May Day Giveaway - Read Your Cares Away!

I am always on the lookout for potential books for our Mother-Daughter book club, and Simon Teen has some fabulous ones available right now! While most of the books are considered Young Adult (and the girls in our group are still tweens), I am definitely making a list so I will have them ready for a few years down the road. All of these books look like they would make for a fantastic discussion, especially between mothers and daughters. I know I personally can't wait to check these out and share my thoughts with you:

THE SECRET LIFE OF PRINCE CHARMING by Deb Caletti

Summary: After Quinn’s mother makes a list of attributes that she thinks Quinn and her younger sister should seek out in guys, Quinn comments, “We’re not stupid.” Her love-worn mother replies: “You can be smart and not know. And you can know and not care.” Then Quinn’s boyfriend dumps her, and she is surprised by how hurt she is, despite her ambivalence about him. As Quinn tries to sort out her tumultuous feelings, she embarks on a road trip with karmic intentions: by returning objects that her father stole from his former wives and girlfriends, she hopes that her own luck will change. Along the way, Quinn finds a new romance, lots of fabulous kisses, and a 10-foot Big Boy mascot statue, which all add to the story’s fun. Interwoven with Quinn’s story are vignettes with women who share their experiences with her and deliver lessons about men: “If a guy seems to need saving, call the Coast Guard.” Sporadic strong language might offend some younger readers; otherwise, this is a sure hit with both Caletti’s and Sarah Dessen’s legions of fans. (Booklist)

THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY by Jenny Han

Summary: Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer -- they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.

AMY & ROGER'S EPIC DETOUR by Morgan Matson

Summary: Amy Curry thinks her life sucks. Her mom decides to move from California to Connecticut to start anew--just in time for Amy's senior year. Her dad recently died in a car accident. So Amy embarks on a road trip to escape from it all, driving cross-country from the home she's always known toward her new life. Joining Amy on the road trip is Roger, the son of Amy's mother's old friend. Amy hasn’t seen him in years, and she is less than thrilled to be driving across the country with a guy she barely knows. So she's surprised to find that she is developing a crush on him. At the same time, she’s coming to terms with her father’s death and how to put her own life back together after the accident. Told in traditional narrative as well as scraps from the road--diner napkins, motel receipts, postcards--this is the story of one girl's journey to find herself.

THE UGLIES by Scott Westerfield

Summary: Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that?

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world -- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.

And now for the really fun part! Thanks to Simon Teen, I have a set of these four books to share with one lucky reader! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment (with a valid email address) telling me which one of these books most appeal to you and why! This contest will be open until Tuesday, May 18th at 11:59 p.m. ET, and I will notify the winner the following day! This contest is open to those of you in the U.S. and Canada only -- no p.o. boxes please. Good luck!