Kidlit authors who will debut in 2013 are known as The Lucky 13s. Most of us middle-grade authors don't have covers yet, but the YA covers are coming down the pipeline, fast and furious! Here are some more, with synopses:
Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans
January 15, 2013, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Since her untimely death
the day before her eighteenth birthday, Felicia Ward has been trapped
in Level 2, a stark white afterlife located between our world and the
next. Along with her fellow prisoners, Felicia passes the endless hours
downloading memories and mourning what she’s lost—family, friends, and
the boy she loved, Neil.
Then a girl in a neighboring chamber
disappears, and nobody but Felicia seems to recall she existed in the
first place. Something is obviously very wrong. When Julian—a
dangerously charming guy Felicia knew in life—comes to offer Felicia a
way out, she learns the truth: a rebellion is brewing to overthrow the
Morati, the guardians of Level 2.
Felicia is reluctant to trust
Julian, but then he promises what she wants the most—to be with Neil
again—if only she’ll join the rebels. Suspended between Heaven and
Earth, Felicia finds herself in the center of an age-old struggle
between good and evil. As memories from her life come back to haunt her,
and as the Morati hunt her down, Felicia will discover it’s not just
her own redemption at stake… but the salvation of all mankind.
The Culling by Steven dos Santos
March 8, 2013, Flux
Who would you choose?
Lucian
“Lucky” Spark has been recruited for training by the totalitarian
government known as The Establishment. According to Establishment rules,
if a recruit fails any level of the violent training competitions, a
family member is brutally killed . . . and the recruit has to choose
which one.
As the five recruits form uneasy alliances in the
hellish wasteland that is the training ground, an undeniable attraction
develops between Lucky and the rebellious Digory Tycho. But the rules of
the training ensure that only one will survive—the strongest recruits
receive accolades, wealth, and power while the weakest receive death.
With
Cole—Lucky’s four-year-old brother—being held as “incentive,” Lucky
must marshal all his skills and use his wits to keep himself alive, no
matter what the cost.
Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook
January 29, 2013, HarperTeen
Bonnie and Clyde meets
Simone Elkeles in this addictively heart-wrenching story of two
desperate teenagers on the run from their pasts.
They’re young. They’re in love. They’re on the run.
Zoe
wants to save Will as much as Will wants to save Zoe. When Will turns
eighteen, they decide to run away together. But they never expected
their escape to be so fraught with danger....
When the whole world is after you, sometimes it seems like you can’t run fast enough.
Nobody
But Us, told in alternating perspectives from Will and Zoe, is an
unflinching novel, in turns heartbreaking and hopeful, about survival,
choices, and love...and how having love doesn’t always mean that you get
a happy ending. Described as “beautiful, heartbreaking, and
exhilarating” by Kody Keplinger, author of The DUFF, Nobody But Us will
prove irresistible to fans of Nina Lacour, Jenny Han, and Sara Zarr.
Belle Epoque by Elizabeth Ross
January 8, 2013, Random House Children's Books
When Maude Pichon runs
away from provincial Brittany to Paris, her romantic dreams vanish as
quickly as her savings. Desperate for work, she answers an unusual ad.
The Durandeau Agency provides its clients with a unique service?the
beauty foil. Hire a plain friend and become instantly more attractive. —
Monsieur Durandeau has made a fortune from wealthy socialites, and when
the Countess Dubern needs a companion for her headstrong daughter,
Isabelle, Maude is deemed the perfect adornment of plainness.
But
Isabelle has no idea her new "friend" is the hired help, and Maude's
very existence among the aristocracy hinges on her keeping the truth a
secret. Yet the more she learns about Isabelle, the more her loyalty is
tested. And the longer her deception continues, the more she has to
lose.
Inspired by a short story written by Emile Zola, Belle
Epoque is about that beautiful time in Paris, when the Moulin Rouge was
at its peak of decadence, the city's men and women were the most
beautiful, and morality was at its most depraved.