Putting the YA in FRIYAY: Introducing #PenguinFlashback

Hello and welcome to the first edition of #PenguinFlashback! Each month, we’re picking a different theme and featuring one of our fave books from years past that match the theme. This month, we’re talking “Swoony Couples” so we had to gush about Every Breath and Every Word by Ellie Marney.
 
 
And now here’s the fun part: we need your help! Next month’s theme is “Girl Boss” – you have until February 21 to comment on our Instagram post and suggest your favourite Penguin Random House YA book featuring a girl boss (aka “strong female character”). Then check back here in March to see which one was nominated. Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

By Ellie Marney
ISBN 9781770497726 | Hardcover
Ages 14+ | Tundra Books
Release date: October 14, 2014
When James Mycroft drags Rachel Watts off on a night mission to the Melbourne Zoo, the last thing she expects to find is the mutilated body of Homeless Dave, one of Mycroft’s numerous eccentric friends. But Mycroft’s passion for forensics leads him to realize that something about the scene isn’t right–and he wants Watts to help him investigate the murder. While Watts battles her attraction to bad-boy Mycroft, he’s busy getting himself expelled and clashing with the police, becoming murder suspect number one. When Watts and Mycroft unknowingly reveal too much to the cold-blooded killer, they find themselves in the lion’s den–literally. A trip to the zoo will never have quite the same meaning to Rachel Watts again…
 
By Ellie Marney
ISBN 9781770497757 | Hardcover
Ages 14+ | Tundra Books
Release date: September 8, 2015
James Mycroft has just left for London to investigate a car accident similar to the one that killed his parents … without saying goodbye to Rachel Watts, his ‘partner in crime’. Rachel is furious and worried about his strange behavior – not that Mycroft’s ever exactly normal, but London is the scene of so many of his nightmares. So Rachel jumps on a plane to follow him … and lands straight in a whole storm of trouble. The theft of a copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio, the possible murder of a rare books conservator, and the deaths of Mycroft’s parents…. Can Watts help Mycroft make sense of the three events – or will she lose him forever? Sparks fly when Watts and Mycroft reunite in this second sophisticated thriller about the teen sleuthing duo.

 

Guest Post: Women’s History Month

Speak a Word for FreedomJanet Willen and Marjorie Gann: March is Women’s History Month in the U.S., a time to honor women who had the courage to speak up when people in power wanted to keep them quiet. We’re celebrating by showcasing Speak a Word for Freedom: Women against Slavery, which tells the stories of fourteen of these women, abolitionists past and present.

Nineteenth-century Englishwoman Elizabeth Heyrick felt she had no choice but to omit her name from her pamphlet Immediate, not Gradual Abolition, urging a quick end to slavery. In 1824 neither men nor women wanted to hear what a woman had to say on the topic. That didn’t stop her.

When U.S. President Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1862, his first words were, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!” The book was Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It opened people’s eyes to slavery’s horrors, turned the North against the South and paved the way for the American Civil War.

Nina Smith, one of today’s heroes, heads an organization that works to free young children enslaved in rug factories in Afghanistan, India and Nepal. Some of the kids are forced to sleep near looms and work seventeen-hour days. When Smith started her work, she thought everyone would agree that slavery was wrong, but she found resistance in surprising places.


These women’s stories and more are highlighted in Speak a Word for Freedom. The book is a critical success:

“An inspiring collection of those who have fought and continue to fight against the evil of slavery and an effectively solemn reminder that slavery remains a global plague.” Kirkus Reviews

“A powerful indictment of human rights abuses and tribute to the women who have fought them.” Starred review, Publishers Weekly

We also wrote the award-winning book Five Thousand Years of Slavery.

GIVEAWAY: Enter for your chance to win a copy of Speak a Word for Freedom by filling in the entry form below. US and Canada only, March 21-31, 2016. Winner to be announced on April 1, 2016. Giveaway is now closed! Congratulations to Sheelagh for winning a copy of the book.

Every Word Blog Tour: Day 5

EveryWord-BlogBanner
Even though it’s the last day of the blog tour, we have a feeling that the #Wattscroft love won’t be stopping here! Check out these amazing finale posts!

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015

>> Lauren at Love is not a triangle has Ellie Marney go on location in London. Take a visual tour of the spots Ellie researched for Every Word.

>> Kristen at My Friends Are Fiction features Ellie Marney in her author spotlight. Read about Australian, Ellie’s writing space, and writing methods.

>> Morgan at Gone with the Words enthusiastically tells us that “this series is AMAZING…. Needless to say, I fell in love with Marney’s characters and the breakneck speed and tension with which she tells their story. It’s really intense but it’s also a lot of fun. It makes you sweat, it makes your heart pound, and it makes you anxious to piece together the puzzle. The Sherlock parallels are subtle and really clever. Plus WATTSCROFT IS THE SHIP OF SHIPS!!” Are you convinced yet?

>> Author Leanne Dyck reads Every Word from a writer’s perspective, jotting down notes from beginning to end.

Click on the banner for the full tour schedule. You can also follow @TundraBooks, @EllieMarney, and the wonderful bloggers on twitter! We’re also on facebook if you prefer to chat there: Tundra Books and Ellie Marney.

Every Word Blog Tour: Day 4

EveryWord-BlogBanner

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2015

>> Michelle at FAB BOOK REVIEWS recommends Every Word “for readers looking for taut, raw and romantic new contemporary YA novels to dive into.”

>> Marie at Ramblings of a Daydreamer is keeping our tour musical with her preferred playlist. And then a trip down memory lane when she visited Baker Street in London!

>> Liz at Midnight Bloom Reads says “Ellie Marney’s Every Word is one of the most sophisticated, meticulously researched YA murder mysteries that I’ve ever read. The forensic techniques and explanations/theories devised during the investigation all felt within the realm of possibility. Elle Marney has surely outdone herself this time!”

>> How could you not read this series when Amy at Tripping Over Books says “Guys, this book is everything. (The whole series is everything.) … There’s danger, mystery, romance, feelings, and one of the greatest ships of all time. I can’t recommend it enough.”

>> “Ellie Marney has a beautiful way of writing, talented in making you feel her characters love, lust, pain, and despair profoundly.” – Rachel at The Readers Den

Click on the banner for the full tour schedule. You can also follow @TundraBooks, @EllieMarney, and the wonderful bloggers on twitter! We’re also on facebook if you prefer to chat there: Tundra Books and Ellie Marney.