3 Jan 2015

Aussie Pubs Chat 2014 Faves and 2015 Books to Anticipate

You've heard about my 2014 favourites and some of the 2015 books I'm anticipating. Now? It's time to hear from the publishers, the people who help bring the books we love to life! Today you'll hear from Amanda from Harper Collins Australia (HP) and Felicity from Penguin Teen Australia (PTA). Beware: flailing and teasing ahead!

Oh, and you'll notice I butt into their interview a few times, where RW is shown. It stands for Rambunctious Waffle or Really, Wally? or possibly something boring like Reading Wishes. Take your pick.
Favourite book you read in 2014? 

Amanda (HP): Published by us: Isla and the Happily Ever After. And another book I loved was Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas. 

{RW: I still haven't read Isla, but I hope to soon. I can't believe I haven't read it yet. Post to come on that soon, explaining my weirdness in depth.}

Felicity (PTA): That’s so not fair! I could no sooner choose a favourite star in the heavens (Ever After movie quote drop!). If we HAD too, Blood of Olympus!!! But Afterworlds, Side Effects May Vary, The Infinite Sea and so many more!!! From another publisher, it’s no secret how much we LOVED Isla and the Happily Ever After. 

{RW: More Isla love! Thanks to the PTA event I attended in 2014, Felicity sold me on starting the Percy Jackson series (which I got a copy of for Christmas!) and The 5 Wave (which I still need to get my hands on. I went out to grab a copy at the end of the event, but they were all sold out.).}

Favourite Aussie title you read this year?

Amanda (HP): YA: Disruption by Jessica Shirvington

Adult: To Love a Sunburnt Country by Jackie French and Big a Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Felicity (PTA): Masquerade, a staggeringly underrated awesome YA from debut Aussie author Kylie Fornasier. Why more people haven’t read this !?!

Best event (you hosted/attended) or fave bookish moment of 2014?

Amanda (HP): We hosted the first BTCYA event at the HarperCollins offices back in October. It was basically a pizza party for book nerds, we had such a great time fangirling with everyone and were so excited to do a world exclusive early release of Corruption by Jessica Shirvington.

Felicity (PTA): This is super hard because aside from #PTALive we had the very special Vampire Academy event in Sydney with both lead actresses and then the TFiOS Marathon tour which was awesome.

And last but not least: can you tell us about some of the upcoming titles set to release from your publisher in 2015? What books should we be adding to our lists and which are you most anticipating?

Amanda (HP): I just finished The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak (out in May), which is extremely fun. (Imagine if Hermione and Shaggy from Scooby Doo were let loose on ComicCon.) I can't wait for you guys to read it.

Next year, there will also be new books from Sarah Ayoub, Claudia Gray, Cynthia Hand and Danielle Paige as well as a debut from  Australian author Daniel Herborn called You're the Kind of Girl I Write Songs About. Plus some exciting releases which I can't talk about yet but are incredibly awesome. (sorry not sorry for the teasing) 

{RW: You're the Kind of Girl I Write Songs About sounds amazing! Add it to GR and read the blurb here.}

Felicity (PTA): All the Bright Places will be the book everyone is talking about for the first six months of the year. Heartbreakingly, staggeringly beautiful and Jennifer Niven tells a brave and honest story without compromise. The Ruby Circle, the final Bloodlines Book – WE CAN’T. And loads MORE!!! 

{RW: Check out PTA's 2015 release schedule. Some great upcoming titles to watch out for!}

I hope you enjoyed this interview with Amanda and Felicity! Sorry not sorry if you're TBR is now overflowing even more than normal. This is just the bookworm burden you must carry. If you'd like to hear more about these ladies and their pubs books, check out the links below!

Harper Collins: Facebook / Twitter --- Penguin Teen Australia: Facebook Twitter

12 comments:

  1. LOVED this Rebecca! I love seeing publicists out of their natural habitat, both Amanda and Felicity are so incredibly fabulous, couldn't meet two nicer people. It's going to be a HUGE year in YA, and that's a big call considering how many incredible books were released in 2014. My goodness, You're The Kind of Girl I Write Songs about Sounds incredible! I'm such a fan of the quirky contemporary and can't wait for it to be released.

    Thanks for sharing Rebecca and of course thanks to Felicity and Amanda for sharing <3

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    1. Thank you, Kelly--for stopping by, reading and leaving me a lovely comment! We hear so much from bloggers and authors, but we don't often hear from publishers/publicists, so I thought this was fun a way to hear from them!

      And I'm so glad you're excited for YTKOGIWSA (my gosh, that's a long title. But so fun!). Yay for awesome-sounding contemporary and OzYA!

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  2. This was such a unique idea and a great post Rebecca (: I'm definitely checking out Masquerade by Kylie Fornasier and Daniel Herborn's book as well. Bookmarking PTA's release schedule as well. So useful, thanks so much!

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    1. Glad you enjoyed this post, Shanny. Yes, PTA's release schedule is very handy for us readers. Happy reading!

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  3. Ooh You're the Kind of Girl I Write Songs About (that was a mouthful) sounds really interesting! I have already put that on my GR TBR now! Oh and thanks for sharing PTA's release timetable! What a lot of amazing books to look forward to >.<

    Fabulous post, Rebecca! <33

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    1. Thanks, Mel! YTKOGIWSA is a rather long title, but I do love it! I can't wait to read it :)

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  4. Great post! #BTCYA was so much fun. And I can't WAIT to read All the Bright Places :D :D :D

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    1. It sounded like a heap of fun! And I heard you guys ordered pizza? Pizza and books? That sounds so delicious and perfect. I think you'll love ATBP. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts!

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  5. OH the vamp academy event. ZOEY IS SO PRETTY SHE KIND OF MAKES MY HEART BREAK OMG Sorry, I got distracted for a second there.

    I saw you reading All The Bright Places. DID YOU LIKE IT?? DID YOU?? And all this OzYA. Yikes. I'm feeling the pressure.

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    1. You just got a *little* off track...

      I liked All The Bright Places, but didn't love it. Mixed feelings. RTC. And no pressure, Jess! Reading is supposed to be fun. Calm your horses, MBTB.

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  6. Love this little chatty post! I'd never even heard of Masquerade until this post. I'll be checking to see if my library has it :) The book I am most *most* excited about from this post wouild have to Cynthia Han'd new one. Dying to get my hands on that :)

    xo

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    1. So glad you found a new title to check out! I've yet to read it myself, but have only heard great things. I'd be interested to see how you like it :)

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