AustLit

'Looking for Alibrandi meets Arrested Development in this YA screwball comedy about a student exchange gone hilariously, criminally wrong.

'Maria Petranelli will do anything to get away from her overbearing Italian-Australian family. She’s over their constant heckling about getting a boyfriend, their unspoken belief that she’s not normal, and their loudly spoken belief that she’s incapable of doing, well, anything. So when her family declares she ‘couldn’t handle living in Italy’, Maria immediately signs up to go there on student exchange. What could possibly go wrong? Well, everything …

'Despite months of mental preparation for every possible scenario, Maria is out of her depth in Italy. She struggles with the language, immediately gets scammed, and is bewildered by her growing attraction to Kennedy, the sweet-but-hopeless American exchange student who is determined to be her friend … if only Maria would let her.

When the two girls accidentally witness a crime, Maria discovers just what she can and can’t handle. Being kidnapped in the boot of a car and driven off into the Italian countryside? Maybe. But working out her feelings for Kennedy before it’s too late? 

'Maria Petranelli is prepared for anything … except this.' (Publication summary)

'Liliana’s hitting all the wrong notes. She’s a sixteen-year-old exchange student with a secret crush on Carter, her new band’s smoking hot guitarist – but she’s also got a girlfriend back home.

'So when she writes a song about him and it lands the band a record deal, she quickly realises she’s in hot water.

'Soon, Liliana will have to choose – between an alluring boy and the girl she left behind, between love and lust, and between the fame that beckons and staying true to the music that’s in her heart.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Twelve-year-old Lily Green’s life is falling apart. Her best friend, Violet, is more interested in the latest shade of lip gloss than hanging out. Her enemy, Zoe, is determined to beat Lily in the school science competition – and win Violet’s friendship, too. Worst of all, Lily's precious family beauty salon – the last connection she has to her dad – has hit hard times, and her mum has decided to sell it.

'When Lily accidentally mixes up a string of wild and wonderful beauty products from the mysterious plants in her neighbour’s garden, she thinks she’s found the perfect way to save the salon – and get her best friend back. But are her inventions as beautiful as she thinks? And when things start turning … ugly … can Lily find the real ‘secret ingredient’ that will save the salon, seal her friendships, and win the school science competition?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Ottilie Colter and her brother, Gully, have always fended for themselves. So when Gully goes missing one night, Ottilie sets out to find him – and soon makes a horrible discovery. Gully has been forcibly recruited by the Narroway Hunt, a secretive male-only organisation that hunts savage, blight-spreading monsters called ‘dredretches’. 

Disguising herself as a boy, Ottilie infiltrates the Hunt – but quickly realises that taking her brother home won't be easy. Trapped in the heart of the dredretch-infested Narroway, it's impossibly dangerous for them to leave. But as she trains to become a Huntsman alongside her brother, hoping for a chance to escape, how long can she keep her true identity a secret?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The latest winner of the Ampersand Prize is a genre-smashing kidnapping drama about Tamara, who's faced with an impossible choice when she falls for her captors.

'Yet this is no ordinary kidnapping. Tamara has been living on a freighter in deep space, and her kidnappers are terrifying Crowpeople – the only aliens humanity has ever encountered. No-one has ever survived a Crowpeople attack, until now – and Tamara must use everything she has just to stay alive.

'But survival always comes at a price, and there’s no handbook for this hostage crisis. As Tamara comes to know the Crowpeople's way of life, and the threats they face from humanity's exploration into deep space, she realises she has an impossible choice to make. Should she stay as the only human among the Crows, knowing she'll never see her family again … or inevitably betray her new community if she wants to escape?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.