Favorite YA Debut Novels of 2014

It's the end of the year, and we are excited to share some of our favorites from 2014. First up, one fun thing about being able to read a lot of review copies is that I get to read a lot of debut authors just as their books are coming out. Here are some of my (JoLee's) favorites from 2014.

Open Road Summer by Emery Lord
This impressively fabulous debut was probably my favorite debut of the year. I loved it so much, and I can't wait to read Emery Lord's next book. (featured here)

Stray by Elissa Sussman
This twisted fairy tale with a feminist flare gives us a new take on fairy godmothers. (featured here)

The Break-Up Artist by Philip Siegel
Becca Williamson has a secret job. As the Break-Up Artist she is hired by her classmates to end relationships.The rest of the book is just as great as the premise. (featured here)

Pandemic by Yvonne Ventresca
The all-too-real story of what happens to a New Jersey girl when a deadly flu pandemic strikes while she's home alone. (featured here)

Red Rising by Pierce Brown
This book seems to be making many of my end-of-the-year lists. It's the beginning of a series with great potential. (featured here)

The Jewel by Amy Ewing
A YA The Handmaid's Tale. This is a seriously twisted dystopia. (featured here)

Pills and Starships by Lydia Millet
Lydia Millet has written a dozen novels for adults but Pills and Starships is her debut YA novel, which is how she lands on this list. I was really blown away by this book. Quiet and very thought provoking. (featured here)  

Jackaby by William Ritter
Not just a pretty cover, Jackaby is an historical urban fantasy with a crime fighting duo and a lot of quirk. I want to read about more of their cases. (feature upcoming)

The Holidays with Lady Julia

I love Deanna Raybourn's Lady Julia Grey Series, and it is a really good one if you are looking for a Holiday novel or novella. One of the novels is set during Christmas time, and Ms Raybourn has written four novellas set during traditional English holidays.

Their First Christmas Together:
Silent in the Sanctuary is just the second in the Lady Julia Grey series. In this installment, Lady Julia returns to England from Italy just in time for Christmas. Unbeknownst to her, Brisbane, whom Lady Julia had employed to discover her late husband's murderer in the earlier installment, is one of the Christmas house-guests. And, as before, their relationship is full of friction and fireworks. When someone is found murdered in the March family chapel, Brisbane and Lady Julia are forced once again to take up their discordant partnership.

This book is so much fun. I love the crazy March family. I love how Julia is just feisty enough to be a match for Brisbane. I love what Deanna Raybourn did with the old literary troupe: British house party, everyone's snowed in, someone is murdered, throw a ghost in there for good measure and let the games begins. 

Of Ms Raybourn's Lady Julia novellas, Silent Night and Twelfth Night and particularly appropriate for this time of year.

Last year I read Silent Night around Christmas time last year. The story takes place after the fifth book in the series, The Dark Enquiry, so if you haven't read all the books prepare for some serious spoilers. In the novella, Lady Julia and Brisbane (and heaps of animals) go to Bellmont Abbey for Christmas. Of course, there is a bit of a mystery. Jewels go missing, Lord Bellmont is sulking, a ghost is sighted. It's great fun, and, as I had been missing Lady Julia and Brisbane, I was happy to get a little visit with them in this novella.  

This December I read Twelfth Night. This traditional English holiday marks the coming of the Epiphany and concludes the Twelve Days of Christmas, so clearly, it is perfect for the holiday season. This time the whole March clan is gathered at Bellmont Abbey as it is customary for their family to put on the Twelfth Night Revels for their English village. I love having the whole March clan together because there is always a ruckus and a good bit of eccentricity. It was particularly fun to get to know some of Lady Julia's young nieces and nephews. The mystery this time involves an abandoned baby and a haunted cottage. 

The other two novellas in the Night Stories, Midsummer Night and Bonfire Night, are set during Midsummer Night and All Hallow's Eve. I'm putting them on my list for the seasons to come.

All reviews by JoLee.

 

Pair It With: Top Ten Clues You're Clueless and Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Christmas is just one week away! We love a seasonally appropriate read over here at Intellectual Recreation, and, with Christmas fast approaching, we have our eyes on a few wintery, Christmasy stories.

This little book was such a lovely breath of fresh air. It's Christmas Eve and Chloe has a shift at the local grocery store, GoodFoods Market. As it is bound to be a busy day, the store is fully staffed. Working along side Chloe are five other teenage employees. The workday has it's usual highs and lows. High: Tyson, Chloe's crush, is assigned to be her bagger. Low: Crashing a cart into a car trying to impress said crush. But the lowest of the low is when Chloe and the other young employees are accused of stealing the charity fund and have to stay late to talk to the police.

Top Ten Clues You're Clueless is so cute. I loved Chloe and her endless lists. Liz Czukas manages to make Chloe both adorable and dorky. Almost the entire book takes place in the grocery store, and that's actually a lot of fun. The reader gets a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of a marketplace.

Chloe has a tough time making friends and getting out of her own head. It's nice to see the group rally and open up to one another. I loved them all, snarky Sammi, know-it-all Micah, beautiful Zaina, goofball Gabe, and crush-worthy Tyson. They were kind of forced into their friendship, but that doesn't make it any less sweet. The whole book reminded me of a meme that I saw recently about the bonding that occurs when people are forced together for a long period of time.

Also, I this is just the type of Christmas story that I like best. A cute, fun contemporary with Christmas as the setting. This would definitely be a fun book to pick up this December.

Top Ten Clues You're Clueless is out December 9th, 2014. Review copy from Edelweiss.

Dash is not excited for Christmas, but at least he gets to spend the holiday alone. Lily loves Christmas, but this year, her parents are gone and her brother's preoccupied with his boyfriend and she's left with a lonely holiday. While perusing the Strand, his favorite bookstore, Dash comes a across a red notebook filled with instructions that will lead him to Lily. The two get to know each other as they pass the notebook back and forth in increasingly bizarre ways without ever actually seeing each other.

There are some really wonderful things about Dash &Lily's Book of Dares. Dash loves words, which is such a charming trait for a snarly person, and I love Lily's optimism. Rachel Cohn and David Levithan wrote this book by sending chapters back and forth in emails--something JoLee and I think of as the Letter Game and have always wanted to try. It seems like the perfect way to write a book about strangers passing a book back and forth. Unfortunately, I found much of the book to be pretty crass, enough that it was distracting and off-putting.

It was still a fun read and another book with a Christmas setting that isn't a dedicated Christmas book.

Top Ten Clues You're Clueless reviewed by JoLee.
Dash & Lily's Book of Dares reviewed by Paige.

P.S. You might also enjoy: Reading on a Theme: Winter Reads

Connections: Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay

What if Sleeping Beauty didn't live happily ever after? What if she died leaving two young children and a usurper on the throne? Stacey Jay's Princess of Thorns is the story of what comes after Sleeping Beauty's unhappy end. It's the tale of Sleeping Beauty's daughter, a fierce and resolute warrior, who will do what she must to protect her younger brother and regain her kingdom.

Ms. Jay's story uses Charles Perrault's tale as its jumping off point. In Perrault's story, Sleeping Beauty's mother-in-law is an ogress who enjoys eating children, the prince keeps his bride a secret, and Sleeping Beauty's children are named Dawn and Day. Princess of Thorns features an ogress queen who eats human souls, a king who  hides a second family, and siblings Aurora and Jor.

Aurora's somewhat reluctant ally on her quest is a prince of a neighboring kingdom, Prince Niklaas. He is searching for a way to break the curse that will turn him into a swan on his eighteenth birthday.

I really enjoyed this novel. It started a little slow for me, but as it picked up, I found myself thinking about it more and more. Aurora is feisty and headstrong. Niklaas starts out seeming overly arrogant, but it doesn't take long to realize that it's all bluster. I love when magic has consequences, and that is certainly the case with this tale. Aurora's fairy blessing was one of the most interesting parts of this tale, for me. Sure Niklaas and Aurora should be more honest with each other, but, all things considered, I can't be too hard on them. And really, I quite liked them together.

Princess of Thorns is a so many things. It's a fairytale, an epic fantasy, a love story, and an adventure. No wonder it has so many connections to other books:

While Beauty Slept and Princess of Thorns: These Sleeping Beauty spin-offs take another character's perspective--the servant and the daughter.

Daughter of the Forest and Princess of Thorns: Contain elements of The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Anderson, in which eleven princes are turned into swans by their wicked stepmother.

The Song of the Lioness and Princess of Thorns: Girls masquerading as boys!

Defy and Princess of Thorns: Warrior girls with fighting magic.

Ella Enchanted and Princess of Thorns: Is it a fairy blessing or a curse?

The Raven Cycle and Princess of Thorns:  A girl whose kisses are cursed.
 
Stacey Jay takes all these well-known elements, gives them a twist, and transforms them into some fresh and new. 

Princess of Thorns is out December 9th, 2014. Review copy from NetGalley.

Reading on a Theme: Young Musicians

This post was inspired by Jaye Robin Brown's debut novel, which is out today. No Place to Fall is the story of Amber and her clear, high voice. I gathered some other young musicians to welcome Amber. These girls are a talented bunch with dreams and aspirations of the musical kind.

Ukelele Love:

All aspiring songwriter Minerva Watson wanted for her birthday was a ukelele. Instead she got an ugly sweater and a mysterious package from the father she thought abandoned her years ago. This information is just too much to deal with right now, so Minerva pushes it to the back of her mind where it can fester. Besides Minerva has other pressing problems, like getting a job at Get Happy so she can buy herself that ukelele. From the moment I started it, I could tell I was going to enjoy Get Happy. Minerva has a fresh voice, and her friends Fin and Hayes are spunky and quirky and full of "vim and vigor." Mary Amato perfectly balances the tough stuff with the lighthearted. Review copy from Edelweiss.

Bluegrass Vocals:

Amber Vaughn lives in a small town in the hills of North Carolina. Her world is small and times are tough, but she has a voice that soars if only she could figure out a way to let it fly. Jaye Robin Brown's debut novel is every kind of lovely. I read it in two sittings. I couldn't help but feel for Amber and wish she didn't have it quite so hard. Amber makes some poor choices, and, although they are mostly mistakes of the heart, all choices have consequences. And that writing! I feel like I know exactly what Amber's singing voice sounds like, and that blows me away. But most of all, Will. Oh, I loved Will. I loved imagining Amber and Will singing together while Will plays the banjo. No Place to Fall is out December 9th, 2014. Review copy from Edelweiss.

Classical Cellist:
If I Stay was made into a major motion picture this summer. The trailer alone had me in tears, so I'm eager to see it from the safety of my own home when I'm in the mood for a good cry. Mia is a cellist with big plans. She has a loving family, a devoted best friend, and a great boyfriend. Then Mia's family is involved in a serious automobile accident, leaving Mia in a coma. From her coma Mia must decide whether to live or die as she slowly discovers want has happened to her and her family. I really love how Gayle Forman's book jumps back and forth in time, allowing the reader to really get to know Mia and wonder her family, adopted family, and friends.  

Second Chair Clarinetist:
Lennie's vibrant, gorgeous, and full-of-life sister Bailey is dead. And Lennie (short for Lennon) is lost. Left by their wanderlusting mother to be raised by their grandmother and their Uncle Big, the two needed one another even more than most sisters do. With Bailey gone Lennie finds herself getting involved with two boys, Toby, her sister's boyfriend, and Joe, the new kid in town, as she wallows and tries to pull the pieces of her life back together. Jandy Nelson sure can write. The Sky is Everywhere is poignant, and Lennie's growth is measurable. The supporting characters are just as fully formed as Lennie herself. I especially enjoyed that Lennie, a clarinetist, and Joe, a guitarist, are band geeks. 

Aspiring Pop Star and Pianist:
Road to Somewhere stars two musical sisters. Charlie is the singer and Lucy is the pianist. Lucy is along for the ride on a road trip with Charlie and her friends. The goal is a singing competition in L.A., but, along the way, they visit Charlie and Lucy's grandparent's ranch in Texas. I've never really been into ranches or Texas or cowboys, but Kelley Lynn and Jenny S. Morris  manage to make all those things incredibly attractive. This story is a lot of fun, but it also has some meat to it. Charlie and Lucy are full of insecurities. They have an overbearing father which makes finding themselves doubly difficult. They feel pitted against one another but long for a deep bond of love and sisterhood.  Review copy from NetGalley.

All reviews by JoLee.

Reading on a Theme: Mythologies in the Modern World

We are particularly fond of this week's Reading on a Theme. We love mythology, and it's so much fun when an author melds the mythology of the ancients with the modern world.

7 Pantheons of Ancient Gods:
Kyra Locke can hardly remember what life was like before the gods awoke and the Trickster Council was established, but the gods never played an active role in her life until today. There are seven different pantheons of gods featured in The Woken Gods, which makes it unique from the other mythologies in the modern world featured in this post. I enjoyed learning about some of the more obscure pantheons that I know very little about.  While I found the writing to be a bit awkward in some places, Gwenda Bond created a vivid world with complex characters, and I hope she writes more books in this world. Review copy from NetGalley.
 

Greek:
Gretchen is a huntress, a descendant of Medusa whose job it is to kill the monsters that come into the mortal world. The rules, however, are changing and all the changes seem to coincide with the arrival of Grace, a girl who looks just like Gretchen, in San Francisco. I loved Tera Lynn Childs' revamped mythology of Medusa and her sisters and the work they left their descendants.  Sweet Venom is chalked full of characters, information, and mysteries, but it moved a little slow for me. I felt like the whole book was exposition. I am looking forward to having the mysteries solved in the next installment.  

Roman:
In The Lost Hero, Rick Riordan brings back the world we came to love in the Percy Jackson Series. In The Lost Hero we meet Jason, Piper, and Leo. I liked them all, especially Leo, who was the funny-man but also smart and super essential to the success of the quest. I liked how the book rotates between the three characters and yet stays in the third person. And Colorado Springs, my hometown, makes an appearance. Finally, I'm so pleased that Rick Riordan points out the difference between the Greek and Roman gods. New names and new personalities. I don't think I had a teacher who explained that until my classic mythology professor in college. That's why it's nice to read a book written by an (former) educator.

Norse:
Tessa Gratton's newest book in The United States of Asgard series follows Signy Valborn, who was chosen by Odin the Alfather himself to be a Valkyrie when she was a child. Now grown, she must solve a riddle before she can take her place on the Valkyrie counsel. Signy is a passionate character. She embraces Odin's madness and has a violent streak to her. She is ambitious and eager to bring back the old ways. The writing itself is beautiful, and I love how Tessa Gratton combines the poetry and myth of old with a modern society. In this book, the tale of Beowulf and those of the ancient Valkyrie are mirrored in the modern setting. It's a really lovely construction. I'll definitely continue reading this series. Review copy from NetGalley.
 

Indian:
Tiger's Curse is the first book in Collen's Houck's The Tiger Saga. While working at a circus in Oregon, Kelsey Hayes grows attached to a white tiger, and she goes with him when he is shipped back to India. There she learns the tiger is not a beast but a cursed 300-year-old prince. The prince, Ren, and his faithful man-at-arms believe Kelsey is the key to breaking the curse. Thus begins a journey through the jungles of India. Kelsey and Ren come face-to-face with Hindu gods and travel through Indiana Jones-like temples. Along the way, they fall in love, but Kelsey's immaturity concerning the relationship put a serious damper on what should have been a swashbuckling adventure.
 

The Woken Gods and Sweet Venom reviewed by Paige.
The Lost Hero, The Strange Maid, and Tiger's Curse reviewed by JoLee.