teen fiction

Blog Tour – The Light: Who Do You Become When the World Falls Away

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About the book:

A blinding flash … then darkness.
Bria Ford and her three closest friends are stranded on a country highway in the middle of a November night.
No phones. No cars. No lights.
Helpless and hundreds of miles from home, Bria and her friends put their lives in the hands of the handsome Jonah Page and his flinty sister, East, strangers who somehow know the secrets of Bria’s past. Secrets that not even she knows, but that offer them all the hope of survival.

The Light is Book One in this fast-paced, character-driven, Christian series that will leave you wondering who would I become if the world fell away?

Continue reading →

Interview with Author Corinna Turner: Creativity, Culture, and What’s Next

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I’m impressed with your imagination more than that of any author I follow. What do you do to feed that imagination, to create such original characters and stories?

Drive!This is a bit of a hard one, because I don’t particularly feel like I do anything special.  I read (though less than I used to due to time, and I’m getting much pickier), I also like films, though again, I’m getting much pickier. I don’t really watch TV at all. I probably get maybe a third to half my book ideas in dreams, so those I cannot take even the illusion of credit for! The other ideas are split between the ones that come very rapidly to the ones that grow more slowly, but they all develop without any interference from me, at least until I reach the stage of serious plotting, so I think all the credit lies with the Holy Spirit for these as well! Continue reading →

Interview with YA Author A.J. Cattapan

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Seven Riddles to Nowhere includes one of the most original, intriguing minor characters I’ve come across in a children’s book. Old Man Englebert uses an electronic voice box, something I remember quite vividly from my own childhood. Several men that inhabited the smoky fraternal clubs my dad frequented used them, and they left a lasting impression on me. What inspired the character, whose voice provides an interesting contrast to the protagonist Kam’s selective mutism?

7 Riddles to NowhereI have to admit I never thought about what an interesting contrast Old Man Engelbert’s voice box is to Kam’s selective mutism! The truth is that I just wanted to make the man seem as scary as possible, and somehow the idea of an electronic voice box popped into my head. Maybe it was all those years of watching Star Wars movies with my brothers and listening to Darth Vader’s scary voice. Continue reading →

The Other Side of Freedom, Cynthia Toney’s New Historical Novel

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AVAILABLE TODAY!Other Side of Freedom Promo

About the Book:

When the reward is the most costly sacrifice of all . . .

In a southern U.S. farming community in 1925, thirteen-year-old Salvatore and his Italian immigrant father become involved against their will in a crime that results in the murder of an innocent man and family friend. Will Sal keep the secrets about that night as his father asks, or risk everything he and his family cherish in their new homeland, including their lives? Continue reading →

Standing Strong: Going All In with the West Brothers

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AVAILABLE TODAY!

Couched in ordinary circumstances and ordinary characters (except that, well, they live in sort of a castle), Standing Strong deals with the most important things. We start asking ourselves the relevant questions sometime in the elementary school years: What do I want to do? What kind of person do I want to be?

And we answer them every day with our actions or inaction, our habits, our determination, and our willingness to accept who, ultimately, will rule our lives.  To whose will do we bend? Our own? Or God’s will? Continue reading →

Relevant Fiction Reviews: Best YA Books of 2016

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Relevant Fiction Reviews

As 2016 comes to a close, I’ve collected reviews of the best Young Adult (YA) fiction I’ve read over the past year. Some of these titles are Christian fiction, some secular, but all are “clean” and appropriate for teens. (And for the enjoyment of old fogeys like me too.)

I did not include The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer here only because that series isn’t in need of more visibility. It’s an excellent series that fans of Star Wars or classic fairy tales will particularly enjoy. Fast-paced and tightly-written, there’s enough adventure, humor, scifi, and romance to please almost any reader.

At the end of this post, you’ll find some other YA favorites of 2016, including other books written by the authors featured below. (I stuck with one book featured per author.)

If you’re looking for more great books for teens, sign up for the B4CT (Books for Catholic Teens) newsletter! Continue reading →