This feature is where I spotlight older, recent, or upcoming releases I am looking forward to. The lists will include all genres I like to read, everything from picture books to comics, children’s lit to adult fiction!

This week: upcoming YA releases from two great authors: Morgan Matson and Jessica Spotswood. First up is The Unexpected Everything from one of Matson (one of my can’t miss, must-read young adult authors). I have enjoyed everything Matson has published (with Second Chance Summer being my personal favourite out of a strong selection), so I am eagerly anticipating this latest contemporary offering. I must admit to not hearing/knowing anything about the book beyond the description, but my expectations are high given Matson’s lovely writing and moving stories. Second up is Jessica Spotswood’s Wild Swans. Readers of YA paranormal/fantasy may immediately recognize Spotswood as the author behind The Cahill Witch Chronicles trilogy- a historically-set romantic series I very much enjoyed. Now Spotswood is taking on an entirely different genre with a contemporary fiction title: Wild Swans sounds intriguing and mysterious and I very much look forward to reading it!

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson
Expected publication: May 3, 2016 by Simon & Schuster

When you are a politician’s daughter who’s pretty much raised yourself, you learn everything can be planned or spun, or both. Especially your future.

Important internship? Check.
Amazing friends? Check.
Guys? Check (as long as we’re talking no more than three weeks)

But that was before the scandal. Before having to be in the same house with her dad. Before walking an insane number of dogs. That was before Clark and those few months that might change her whole life.

Because here’s the thing – if everything’s planned out, you can never find the unexpected. And where’s the fun in that?

Wild Swans by Jessica Spotswood
Expected publication: May 3, 2016 by Sourcebooks Fire

The summer before Ivy’s senior year is going to be golden; all bonfires, barbeques, and spending time with her best friends. For once, she will just get to be. No summer classes, none of Granddad’s intense expectations to live up to the family name. For generations, the Milbourn women have lead extraordinary lives—and died young and tragically. Granddad calls it a legacy, but Ivy considers it a curse. Why else would her mother have run off and abandoned her as a child?

But when her mother unexpectedly returns home with two young daughters in tow, all of the stories Ivy wove to protect her heart start to unravel. The very people she once trusted now speak in lies. And all of Ivy’s ambition and determination cannot defend her against the secrets of the Milbourn past…

My picks for top 5 children’s and top 5 YA fiction I read this year:

Murder Most Unladylike (Wells and Wong #1) by Robin Stevens

The Return of Zita the Spacegirl (Zita the Spacegirl #3) by Ben Hatke

Now Look What You’ve Done (Timmy Failure #2) by Stephen Pastis

We Meet Again (Timmy Failure #3) by Stephan Pastis

Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus (Origami Yoda #6) by Tom Angleberger

The Sweetest Thing You Can Sing by C.K. Kelly Martin

Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour

All the Truth That’s in Me by Julie Berry

Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson

A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller

*Note: These are titles I have read in 2014; titles may have been published in previous years. Rereads are not included on this list.

Source: Hardcover, Published May 6, 2014 by Simon & Schuster

Verdict: Very Good

Book Description:

The Pre-Sloane Emily didn’t go to parties, she barely talked to guys, she didn’t do anything crazy. Enter Sloane, social tornado and the best kind of best friend—the one who yanks you out of your shell. But right before what should have been an epic summer, Sloane just… disappears. No note. No calls. No texts. No Sloane. There’s just a random to-do list. On it, thirteen Sloane-selected-definitely-bizarre-tasks that Emily would never try… unless they could lead back to her best friend. Apple Picking at Night? Ok, easy enough.Dance until Dawn? Sure. Why not? Kiss a Stranger? Wait… what?

Getting through Sloane’s list would mean a lot of firsts. But Emily has this whole unexpected summer ahead of her, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected) to check things off. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go Skinny Dipping? Um…

Morgan Matson has created and crafted another gorgeous, slow-burning summer read with Since You’ve Been Gone. Her last YA novel, Second Chance Summer, is a favourite of mine, and I couldn’t wait to dig in to her next book. While perhaps this one didn’t reach the same emotional peak- for me, at least- as Second Chance Summer, it was still a wonderful read.

Emily, our protagonist and narrator, is suddenly at a loss when her best friend Sloane up and leaves town with her parents. Panicked at the thought of what might have happened to her friend, why she left without a word, and lost at the thought of a summer without Sloane, Emily can’t think of what to do or who to turn to.

Then, the list arrives in the mail. A list from Sloane, with thirteen to-do’s for Emily to accomplish. But why? Why now? And why nothing else? Believing that somehow, in some way, completing (or trying to complete) the list will bring Sloane back, Emily decides to plunge in. But how will Emily get through these things without her confidante, her cheerleader and brave friend pushing her on? She slowly finds support in a few unlikely places over the summer. A chance trip at an indoor sports facility with her younger brother, for example, leads her to Frank Porter- a very bright, kind, very confident classmate, who appears to have it all- and ends up becoming something more than Emily could ever have imagined.

Does Emily ever find Sloane? Does Sloane ever find her way back to Emily? For me, Emily’s journey through the tasks on the lists were so absorbing, whether or not we ever found out what happened with Sloane almost took a back seat. Without giving too much away here, I will say that the ending (and that short climb to the end) is altogether satisfying. (Though perhaps a wee bit rushed…). Matson takes, I think, an interesting diversion in the last section of the novel in piecing the puzzle of Sloane together; thoughtfully weaving in Emily and even, and perhaps especially, Frank.

I believe I’ve said it before: fans of Sarah Dessen’s writing style, and summer-themed novels might be particularly taken in with Matson. (That being said, I actually feel that Matson’s writing is even more perceptive and dare I say, fresh, than Dessen’s latest efforts have been). Readers who enjoy Huntley Fitzpatrick, Jessi Kirby, Nina LaCour, and Stephanie Perkins might also enjoy this. If you haven’t read anything by Matson yet, and are looking for genuine, contemporary, coming-of-age YA, then I definitely recommend!

PS. If you have the hardcover version, be sure to slip off the book jacket and look at the inside art.