Spotlight on YA Indie Jewish Authors

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Over the past year, I've dedicated some of my posts to bringing attention to indie authors who belong to marginalized communities. It's something I hope to do more of in the future. Today I'm thrilled to introduce you to three Young Adult indie, Jewish authors and put a spotlight on some of their  wonderful books. 

 LISA AMOWITZ is an award-winning author of three fantasy/thrillers for young adults: UNTIL BETH, VISION, and BREAKING GLASS, and anthology contributor to UNBOUND. She is also a cover designer and Director of Digital Design at Bronx Community College where she has taught for the past twenty-five years. Having successfully raised two creative and independent offspring, she lives with her husband in New York City, making trouble, art, and trying to do yoga every day. You can learn more about Lisa at lisaamowitz.com.

Until Beth by Lisa Amowitz

Talented rock guitarist Beth Collins has been barely holding herself together for months, ever since her boyfriend and bandmate became the latest victim in a string of suspicious disappearances. When her brother is injured an accident and she sees something dark billowing around him as he hovers close to death, she’s convinced her sanity is collapsing for good.

Then she's accepted by a boarding school for the musically gifted. All of her new friends are bursting withtalent, but they're also keeping secrets. Can she trust Vincent, who's so sweet that his very touch makes her fears melt away? Or Xavier, who's trying to tell her something but is hiding even more?

And will anyone be safe when her true Talent comes out?

Purchase Until Beth from Amazon
Purchase Until Beth from Indie Bound

And Coming Soon from Lisa:

Breaking Glass by Lisa Amowitz

On the night seventeen-year-old Jeremy Glass winds up in the hospital with a broken leg and a blood alcohol level well above the legal limit, his secret crush, Susannah, disappears. When he begins receiving messages from her from beyond the grave, he's not sure whether they're real or if he's losing his grip on reality. Clue by clue, he gets closer to unraveling the mystery, and soon realizes he must discover the truth or become the next victim himself.

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EMILY COLIN'S debut novel, THE MEMORY THIEF, was a New York Times bestseller and a Target Emerging Authors Pick. She is also the author of THE DREAM KEEPER’S DAUGHTER (Ballantine Books). Her young adult titles include the anthology WICKED SOUTH: SECRETS AND LIES and the SEVEN SINS series, both from Blue Crow Publishing, as well as the anthology UNBOUND: STORIES OF TRANSFORMATION, LOVE, AND MONSTERS (Five Points Press). Regardless of whether she’s writing for adults or teens, all of her books feature love stories and supernatural twists.

 Emily’s diverse life experience includes organizing a Coney Island tattoo and piercing show, hauling fish at a dolphin research center, roaming New York City as an itinerant teenage violinist, helping launch two small publishing companies, and working to facilitate community engagement in the arts. Currently, she finds joy in teaching classes for the Writers Workshop at Authors Publish and working as a freelance editor. Originally from Brooklyn, Emily lives in coastal North Carolina with her family. She loves chocolate, is addicted to tiramisu, and dislikes anything containing beans. You can find her trying to do yoga, with her nose buried in a book, or getting dragged down the block by her over-enthusiastic dog, Moo.

Sword of the Seven Sins by Emily Colin

Eva Marteinn never wanted to be a killer.

Raised in the Commonwealth, where citizens live and die by the code of the Seven Sins, Eva is sickened by the barbaric punishments the High Priests inflict. She sees the Bellators of Light, the Commonwealth’s executioners, as no more than conscienceless killers.

When she’s Chosen as the first female bellator—and can’t refuse, on threat of exile or disgrace—Eva is devastated. But she turns out to be inordinately gifted at the very role she abhors…no thanks to her mentor, Ari Westergaard, who alternates between ignoring her and challenging her to impossible tests.

Ari’s indifference conceals a dangerous secret: He’s loved Eva since they were children. When Eva falls for Ari too, she knows they should do anything to avoid each other. Love is forbidden. Lust is a death sentence. But as mentor and apprentice, they’re bound by the blood oath they swore the day of Eva’s Choosing.

Balanced on a razor’s edge of desire and betrayal, the two uncover a secret that could overturn the Commonwealth itself. Now Eva must make an impossible choice: Turn her back on Ari, and remain loyal to the only home she’s ever known—or risk everything on the slim hope of freedom, and stake her life on the boy she’s come to love.

Purchase Sword of the Seven Sins from Amazon

Purchase Sword of the Seven Sins from Indie Bound

Purchase Sword of the Seven Sins from Barnes and Noble

Emily's new release:

Shadows of the Seven Sins: A Story Collection by Emily Colin

What risks would you be willing to take for love?

In the oppressive world of the Commonwealth, citizens live and die by the rules of the Seven Sins: pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. Affection is punishable by death…but all of the rules in the world can’t stop people from falling in love.

Fighting back against the High Priests who rule the Commonwealth and the vicious Bellatorum warriors who enforce the law is terrifying. But for love, even ordinary people will take daring chances. For love, people will do terrible—and wonderful—things.

In the pages of this spellbinding collection, dive deeper into the stories of your favorite characters from the Seven Sins series and meet new ones; discover dark secrets they've been hiding; and witness the courage of rebels who risk their lives—again and again—for the justice they fight for and the love they hold dear.

Purchase Shadows of the Seven Sins on Amazon

Purchase Shadows of the Seven Sins on Barnes and Noble

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KIMBERLY G GIARRATANO lives in the Poconos with her husband and three kids. A lot of her books are set in my rural surroundings, therefore one might she I writes Poconoir. She can walk outside her house to describe the specific slope of a decaying tree trunk. Or the notorious fog rolling off the mountains. In the winter, it’s not uncommon to have three feet of snow on her lawn. A person can bury a body under the snow pack and it won’t be discovered until April.

 She’s a television junkie and a podcast fiend. She loves young adult literature and crime fiction, and young adult crime fiction.

Grunge Gods and Graveyards by Kimberly G. Giarratano

 2015 Silver Falchion Award Winner

 Parted by death. Tethered by love.

 Lainey Bloom’s high school senior year is a complete disaster. The popular clique, led by mean girl Wynter Woods, bullies her constantly. The principal threatens not to let her graduate with the class of 1997 unless she completes a major research project. And everyone blames her for the death of Wynter’s boyfriend, Danny Obregon.

 Danny, a gorgeous musician, stole Lainey’s heart when he stole a kiss at a concert. But a week later, he was run down on a dangerous stretch of road. When he dies in her arms, she fears she’ll never know if he really would have broken up with Wynter to be with her.

 Then his ghost shows up, begging her to solve his murder. Horrified by the dismal fate that awaits him if he never crosses over, Lainey seeks the dark truth amidst small town secrets, family strife, and divided loyalties. But every step she takes toward discovering what really happened the night Danny died pulls her further away from the beautiful boy she can never touch again.

Purchase Grunge Gods and Graveyards on Amazon (also currently a Kindle Unlimited book)

Also by Kimberly:

School Lies by Kimberly G. Giarratano

“Levi and Troy are poignantly real, and the 90s setting serves as an eerie reminder of how far we’ve come, and yet how much more we have to go. Riveting and suspenseful.” –Kate Moretti, New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Year

After finding his headmaster father slumped over his desk from a gunshot wound, Levi Abrams is ready to sever his ties to Hulbert Academy with a sharp blade. Though the authorities have ruled his father’s death an accident, Levi has his doubts. But with graduation only weeks away, Levi wants to get his diploma and move on.

Then Troy Byrne returns to school.

It’s been three years since Troy got expelled from Hulbert on bogus drug charges–but he’s over it. And over his parents’ impending divorce. Maybe even over his feelings for Levi. But when his troubled sister disappears, he must return to the treacherous halls of Hulbert. Photo negatives in her trashed apartment connect her disappearance to the headmaster’s death. To find his sister, he’ll need Levi’s help. Now Troy has no choice but to confront his feelings for a boy he was hoping to forget.

As Troy and Levi follow a scavenger hunt of clues, they unearth a dangerous blackmailing scheme that extends far beyond their claustrophobic prep school. Is Troy’s sister missing or did someone make her disappear? And are the boys next?

Set against the backdrop of the mid-1990s, School Lies explores the depths we go to protect ourselves and those we love even if it means betraying others.

Purchase School Lies from Amazon (also currently a Kindle Unlimited book)