Like Paranormal YA? Just Wait for HarlequinTEEN…

by Amy Wilkins, Harlequin’s digital production coordinator

Paranormal (or fantasy…or futuristic…) YA is huge right now — such as Stephenie Meyer‘s Twilight books, P.C. and Kristin Cast’s House of Night Series and Neil Gaiman‘s award-winning The Graveyard Book.

This month, Harlequin will launch its new YA imprint HarlequinTEEN. The website www.HarlequinTEEN.com has just gone live with info about the first three books that will be coming out in 2009. And I’m sure you Paranormal Romance Blog readers will be interested to know that many upcoming HarlequinTEEN novels all have paranormal and fantasy themes!

To get a special taste of this new line, we have an eBook prequel to author Rachel Vincent‘s new YA minisiers, Soul Screamers. It’s called MY SOUL TO LOSE and is available at all eBook retailers plus these places for FREE:

• the eHarlequin eBook Store
• Rachel Vincent’s Website (PDF)
• Sony eBook Store
• Amazon Kindle
• HarlequinTEEN.com (PDF)
• Smart Bitches, Trashy Books (PDF)
• Downloadable audio at Audible.com

Now, how about a closer look at the first three HarlequinTEEN titles, hmmm?

MY SOUL TO TAKE by Rachel Vincent (released July 28, book 1 in the SOUL SCREAMERS series)

Something is wrong with Kaylee Cavanaugh. She doesn’t see dead people, but…

She senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally.

Kaylee just wants to be a normal girl, basking in the joy of having caught the attention of Nash, the hottest guy in school. But getting through a first date isn’t easy when he seems to know more about Kaylee’s need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only she knows who’ll be next…

INTERTWINED by Gena Showalter (released August 25)

Most sixteen-year-olds have friends. Aden Stone has four human souls living inside him:

One can time-travel. One can raise the dead. One can tell the future. And one can possess another human.

With no other family and a life spent in and out of institutions, Aden and the souls have become friends.  But now, they’re causing him all kinds of trouble.

Like, he’ll blink and suddenly he’s a younger Aden, reliving the past. One wrong move, and he’ll change the future. Or, he’ll walk past a total stranger and know how and when she’s going to die.

He’s so over it. All he wants is peace.

And then he meets a girl who quiets the voices.  Well, for as long as he’s with her. Why? Mary Ann Gray is his total opposite. He’s a loner; she has friends. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks; she tries to make everyone happy. And while he attracts the paranormal, she repels it.  For her sake, he should stay away.  But it’s too late…

Somehow, they share an inexplicable bond of friendship. A bond about to be tested by a werewolf shape-shifter who wants Mary Ann for his own and a vampire princess Aden can’t resist.  Two romances, both forbidden…doomed.  Still, the four will enter a dark underworld of intrigue and danger…but not everyone will come out alive…

ELMPHAME’S CHOICE by P.C. Cast (released September 29, originally published by Luna Books)

Worshipped. Set apart. Unable to connect with others.

Though most girls believe she’s different, Elphame knows she is. Odd. Strange. Unique. No one in Patholon has her abilities–or her connection ot their goddess. And she has a destiny she is about to discover….

A restlessness has infused her, leading her to the other side of her country. There, the remnants of an evil war still linger. Will Elphame be able to redeem both her country and her soul mate, a survivor of that war? The choice she makes now may bring disaster–or a future in which she may never be alone again.

For news about HarlequinTEEN, bookmark www.HarlequinTEEN.com or follow them on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HarlequinTEEN

Which paranormal YA books do you love?