#ntbf17

[twirlywrites]

Just the @quainiac and @speasyspice highlights from #ntbf17 😂 (at Washington-Lee High School)

[bigandbookish]

Is anyone else going to NovaTeen this year??

[novateenbookfestival]

Lisa Maxwell is the author of Sweet Unrest, Gathering Deep, and Unhooked. When she's not writing books, she's an English professor at a local college. She lives near DC with her very patient husband and two not-so patient boys.

About the Book:

For as long as she can remember, Gwendolyn Allister has never had a place to call home. Her mother believes they are being hunted by brutal monsters, and those delusions have brought them to London, far from the life Gwen had finally started to build for herself. Gwen’s only saving grace is that her best friend, Olivia, is with her for the summer. But shortly after their arrival, the girls are kidnapped by shadowy creatures and dragged into a world of flesh-eating sea hags and dangerous Fey. And Gwen begins to realize that maybe her mother isn’t so crazy after all… Gwen discovers that this new world she inhabits is called Neverland, but it’s nothing like the Neverland you’ve heard about in stories. Here, good and evil lose their meaning and memories slip like water through your fingers. As Gwen struggles to remember where she came from and tries to find a way home, she must choose between trusting the charming fairy-tale hero who says all the right things and the captivating pirate who promises to keep her safe. Caught in the ultimate battle between good and evil, with time running out and her enemies closing in, Gwen is forced to finally face the truths she’s been hiding from all along. But can she save Neverland without losing herself?

[novateenbookfestival]

Mom of four, a practicing geek, a holder of many opinions (which she’s more than happy to share with you—really, just ask). She earned my MFA from Columbia University. She lives with my husband and merry band of misfits in Arlington, VA.

About the Book:

In the wake of an experimental procedure that almost wiped out her memory forever, Angel has a chance for a fresh start. She’s recovered most of her memories, rebuilt her physical strength, and reunited with her boyfriend, Thomas. But her Velocius abilities—capacities for superhuman mental power— linger in her brain and put her life in jeopardy. And just when Angel is starting to feel comfortable with her new life, Thomas is kidnapped.

Someone is trying to track down secret data about the memory-altering program Angel escaped—and they mistakenly believe Thomas has that data. To save Thomas, Angel must find the missing information. But to recover it, she may need to access long-buried memories—or tap into her dangerous Velocius abilities. With Thomas’s life and perhaps her own in danger, Angel races to unravel a new layer of the mystery surrounding her past and stay one step ahead of her enemies.

[novateenbookfestival]

Jodi Meadows wants to be a ferret when she grows up and she has no self-control when it comes to yarn, ink, or outer space. Still, she manages to write books. She is the author of the INCARNATE Trilogy, the ORPHAN QUEEN Duology, and the FALLEN ISLES Trilogy (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen), and a coauthor of MY LADY JANE (HarperTeen). Visit her at www.jodimeadows.com

About the Book:

In the tradition of The Princess Bride comes a fantastical, romantical, hilarious(ical) adventure, inspired by the true story of Lady Jane Grey.

Lady Jane Grey, sixteen, is about to be married to a stranger—and caught up in a conspiracy to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But Jane doesn’t have to worry about those little problems. Jane gets to be Queen of England. At least until she loses her head. In My Lady Jane, coauthors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows have created a one-of-a-kind fantasy featuring a reluctant king, an even more reluctant queen, a noble steed, true love, and only a passing resemblance to actual history—because sometimes history needs a little help.

[novateenbookfestival]

Katie was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan. She is the author of the Pushing the Limits and Thunder Road series.

About the Book:

One moment of recklessness will change their worlds.

Smart. Responsible. That's seventeen-year-old Breanna's role in her large family, and heaven forbid she put a toe out of line. Until one night of shockingly un-Breanna-like behavior puts her into a vicious cyber-bully's line of fire—and brings fellow senior Thomas "Razor" Turner into her life. Razor lives for the Reign of Terror motorcycle club, and good girls like Breanna just don't belong. 

But when he learns she's being blackmailed over a compromising picture of the two of them—a picture that turns one unexpected and beautiful moment into ugliness—he knows it's time to step outside the rules. And so they make a pact: he'll help her track down her blackmailer, and in return she'll help him seek answers to the mystery that's haunted him—one that not even his club brothers have been willing to discuss. But the more time they spend together, the more their feelings grow. And suddenly they're both walking the edge of discovering who they really are, what they want, and where they're going from here.

[novateenbookfestival]

Jaye Robin Brown, or Jro to her friends, has been many things in her life--jeweler, mediator, high school art teacher--but recently she's taken the plunge into full-time writer life. She's a Southerner at heart, by way of Alabama, then Atlanta, and for many years just outside of Asheville, but now she's moved north for a bit of city living. Boston baby! And though she'd like to think brownstones might find a way into her fiction, she figures kudzu will always be what comes to her imagination first. Her debut young adult novel, No Place to Fall, came out in the fall of 2014 from Harper Teen.

About the Book:

Joanna meets the perfect girl for her and must decide whether to break a promise that could change everything for her and her family or lose out on love in this charming young adult romance that’s perfect for fans of Julie Murphy’s Dumplin’ and Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. 

Joanna Gordon has been out and proud for years, but when her popular radio evangelist father remarries and decides to move all three of them from Atlanta to the more conservative Rome, Georgia, he asks Jo to do the impossible: to lie low for the rest of her senior year. And Jo reluctantly agrees. Although it is (mostly) much easier for Jo to fit in as a straight girl, things get complicated when she meets Mary Carlson, the oh-so-tempting sister of her new friend at school. But Jo couldn’t possibly think of breaking her promise to her dad. Even if she’s starting to fall for the girl. Even if there’s a chance Mary Carlson might be interested in her, too. 

[novateenbookfestival]

Brendan Kiely received an MFA in creative writing from The City College of New York.  His debut novel, The Gospel of Winter, has been published in ten languages, it was selected as one of American Library Association’s Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults 2015, and it was a Kirkus Reviews selection for best of 2014. He is the coauthor, with Jason Reynolds, of the Coretta Scott King Author Honor Award winning All American Boys. Originally from the Boston area, he now lives with his wife in Greenwich Village.

ABOUT THE BOOK: 

The point of living is learning how to love. 

That’s what Gpa says. To Hendrix and Corrina, both seventeen but otherwise alike only in their loneliness, that sounds like another line from a pop song that tries to promise kids that life doesn’t actually suck. Okay, so: love. Sure. The thing about Corrina—her adoptive parents are suffocating, trying to mold her into someone acceptable, predictable, like them. She’s a musician, itching for any chance to escape, become the person she really wants to be. Whoever that is. And Hendrix, he’s cool. Kind of a poet. But also kind of lost. His dad is dead and his mom is married to her job. Gpa is his only real family, but he’s fading fast from Alzheimer’s. 

Looking for any way to help the man who raised him, Hendrix has made Gpa an impossible promise—that he’ll get him back east to the hill where he first kissed his wife, before his illness wipes away all memory of her. One hot July night, Hendrix and Corrina decide to risk everything. They steal a car, spring Gpa from his assisted living facility, stuff Old Humper the dog into the back seat, and take off on a cross-country odyssey from LA to NY. With their parents, Gpa’s doctors, and the police all hot on their heels, Hendrix and Corrina set off to discover for themselves if what Gpa says is true—that the only stories that last are love stories.