Young Adult and the Ampersand Project

Scarlett Stirling is hardworking and fiercely ambitious. She loves the blisters and the strict regime of her dance classes at the National Academy of Performing Arts. Her life is measured and balanced. Perfect. But when Scarlett meets charismatic musician Moss, she enters another world - a world without restrictions - and is swept up in a heady whirlwind of sex, drugs and celebrity. Spread thin between her commitments and her desire to be with Moss, Scarlett pushes herself to the limit, unaware she's playing a dark game. Silhouette is not just another dance book. This gritty young adult novel follows the strong and determined Scarlett as she navigates her way from the safe, structured Academy into the adult world of commercial dance. Thalia Kalkipsakis (Go Girl, Girlfriend Fiction) explores a cut-throat industry, where talent and ambition are paramount, and one mis-step can cost you everything.
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I'm always trying to figure out what's really going on. Always having to fill in the gaps, but never getting all the details. It's like trying to do a jigsaw when I don't even know what the picture is, and I'm missing one of the vital middle pieces. How do you know if your friends are talking about you behind your back, or if a boy likes you? They could act innocent, but you'd know from the rumours. You'd hear the whispers. But what if you couldn't hear those whispers anymore? What if everything you took for granted was gone? Being a teenager is hard enough. But being a deaf teenager?
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Daisy has died five times. She's a test subject for a government super drug called Revive, which brings people back from the dead. Each time she is revived, Daisy has to move cities and change her identity to avoid suspicion. Daisy has always gotten a thrill out of cheating death, but her latest move has come with unexpected complications: a new best friend, and a very cute new crush who is taking a special interest in her... As Daisy's attachment to her new home grows, she discovers secrets that could tear her world apart. And the more she learns, the more she feels like a lowly pawn in a sinister game. When the stakes are life and death, someone is going to get hurt.
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There were two things everyone knew about Miranda Vaile before she'd even arrived at our school. The first was that she had no parents - they were dead. And the second? They were dead because Miranda had killed them. Olive Corbett is definitely not crazy. Not anymore. These days she takes her meds like a good girl, hangs out with her best friend Ami, and stays the hell away from the toxic girls she used to be friends with. She doesn't need a boyfriend. Especially not a lifesaver-type with nice eyes and a broad back. And she doesn't need the drama of that creepy new girl Miranda trying to make it with her ex-friends. But then, against all odds, Miranda does make it with them. Or she best-friends one of them and makes the others go away. As Miranda emerges from the shadows, Olive begins to realise something sinister going is on. Something almost…parasitic. Either Olive is losing her grip on reality, or those crazy rumours are true. Maybe Miranda is a killer. But who would believe Olive? She does have a habit of letting her imagination run away with her…Shift is a sinister YA psychological thriller that tears through the themes of identity, loss and toxic friendship. It's Single White Female meets Justine Larbalestier's Liar. Shift is the first novel for young adults from Go Girl author Em Bailey.
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The cool group at school is not as luminous as it seems. Sure they appear to have it all, but there are problems lurking just below the surface. Beautiful Jordan is struggling to cope because of her newly divorced parents, Meredith covers her past by playing the clown, Cecilia hides her feelings and a shameful secret, Sam is growing up, and Jack is caught off-guard when he falls in love for the first time. And then there's someone else. She's not part of the group. The others have no idea she's there. But she knows that there are cracks. She watches them from the inside, out. From the outside, in. A beautiful novella about figuring out who you are and how you fit in.
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Seventeen-year-old Lauren is having visions of girls who have gone missing. And all these girls have just one thing in common - they are 17 and gone without a trace. As Lauren struggles to shake these waking nightmares, impossible questions demand urgent answers: Why are the girls speaking to Lauren? How can she help them? And… is she next? As Lauren searches for clues, everything begins to unravel. Then a brush with death lands her in the hospital and a shocking truth emerges, and changes everything. With complexity and richness, Nova Ren Suma serves up a beautiful, visual, fresh interpretation of what it means to be lost.
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Cambodia is the last place in the world Sienna wants to visit. She likes five-star hotels and exercising her credit card in air-conditioned malls - not flea-ridden hostels and trekking through the jungle. But when her brother Eddie starts sending strange messages from Cambodia, Sienna's mum convinces her to go check on him. Thankfully, her boyfriend agrees to go along. When they arrive, they discover that Eddie has disappeared. Sienna just wants to find him and get the hell out of there. Everything in Cambodia is getting to her - the language barrier, the unrelenting humidity, the mosquitos. But mostly it's Eddie's maddeningly hot French friend, Guillaume, who couldn't be more unhelpful if he tried…
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When Georgia meets Nik on her summer holiday, she's sure he's too good to be true. He's gorgeous, with god-like abs and an adorable English accent. Then she discovers that he's actually a member of an obscenely wealthy Russian family - and he wants to get to know her better. Nik catapults Georgia into a world of private yachts, fast cars and expensive jewellery. Having a billionaire for a boyfriend certainly comes with benefits … but it also comes with a price. How long will it take before life in the fast lane spins out of control?
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A YA romantic comedy about a movie geek & the dream girl he refuses to fall in love with. Sam Kinnison is a geek, and he's totally fine with that. He has his horror movies, his nerdy friends, World of Warcraft - and until Princess Leia turns up in his bedroom, worry about girls he won't. Then Camilla Carter arrives on the scene. She's beautiful, friendly and completely irrelevant to his plan. Sam is determined to ignore her, except that Camilla has a plan of her own - and he seems to be a part of it! Sam believes that everything he needs to know he can learn from the movies. But perhaps he's been watching the wrong ones. Life in Outer Space is Melissa Keil's brilliantly sweet and funny YA debut. It's also the first book to be signed up through the Ampersand Project, Hardie Grant Egmont's initiative for emerging YA writers.
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