster)

Iris Dancy’s free-spirited mum has left for Tunisia, her dad’s rarely sober and her brother’s determined to fight anyone with a pair of fists.

When a family of travellers move into the overgrown paddock overnight, her dad looks set to finally lose it. Gypsies are parasites he says, but Iris is intrigued. As her dad plans to evict the travelling family, Iris makes friends with their teenage son. Trick Deran is a bare knuckle boxer who says he’s done with fighting, but is he telling the truth?

When tools go missing from the shed, the travellers are the first suspects. Iris’s brother, Sam, warns her to stay away from Trick; he’s dangerous, but Iris can no longer blindly follow her brother’s advice. He’s got secrets of his own, and she’s not sure he can be trusted himself.

Infinite Sky is a family story about betrayal and loyalty, and love.



Pantomine by Laura Lam (February, Strange Chemistry)

R. H. Ragona’s Circus of Magic is the greatest circus of Ellada. Nestled among the glowing blue Penglass—remnants of a mysterious civilisation long gone—are wonders beyond the wildest imagination. It’s a place where anything seems possible, where if you close your eyes you can believe that the magic and knowledge of the vanished Chimaera is still there. It’s a place where anyone can hide.

Iphigenia Laurus, or Gene, the daughter of a noble family, is uncomfortable in corsets and crinoline, and prefers climbing trees to debutante balls. Micah Grey, a runaway living on the streets, joins the circus as an aerialist’s apprentice and soon becomes the circus’s rising star.

But Gene and Micah have balancing acts of their own to perform, and a secret in their blood that could unlock the mysteries of Ellada.


These are the debut books that I'm most looking forward to, which debuts are on your list? 

14 comments:

  1. The S-Word sounds interesting but I feel like it could go very, very wrong. Or it could be brilliant.

    Linked sounds really cool though.

    Our TTT

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You could be right about S Word, hope it leans towards brilliant though :)

      Delete
  2. Acis looks amazing! And I'd love to get Pantomime as well. Great list.

    Happy reading!
    My TTT

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great picks. Didn't have any of those on my list so you gave me some new ones. Yea! Now following you via GFC, btw.
    My TTT.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Liesel, thanks for the follow! And I'm glad that I could introduce you to some cool sounding books :)

      Delete
  4. I can't wait to read TL Costas "Playing Tyler."

    ReplyDelete
  5. Super excited for Linked, The S Word, Acid and Pantomine. Never heard of Dead Jealous and The Oathbreaker's Shadow but they all sound great. Definitely adding them to my TBR pile.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Playing Tyler sounds fantastic. I'm looking forward to The S Word too, I'm interested to see how Pitcher tackles the subject. Great list!

    My TTT

    ReplyDelete

HI! Thank you for leaving a comment, you've just become my new best friend :)