YA titles

Hi Folks

It looks like Amazon is going to ban any promotions for books except within this new, Meet Our Authors area so, as in Amazon.com, all genres will be lumped together in a single forum.

In the US this has resulted in a single forum that is hard for people to navigate.

With the intention of averting this confusion arising here, I am setting up this and other genre-specific threads so that writers can place their promotions appropriately and readers can more easily search for particular genres.

Has anyone else noticed the amazing number of adults who read Young Adult books? Makes you wonder if young adults are more mature, or if mature people have a hankering for their youth.

My Mom Your Dad: Happily Ever After 2.99
What if, you had a crush on a girl... And you didn't know it but, she had a crush on you? What if, you really wanted to talk to her, but just couldn't bring yourself to muster up the nerve. Then one day you decided that you had enough it was now or never. Finally you crack... You find the balls to approach the girl and you find out that not only do you like her but she likes you... Then you two start dating... Hmm life is sweet!!
But then what if... Your mom and his dad decide to call a "family caucus".... Then you find out that... the girl of your dreams that took you forever to get with is about to become you little sister. @:@ WTH????
My name is Bryce Rawlings Tyler and I go to Central High and for reals; I'm not making it up.... Welcome to my life...

My name is Anna and I have a very unusual twin sister called Chloe. I love her very much but she's not easy to live with at all. The reason - for the past 6 months she has being living inside my head and sharing my body.

Weird? It gets weirder - and pretty scary in the end.

Come and meet us in 'Coping with Chloe' by Rosalie Warren, for age 11+. Published by Phoenix Yard Books. 16 4/5 star reviews on Amazon, plus great reviews all over the place.
Coping with Chloe

Dividing the 'MIA' forum into genres is a commendable attempt at making the best out of a bad job.
Here goes:

When thirteen-year-old Gordon Baxter stumbles across an ancient recipe for the elixir of life, he is all set to save his dying mum, but first he has to make the stuff. All he needs is a little help from his friends - except he doesn't have any.
Enter Walter the Flim-Flam man, and Marie, Gordon's cheerfully-violent neighbour. With them on-board, what could possibly go wrong?
Well, quite a lot actually, including the end of civilisation. Wanted by the police, chased by a gang of criminals; it's the most hectic summer holiday Gordon's ever had. Can he save himself, save his mum, save the world and be back at school for the beginning of term?
Truth, Lies & Purple Potions

Drinking Life (Keeper of the Water trilogy, #1) During the most important field hockey game of her life, Nia Ammo doesn't have to worry about the other team as much as the pair of men - clad in ancient battle armor - that suddenly attack her. Everyone else runs for their lives but Nia's instinct is to stay and fight, to protect herself and her neighbor Cassie, a girl she doesn't even really like. The entire time, she feels the eyes of a mysterious old man watching her from afar. After she fights off the soldiers, her parents move the family business across the country. But once Nia turns 18, she begins to have dreams about an unknown past life and the new guy at school might have answers for her... if she can survive long enough to get them... Drinking Life is a YA Paranormal Romance and the first book in the Keeper of the Water trilogy... only 86p

Thanks WHSMcIntyre
I hope the UK MOA doesn't get swamped as has the US MOA.
Time will tell.

Hi Andre, (sorry cant do accents)
speaking as someone who loves reading, but sometimes has pretty bad concentration issues, i like to keep YA books on hand to read as i personally find them easier to read....

André, I think it says more about the books than the readers. These days YA books do not talk down as children's books did in my youth (with obvious exceptions, of course, then as today). The issues addressed are current, vital and frequently much more thoughtful than much so-called adult literature. Little wonder, then, that many readers feel no shame in reading a book that is ostensibly aimed at youth.

Mind you, you may also be onto something with the whole hankering after (lost?) youth idea ;-)

Hi Andre,

I write YA fiction, but actually consider my books to be more cross-over than just YA. Certainly the adults who have read them (They do read 'grown-up' books as well!) have enjoyed them as much as the teenagers who read them. I enjoy the lack of explict content in a YA book, although sometimes it does lead to things you can work out a few chapters in that are supposed to be twists in the plot at the end (makes me wonder if the kids spot them as well).

For the record, I read adult fiction as well, and to be honest, some of the YA stuff leaves it in the dust. Perhaps kids are more unforgiving of lazy plotting, poor characters, and the like?

Tony Talbot, YA reader - and writer

All the points made are no doubt valid. We read Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials and I couldn't for the life of me see how that is a children's story; only the characters are children, but all the themes are adult.

Hmm... mine's YA in the way Harry Potter is. In other words, I hope it's accessible to readers of all ages.

Few Are Chosen (The K'Barthan Trilogy)
Warning: contains car chases, futuristic technology and sarcasm

The Pan of Hamgee isn't paranoid. There must be some people in K'Barth who aren't out to get him; it's just that, right now, he's not sure where they are. His family are dead, his existence is treason and he does the only thing he can to survive - getaway driving.

As if being on the run isn't bad enough, when he finds a magic thimble and decides to keep it, he unwittingly sets himself on a collision course with Lord Vernon, K'Barth's despot ruler.

Unwillingly, The Pan is forced to make choices and stand up for his beliefs - beliefs he never knew he had until they were challenged. But, faced with a stark moral dilemma will his new found integrity stick? Can he stop running?

There's also a prequel, Unlucky Dip. If you want to try a free taster of my writing it will be will be free to download on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Cheers

MTM

The Golden Catch
#11 in Books > Fiction > Lad Lit

Customer review:
...Roger Weston's Frank Murdock must surely be a worthy rival to Indiana Jones. Golden treasure, an assassin and an archeologist, and the baddies on their tails. This novel reads like a mature-age boys-own adventure!

Only 86p on Kindle!

Happy Holidays everyone. May you have a safe and joyous New Year...

Alm Hlgh ^_^

Young adult crossover, family safe for 14-94 year-olds, winner of the FlamingnNet Young Adult Review TOP CHOICE AWARD.

IDITAROD a novel of The Greatest Race on Earth action adventure, $2.99 £2.14

Marchez! -- A race for survival

When Rhodes Delaney challenged James Alderston Whitbury III to a grudge match she chose the most grueling of all tests -- the Iditarod: a lethal dogsled race across the perilous wastelands of barren Alaska.

Through life-sapping storms, howling blizzards, and deadly sub-zero temperatures, the racers must struggle over treacherous mountain passes where the sun's rays never reach, cross frozen rivers risking the icy torrents below, and pass enraged bull moose, ravenous bears -- and the world's largest, hungriest wolf pack.

In Iditarod, André Jute puts the reader's feet on the ice and on the runners for twelve hundred hazardous miles of the last great race across the last dangerous frontier as the exhausted bodies and hallucinating minds of the contestants battle towards the moment of truth -- when Man and Nature exact the ultimate reckoning from each other.

Iditarod is at once a love story, a great adventure, and a brilliant word portrait of the world's most spectacular and least-known land.

First published in the UK by Grafton Books 1990, Iditarod is fully revised for this 20th anniversary 2010 edition by CoolMain Press.

Now with a map of the race especially drawn to work with e-book tablets.

IDITAROD a novel of The Greatest Race on Earth action adventure, $2.99 £2.14

Hope your New year is safe and festive... If you're by chance sitting around looking for something to read, please consider:

Summer of My First Time (Taming The Golden Boys) Volume 2

Taming The Golden Boys: The Complete Series Volume 1-3 paperback 804 pages
NEVADA POV
Time flies when you're having fun and drags when you're in misery. Zai's plan of having Moui act as my boyfriend had its ups and downs. On the one hand I got to see him four to five days out of the week and every weekend. On the other hand things between Daisy and me were becoming strain. Daisy still wouldn't relent about the Zai issue and she became increasingly suspicious about it when I broached the subject.

"Well honey, if you've moved on and are really dating Moui; why should it matter about Zai? Are you sure you're not still dating Zai?" I guess Zai and I didn't see that line of reasoning coming. I had to turn away while I drank my OJ. I could not lie to my mom while looking her straight in the face.

"I'm not, but you know he's a friend of Moui and sometimes we want to all hang out together." God I was becoming worried at how naturally easy lying came for me. Daisy always taught me that `a person who would lie to you is also someone who would steal from you.' I didn't want to be that kind of person. So I decided right then and there at that moment I would talk about Zai less often, be patient and hopefully time would allow her to relent on her decision.

"Oh that reminds me," She said abruptly as she got up placing her dishes into the dishwasher.

"What?" I don't know why suddenly I grew nervous about what she would say next, so I set my glass down on the counter. I didn't want to drop it accidentally.

"Memorial day weekend, I'm giving a family and friends barbeque. So make sure you invite your friends to come over and hang out. Uncle George and his wife Connie are flying in from New Jersey for your cousin Penelope's graduation and to spend the holiday with us."

"Why so suddenly? I mean this big memorial day celebration." I asked. "We've never really done the whole family thing before." This was new. Usually Daisy and I kind of took it easy on the holidays and did our own thing with our own friends. We never made `family' plans together; Daisy always said most times family breakdown occurs when family members crowd each other too much. It's important to spend time away from each other. I grew up like that; living in my own space and kind of having the freedom to do my own thing and seek out my own amusement. Maybe that's why our relationship was like it was; we were more like close sisters or roommates.

"Look after that time," Daisy stumbled over her words and I could see the tears glistening in her eyes. She still had trouble talking about my kidnapping and brutal beating. She cleared her throat and began again.

"That time when you were in the hospital gave me a lot of time to do some reflection."

"And?"

"And all the while you were in surgery and even afterwards, I really couldn't remember us spending any real good mother-and-daughter time together."

"That's crazy!" I protested. "What are you talking about Daisy? We spend lots of time together?"

Daisy came around the table and stood near the kitchen counter where I was. She leaned against it.

"Yea that's what I thought. So I started going back trying to remember our holidays that we had shared. I even went and pulled out the old photo albums looking for pictures of us together at family functions and get-togethers." Then she grabbed my hand and began pulling me into the family room where we kept the photo albums.

"What's this?" I asked as we sat down and she pointed to three photo albums filled with the pictures of our lives.

"Go ahead and look through them."

I hesitated before reaching for the first album. Daisy was serious if she had gone through the trouble of pulling out old albums and looking for memories of us together. At that moment I suddenly realized how afraid my mother had been for me at that time. The brave front that she had always put on for my benefit, suddenly evaporated and I saw Daisy for the first time for who she really was. She was a mom who had been shaken to the core with fear of losing her precious child. Even though we didn't say `I love you' as often as we probably should, in that moment as I watched my mother there was no doubt about how much she really loved me.

"Okay mom, I'll invite my friends over. It'll be fun."

JEDA POV
I couldn't stop thinking about Rain and even though I really wanted to be with her, she and Nevada had something on this weekend so spending time with her this weekend was out of the question. I really had it bad for Rain, cuz despite her telling me she wouldn't be at the bookstore this Saturday, I found myself wandering there today and just hanging out talking with and helping her grandparents.

Her grandparents are a riot. Maybe I like them because both sets of my grandparents had passed on years ago before I had a chance to fully appreciated grandparents. I was in Gramps' workshop aka the garage. It was great being there. The place had a smell that said `no women allowed'. It smelled of oil, paint, sawdust, wood, and cars.

Rain's grandfather was a tinkler who occasionally had a fondness of tinkering with inventions and had all sorts of oddity gadgets and objects about his space.
"Here, have a root beer and some of Grammy's famous fresh home-baked bread." He set the tray of food and drinks on his workbench where we were sitting idly chatting and tinkering with stuff.

He had just finished building a stand-long wooden mailbox and had been putting the finishing touches on it.

"Mm, this is delicious. I could eat Grammy's bread all day every day," I commented while stuffing my face with her still warm bread that I had lavishly spread butter over it.

"Maybe you'll marry our little Rain. As a wedding present we'll give you a coupon good for a lifetime's supply of fresh baked breads and cakes."

"I have to wait that long for that coupon?" I joked back with Gramps.

He gave a hearty laugh and then said, "You could always buy one. We'll give you a discount."

"Hmm, discount? What are we talking about?" We continued to joke back and fro.

"Hmm," Gramps rubbed the small patch of graying stubble on his chin as he mulled over his next words. I tell you, I didn't know that for an old guy that he could be a sly and cunning old man or that he could actually put me on edge, but I soon found out when he said,

"Let me ask you a few questions."

I nodded my head still laughing to myself thinking we were just having some good natured laughs and conversations; not knowing that I was being led to the slaughterhouse about to be annihilated. Then he hit me with:

"You're not pressuring my grandbaby to do anything she doesn't want to or not ready for, are you?" I swear I was throwing back a few swigs of my root beer when suddenly my previous swallowed bread suddenly came back up my throat forcing the drink down my windpipe and I began to choke at his words. I mean I coughed and gagged trying to catch my breath; trying to believe that Gramps just didn't ask me the question that I thought I heard.

He stood up and gave me a few whacks on my back and somehow I wasn't sure if he was helping or giving me a hint that he would choke the living daylights out of me if I did anything to and with Rain. I finally recovered and sat back down on my stool. I was nervous, but I decided that if her grandfather came to me with the respect of a man, I should be man enough to return the favor; no matter how scared or nervous I was.

I cleared my throat and of course I couldn't quite look at him. I mean seriously, how many guys do you know have the `sex talk' with their girlfriend's father let alone their grandfather? Talk about your generational gap.

"Well sir... I mean of-of... You see... I mean what I'm trying to say is... It's like..." I stumbled all over myself. This old dude was really cool. I mean I felt like I had been led to the waters for a nice refreshing and relaxing swim only to be dunked in the waters head-first to drown. And I was seriously drowning here, but I decided to persevere through it.

"Go ahead son, we're both men here." He encouraged me and I became even more fearful. Did he really want my honesty or was he setting me up? What would happen if it turned out to be like Zai and Nevada's situation and I get banned from seeing her? God I was scared because I wasn't sure if I could handle the situation quite as well as Zai was; and Zai wasn't handling it all too well himself.

I closed my eyes momentarily and then took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. I decided honesty was still the best way to go. God help me.

"To be honest with you sir, we have..."

The stool that he was sitting on suddenly hit the floor as he was already standing and hovering so close up over me, I could smell the garlic bread on his breath that he must have had last night. I flushed and felt the sweat beads breaking out just over the top of my forehead and under my armpits. Suddenly I grew very warm.

Why are so many elementals bothering the teen magician Radish in the prep school bathroom? Get yours:

Tales of Christmas Magic by Matt Posner illustrated by Eric Henty $FREE

Happy New Year everyone!
Thanks for posting ;-)

Writers of Young Adult fiction please promote your books here ;-)

I think the thing with YA books is that the stories carry over to almost any age. you know? if the story is appealing and well written- then usually WOMEN will like it as well (not just girls). i love ya books cause they're lighter and more fun. :)

In Dreams (The Dream Series)

In Dreams follows the story of college freshman Katherine Johns. When Katherine starts dreaming about a boy she doesn't know, her roommate Taylor is determined to find him. Convinced he must exist, Taylor is relentless... until she finds out exactly WHO the mysterious stranger really is.

The realization rocks the girls to their core and sends them down a path of unimaginable heartbreak as they learn how to navigate their new reality. Follow Katherine & Taylor's journey through love, friendship and tragedy in this emotionally captivating debut novel by J. Sterling.

Galastra (The Space Adventures of J.B.R.)

This is my debut novel for children and teens published on kindle. It is a lighthearted fantasy/sci-fi story, full of adventure and comedy, and is offered as an alternative to dark fantasy. Suitable for children and teens who like adventure and fantasy without violence and adult themes.

Summary: When thirteen year-old Beth Ryder and her widowed mother move to a new home by the sea, their lives are changed forever when they meet a friendly family of aliens from another galaxy. Beth eventually learns the amazing truth about her new friends, and her ordinary life becomes extraordinary when she and her mother are invited to live with the aliens on their magnificent starship called Galastra.

Writers of YA Fiction please promote your books here ;-)

River Dawn

RIVER DAWN: A teenage girl traveling with her family on a flooded river in the aftermath of an environmental deluge. The world is dying. Her researcher father is obsessed with his mission. But she knows that they're being followed. She can see that terrible things are going to happen.

A dystopian suspense novel for older teens and general readers.

Writers of Young Adult Fiction please promote your books here ;-)

REVIEW

A thriller and a mega-adventure in the wilds of Alaska
by Dr Benjamin Pittman
5 stars out of 5

Quote:

**********
André Jute certainly wastes no time in setting a scene and getting into the action in this one!

The psychology is intense, searing.

Jute's writing is intense, crisply good and intelligent with beautiful imagery, almost painterly, befitting the landscape and blessed with wonderful turns of phrase. Intelligence and brain power - you just gotta luv it whenever they meet head-on with brawn.

And Jute certainly knows how to build suspense as one can sense the fear of a whiteout and snow swirling into one's life like a death mantle at 120°F below zero.

This is truly a very good read. Not being able to put something aside is a pretty strong indicator for me. Need I say more?
**********

Extracts only. Read it all at IDITAROD a novel of The Greatest Race on Earth

$2.99 £1.90 €1.98