top 10 most frequently challenged books in 2009

Do you want to know more about Banned Books? ALA (American Library Association) has information on how books are banned, how to research banned books, and how to report a book that is being challenged all right here. You can also find free downloads on yearly banned books.

Here are the top 10 most frequently books challenged in 2009:

1. ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: drugs, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

2. And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: homosexuality

3. The Perks of Being A Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: anti-family, drugs, homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited to age group

4. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Reasons: offensive language, racism, unsuited to age group

5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

6. Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

7. My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult
Reasons: homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence

8. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

9. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

10. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
Reasons: nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

I READ BANNED BOOKS.

DO YOU?

Banned Books Week

That's right, YA Freshers, the last week of September is the time to celebrate Banned Books Week! Every year, literature is challenged in one form or another. Some are shouted from the hill tops and others not detected at all. So now is your week to celebrate your freedom to read!

Find out more about it at the Random House website by clicking here!

September Randomly Fresh Winner!

Thank you all again for commenting each month! Our Random Giveaways are just our way of saying thanks for visiting YA Fresh!!

So the winner for September's Randomly Fresh Giveaway is...

brendajean winning The Ruby Notebook!!
Congrats! Please send me your mailing info at KellyParra AT Earthlink DOT net.

Thanks Everyone, have a great week!

Totally Randomly Fresh September!

It's that time again...

Totally Randomly Fresh Giveaway!!!!

The rules?

You must have commented on YA Fresh during the month of September 2010. (Yes, I will check. I'm a stinker like that ;))

Here are your choice of books . . .

So, just leave a comment with the book you'd like to read if you were a YA Fresher for September . Thanks and good luck!!!

Chatting with Marley Gibson

Two weeks ago we talked about the book launch of Ghost Huntress: The Counseling by Marley Gibson, and how it is the fourth installment in the acclaimed Ghost Huntress series.

Today, Marley has graciously agreed to chat with us, to tell us about that book and other things going on in her busy life...

Hey, Marley! Thanks for being with us. Could you please tell us a little about your writing background and how you made your first sale?

I've been writing as long as I can remember. Don't all writers use that as their answer? LOL! It's seriously true, though. I remember writing short stories in crayon as a little kid and then "auctioning" them off to my family. Recently, my sister said to me, "I never understood why we had to pay you for your stories." I guess I was preparing myself for the world of publishing. I wrote all through high school, even penned a teenage romance then, and wrote all through college. In 2001, I decided to finally quit TALKING about writing a book and just do it. I had a really bad agent (sorry) for two and a half years and then I found my really awesome agent who totally understood me, my characters, my voice, etc. Within six months of signing with her, I had my first deal which was starting off the SORORITY 101 series. The publisher came to my agent asking if they had a writer with sorority experience and my agent knew my background and abilities well enough that she pitched me. I did the first two books in the series under the name Kate Harmon. A year later, she sold my GHOST HUNTRESS series.

Great! Readers and writers often like to get a behind the scenes peek of an author's writing routine. It would be great if you could please share your typical writing day schedule.

I'll admit that I don't write every day. However, I *think* about writing every day. I'm constantly plotting and planning and creating characters and dialogue in my head. I really have to let a story stew for a while -- sorry, it's the foodie in me making the analogy -- to make sure all of the ingredients are there before I can start putting words to paper. When I am writing, or what I call "the blood fever," then I will sit with the headphones on cranking out House/Trance/Dance music and totally escape into my world I'm creating. I type wicked fast (like 100 wpm) so I can get out about 1,500 words in an hour. I just try to dump everything out the best I can and then I go back and re-read and polish, add things, strengthen, tighten, etc. I've gotten to the point where I'm a first draft writer -- but that was after years of practice and many completed manuscripts that went through several adaptations before completion. Everyone's different, but this is what works for me.

I’m a crazy-fast typist, too, although the days of me hitting 100 wpm are probably behind me! Anyway, please tell us now about your novel, GHOST HUNTRESS: THE COUNSELING, and what we can expect from your characters.

Well, GHOST HUNTRESS: THE COUNSELING picks up after book three, THE REASON, where Kendall finds out who her spirit guide, Emily, really is. In an attempt to help Kendall find herself and her identity, her parents send her to an Enlightened Youth Retreat in the Sierras in California. There she meets a new cast of characters who are "gifted" just like she is. There, they work with counselors to discuss their feelings, senses, abilities, etc., and realize that they're not alone in this awakening world. Of course, Kendall meets an adorable, yet troubled guy, Patrick Lynn, who is struggling with not only his own awakening, but his connection with Kendall. Together, they team up to help the trapped spirit of a young woman who was murdered. All of the teens join together to solve this cold case...just as Kendall is accepting who she really is.

What's up next? Do you have another project in the works?

Well....I do have stuff in the works. My agent has a few proposals out there and I'm just waiting to hear. I love writing, creating characters and situations, and I love entertaining people. My fans have been great and really get into the GHOST HUNTRESS books. I hope people will keep writing and letting me know what they think. I love that this is my "full-time" job and that I'm doing what I've always wanted to do. And that's write!

Thanks! Would you like to close with a writing tip?

The best writing tip I can give....is if you want to be a writer then just DO IT. So many people ask me how to get published and what did I do and what can they do and all I can really say is...write. Write. Write. Oh yeah, and write. You can't get published if you haven't written anything. Having a great idea for a book is awesome, but if you don't flesh it out into a tangible product, then it doesn't matter. Write it. Even if it's horrible. Write it. Get it out of you and onto the computer. Just. Do. It.

Yep, I couldn’t agree more! Thanks for visiting with us, Marley!

Thanks for having me!! = )

Our Forgive My Fins Winner!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest to win a signed copy of Forgive My Fins by Tera Lynn Childs! I loved all the responses--that Mrs. Ferraro is one busy lady!--but my random number generator chose:

MANNAB

as our winner! So MannaB, if you would contact me at admin@tinaferraro.com, I'll get that book in the mail to you!

And everyone, please keep checking back in with us because we have LOTS of contests and giveaways!

Forgive My Fins Giveaway

Please welcome fellow young adult author and friend, Tera Lynn Childs, to YA Fresh! She has been nice enough to chat with us about her career and newest book--and to offer up a signed, hardcover copy of that release, Forgive My Fins, to one commenter. So let's get started!

Could you please tell us a little about your writing background and how you made your first sale?

My first sale came after writing seriously for about three years. When I sold Oh. My. Gods. it was my fourth complete manuscript and, after tons of agent rejections on my previous projects and then a bunch of editor rejections on this one, we finally found the right editor at the right house at the right time. I was in Florida, driving to a movie, when my agent called. "You're driving?" she gasped. "Don't be driving!"

Too funny! Now, readers and writers often like to get a behind the scenes peek of an author's writing routine. It would be great if you could please share your typical writing day schedule.

My writing schedule varies pretty widely, depending on how far away my deadline is. But, assuming it's getting close and I'm being more productive than usual, it goes something like this: Get up, splash face, get dressed, grab bag o' writing goodies. Bag contains Alphasmart, project notebook, and a collection of pens, pencils, post-its, markers, and highlighters. I head to the nearest friendly coffee shop, get a weather-appropriate beverage, and scout out a comfy chair. I write with the beverage at my side, the alphasmart on my lap, and the earbuds blasting my latest playlist. I'll write or revise for anywhere from two to six hours, until my brain melts.

Please tell us about your novel, Forgive My Fins, and what we can expect from your characters.

Forgive My Fins is the story of Lily Sanderson, a half-mermaid princess who goes to high school on the mainland. After discovering her mother was human, she comes onto land to live with her aunt and find out more about the human world. She finds herself seriously crushing on the school's swim star, Brody, but her every effort to tell him how she feels gets thwarted by her biker boy neighbor, Quince. There's a case of mistaken identity, a magical kiss, a trip to an underwater kingdom, and lots of splashy good fun.

What's up next? Do you have another project in the works? If so, please tell us about it.

Oh yes! First up will be the sequel to Forgive My Fins, called Fins Are Forever. That will be out next summer (June 28) and will pick up right where the first book leaves off. Then, starting next fall, I have a new trilogy about triplet descendants of Medusa who discover it's their destiny to guard the door between the world of monsters and that of man. It's kind of Charmed meets Buffy meets mythology.

Sounds wonderful. Now, would you like to close with a writing tip?

Besides reading lots and writing lots, the single best thing an aspiring writer can do is finish the book. I know all about BADD (Book Attention Deficit Disorder) and the lure of shiny new ideas that seem so much better than the crappy one in progress. But finishing that book is critical for three reasons: 1) to prove to yourself that you can, 2) to realize that it's not so crappy after all, and 3) to have the chance to revise it and learn how to make your writing better on the first try next time.

I couldn't agree more...and thanks, Tera, for chatting with us!

Now, before I explain about the contest, a fun aspect of this book for me is that there is a character named (a-hem) Mrs. Ferraro. And this is no coincidence. Tera named her Mrs. Ferraro as a gift to me. So although there IS a right answer to the following question, let’s forget that for now and just have fun guessing.

Who is Mrs. Ferraro in Forgive My Fins? A crazy cat lady? A lovely mermaid? A dentist?

Make something up!

The winner will be chosen at random from those comments and announced on Monday! Good luck!

A New Contemp Group in Blog Town!

Have you heard of the new cool new blog--The Contemps??

Twenty-one authors have banded together to put real life in the spotlight and to keep readers up-to-date on the latest in contemporary young adult fiction.

Very fresh!!!

Here's a little about them:

“The Contemps” officially launched on August 17 with a mission to help teens, booksellers, librarians and publishers connect with books that feature real-life settings, characters and situations. The group ranges from debuts to veterans with several titles on the shelves, and all have new releases coming out between September 2010 and August 2011. They hope to not just build buzz for members’ books, but to create excitement and appreciation for the contemporary realistic genre in general.

That means that The Contemps’ corner of the web (www.thecontemps.com) will be a little more self-disclosey than others. A number of activities are planned, including sharing from the authors’ own teenage years, giveaways, spotlighting other contemporary realistic authors, and multi-author events. You might find a few naughty words thrown in (right next to the shiny clean ones). There may be stories about hanging out, making out, parents, best friends, sexuality, homework, high school bloopers, teachers, bullies, racism, parties, and pop culture. Look for some odd and lively mash-ups!

The members are: Brent Crawford, Hannah Harrington, April Henry, Kirsten Hubbard, Denise Jaden, Kody Keplinger, Jo Knowles, Lindsey Leavitt, Sarah Darer Littman, Michael Northrop, Sarah Ockler, Micol Ostow, Lisa Schroeder, Elizabeth Scott, Mindi Scott, Emily Wing Smith, Courtney Summers, Kristen Tracy, Melissa Walker, Sara Bennett Wealer, and Daisy Whitney.

Sounds like an awesome group! Check out these YA Contemps today!!

What's Fresh with Lucienne Diver's ReVamped!

The fanged fabulousity of Vamped, FLUX's fastest-selling new release, is back!

Gina's Rules for Surviving Super Spy Club Training:
1. First, the dirt and sweat are just too horrible to contemplate.
2. Unless you enjoy cold showers, be the first one to the bathroom in the morning.
3. Cargo pants make you look hip-py.
4. Making out on missions, unless it's part of your cover, is totally grounds for extra push-ups.
5. When going goth, you've totally got to strike words like totally, awesome, and phat from your vocabulary.
6. Who's actually running the Super Spy Club, you ask? I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

Hello, Lucienne, great to chat with you! Could you please tell us a little about your writing background and how you made your first sale?

Lucienne: My very first sale was a short story called “The Problem with Piskies.” It was published in the final issue of the webzine Quantum Barbarian, and I think posted for all of two weeks before the site came down. I’ve since made it available for free here. I wonder how it holds up…hmm, come to think of it, I should probably have read it over before offering up the link. Anyway, the boys in Piskies, Vic and Bob, have a sequel, “Imaginary Fiend” in the Strip-Mauled anthology edited by Esther Friesner, only there I use my own name. I started under a pseudonym, because I didn’t want the fact that I’m also a literary agent to influence anyone’s thinking about my work, either editors or readers. I also didn’t want any of my authors concerned that my focus was elsewhere. I truly love my authors, as they can probably attest! Don’t want to worry them.

Readers and writers often like to get a behind the scenes peek of an author's writing routine. It would be great if you could please share your typical writing day schedule.

Lucienne: I wake up at 6 a.m., grab coffee (usually iced), a pen and a notebook, kick my husband out of bed and write for an hour. Then, I may go back to sleep for a bit before I wake up again, shower and start my day. Generally I’ll type in what I wrote on my lunch “hour” (quotes because I hardly ever take it) or in the evening, editing as I go. This goes for weekends as well, though I let myself sleep in then. Once I approach those awe-inspiring words “The End” the writing’s going fast and furious, and I’m all but consumed. Then I might write in the evenings as well as the mornings, putting out four to six pages a day as opposed to my regular two. However, this rush often means way more revision required in this section.

Please tell us about your latest novel ReVamped and what we can expect from your characters.

Lucienne: Thanks for asking! The new novel is ReVamped and is out this month from Flux Books. I’m really excited about it, although it seems so odd to take credit for the book when my main character—diva that she is—already claims responsibility. She’s even started her own blog to keep attention focused right where it should be—on her: http://ginasgems.livejournal.com.

To sum up her series:

In Vamped, Gina and her minions defeated a vampire vixen, a psycho-psychic and the vampire council of Mozulla, Ohio. Gina was all ready to expose vampires to the world in all their fanged fabulosity…until the Feds arrived to sweep everything under the rug and make them an offer they couldn’t refuse.

In ReVamped, Gina and her boyfriend Bobby are sent undercover to infiltrate a New York high school where some seriously weird stuff is going down. Worse than that, Gina’s new super-secret identity is as goth-girl Geneva Belfry. No color palette to speak of. More chains than a bike rack. And don't even get her started on the shoes. At least she won’t be too worried about blood spatter when kicking the butt of her newest nemesis, who’s decided that the high school makes a perfect playground.

Flux has already contracted me for her next two adventures as well.

What's up next? Do you have another project in the works? If so, please tell us about it.

Lucienne: I do, but I don’t, which is to say that I haven’t decided which of the ideas calling to me I’m going to play around with before I have to get serious and work on the fourth *Vamped* book. (The third, *Fangtastic*, has already been turned in.) The choice is between a fun middle grade involving magic and myths in modern day or a dark, suspenseful young adult without a whiff of the paranormal. Decisions, decisions…. Anyone want to help me out here by chiming in?

Thanks for sharing with us, Lucienne, and best of luck with your series!! Would you like to close with a writing tip?

Lucienne: It all sounds very zen, but if you quiet your mind, you can hear your characters speaking through you and your own voice doesn’t get in the way. I think that’s why I write at 6 a.m. My inner editor is still asleep, my inner agent still needs at least another cup of coffee to be coherent, and the only folks truly stirring are my characters, always waiting in the wings
for their chance to be heard.

Lucienne Diver is a writer by night and a literary agent by day. Visit her website, www.luciennediver.com.

What's Fresh with Kristina Springer's My Fake Boyfriend is Better Than Yours

Seventh grade was supposed to be fun, but Tori is having major drama with her BFF, Sienna. Sienna changed a lot over the summer—on the first day of school she’s tan, confident, and full of stories about her new dreamy boyfriend. Tori knows that she’s totally making this guy up. So Tori invents her own fake boyfriend, who is better than Sienna’s in every way. Things are going great—unless you count the whole lying-to-your-best-friend thing—until everyone insists Tori and Sienna bring their boyfriends to the back-to-school dance.

Hello Kristina, it's great to chat with you on YA Fresh! Could you please tell us a little about your writing background and how you made your first sale?

Kristina: I have a Masters in Writing from Depaul University and I was a technical writer and also taught technical writing at DePaul. I started writing young adult fiction about five years ago. The Espressologist was the second book I ever wrote (first sold) and a few weeks after getting an agent the book went to auction and I got a two-book deal with Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Readers and writers often like to get a behind the scenes peek of an author's writing routine. It would be great if you could please share your typical writing day schedule.

Kristina: I don’t have a set schedule. I write whenever and however I can squeeze time in. I have four kids 7 and under so this is usually a couple of hours at night here and there.

Please tell us about your latest novel My Fake Boyfriend is Better Than Yours and what we can expect from your characters.

Kristina: My Fake Boyfriend is Better Than Yours

Friendship can be hard sometimes, but so far in seventh grade, Tori Barnes’s BFF, Sienna Baker, is making life downright impossible. Forced into making up a boyfriend to rival Sienna’s, Tori is soon entangled in a whole mess of lies, and she knows that only the truth can fix things.

Available August 31, 2010 from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

What's up next? Do you have another project in the works? If so, please tell us about it.

Kristina: My fall 2011 book is tentatively titled Pumpkin Princess. It's about a 17-year-old girl named Jamie Edwards who has loved growing up on her family’s pumpkin patch in Average, IL, and has always dreamed of one day being the town’s Pumpkin Princess at the annual Pumpkin Festival. Her rich and famous cousin, Milan Woods, comes to town and turns Jamie's world upside down though. Jamie knows she has to expose Milan for who she really is and teach her that life’s not all pumpkins and apple butter at the patch.

Best of luck, Kristina! Would you like to close with a writing tip?

Kristina: Keep at it—don’t let the rejections deter you.

Kristina Springer is the author of THE ESPRESSOLOGIST, MY FAKE BOYFRIEND IS BETTER THAN YOURS and the forthcoming PUMPKIN PRINCESS (fall 2011). She has a Masters in Writing from DePaul University and she resides outside of Chicago with her husband and children. Visit her at www.KristinaSpringer.com.

Ghost Huntress: The Counseling

The fourth installment of Marley Gibson's popular GHOST HUNTRESS series,
THE COUNSELING, has hit bookstores! It finds heroine, Kendall Moorehead at a crossroads. Kendall has just discovered who her spirit guide really is, lost her boyfriend, and nearly died doing the thing she loves most–ghost hunting. It’s time to take a break and try to reconcile all the changes she’s going through. So Kendall heads to the Sierra Mountains, where there’s a camp especially for young people with gifts such as hers. It’s a time for reflection and self-discovery. But when she gets to California, she once again finds restless spirits–and the boy in her last vision. It may be the end of one chapter of her life and the beginning of a new one...

A lifelong paranormal enthusiast, Marley has investigated haunts throughout the USA, including Rolling Hills Sanitarium, Waverly Hills Sanatorium, The Sprague Mansion, The Houghton Mansion, The Stanley Hotel, and the Queen Mary, alongside well-known paranormal celebrities like Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson, Patrick Burns, Chris Fleming, John Zaffis, Shannon Sylvia, Chip Coffey, Stacey Jones, Mark and Debby Constantino, Tiffany Johnson.

Her publishing credits include “Ghost Huntress: The Awakening,” “Ghost Huntress: The Guidance,” and “Ghost Huntress: The Reason.” The next titles in the series “Ghost Huntress: The Counseling” and “Ghost Huntress: The Discovery” will be released in September of 2010 and May 2011 respectively. She has also co-authored a teen ghost hunting how-to guide entitled “The Other Side: A Teen’s Guide to Ghost Hunting and the Paranormal” with Patrick Burns and Dave Schrader, and is also the co-author of the wildly successful “Christmas Miracles,” written with Cecil Murphey, from St. Martin’s Press.

And all that said, Marley is a super-fun person to spend time with. And if you need cooking advice (as I often do), she's your go-to gal! Congrats to Marley on this new release, and we hope to have her visit for an interview soon!

Gift Card Winners!

We had a lot of fun discussing great summer reads, and thanks to all the authors who participated--as well as the readers who joined us and commented.

As promised, I used my "random number generator" to pick two winners, each to receive a ten dollar e-certificate to Amazon.com. And those two winners are:

SHARI GREEN

and

DONNA S!

Ladies, if you will please e-mail me at admin@tinaferraro.com, we'll take the next steps to get you those gift certificates.

Have a great week, everyone!

Author Round-Up/Giveaway!

As summer is winding to a close, I thought it would be fun to ask some of our YA Fresh author friends (who have joined us here recently) to tell us about a book they’ve recently read and loved.


So here we go, in no particular order:

Kelly Parra: "This summer I revisited one of my favorites...This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen. It's no secret I love a tough-girl story with a unique boy who softens her up. Add this one to your reading--or REreading--list for an awesome summer read!"

Kay Cassidy: “Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer is amazing. The heroine is so relatable, and the things she faces made me question everything from survival strategies in our technology-dependent world to what family really means. I went around for weeks afterward worrying that we didn't have enough supplies in our pantry. It's that kind of extraordinary read."

Wendy Toliver: “One book I really enjoyed reading this summer was Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. It's a thrilling and unpredictable story of forbidden love between a teenaged girl and a fallen angel. I enjoyed it so much I wrote her a fan email and found out she lives where I used to live. So when I was driving through there this summer she was kind enough to meet up with me and we had a marvelous time together."

Inara Scott: “I would like to recommend Flash Burnout by LK Madigan. Why I liked it? A completely real male protagonist that I adored; a bit of mystery; and absolutely phenomenal writing.”

Jessica Brody: “The Espressologist by Kristina Springer. Although I love a good vampire or ‘the world is ending’ book as much as the next person, sometimes you're in the mood for something light and uplifting, rather than dark and suspenseful. Especially on a warm summer day by the pool! This book totally did the trick for me! It was one of the most adorable books I've ever read, about a barista who plays matchmaker based on people's coffee drinks! Short and sweet and left me smiling. :)"

Amy Goldman Koss: "I LOVE the character Billy Bloom in Freak Show by James St. James. The plot is only so-so, and the conclusion doesn't ring true, but the main character Billy (a teen drag-queen) is BRILLIANTLY written. He's TOUCHING and BRAVE and STUPID and UNIQUE and FUNNY and REAL and WONDERFUL. To read him is to love him."

Stephanie Hale: "My favorite book this summer was The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting. I could NOT put this book down, yet I never wanted it to end. The main character Violet can sense the echoes of people who were murdered and can also pick up imprints on their killer. It was so suspenseful! It also had a very sweet love story to balance out the morbidness of Violet's hidden ability."

Swati Avasthi: “Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. In addition to the strong voices and interesting story, I thought the emphasis on friendship and how that sees you through high school was a seldom-discussed theme, especially for lit for guys. And I thought that the way that each Will Grayson saw Tiny Dancer was fabulous; what a great way to round a character.”

Holly Cupala: "It's been such a terrific year for YA, it's impossible to choose just one…but I really enjoyed Holly Schindler's debut novel, A Blue So Dark. Holly’s voice is as sharp as an ice pick, her observations astute and often very, very funny. It’s a moving portrait of a girl letting go of her past and discovering her gifts."

Tera Lynn Childs: “Firelight by Sophie Jordan! It's a breathtaking, ill-fated romance between a girl descended from dragons and the boy whose family hunts her kind. There are all the elements that make it a keeper for me: desperate romance, heart-pounding action, danger, sacrifice, and a beautifully-developed world that will leave you wondering whether there might be a draki living next door."

Tina Ferraro: “I had to force myself to put down A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass--so that it wouldn’t end. I was drawn in from its truly original prologue as the main character uses colored chalk to solve a math problem to its beautiful conclusion that had me tearing up. I passed it along to two teens, one with an interest in psychology, the other math, and both were equally amazed, proving to me the wide range of this novel. Wonderful.”

Okay, so starting NOW, please leave a comment about one of these books and why you'd like to read it, and be entered to win a $10.00 Amazon electronic gift certificate. (All of these recommended books are selling new on Amazon.com, with most well under $10.00.) I’ll randomly pick two winners! Check back on Monday to see the winners!

Fun With Gena Showalter!

Gena Showalter’s YA series, Intertwined, featuring paranormal magnet Aden Stone, continues this September with UNRAVELED. To celebrate her new release, Gena and her author BFFs are hosting a 4-day scavenger hunt on their blogs; including this one!

Three grand prize winners will each win a $100 Visa gift card, plus Gena’s giving away signed copies of UNRAVELED to five lucky runner-ups! All you have to do is find all eight letters, unscramble them and email the word to Contests(AT)KnightAgency.net. Easy peasy.

Today, The Knight Agency Blog and YA Fresh have their letters front and center. To get the skinny on where the other letters are hiding in the great internet universe, click here for a contest road map and rules.


So, are you wondering what UNRAVELED is all about? Read on to learn more about Aden:

For once, sixteen-year-old Aden Stone has everything he’s ever wanted:

A home.

Friends.

The girl of his dreams.

Too bad he’s going to die... Since coming to Crossroads, Oklahoma, former outcast Aden Stone has been living the good life. Never mind that one of his best friends is a werewolf, his girlfriend is a vampire princess who hungers for his blood, and he’s supposed to be crowned Vampire King – while still a human! Well, kind of.

With four – oops, three now — human souls living inside his head, Aden has always been “different” himself. These souls can time travel, raise the dead, possess another’s mind, and, his least favorite these days, tell the future.

The forecast for Aden? A knife through the heart.

Because a war is brewing between the creatures of the dark, and Aden is somehow at the center of it all. But he isn’t about to lie down and accept his destiny without a fight. Not when his new friends have his back, not when Victoria has risked her own future to be with him, and not when he has a reason to live for the first time in his life.

Participating UNRAVELED hunt blogs include superstar authors Rachel Caine, PC Cast, Marley Gibson, Linda Gerber and Rosemary Clement-Moore. This contest runs from Monday, August 30th to Thursday, September 2nd. All entries must be received by Monday, September 6th at midnight ET. Happy Hunting!