Waiting, Wanting, Wishing: 2013 Contemporary Challenge Edition! (42)

Waiting, Wanting, Wishing is a feature here on Katie’s Book Blog. There are so many books out there that I want to read and this is a good way to spotlight some of them.

This week I am spotlighting some books that will count towards the 2013 YA Contemporary Challenge that I’m hosting.  If you’re looking for books to add to your challenge list, look no further!

book cover of The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

Title: The Moon and More
Author: Sarah Dessen
Release date: June 4, 2013

Luke is the perfect boyfriend: handsome, kind, fun. He and Emaline have been together all through high school in Colby, the beach town where they both grew up. But now, in the summer before college, Emaline wonders if perfect is good enough.

Enter Theo, a super-ambitious outsider, a New Yorker assisting on a documentary film about a reclusive local artist. Theo’s sophisticated, exciting, and, best of all, he thinks Emaline is much too smart for Colby.

Emaline’s mostly-absentee father, too, thinks Emaline should have a bigger life, and he’s convinced that an Ivy League education is the only route to realizing her potential. Emaline is attracted to the bright future that Theo and her father promise. But she also clings to the deep roots of her loving mother, stepfather, and sisters. Can she ignore the pull of the happily familiar world of Colby?

Emaline wants the moon and more, but how can she balance where she comes from with where she’s going?

book cover of Five Summers by Una LaMarche
 Title: Five Summers
Author: Una LaMarche
Release date: May 16, 2013

Four best friends, five summers of camp memories

The summer we were nine: Emma was branded “Skylar’s friend Emma” by the infamous Adam Loring . . .

The summer we were ten: Maddie realized she was too far into her lies to think about telling the truth . . .

The summer we were eleven: Johanna totally freaked out during her first game of Spin the Bottle . . .

The summer we were twelve: Skylar’s love letters from her boyfriend back home were exciting to all of us—except Skylar . . .

Our last summer together: Emma and Adam almost kissed. Jo found out Maddie’s secret. Skylar did something unthinkable . . . and whether we knew it then or not, five summers of friendship began to fall apart.

Three years after the fateful last night of camp, the four of us are coming back to camp for reunion weekend—and for a second chance.

book cover of Our Song by Jordanna Fraiberg

Title: Our Song
Author: Jordanna Fraiberg
Release date: May 2, 2013

Olive Bell has spent her entire life in the beautiful suburb of Vista Valley, with a picture-perfect home, a loving family, and a seemingly perfect boyfriend. But after a near-fatal car accident, she’s haunted by a broken heart and a melody that she cannot place.

Then Olive meets Nick. He’s dark, handsome, mysterious . . . and Olive feels connected to him in a way she can’t explain. Is there such a thing as fate? The two embark on a whirlwind romance—until Nick makes a troubling confession.

Heartbroken, Olive pieces together what really happened the night of her accident and arrives at a startling revelation. Only by facing the truth can she uncover the mystery behind the song and the power of what it means to love someone.

book cover of When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney
 Title: When You Were Here
Author: Daisy Whitney
Release date: June 4, 2013

Danny’s mother lost her five-year battle with cancer three weeks before his graduation-the one day that she was hanging on to see.

Now Danny is left alone, with only his memories, his dog, and his heart-breaking ex-girlfriend for company. He doesn’t know how to figure out what to do with her estate, what to say for his Valedictorian speech, let alone how to live or be happy anymore.

When he gets a letter from his mom’s property manager in Tokyo, where she had been going for treatment, it shows a side of a side of his mother he never knew. So, with no other sense of direction, Danny travels to Tokyo to connect with his mother’s memory and make sense of her final months, which seemed filled with more joy than Danny ever knew. There, among the cherry blossoms, temples, and crowds, and with the help of an almost-but-definitely-not Harijuku girl, he begins to see how it may not have been ancient magic or mystical treatment that kept his mother going. Perhaps, the secret of how to live lies in how she died.

book cover of Dare You To by Katie McGarry

Title: Dare You To
Author: Katie McGarry
Release date: May 21, 2013

“I dare you…”

If anyone knew the truth about Beth Risk’s home life, they’d send her mother to jail and seventeen-year-old Beth who knows where. So she protects her mom at all costs. Until the day her uncle swoops in and forces Beth to choose between her mom’s freedom and her own happiness. That’s how Beth finds herself living with an aunt who doesn’t want her and going to a school that doesn’t understand her. At all. Except for the one guy who shouldn’t get her, but does….

Ryan Stone is the town golden boy, a popular baseball star jock-with secrets he can’t tell anyone. Not even the friends he shares everything with, including the constant dares to do crazy things. The craziest? Asking out the Skater girl who couldn’t be less interested in him.

But what begins as a dare becomes an intense attraction neither Ryan nor Beth expected. Suddenly, the boy with the flawless image risks his dreams-and his life-for the girl he loves, and the girl who won’t let anyone get too close is daring herself to want it all….

What are you waiting, wanting, wishing for this week?

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19 comments

  1. Five Summers sounds really good! I hadn’t heard of it before now. *adds to gigantic TBR* I just read a review of When You Were Here, and the reviewer said it gave her all the feels, so I’m definitely excited for that.

    I should probably read Pushing the Limits before I think about reading Dare You To.

  2. I am so excited for The Moon and More! I read Dessen for the first time last year (CRAZY, I know), so I’m excited to be around for a new release of hers. I can’t wait Dare You To as well. I wasn’t too interested in Beth in Pushing the Limits, but I love McGarry so much that I’m sure I will be interested after this book.

  3. I can’t wait for all of these books to come out! Sarah Dessen’s books are almost always amazing, but I mostly can’t wait for When You Were Here. It sounds so great. I just finished Pushing the Limits and it think it was good but I’m sure Dare You To is going to be much better 🙂

  4. I don’t really read contemporary if I can help it, unless it comes highly recommended, but I will defintiely read Dare You To! I can’t wait. Admittedly, I had some issues with Pushing the Limits, but I also saw so much potential so I have reason the believe, or at least hope, the second book will be better.

  5. I cant’t wait to read The Moon and More… I’m going to see Sarah Dessen next friday and I hope she talks about the new book!! I’m really excited! Also I’ve been DYING to read Dare You To and I’ve never heard of Five Summers before, but wow it sounds good!!

    Michelle @ Pink Polka Dot Book Blog

  6. I’m not a huge fan of contemporaries, but some of these look really good! And I’ve heard awesome things about Dare You To’s predecessor/spin-off, the name of which escapes me. And Five Summers is on Edelweiss, if you haven’t requested it already!

  7. These are all definitely contemporaries that I’ve had my eye on for forever! Most of them look so summery, it’s so cute. 🙂 I’m super excited for Katie McGarry’s book and Daisy Whitney’s. Thanks for sharing, Katie!

  8. When You Were Here is at the top of my wishlist, I am beyond excited for this book and I adore Sarah Dessen. Five Summers sounds really intriguing, I haven’t heard of it but I’ll definitely add it to my TBR.

  9. Of course I LOVE Sarah Dessen’s stuff and am super excited for her new book! But the one that’s catching my eye the most on this list is Five Summers. SUMMER CAMP BOOK YES!!!!!! Those are my favorite summer reads. 😀

  10. Sarah Dessen is amazing. She’s awesome at contemporary and this one was unique in terms of her usual style, a little more open-ended, but it worked and was hopeful 🙂

    Did you read it ?