Event: YALC 2019 Day One (Friday)

Young Adult Literature Convention/London Film and Comic Con

Friday 26th July 2019
Olympia, London

So, I’m a little late with this one, but I’ve only now had time to give an update on how YALC (Young Adult Literature Convention) was this year. I attended last year’s and highly enjoyed it, managing to meet some of my favourite authors, get books signed, and buy way too many books. This year was pretty much the same, yet I only attended two out of the three days due to illness, so my haul is a little smaller than last time. But, it’s definitely worth the post!

Unfortunately, as it’s been so long ago, I can’t remember what stands I managed to grab these books from, and my totes have been scattered between home and the hospital ward I’m currently at, so I can’t locate them. However, thankfully the have their publishers written on them so I’ll just mention that, just in case.

1. Strange Birds: A Field guide to Ruffling Feathers by Celia C. Perez (Paperback ARC, Kolika)
When three very different girls find a mysterious invitation to a lavish mansion, the promise of adventure and mischief is too intriguing to pass up.
Ofelia Castillo (a budding journalist), Aster Douglas (a bookish foodie), and Cat Garcia (a rule-abiding birdwatcher) meet the kid behind the invite, Lane DiSanti, and it isn’t love at first sight. But they soon bond over a shared mission to get the Floras, their local Scouts, to ditch an outdated tradition. In their quest for justice, independence, and an unforgettable summer, the girls form their own troop and find something they didn’t know they needed: sisterhood.

2. The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde (Paperback, Square Fish)
As a rock star drummer in the hit band The Brightsiders, Emmy King’s life should be perfect. But there’s nothing the paparazzi love more than watching a celebrity crash and burn. When a night of partying lands Emmy in hospital and her girlfriend in jail, she’s branded the latest tabloid train wreck.
Luckily, Emmy has her friends and bandmates, including the super-swoonworthy Alfie, to help her pick up the pieces of her life. She knows hooking up with a band member is exactly the kind of trouble she should be avoiding, and yet Emmy and Alfie Just. Keep. Kissing.
Will the inevitable fallout turn her into a clickbait scandal (again)? Or will she find the strength to stand on her own?

3. The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco (Paperback, Sourcebooks Fire)
When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she’s a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community. But Tea finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training.
In her new home, Tea puts all her energy into becoming an asha-one who can wield elemental magic. But dark forces are approaching quickly, and in the face of danger, Tea will have to overcome her obstacles…and make a powerful choice.

4. The Virtue of Sin by Shannon Schuren (Paperback ARC, Philomel Books)
Miriam lives in New Jerusalem, a haven in the desert far away from the sins and depravity of the outside world. Within the gates of New Jerusalem, and under the eye of its founder and leader, Daniel, Miriam knows she is safe. Cared for. Even if she’s forced, as a girl, to quiet her tongue when she has thoughts she wants to share, Miriam knows that New Jerusalem is a far better life than any alternative. So when God calls for a Matrimony, she’s thrilled; she knows that Caleb, the boy she loves, will choose her to be his wife and they can finally start their life together.
But when the ceremony goes wrong and Miriam winds up with someone else, she can no longer keep quiet. For the first time, Miriam begins to question not only the rules that Daniel has set in place, but also what it is she believes in, and where she truly belongs.
Alongside unexpected allies, Miriam fights to learn–and challenge–the truth behind the only way of life she’s ever known, even if it means straying from the path of Righteousness.

5. The Curses by Laure Eve (Paperback, Faber & Faber)
Summer Grace has had enough of secrets. They’ve been tearing her family apart for generations, and one in particular caused the death of her best friend, Wolf. But now Wolf is back. Supposedly returned from having run away – though Summer knows that’s not what happened. He was resurrected, brought back to life by her ex-best friend – an ex-best friend who is now swearing revenge on her family.
And her family won’t believe that whatever this thing is, it’s not Wolf. He’s dangerous, and Summer is desperate – so desperate that she might just be forced to turn to the one friend she never thought she’d turn to again. Because something is stirring – something so powerful that even the Graces will fear it.

6. The Graces by Laure Eve (Paperback, Faber & Faber)
Everyone said the Graces were witches.
They moved through the corridors like sleek fish, ripples in their wake. Stares followed their backs and their hair.
They had friends, but they were just distractions. They were waiting for someone different.
All I had to do was show them that person was me.
Like everyone else in her town, River is obsessed with the Graces, attracted by their glamour and apparent ability to weave magic. But are they really what they seem? And are they more dangerous than they let on?

7. Dead Popular by Sue Wallman (Paperback, Scholastic)
The ultimate queen bee, Kate knows that you don’t become the most powerful girl at Mount Vernon by playing nice. But when strange, chilling messages start appearing all over the school, she realises someone is playing a much more dangerous game – and they know too much about Kate’s past. If she doesn’t figure out who’s behind this, her final year at Mount Vernon could be exactly that: her final year.

8. The Surface Breaks by Louise O’Neill (Paperback, Scholastic)
Deep beneath the sea, off the cold Irish coast, Gaia is a young mermaid who dreams of freedom from her controlling father. On her first swim to the surface, she is drawn towards a human boy. She longs to join his carefree world, but how much will she have to sacrifice? What will it take for the little mermaid to find her voice?

9. Fawkes by Nadine Brandes (Hardback, Thomas Nelson)
Thomas Fawkes is turning to stone, and the only cure to the Stone Plague is to join his father’s plot to assassinate the king of England.
Silent wars leave the most carnage. The wars that are never declared, but are carried out in dark alleys with masks and hidden knives. Wars where color power alters the natural rhythm of 17th century London. And when the king calls for peace, no one listens until he finally calls for death.
But what if death finds him first?
Keepers think the Igniters caused the plague. Igniters think the Keepers did. But all Thomas knows is that the Stone Plague infecting his eye is spreading. And if he doesn’t do something soon, he’ll be a lifeless statue. So when his Keeper father, Guy Fawkes, invites him to join the Gunpowder Plot—claiming it will put an end to the plague—Thomas is in.
The plan: use 36 barrels of gunpowder to blow up the Igniter King.
The problem: Doing so will destroy the family of the girl Thomas loves. But backing out of the plot will send his father and the other plotters to the gallows. To save one, Thomas will lose the other.
No matter Thomas’s choice, one thing is clear: once the decision is made and the colour masks have been put on, there’s no turning back.

10. The Beholder by Anna Bright (Hardback, HarperTeen)
Selah has waited her whole life for a happily ever after. As the only daughter of the leader of Potomac, she knows her duty is to find the perfect match, a partner who will help secure the future of her people. Now that day has finally come.
But after an excruciatingly public rejection from her closest childhood friend, Selah’s stepmother suggests an unthinkable solution: Selah must set sail across the Atlantic, where a series of potential suitors awaits—and if she doesn’t come home engaged, she shouldn’t come home at all.
From English castle gardens to the fjords of Norge, and under the eye of the dreaded Imperiya Yotne, Selah’s quest will be the journey of a lifetime. But her stepmother’s schemes aren’t the only secrets hiding belowdecks…and the stakes of her voyage may be higher than any happy ending.

11. Monsters by Sharon Dogar (Hardback, Andersen)
1814: Mary Godwin, the sixteen-year-old daughter of radical socialist and feminist writers, runs away with a dangerously charming young poet – Percy Bysshe Shelley. From there, the two young lovers travel a Europe in the throes of revolutionary change, through high and low society, tragedy and passion, where they will be drawn into the orbit of the mad and bad Lord Byron.
But Mary and Percy are not alone: they bring Jane, Mary’s young step-sister. And she knows the biggest secrets of them all…

Have you read any of these books? Which one is your favourite?