The winners are...

The grand prize winner of a paperback copy of Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson and a $50 PB Teen gift card is...

Claire

The four second place winners who'll receive a paperback copy of Suite Scarlett are...

Heidi,

Elizabeth Vallish,

Christine,

and Heather Reid

Congrats to all five of you! Please send me an email with you're address within the next 72 hours so we can get your prizes into the mail. I'll be sending you all an email within the next few hours.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Cruel Summer by Alyson Noël

“This was supposed to be my best summer yet, the one I’ve been working toward since practically forever. Now I’m being banished from everything I know and love, and it just doesn’t make any sense.”

Having recently discarded her dorky image--and the best friend that went with it--Colby Cavendish is looking forward to a long hot season of parties, beach BBQ’s, and hopefully, more hook-ups with Levi Bonham, the hottest guy in school. But her world comes crashing down when her parents send her away to spend the summer in Greece with her crazy aunt Tally.

Stranded on a boring island with no malls, no cell phone reception, and an aunt who talks to her plants, Colby worries that her new friends have forgotten all about her. But when she meets Yannis, a cute Greek local, everything changes. She experiences something deeper and more intense than a summer fling, and it forces her to see herself, and the life she left behind, in a whole new way.

The formatting of Cruel Summer was incredibly unique. Unlike other books, it had NO chapters, none. And while that may seem like it would make the book draw on… and on…and on, it didn’t. If anything, it made the pages fly by even faster! Rather than telling the story the normal way, Noël craftily created Colby’s summer through her journal entries, emails, letters, and blog posts and comments.

These scraps of information provide a window into Colby’s life and make her voice shine through. Her blog gives a peek at her day to day adventures in Greece, while her journal reveals her most inner thoughts and paints a picture of teen angst. Without a great deal of dialogue, you still feel as if you’re getting all of the necessary information, directly as she saw it.

4 Stars!

If you liked this, you may like… Kiss and Blog by Alyson Noël, Sea Change by Aimee Friedman, or Sleepaway Girls by Jen Calonita

Crash Into Me by Albert Borris OUT TODAY!

Here is another great YA novel that hits stores today. I accidentally skipped over Crash Into Me while putting together today's "Coming to a Bookstore Near You" post, but Borris' story is so touching that I felt it deserved a special addition to the list.

If you don't already know about Borris' story, here is the official press release:

Debut YA novelist Albert Borris has a way with words.

Or rather, had a way with words.

This past December, just months before the release of CRASH INTO ME (Simon Pulse), Albert suffered a stroke so powerful, his doctors told him he was lucky to be alive.

And alive he is, having made a full physical recovery, enough to roughhouse with his two young sons and work out at the gym. However, Albert is still working on recovering something else: his words.

To be sure, they are all up there in his brilliant mind. He just can’t get them out – verbally or on paper – in the correct order, yet. But he’s working on it.Prior to his stroke, Albert was a full time teen counselor, husband and father. He also served as Co-President of The Class of 2k9, a group of 22 debut middle grade and young adult novelists banding together to promote their books. Words were his thing. Communicating with others, in person and on the page, was his specialty.

As his friends and fellow debut novelists, we, the Class of 2k9, are making it our business to get the word out about Albert and his novel, CRASH INTO ME. Here's a bit about it:

Owen, Frank, Audrey, and Jin-Ae have one thing in common: they all want to die. When they meet online after each attempts suicide and fails, the four teens make a deadly pact: they will escape together on a summer road trip to visit the sites of celebrity suicides...and at their final destination, they will all end their lives. As they drive cross-country, bonding over their dark impulses, sharing their deepest secrets and desires, living it up, hooking up, and becoming true friends, each must decide whether life is worth living--or if there's no turning back.

Coming To A Bookstore Near You (7/7)

Check out these awesome new titles in stores today!

Blue Moon by Alyson Noel

Just as Ever is learning everything she can about her new abilities as an immortal, initiated into the dark, seductive world by her beloved Damen, something terrible is happening to him. As Ever’s powers are increasing, Damen’s are fading—stricken by a mysterious illness that threatens his memory, his identity, his life.

Desperate to save him, Ever travels to the mystical dimension of Summerland, uncovering not only the secrets of Damen’s past—the brutal, tortured history he hoped to keep hidden—but also an ancient text revealing the workings of time. With the approaching blue moon heralding her only window for travel, Ever is forced to decide between turning back the clock and saving her family from the accident that claimed them—or staying in the present and saving Damen, who grows weaker each day...

Simply Irresistible by Jennifer Banash
She's climbing the social ladder, to the dismay of her neighbor and rival, Madison Macallister. And Casey could end up as popular as Madison now that the two are set to star in their own reality show, 'De-Luxe.' But reality TV can be so unreal.

Madison loves the attention, but having every bit of her life caught on tape is often less than glamorous. Yet fame comes at a price - and she's willing to pay. Meanwhile, now that Casey and her almost-boyfriend Drew Van Allen are currently more off than on, she's beginning to wonder if everything in her life is just an illusion - and how much longer the illusion can last.

Secrets of Truth and Beauty by Megan Frazer

When Dara Cohen was little, she was a bright, shiny star. She was the cutest seven-year-old who ever sang Ella Fitzgerald, and it was no wonder she was crowned Little Miss Maine.

That was then. Now Dara's seventeen and she's not so little anymore. So not little, that when her classmates find out about her illustrious resume, their jaws drop. That's just one of her many problems. Another is that her control-freak mom won't get off her case about anything. Yet the one that hurts the most is the family secret: Dara has an older sister her parents tried to erase from their lives.

When a disastrously misinterpreted English project lands her in the counselor's office--and her parents pull her out of school to save face--Dara realizes she has a decision to make. She can keep following the rules and being misunderstood, or she can finally reach out to the sister she's never met--a sister who lives on a collective goat farm in Massachusetts. Dara chooses B. What follows is a summer of revelations, some heartbreaking, some joyous; of friendship, romance, a local beauty pageant; and choices. And as autumn approaches, Dara finds she may have to let go of everything she's taken for granted in order to figure out who she really is, and what family really means.

Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev

All her world’s a stage.

Bertie Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater.

She’s not an orphan, but she has no parents.

She knows every part, but she has no lines of her own.

That is, until now.

The Clique: Boys "R" Us by Lisi Harrison

Massie Block: forms BOCD's first-ever cheerleading squad called the Socc-hers.

Kristen Gregory: When Massie and Kristen's SBFF (secret best friend forever) Layne are vying for the same boy, she has to make a choice. Life was easier when the boyfast was still on!

Dylan Marvil: Has got a secret crush on Derrington-and it's no secret that he likes burpilicious redheads.

Claire Lyons: Now that she's back with Cam, Claire finally has her love life in order. But her friends are trading crushes like styling tips...

The Clique . . . the only thing harder than getting in is staying in.