The Debut Dish: January II

Welcome to THE DEBUT DISH!

What exactly is The Debut Dish? Well it’s a way to highlight a few debuts. To let you know a little bit more about them and the author! Perhaps after you read The Dish, you might want to pick one of them up!

Blue Sky Days by Marie Landry

Release Date: January 2012
Publisher: Independent
Age Group: Young Adult

A year after graduating from high school, nineteen-year-old Emma Ward feels lost. She has spent most of her life trying to please her frigid, miserable mother – studying hard, getting good grades, avoiding the whole teenage rebellion thing – and now she feels she has no identity beyond that. Because she spent so many years working hard and planning every moment of her life, she doesn’t have any friends, has never had a boyfriend, and basically doesn’t know who she is or what she really wants from life.

Working two part-time jobs to save money for college hasn’t helped her make decisions about her future, so she decides it’s time for a change. She leaves home to live with her free-spirited, slightly eccentric Aunt Daisy in a small town that makes Emma feel like she’s stepped back in time.

When Emma meets Nicholas Shaw, everything changes – he’s unlike anyone she’s ever met before, the kind of guy she didn’t even know existed in the 21st century. Carefree and spirited like Daisy, Nicholas teaches Emma to appreciate life, the beauty around her, and to just let go and live. Between Daisy and Nicholas, Emma feels like she belongs somewhere for the first time in her life, and realizes that you don’t always need a plan – sometimes life steers you where you’re meant to be.

Life is wonderful, an endless string of blue sky days, until Nicholas is diagnosed with cancer, and life changes once again for Emma in ways she never thought possible. Now it’s time for her to help Nicholas the way he’s helped her. Emma will have to use her newfound strength, and discover along the way if love really is enough to get you through.

What is your favorite movie candy?

Peanut M&Ms or Reese’s Pieces

What is your favorite office supply?

Notepads and pens, because I’m constantly scribbling notes. My desk is COVERED in them!

Describe your book in three words.

Fun. Romantic. Heartwarming.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Release Date: January 3, 2012
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Age Group: Young Adult

Cinderella is re-envisioned as Cinder, a girl who’s part-human, part-marchine. Her innate ability with mechanics brings her in contact with the handsome Prince Kai, and soon she’s caught up in a political battle of wills between Earth and the cruel Lunar queen who wants to rule it.

What is the oddest thing on your desk right now?

A cat.

What is your favorite movie candy?

Reese’s Pieces.

What is your favorite office supply?

My red-shoe tape dispenser. (My husband bought it for me as a wedding gift last October.)

Describe your book in three words.

Fairy-tale Space Opera.

THE KATERINA TRILOGY VOL ONE: THE GATHERING STORM by Robin Bridges

Release Date: January 10, 2012
Publisher: Delacorte
Age Group: Young Adult

St. Petersburg, Russia, 1888. As she attends a whirl of glittering balls, royal debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret: she can raise the dead. But when she uses her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue.

What is the oddest thing on your desk right now?

A smurf

What is your favorite movie candy?

Junior Mints

If you had to retitle your book, what would you call it and why?

A Noble Maiden’s Introductory Guide to Raising the Dead, because sometimes, one needs to learn these things.

Related posts:

1. The Debut Dish: January
2. 2010 Debut Author Challenge: January
3. January Winner! (2010 Debut Author Challenge)
4. The YA Connection January 16-22