Welcome to our first segment of New2YA: Indy & Small Press Edition

Over the year I have had the pleasure to work with some amazing authors and read some amazing books. And I started to realize if I never started this blog I probably would have never read what have come to be my favorite books.  I created this new segment to share some amazing books that you won’t find in your local book store. So with that I present to you some hidden gems of young adult reading.

Prophecy Awakened (Prime Prophecy Series Book 1) by Tamar Sloan

Release Date: 4/25/2017

On the first day of her new school all that shy, wounded Eden wants is to finish her senior year and escape to college. It can’t be too much to ask for, can it?

Noah has spent two years not knowing why he failed to come of age as every one of his ances-tors has. Two years drifting aimlessly, searching for direction…

When the two meet the connection is instantaneous and undeniable. A connection that has Eden running and Noah burning to know more.

A connection destined to be the catalyst for a prophecy that neither knew existed.
A prophecy others are willing to kill for.

As families rupture and struggle to realign, as their hearts connect and ignite, Eden learns to trust. But with their love and life on the line, Eden must find the power to believe.

Prophecy Awakened is the first book in Tamar Sloan’s Prime Prophecy Series. If you enjoyed Stephanie Meyer, Lauren Kate or Maggie Stiefvater, then you’ll love a series that captures their best traits in an epic, captivating story of a love that defies boundaries.

Grave Little Secrets by Stacy R. Collins

Release Date: 4/01/2017

Seventeen-year-old Alex Spurlock finds herself burdened with a tragic secret… With no one to turn to and wracked with guilt over what she did, Alex shuts herself off from her family and the rest of society. She goes from being the popular girl everyone loved to the weird girl who never leaves her house. When Alex’s twin sister, Anna, finally persuades her to venture out of her room, Alex can’t help but feel like someone is watching her, following her every move. Constantly looking over her shoulder, Alex tries to convince herself she is just being paranoid…until she starts receiving threatening letters and taunting text messages. Someone knows what she did and is out for revenge. Not knowing who to trust, but determined to find the person who knows her secret before it is exposed and her life is forever ruined, Alex takes matters into her own hands. She vows to do anything to keep the events of that fateful day buried… But is she willing to die along with it? When she learns who is behind it all, will she change her mind?

Hushed by Joanne Macgregor

Release Date: 4/04/2017

Hushed – a modern romance inspired by the classic tale of The Little Mermaid.

Would you sacrifice your voice for love?

18-year-old Romy Morgan desperately longs to escape the boring future her parents have planned for her, and explore the world.

When she saves her celebrity crush, superstar Logan Rush, from drowning, Romy is offered a job as his personal assistant. She strikes a deal to reinvent herself in exchange for entering the exciting world of the movies, and love sparks between her and this prince of Hollywood. But Romy soon discovers that she has traded her voice and identity for an illusion of freedom.

When she discovers a dreadful secret with the power to destroy Logan, Romy must choose between love, revenge and finding her own, true element.

If you like contemporary young adult romance with all the feels – and a twist of humor – then you’ll love this refreshingly modern and realistic spin on the classic tale of The Little Mermaid from award-winning YA author, Joanne Macgregor.

Iron Cage (Quest for Shifter Magic) by Melle Amade

Release Date: 4/11/2017

When you chose to be a hunter, make sure you know what you’re hunting.
Agi was born into a sheltered life of privilege, safe from the rest of the world and barricaded off from the 1970s that are raging all over Europe. She is expected to tow the line, fulfill the family demands, and answer to the Order. It’s the last thing in the world Agi wants to do. She finds freedom in the hunt and dreams of rebelling against the strict rules that seal her fate.

Agi’s days of hiding with her dogs and embarking on hunts are over when the Order arrives for the Matching ceremony, where Agi will be betrothed to the Heir of the Van Arend High Seat. But, when Agi uncovers dire facts the Order has been hiding she must choose between fulfilling the destiny she was raised for or breaking out of her iron cage forever.

Book 1 in the highly anticipated Quest for Shifter Magic series, a spin-off of the bestselling Shifter Chronicle series. Note: you do NOT have to read Sanctuary first. This novella tells about the trials of a different generation.

Iron Cage is a dark urban fantasy romance for fans of shifters, magic and Gothic romance. Fans of Red Queen, Lady Midnight, and Caraval will be enchanted by this strong female seeking magic in the darkest places.

Glass Faerie (Creepy Hollow #7) by Rachel Morgan

Release Date: 4/11/2017

Emerson Clarke: Sarcastic. Independent. Possibly losing her mind.

Because that’s the only explanation for why she occasionally sees things that aren’t there, right? But one night, an impossible power erupts from her, and Em realizes the truth is crazier than she ever thought: she isn’t losing her mind; she’s magical.

Thrown into an entirely new world of faeries, enchantments–and the annoying guy from down the road who, it turns out, isn’t human either–Em barely has time to learn even the most basic of magic before another startling truth reveals itself: she has a Griffin Ability. A special kind of magic feared by most fae. Now she’s at the top of everyone’s most-wanted list–including the mysterious glass faerie carrying out random attacks on fae.

In this magical and terrifying world that she’s entirely unprepared for, Em must try to figure out who she really is, whom to trust, and how to stay alive long enough to get back to her normal life.

Phoenix Awakens (The Phoenix #1) by Eliza Nolan, YA Paranormal

Release Date: 4/11/2017

Julia Long’s senior year is starting with an extra dose of crazy. First, there are the creepy dreams about bloody cult rituals. Then, her new classmate and crush, Southern charmer Graham, shows up in her nightmares as the sacrificial victim. And these dreams seem to be telling her she’s supposed to save him, when in real life she can barely talk to the guy.

One thing’s for sure, Graham is mysterious. He and his sister are tight-lipped about their time in the south, and Julia suspects they’re on the run from something or someone. As her dreams intensify, Julia begins to manifest strange abilities, and when Graham is near, they kick into overdrive.

There’s no more denying it. Not only is Julia falling for Graham, but she has a magical connection to him. A connection that will put them both in mortal danger when Graham’s dark past finally catches up with him.

With love, magic, and adventure; fans of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight and Cassandra Clare’s Immortal Instruments will love this suspenseful tale.

Ballad of the Beanstalk by Amy McNulty

Release Date: 4/11/2017
99c through April 18th

As her fingers move across the strings of her family’s heirloom harp, sixteen-year-old Clarion can forget. She doesn’t dwell on the recent passing of her beloved father or the fact that her mother has just sold everything they owned, including that very same instrument that gives Clarion life. She doesn’t think about how her friends treat her like a feeble, brittle thing to be protected. She doesn’t worry about how to tell the elegant Elena, her best friend and first love, that she doesn’t want to be her sweetheart anymore. She becomes the melody and loses herself in the song.

When Mack, a lord’s dashing young son, rides into town so his father and Elena’s can arrange a marriage between the two youth, Clarion finds herself falling in love with a boy for the first time. Drawn to Clarion’s music, Mack puts Clarion and Elena’s relationship to the test, but he soon vanishes by climbing up a giant beanstalk that only Clarion has seen. When even the town witch won’t help, Clarion is determined to rescue Mack herself and prove once and for all that she doesn’t need protecting. But while she fancied herself a savior, she couldn’t have imagined the enormous world of danger that awaits her in the kingdom of the clouds.

A prequel to the fairy tale Jack and the Beanstalk that reveals the true story behind the magical singing harp.

The New Awakening (Salama Bandari Series Book 1) by Ashley Danielle

Release Date: 4/13/2017

When lifelong friends Danella, Arial, Sara and Rhonda set out on a Spring Break trip to North Carolina, they have no idea it will end in tragedy. When their car swerves off the road, injuring all four girls and plunging them into comas, they’re even more surprised to wake up together in a strange new world.

Salama Bandari is a beautiful realm, ruled by an honest king and his arrogant but handsome son. And the longer the girls remain, the more they discover they are connected to the place in ways that can’t be coincidence.

But a darkness is rising in Salama Bandari, an evil determined to wreak destruction on both worlds. And If the girls stay to confront it, they risk losing the chance to return home to their physical bodies before it’s too late.

A Curse of Stone and Moonlight (Enchanted Revenge Short Story Series: Part One) by Ashley Maker

Release Date: 4/18/2017

Sixteen-year-old Adele never asked for immortality.

Cursed to become a marble statue in a private art gallery, Adele is at the mercy of a wicked sorcerer’s quest for revenge and something even more sinister. With her freedom hanging in the balance, she must decide whether to succumb to Wilmont’s repulsive wishes or remain frozen as just another piece of art in a chilling collection.

The only thing keeping her from going mad is a promise to her mother and curiosity about the other statues in the gallery, especially the one taking the likeness of Wilmont’s tragically lost son. Adele cannot help but wonder if he is human like her, imprisoned beneath marble skin. She vows to find out the truth and escape before it’s too late and she’s trapped forever.

Find out what happens to Adele in the captivating first installment of the Enchanted Revenge Short Story Series.

Lightning Strikes Twice (Unweaving Chronicles #2) YA Fantasy by Sarah K. L. Wilson

Release Date: 4/25/17

They say ‘lightning never strikes twice,’ but they’ve never met Tylira.
They say lightning never strikes twice – but they haven’t met Tylira.
Tylira Nyota did the unexpected when she found the legendary Teeth of the Gods, but her unweaving magic is unraveling her world at the seams and their only hope for survival is a guess by her ancestor and a journey to another world. Worse, Tylira and her san’lelion, Rusk Hawkwing, enter that world only to find themselves in the middle of a war with no allies and no way back.

Tylira managed to do the impossible when she won the race for the Teeth of the Gods, but can she do it again in the world of Axum with a powerful ruler bent on her destruction and a band of strange monster-riding barbarians her only allies?

Will she find a solution to save their world from destruction? And what will she have to sacrifice just to get home again?

An Empire in Runes (The Runes of Issalia, Book 3), YA Fantasy by Jeff Kohanek

Release Date: 4/27/17

Golden Shears by D.S. Murphy

Release Date:  4/28/2017

My name is Kaidance Monroe, and I’m cursed with the gift of sight.
I see death. Bloody, violent death. Before it even happens.

I was taken in by a mysterious benefactor, who wants to use my abilities to vanquish his oldest enemy. But the dark secrets in my new home drove me away. I don’t know where I belong any more – with the fallen angel who has become my protector, or with the immortal deities that are determined for me to join their cause.

All I know is I’m being hunted by an army of Zeus’s soldiers, tracked by monstrous beasts that want to eat me alive, and running from the one person I want to be with.

But when I find the Golden Shears, and claim the power to vanquish gods, everything will change.

Dissent by Katy Haye

Release Date:  4/28/2017

My name is Hiran. I live in a zoo.

Hiran lives in the Colony, a zoo where human teens are kept on display by the casians, a species of scaly, green creatures who’ve put themselves in charge. The Colony is on earth, but an earth long devoid of any natural human population. That’s why Hiran is a slave, why every human is a slave—because casian scientists brought them back from extinction to play music, entertain alien tourists, and to breed.

But the zoo isn’t the only trap Hiran’s in. He’s in love with Roisin, but she doesn’t love him. Their romance is a façade designed to keep the casians from wiping their memories and sending them back to Steptoe House for rehabilitation. At least at the Colony, they know the truth of their hopeless existence.

Still, when Hiran’s ex-girlfriend, Beth, arrives unexpectedly back at the Colony, it reminds him of everything he’s lost. And as the casian regime becomes more brutal every day, Hiran rebels the only way he can, sowing dissent between the humans and their keepers. But rebellions have failed before, with fatal consequences. Hiran doesn’t want to die, but does he have anything left to lose?