YA SCAVENGER HUNT SPRING 2016 , featuring SARAH AHIERS

YASH SPRING 2016 is CLOSED! THANKS FOR PARTICIPATING!! WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON. MY RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY IS ON FOR FEW MORE HOURS!

I’m Joy Preble, your hostess for this stop on the hunt! I’m the author of the DREAMING ANASTASIA series (Sourcebooks) and the SWEET DEAD LIFE series (Soho Press). I’m also the author of FINDING PARIS, a dark mystery/road trip novel (Balzer Bray/Harper Collins) On 5/17/16 comes IT WASN’T ALWAYS LIKE THIS, a wildly romantic story with the quick pitch of Tuck Everlasting meets Veronica Mars! (think: accidental immortality, star-crossed romance and murder mystery!)

I will give you an extra special chance at the bottom of this post to win some of my books!!

And as promised, here is my own extra bonus giveaway!! It is for domestic U.S. readers only because of shipping costs. But hang in there the rest of you, because when IT WASN’T ALWAYS LIKE THIS comes out in May, I will be doing a broader set of giveaways. But for those of you in the States, check out the Rafflecopter below and enter to win a whole bunch of my books!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

In Which I Adore the Romance of WHAT YOU ALWAYS WANTED by Kristin Rae

WHAT YOU ALWAYS WANTED, coming at the end of the month from Bloomsbury’s  If Only line, is a delightful, romantic, beach read romp. Main character Maddie Brooks loves drama, musicals, and romantic Hollywood heartthrobs—the old-fashioned classic kind who can sing and tap dance, who ‘cute meet’ their true loves and dress in dapper fashions and woe a girl off her feet with dance moves and sweet kisses. Think: Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire or Cary Grant. (Okay I don’t know if Cary Grant can tap dance. But dapper, he definitely was!) Like many of my own more modern film favorites—think: Sleepless in Seattle, or Kate and Leopold or The Holiday— WHAT YOU ALWAYS WANTED is about that movie version of love—the one where the guy you think you want is not exactly the guy you need. And where the reader knows that despite the many complications, all will be well in the end.

So Maddie moves with her family from Chicago to Texas. She is not happy about the outer burbs of Houston. She hates their small house; she hates the weather; she hates the pollen; she hates that her father is starting over in his new job and that her mother is pregnant.She wants her first kiss to be perfect but what boy can meet her fantasy, movie-romance standards?

Enter Jess Morales, the boy next door. Baseball star. Hunk. Sweet. And unbeknownst to Maddie, a tap dancer extraordinaire, even if he’s given it up for baseball and a dream of the pros.

Enter a grand and pleasing story about a quirky girl who needs to grow up before she's ready for true love and a talented boy who needs to learn that his true friends won’t care if he can both pitch a no-hitter AND tap a three beat shuffle.

My very talented friend Kristin Rae is a gem of a romance writer. Like Maddie, she knows her way around classic movies and musicals. When she first told me the premise for this book, I couldn’t wait for her to write it so I could read it.

Want a happy ending? Vibrant, relatable characters? Sweet romance?

Then pre-order your copy of WHAT YOU ALWAYS WANTED by Kristin Rae. And settle into your lawn chair and read!

And check out the Kirkus Reviews love for WHAT YOU ALWAYS WANTED here!  

Five for Friday

Five things that make me happy this week:

1. Growing tomatoes again. Three different plants; three different types. Year two of patio farming and I'm out there every day checking on them. Yeah, it's awesome, my tiny farm.

2. House of Cards. Half-way through the new season. No spoilers except two words: Claire. Underwood. Holy hell.  And in related matters-- Scandal. The theme since it started up again seems to be everyone's a monster, even when they try not to be. Cyrus Bean and Abby I'm looking at you. And VP Susan, you surprising woman you. Shonda Rimes does not disappoint.

3. Not quite to the 3/4 mark in the WIP. You guys. This book. It has challenged me and surprised me and that's all I'm saying for now. Except that I am glad that I kept going because some books take a while to let you know what they really are.

4. It's chilly again today but my new straw fedora makes me feel like it's spring on the French Riviera.

5. Happy, happy to have had some quiet weeks to write and write before things rev up in the days approaching IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THIS, which is coming 5/17 from Soho Press. Lots of events in the offing, lots of excitement, and hopefully lots of readers who will enjoy.

Tis next week.

In Which I Talk about MAGNIFICENT MYA TIBBS and Amazing Author Crystal Allen

Crystal Allen has written another amazing book with THE MAGNIFICENT MYA TIBBS, SPIRIT WEEK SHOWDOWN, out now from Balzer and Bray/Harper Collins. Mya is funny and big-hearted and spunky and sometimes wonderfully clueless to the truth about the people around her. MAGNIFICENT MYA is a story about many things: friendship and bullying and family and siblings and the goofiness of school Spirit Week. Mya learns that not all friends are true or even truthful and that gossip and rumors are hurtful and that sometimes the least likely suspects can become your truest friends once you really get to know them.

Like her other novels (HOW LAMAR’S BAD PRANK WON HIM A BUBBA-SIZED TROPHY (2011) and THE LAURA LINE (2013), MYA combines humor and heart as it navigates serious issues. Mya doesn’t know that her best friend Naomi has some huge ulterior motives for their friendship. She doesn’t know that “Mean” Connie Tate might not be so mean after all. Mya doesn’t know that she might not be the best sister on the planet right now to her brother Nugget. In short, Mya doesn’t know a lot of things and when she finds herself paired with Connie not Naomi as Spirit Week partners, everything Mya believes gets tossed away as she attempts to navigate through crisis after crisis.

Crystal Allen is a master of dialogue and of creating characters that stick in your mind and heart long after you’ve finished the story. Or to steal from Mya herself, Allen’s story-telling skills are boo-yang amazing!

As, by the way are her skills at teaching writing to reluctant readers, at putting herself out into the community and walking the walk of a writer who gives back to her readers. Like the characters she creates, she is inspiring and funny and generous. She knows how important it is to believe in yourself and your ability to create regardless of circumstance, and in full disclosure, she has frequently kicked her metaphor cowgirl boots into my metaphor butt to remind me of that.

An inspiring kind of lady, my friend Crystal Allen. I would totally be her Spirit Week partner!

So ka-clunk your cowgirl or cowboy boots to a bookstore and get your copy of MAGNIFICENT MYA right now!

 And check out this starred review of Mya on Kirkus Reviews!