Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten International 2016 Debuts I'm Looking Forward To

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.
This is books by non-UK authors - UK ones will be up over on Teens on Moon Lane shortly. (Just waiting to confirm whether I'm allowed to talk about one of them!)

The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig (Hot Key Books) March - Okay, I'll be completely honest and say that I don't really do time travel or time slip books normally. The only one I can think of that I've really enjoyed is Lauren James's The Next Together, which is wonderful. I'm really hoping Heilig's Girl From Everywhere, a tale of a girl and her opium-addicted father sailing through real and fictional destinations throughout time, will be another one - reviews from numerous people who've read it so far suggest it really is outstanding.

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner (Andersen Press) March - Small town Southern Gothic, by an author who seems super-cool on Twitter, which is massively recommended by Dahlia Adler? Oh yeah, you'd better believe I'm all over this novel about a preacher's son and his friends trying to make it through their senior year at high school!

The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock (Faber Children's Books) April - Four teenagers' lives become entangled in Alaska in 1970. I love stories about groups of people coming together, while the setting sounds incredibly intriguing. Again, several people whose opinions I trust have absolutely loved this one. 

Not If I See You First by Eric Lindstrom (Harper Collins) May - This book about a blind girl reacting to the reappearance at school of the boy who broke her heart is getting incredible reviews and Parker sounds like a completely unforgettable character!

We Were Never Here by Krystal Sutherland (Hot Key Books) Autumn - In general, I go for books either because I'm immediately drawn in by the blurb, or numerous people I respect speak highly of them. There are only a few people who, by themselves, can get me super-excited about a book - but Katie Webber (whose own debut Wing Jones is my most-anticipated of 2017!), is definitely one of them, so her strong recommendation of Krystal Sutherland's high school love story, about a senior falling for the new girl at school, has got me desperate to read it. 

As far as I know, the below five aren't being published in the UK. I would LOVE to be wrong here; let me know if I am!

Of Fire And Stars Audrey Coulthurst - "A princess with a forbidden magical gift is shipped off to a neighboring kingdom to marry a prince, but she has to choose between her duty and her heart when she falls in love with his rogueish horse-training sister instead" may not be the best blurb ever... oh, who am I kidding? It is CLEARLY the best blurb ever. Magic, girls in love, Game of Thrones meets Malinda Lo comparisons - when can I get my hands on this?!

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrustskie - I finished this an hour or two ago after utterly devouring the incredibly compelling second half. Set in a future where genetically-engineered sea monsters called Reckoners protect ships from pirates, it follows Cassandra Leung, kidnapped by pirate queen Santa Elena and forced to raise a Reckoner pup for her. Cas knows that Reckoner trainers are meant to come back, like the ancient Spartans, with their shield or on it, but is determined to stay alive to work out just how Santa Elena was able to get a Reckoner, and pass word of it to her family. Great, great world-building here, while there's a slow-burn romance between Cas and the pirate girl assigned to take care of her which is working very well for me so far. Ending is incredibly powerful, as well!
 
Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate - The only other one on this list I've read so far, Redgate's story intrigued me in two ways - firstly because it's told by seven narrators and secondly because it has the first openly pansexual character I can remember reading in YA. Multiple narrator stories are something that always excite me in theory, but in practise I find they tend to be hit or miss. This is a decided hit, with all seven leads having strong, distinctive voices. The pansexual character is handled really well and the way that the characters react to the central incident - a rumour of a teacher/student affair - feels completely believable. 

This Is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp - Hugely recommended by Luna, who's pushing this on EVERYBODY, there's a copy of this making its way around UK bloggers at the moment. Marieke is completely awesome and I've been made even more excited for this by the reactions of those who've read it so far. It's another told from various perspectives, set over just 54 minutes as a school shooting takes place. Described by Debbie, who has amazing taste, as "one of the most emotionally gripping books (she's) read for a very long time" this is a must-read.

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo - Saying I've saved the best until last seems like a stretch with a list of ten books which ALL look utterly amazing. But a romance about a trans girl, written by a trans woman, with a trans model on the cover, and with Alloy Entertainment involved (which suggests it will get a BIG marketing push, hopefully showing the desire for more LGBT novels)? This is one that I am so, so invested in. (And the fact that everyone I know who's read it completely adores it is just adding to the excitement.)