There’s also new authors breaking on to the scene with their debuts including Isabel Ibañez, Emma Lord, Echo Brown, and Rebecca McLaughlin.

January also sees releases from authors Stacie Ramey, M.K. England, Lana Popović, Eric Smith, Sarah Henning, and Laurie Faria Stolarz. Plus there’s also an exciting collaboration with authors such as Beth Revis, Mackenzi Lee, Ellen Hopkins, Saundra Mitchell, Jennifer Brown, and Cheryl Rainfield, which is inspired by the #MeToo movement.

Read on to discover our picks and tell us if you will be picking up any of these releases!

A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer
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In the sequel to New York Times bestselling A Curse So Dark and Lonely, Brigid Kemmerer returns to the world of Emberfall in a lush fantasy where friends become foes and love blooms in the darkest of places.

Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibañez
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A lush tapestry of magic, romance, and revolución, drawing inspiration from Bolivian politics and history.

It’s My Life by Stacie Ramey
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Jenna’s never let her cerebral palsy get her down. But when she discovers that her condition was actually caused by an injury at birth, she’s furious with her parents, who also push her to get yet another difficult procedure. Enter Julian, Jenna’s childhood crush. She reaches out to him―anonymously―to help. Soon, their conversations are about so much more than class. But would Julian still be interested in her if he knew who she really was? And can she find a way to take back her own narrative before she pushes away everyone she loves?

Spellhacker by M.K. England
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From the author of The Disasters, this genre-bending YA fantasy heist story is perfect for fans of Marie Lu and Amie Kaufman.

Black Girl Unlimited: The Remarkable Story of a Teenage Wizard by Echo Brown
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Heavily autobiographical and infused with magical realism, Black Girl Unlimited fearlessly explores the intersections of poverty, sexual violence, depression, racism, and sexism―all through the arc of a transcendent coming-of-age story for fans of Renee Watson’s Piecing Me Together and Ibi Zoboi’s American Street.

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord
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A fresh, irresistible rom-com from debut author Emma Lord about the chances we take, the paths life can lead us on, and how love can be found in the opposite place you expected.

Blood Countess by Lana Popović
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A historical YA horror novel based on the infamous real-life inspiration for Countess Dracula.

Nameless Queen by Rebecca McLaughlin
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One girl must make a name for herself–or die trying –in this royal fantasy where an unknown peasant becomes the ultimate ruler. But how long can she keep the crown if everyone wants her dead? Perfect for fans of Furyborn, Red Queen, and Everless.

Don’t Read the Comments by Eric Smith
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Slay meets Eliza and Her Monsters in Eric Smith’s Don’t Read the Comments, an #ownvoices story in which two teen gamers find their virtual worlds – and blossoming romance – invaded by the real-world issues of trolling and doxing in the gaming community.

Jane Anonymous by Laurie Faria Stolarz
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Bestselling author Laurie Faria Stolarz’s thrilling novel Jane Anonymous is a revelatory confessional of a seventeen-year-old girl’s fight to escape a kidnapper―and her struggles to connect with loved ones and a life that no longer exists.

You Too? by Janet Gurtler
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A timely and heartfelt collection of essays inspired by the #MeToo movement, edited by acclaimed young adult and middle-grade author Janet Gurtler. Featuring Beth Revis, Mackenzi Lee, Ellen Hopkins, Saundra Mitchell, Jennifer Brown, Cheryl Rainfield and many more.

Throw Like a Girl by Sarah Henning
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Friday Night Lights meets Morgan Matson’s The Unexpected Everything in this contemporary debut where swoonworthy romance meets underdog sports story.

Will you be picking up any of these January YA releases? Tell us in the comments below!

The post January 2020 YA Book Releases appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

It’s My Life is the story of Jenna, who finds out that her cerebral palsy wasn’t present at birth, but was caused by a doctor’s malfeasance. Even worse, her parents and uncle have kept this from her all of her life, and just as they are pushing her to do another difficult procedure to help her with her CP, she feels her life falling out of her control. Her solace comes in the form of Julian, her former friend/neighbour that has come back to her town and is going through some struggles of his own. Jenna decides to help him, but anonymously. Through their phone chats, Jenna starts to feel something more than just friendship, but would Julian still like her if he knew who she actually was?

This story sets off to give readers an idea of what it’s like to live life with CP, it was very raw and full of feeling. Despite the setback that Jenna has because of her physical condition, you can definitely see her fighting spirit through and through, especially with how she’s attempting to deal with all of the emotions of finding out the secret her parents have been keeping from her. I loved Jenna’s personality. She’s witty but stubborn, and sticks to her convictions. However, she’s also vulnerable. She’s taking control of her life in the small ways that she can, even if it comes at a detriment to her. While she struggles with some self-esteem issues, she works through them in the best way she can.

Something that I truly loved seeing in this story was the fact that we didn’t brush aside how Jenna’s everyday activities went. Things like getting out of bed or even getting dressed are a little different when you have CP, and it was very enlightening to read. More importantly, the sibling relationships between Jenna and her brother and sister are the sweetest. Yes, they care about her well-being, but they certainly won’t leave her out of any shenanigans they’re going to be a part of.

Jenna’s relationship with her parents is a little more complicated because she’s dealing with her emotions from finding out about the medical malfeasance. The relationship becomes more strained when she decides to take action in regard to her medical decisions, because she’s determined to gain independence from them without regard to the cost. While this was something I didn’t necessarily agree with in the story, I could see where Jenna’s becoming more desperate for some control of her life. There are a few tense scenes in the story concerning this, but I do wish we’d gone a little more in depth.

The romance that is happening through text in this story is cute, and mostly going on through text messages. I don’t want to say too much about it because there’s some fun that happens that’s too sweet to spoil. While I’m here I also want to mention that I absolutely adored how Stacie Ramey included music in this story. Not just because there are some of my favourite bands included, but because music can also be a way of release for a lot of people. Ramey captures how Jenna loses herself in the rhythms and songs that play throughout the story, and they make for beautiful scenes in the book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. There are some areas that I would have loved to see more development, but I think it would give this story a more serious tone than what is intended. The romance is sweet, but it isn’t too much, if that’s something you’re concerned with. It’s a high school story that I am excited to have on my shelf.

It’s My Life is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.

Will you be picking up It’s My Life? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

If she wants a future with him, she’ll have to make peace with her past.

Jenna’s never let her cerebral palsy get her down. But when she discovers that her condition was actually caused by an injury at birth, she’s furious with her parents, who withheld the truth. And as they push her to get yet another difficult procedure, Jenna feels her control over her life starting to slip.

Enter Julian, Jenna’s childhood crush. He’s just moved back to town, and he’s struggling in school, so Jenna reaches out to him—anonymously— to help. Soon, their conversations are about so much more than class. She’s falling for him all over again, hard and fast. But would Julian still be interested in her if he knew who she really was? And can she find a way to take back her own narrative before she pushes away everyone she loves?

The post Review: It’s My Life by Stacie Ramey appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

You’ll definitely want to pick up this sweet story of a young woman who wants to have some control over her life, especially where it counts the most.

Can you tell us how It’s My Life came to be?

It’s My Life was actually the first book I ever wrote and rewrote and rewrote and ….well, you get the idea. Sometimes it takes a really long time to get a book right and I was willing to keep working on it until I felt like it stayed faithful to my vision. I am a speech language pathologist and work with many kids with disabilities. This is my love letter to them, to let them know I see them, I understand their struggles, and I want them to have every single thing they desire.

Which character in the book do you most relate to and why?

Jenna, definitely. Like Jenna, I have two siblings-a brother and a sister, who are so incredibly supportive of me and always have been. I do not have cerebral palsy but I do have some invisible disabilities and as a result have always been the one who got sick a lot-big dramatic sicknesses, too, like pneumonia-a lot. To the point where I was the one who cut family trips short, who got out of almost any kind of yard work, and who famously cancelled my parents’ trip to Rome. I was always cared for, never made to feel bad about the chaos I caused, but still, I wanted to break away from being so dependent and in the end became super independent-making major mistakes along the way. Also like Jenna. Actually way worse than Jenna did. But that’s another story. Lol.

Music plays a really big role in this book, did you listen to any music while writing the book? What are some of your favourite bands to unwind to?

Music has always held a big place in my life. I always listened to it ridiculously loudly when I was cleaning or setting the table, when I was Jenna’s age. I blasted it in the car. And when I turned forty, I got an mp3 player and blasted it even more. Now I don’t hear so well-note to former self-turn the music down! My husband has over 1500 albums (he prefers vinyl to CDs) and many more CD’s. I’ll tell him the mood I need, and he flawlessly puts together a playlist that tracks in our house as I write. I am very lucky that way.

What are some details about Jenna that might not have made it into the book?

So there was this whole other thread in the book about Jenna and Julian. It was that they were obsessed with this woman who lived in their town who everyone thinks is a witch. They follow her and sneak into the woods to find her house. I loved that part of the book-it’s actually based on a woman who lived in my town- but my editor believed it was unnecessary to the overall arc of the book. I will most likely use it in something else because I loved that part.

This is your fourth novel (please correct me if I’m wrong!), how has your publishing journey changed between The Sister Pack and It’s My Life?

You are absolutely correct-this is my fourth book. I wish I could say it gets easier to write-I keep waiting for that to happen, but it doesn’t. I had one editor for the first three, The Sister Pact, The Homecoming, and The Secrets We Bury, so I had one process for working with that editor. She left before TSWB came out leaving that book sort of orphaned (that’s a publishing term) and also leaving It’s My Life to a new set of eyes to determine if they still wanted to move forward with that book. Enter Eliza Swift, my new editor. Thankfully she shared the vision for the book and we moved forward. It doesn’t always work out that way and I’m really grateful to her for loving a book she didn’t choose.

If the characters from your books could meet, what kind of interactions do you think they might have?

Well some of the characters in The Sister Pact continue in The Homecoming and some from The Homecoming have cameos in The Secrets We Bury so they have already met! But I guess if I had to think about it, I believe Allie, Jenna, Dylan, and John would all get along just fine. I am proud of my characters and how they’ve grown-they’ve all been through something and I think that makes them more likely to gravitate toward others who also have gone through grief of some sort.

Julian and Jenna’s brother play hockey, which isn’t a sport that I often see talked about in books! Can you tell me a little bit about why you chose that sport, and if you have any real-life favourite teams?

So I went to Penn State and my dorm was right next to the hockey rink where the Penn State hockey club played. I love watching sports-I say watching because I have zero athletic ability, myself. I loved watching those games and when the hockey players would see me on campus (because there were very few hockey fans and I was probably the only one who didn’t know someone on the team) they would flirt with me. So fun! One night my husband(who was my boyfriend back then) and some of his friends went ice skating on the outdoor rink the hockey players worked as part of their scholarships. Well, they saw me and started flirting and I guess John did the math pretty quickly and realised he couldn’t out-skate a hockey player(altho he’s pretty athletic) and he pretended he couldn’t skate so I’d have to hold him up the entire time. Talk about funny when I found out years later he knows how to skate!

Jenna is the first character that I’ve seen in contemporary YA romance with Cerebral Palsy. Could you tell our readers what led you to write about this medical condition in particular?

Well, I am a speech language pathologist and used to have a pediatric therapy clinic. This book was actually written about one of my favourite clients. She didn’t have cerebral palsy, but had different mobility issues-much more severe than Jenna’s, actually. I loved her. She was funny and fiesty and at times pissed off and annoyed at the people who doubted her. She was this really interesting and bright soul and I always knew I wanted to write a book for her.

Can you give us any hints about a scene you’re particularly excited for readers to get to in the book?

I personally love the scene at the hockey homecoming dance. I hope they do, too.

Finally, what are you currently working on? Anything you can spill the beans on yet?

I am currently working on a retelling of a Jewish fairy tale. It’s a complete departure- but so fun!

Will you be picking up It’s My Life? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Stacie Ramey, Author of ‘It’s My Life’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.