YA Book Chat

Today I am chatting with author Julie Wright about her brand new book, Swimming in a Sea of Stars.In this episode, Julie and I chat about her writing style, what it's like writing romance novels vs. a contemporary novel, why focusing on teen mental health is important, how one small act of kindness can change someone's life, and the hope that lies within us all. Entire episode is spoiler free!Join us!A little about Swimming in a Sea of Stars:Addison is no stranger to feeling stressed, insecure, and sad. Her therapist recommended she keep a journal to help her understand those feelings better, which she really needs today. It’s her first day back to school, several weeks after she survived her suicide attempt. She knows there are rumors about why she did it: A lousy home life? Bullying? Heartbreak? None of them are true, but it doesn’t matter because Addison still feels like she’s drowning. She still holds secrets she’s not ready to share.During the school day, Addison encounters four other students

Today I am chatting about the book City of Shattered Light by Claire Winn.Joining me today is my friend and Patreon member, Dani. Take a listen as Dani and I dive into this fast paced sci-fi novel! We discuss the fun storyline, fantastic characters, futuristic world building, love triangle and enemies to lovers tropes (Yes! Two love tropes!), our thoughts on what happens in the sequel, our fear of AI taking over the world...and more!First 15 minutes are spoiler free!Here's a little about City of Shattered Light:As darkness closes in on the city of shattered light, an heiress and an outlaw must decide whether to fend for themselves or fight for each other. As heiress to a powerful tech empire, seventeen-year-old Asa Almeida strives to prove she's more than her manipulative father's shadow. But when he uploads her rebellious sister’s mind to an experimental brain, Asa will do anything to save her sister from reprogramming—including fleeing her predetermined future with her sister’s digitized mind

Today I am chatting with my friends Abby and Mo from The Book Life Podcast about Made of Stars by Jenna Voris.Take a listen as we chat about this fantastic Bonnie and Clyde inspired sci-fi story! We chat all about the plotline, Bonnie and Clyde, Star Wars vs. Star Trek, and more! First 15 minutes are spoiler free! A little about Made of Stars:Shane and Ava are a team. He steals the aircraft, she charms their mark, and together they take what they need. Not even their distracting chemistry could get in the way. Until Shane was caught and left to rot on a prison moon. Now, freshly escaped from confinement and simmering with anger, he has his sights set on their biggest job yet.Cyrus just graduated from the flight academy with a shiny new position lined up reporting to a well-respected general. On his very first assignment, he stops the outlaws in their tracks—or he would have, if his annoyingly handsome copilot, Lark, hadn’t fallen for Ava’s deception.But when Shane uncovers a top-secret plot that would leave h

Today I am thrilled to be chatting with author Rebecca Mahoney about her new book, The Memory Eater. Take a listen as Rebecca and I chat all about The Memory Eater, Rebecca's first book, The Valley and the Flood, Rebecca's writing process (find out if she's a plotter or a pantser), Japanese ghost stories, horror movies, and so much more! Entire episode is spoiler free!A little about The Memory Eater:For generations, a monster called the Memory Eater has lived in the caves of Whistler Beach, Maine, surviving off the unhappy memories of those who want to forget. And for generations, the Harlows have been in charge of keeping her locked up—and keeping her fed.After her grandmother dies, seventeen-year-old Alana Harlow inherits the family business. But there’s something Alana doesn’t know: the strange gaps in her memory aren’t from an accident. Her memories have been taken—eaten. And with them, she’s lost the knowledge of how to keep the monster contained.Now the Memory Eater is loose. Alana’s mist

Today I am chatting with NYT Bestselling Author, Angeline Boulley. We will be talking about both her debut novel, Firekeeper's Daughter, and her brand new novel, Warrior Girl Unearthed. Also joining me today is my friend Victoria, who serves as my co-host for this special episode.Take a listen as we chat spoiler free about both books, the importance of representation in YA books for Native Americans, Native American culture, and so much more.A little about Warrior Girl Unearthed:Perry Firekeeper-Birch has always known who she is - the laidback twin, the troublemaker, the best fisher on Sugar Island. Her aspirations won't ever take her far from home, and she wouldn't have it any other way. But as the rising number of missing Indigenous women starts circling closer to home, as her family becomes embroiled in a high-profile murder investigation, and as greedy grave robbers seek to profit off of what belongs to her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry begins to question everything.In order to reclaim this inhe

Join me and my friend Victoria as we dive into The Luminaries, by Susan Dennard. If you enjoy books involving the forest, creepy monsters, redemption stories, trials involving surviving in a forest filled with nightmarish creatures, and friends to lovers, you will enjoy this book. Take a listen as Victoria and I talk all about it. You'll also hear why the teacher side of me really appreciated one particular line in the book. In addition, you'll learn about the incredible way the story for The Luminaries evolved. First 15 minutes are spoiler free!A little about The Luminaries: Hemlock Falls isn't like other towns. You won't find it on a map, your phone won't work here, and the forest outside town might just kill you.Winnie Wednesday wants nothing more than to join the Luminaries, the ancient order that protects Winnie's town―and the rest of humanity―from the monsters and nightmares that rise in the forest of Hemlock Falls every night.Ever since her father was exposed as a witch a

Today I am chatting about Gloria Chao's brand new book When You Wish Upon A Lantern. Joining me is my friend Morgan. When You Wish Upon A Lantern is my favorite read of 2023 so far! It is the most adorable YA Contemporary Romance I have ever read! I couldn't stop gushing over it. The whole time I was reading this book I kept thinking, "Awww...that's so cute!"  So, join Morgan and me as we chat all about this swoon worthy book! You'll get to hear me pronounce Chinese names correctly for the first time ever. HA! And there's a very specific reason why I actually know how to pronounce these ones...take a listen to find out why! A little about When You Wish Upon A Lantern: Liya and Kai had been best friends since they were little kids, but all that changed when a humiliating incident sparked The Biggest Misunderstanding of All Time—and they haven’t spoken since.Then Liya discovers her family's wishing lantern store is struggling, and she decides to resume a tradition she ha

Today I am chatting about Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa. Joining me is my friend Amanda from Fictional Hangover podcast. Take a listen as Amanda and I chat about the characters, plot line, crazy weird man-eating centipedes, hear Leah mispronounce pretty much every Japanese name and word in the story, and more! First 15 minutes are spoiler free!A little about Shadow of the Fox: Every millennium, whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers has the power to call the great Kami Dragon from the sea and ask for one wish. The time is near...and the missing pieces of the scroll will be sought throughout the land of Iwagoto.When demons kill half-kitsune Yumeko’s adoptive family, she’s forced to flee her home with one part of the ancient scroll. Fate thrusts her into the path of mysterious samurai Kage Tatsumi, who is Yumeko’s best hope for survival. But he’s under orders to retrieve the scroll. An uneasy alliance forms, and Yumeko begins the deception of a lifetime, knowing her secrets are more than a matter of

Today I am chatting about the book Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Joining me today is one of my fabulous Patreon members, Dani!Beautiful Creatures is the story of two star-crossed lovers, who meet and fall in love in a small southern town, where nothing exciting ever happens. But Lena Duchennes is about to change all of that...Join Dani and I as we chat all about the plot, the fun characters, the portrayal of southern life in the story, and more! A little about Beautiful Creatures...Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever. Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and mos

Today I am chatting with NY Times Bestselling author Lauren Blackwood. Lauren is the author of Within These Wicked Walls, a Reese's Book Club Fall 2021 YA pick, and her newest book, Wildblood. Join us as we chat about what it was like for Lauren, hitting the bestseller list as a debut author, her writing process for Wildblood, the research she did, the magic system in the book, how Lauren weaved her Jamaican heritage into this book, and more!This entire episode is spoiler free!A little about Wildblood:Eighteen-year-old Victoria is a Wildblood. Since she was kidnapped at the age of six and manipulated by the Exotic Lands Touring Company, she’s worked as a tour guide ever since with a team of fellow Wildbloods who take turns using their magic to protect travelers in a Jamaican jungle teeming with ghostly monsters.When the boss denies Victoria an earned promotion to team leader in favor of Dean, her backstabbing ex, she’s determined to prove herself. Her magic may be the most powerful on the team, but she’s

Join NY Times Bestselling Author Maureen Johnson and me as we chat about her brand new book, Nine Liars. Nine Liars follows Johnson's teen sleuth, Stevie Bell, as she tries to solve a cold case murder from 1995. In this episode, Maureen and I chat all about Maureen's writing process, what it was like bringing Stevie in for another book, life in college theatre, what it's like having an English husband who have friends with amazing English country homes, how to craft a murder mystery, and more! You'll even get to hear a little bit about Maureen's good friend and fellow author, Holly Black. Entire episode is spoiler free!About Nine Liars: Senior year at Ellingham Academy for Stevie Bell isn’t going well. Her boyfriend, David, is studying in London. Her friends are obsessed with college applications. With the cold case of the century solved, Stevie is adrift. There is nothing to distract her from the questions pinging around her brain—questions about college, love, and life in general.Re

Today I am chatting about the final book in Holly Black's The Folk of the Air series, The Queen of Nothing. Joining me today is Elise from the Novel Feelings podcast.The Queen of Nothing wraps up Jude Duarte's story. We finally find out how her and Cardan truly feel about each other, discover if those rumors about him being nursed by a cat are true or not, find out what Jude's been up to in the human world, see what happens when a fae curse comes about, get immersed in faerie politics (again), and get to experience more of our favorite troublemaking faerie, Cardan. It's a fantastic ending to this great series! So, join Elise and I as we chat all about it!First 15 minutes are spoiler free!A little about The Queen of Nothing:Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold onto. Jude learned this lesson when she released her control over the wicked king, Cardan, in exchange for immeasurable power.Now as the exiled mortal Queen of Faerie, Jude is powerless and left reeling from Cardan'

Today I am chatting with NY Times Bestselling author Ellie Marney about her latest crime thriller, The Killing Code. Ellie is multi-award-winning crime author who has gone behind the scenes at the Westminster Mortuary in London and interviewed forensic and technical specialists around the world in pursuit of just the right details for her brand of pulse-pounding thrillers. Her titles include The Killing Code, None Shall Sleep, the Every trilogy, No Limits, White Night and the Circus Hearts series.The Killing Code is set in Virginia, 1943; World War II is raging in Europe and on the Pacific front when Kit Sutherland is recruited to help the war effort as a codebreaker at Arlington Hall, a former girls’ college now serving as the site of a secret US Signal Intelligence facility. Kit is soon involved in another kind of fight: Government girls are being brutally murdered in Washington DC, and when Kit stumbles onto a bloody homicide scene, she is drawn into the hunt for the killer.Join us as Ellie and I chat abou

Today I am chatting with NY Times Bestselling author, Karen M. McManus about her latest YA thriller, Nothing More To Tell. Karen is the author of the highly acclaimed One of Us is Lying series, which is also now a television series on Peacock and Netflix. She is also the author of the standalone novels Two Can Keep a Secret, The Cousins, and You’ll Be the Death of Me. Nothing More To Tell follows the story of teenager Brynn as she tries to solve the four year old murder of her favorite teacher at St. Ambrose School. Now that Brynn is moving home and starting her dream internship at a true-crime show, she’s determined to find out what really happened. Join Karen and I as we chat about the plot of this thrilling story, the characters, Karen's writing process, and more!A special thank you to Karen for coming on YA Book Chat today. And thank you as well to Kathleen Dunn at Penguin Random House for setting up this interview.Find out more about Karen and her books on her website.Follow Karen on Instagram and T

Today I am chatting with my friend Rachel from the Barely Bookish podcast about the book Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson.What could be better than a book about magical books? I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this book! Take a listen as Rachel and I chat about the magic system, magical grimoires with their own personalities, what happens when a sorcerer has nightmares, the fantastic enemies to lovers trope, our speculations on if a demon can truly care for someone or not, and more!A little about Sorcery of Thorns:All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather.Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire, and Elisabeth is implicated in the crime. With no one to turn to but her sworn ene

Today I am joined by author M.T. Zimny to chat about her series The Apex Cycle! Join us as we chat about books one and two in the series, and give you a sneak peek at book three (coming December 2022!). If you are a fan of the Renegades trilogy by Marissa Meyer, enjoy reading about superheroes and anti-heroes, these books are for you! A little about Beta (Book 1): Samantha Havardson is not an Apex.Seriously. She's completely ordinary with a totally normal family that just happens to be moving to the Apex epicenter of the world- the manmade island city of New Delos. Although she thinks her lack of super Apex abilities will keep her out of the limelight, it quickly becomes apparent that the city has different plans, sweeping Samantha up in a world of secret identities and super powers where anyone, even those closest to her, might be an Apex.Plagued by missing students, secret Apex teams, and a mysterious man named Adrestus, Samantha searches for answers, causing secrets to unravel about her classmates, he

In today's episode I'll be chatting with my friend Bethanie of the Prince Kai Fan Pod about the book Zyla & Kai by Kristina Forest. Zyla and Kai is the story of how two teens meet and fall in love. But theirs is not an easy love story. There are plenty of bumps along the way. Join Bethanie and me as we chat all about the teen drama, complicated relationships, what it's like for a teen in therapy, the mean girls we all encounter in high school, and so much more! A little about Zyla & Kai: While on a school trip to the Poconos Mountains (in the middle of a storm) high school seniors, Zyla Matthews and Kai Johnson, run away together leaving their friends and family confused. As far as everyone knows, Zyla and Kai have been broken up for months. And honestly? Their break up hadn't surprised anyone. Zyla and Kai met while working together at an amusement park the previous summer, and they couldn't have been more different. Zyla was a cynic about love. She'd witnessed the disso

Welcome to Season 3 of YA Book Chat! For my first episode of the new season, I am bringing you an interview with author Sara Bennett Wealer about her brand new YA Contemporary Romance with a paranormal twist, Grave Things Like Love! Sara is also the author of Now and When, Rush, and Rival. If you enjoy contemporary romance, ghost hunting, and complicated relationships, this book is for you! Sara takes us on a ghost hunt through the eyes of a teenage girl who lives above a funeral home. This book also explores what it's like for a teenager with anxiety, what it means to stand on your own two feet, and what it looks like as a teenager trying to figure out who they are and where they want to go in life. Grave Things Like Love is a fantastic story you won't want to miss! Entire episode is 100% spoiler free!A little about Grave Things Like Love: Elaine's home is a bit...different. It's a funeral home that has been in her family since the 1800s - and it's why everyone calls her Funeral Girl

Today I am chatting with author Katie Keridan about her debut YA Fantasy novel, Reign Returned. Reign Returned is book one of The Felserpent Chronicles. In today's episode, Katie and I chat about her transition from being a doctor to becoming a full time author, her amazing world building for Reign Returned, the fantastic characters, the challenges she faced in writing this story, and so much more. Join us!This entire episode is100%  spoiler FREE!A little about Reign Returned: Kyra Valorian is the most gifted Astral healer the golden-blooded realm of Aeles has seen in ages. When tragedy strikes, Kyra discovers she possesses a life-changing gift: she's a Recovrancer, able to enter the realm of the dead and recover those who've died before their time. Unfortunately, recovrancy is outlawed in her realm. Desperate for answers, Kyra will do anything to get them . . . even partner with a dangerous enemy.Check out Katie's websiteBuy Reign ReturnedFollow Katie on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTokThan

Today I am chatting with author Margot Harrison about her brand new book, We Made It All Up.Margot is the author of The Glare and The Killer in Me. You won't want to miss this episode, as we chat all about her brand new thriller! This murder mystery will keep you on the edge of your toes, questioning who the killer could be. Not only that, Harrison tackles some strong themes that are important for young adult readers. So, join Margot and me as we chat all about We Made It All Up!Episode is 100% spoiler free!A little about We Made It All Up: Celeste is the talk of the town when she moves to Montana from Montreal, but the only friend she makes is Vivvy, the heir to the town’s founder and a social pariah. Inspired by a passion-fueled school incident, they begin writing a love-story fanfic between the popular guy and the school stoner, one that gradually reveals Celeste’s past. While her bond with Vivvy makes Celeste feel safe and alive again, Vivvy keeps prodding Celeste to turn fantasy into reality. When t