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PW 2019 Young Adult Entries

Please note: These are the entries for the Pitch Wars season beginning in 2021 and continuing through 2022. Please note that our Agent Showcase ends at 9:00 p.m. ET on Monday, February 14, 2022. Agents will not be able to leave comments requesting material after that time.

PW2019 YA #01: LOVE FROM SCRATCH (Contemporary Rom-Com)

For fans of Emma Mills and the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen.

Reese Camden has landed a summer internship at an online cooking channel with one simple recipe for success: focus on her professional goals above all else in order to be taken seriously in a male-dominated industry. But that plan is tossed in the blender when she’s unexpectedly thrown in front of the camera alongside charming culinary intern, Benny. Add a heap of workplace misogyny, a dash of intense online scrutiny, and one hunk of a coworker giving more spice than she planned on, and her life may be the stickiest mess ever cooked up in the kitchen. As she fights for the career of her dreams, Reese must decide if a relationship with Benny can be icing on the cake...or if she’ll only end up getting burned.

PW2019 YA #02: ALWAYS, ALIA (Contemporary)

Alia’s senior year to-do’s: get straight A’s, help Mamma at their henna shop, avoid crushing on Holden, and figure out how to afford her dream college. When Alia overhears rich kids complain about grades, she capitalizes on her intellect – for a price, Alia will sell essays and tests to other students. Although this lucrative side hustle brings her closer to her dreams, the cheating and lies might destroy her life.

 

PW2019 YA #03: NOT YOUR AVERAGE JO (Contemporary #OwnVoices)

A STAR IS BORN meets EMERGENCY CONTACT. Korean-American Riley Jo is a bonafide rockstar onstage. Offstage, not so much. When her bandmate won’t let her sing her own song because she’s “too Asian” she must drum up the courage and speak up or risk losing her voice onstage and off.

PW2019 YA #04: SEA LEGS (Contemporary)

When a shoulder injury wipes out Rory’s swim scholarships, her solo drinking party on the train leads to mandatory boot camp—until she begs to work on the Italian mega-yacht her overbearing mom captains instead. 

But when Rory catches feels for a charter guest and he jumps ship to escape the future his parents have dictated for him, everyone assumes she helped. And her mom’s all-too-willing to fire her for it.

So when Rory discovers her crewmate BFF is the real culprit, she’ll have to decide: give up her friend, or take the blame—and the first flight to boot camp. 

THE REST OF THE STORY meets Bravo’s Below Deck.

PW2019 YA #05: NO, I LOVE YOU, & OTHER THINGS THAT ARE HARD TO SAY (Contemporary)

Sixteen-year-old Carrie was ditched by her mom for Italy, her father’s harboring a secret, and her crush body-slammed her heart. Escaping to the beach, Carrie turns to cooking and her BFF's lips for comfort, but if she dives head first into the unexpected, she risks her friendship with the only person who’s never taken her for granted.

PW2019 YA #06: THE LAWLESS (#OwnVoices Contemporary with Speculative Elements)

Dani wants to leave her past mistakes behind, but it seems impossible after another arrest. As 100 Chicago fugitives compete for immunity on an online game show, Dani must evade trigger-happy cops and merciless saboteurs for five days. Making it to the final ten means winning a clean slate. If she fails, Dani will lose not only her freedom but her parents’ too.

THE HATE U GIVE meets BLACK MIRROR.

PW2019 YA #07: WHAT IF WE ARE THE STARS (Contemporary #OwnVoices)

JENNY HAN meets POET X. Memphis. Summer. Jupiter Ray is a poet, carting around ignored wounds of losing her father too soon. Orion is the star athlete his father pushed him to be and a hopeless romantic, virgin, terrified to talk to girls. Being with Ray is the safest Orion's ever felt. And Ray’s starting to believe love might actually be worth the risk... Until she pieces together the truth about her father's death. A truth her own mother kept from her. A truth Orion knew. Ray must face the past that's been controlling her future, while Orion fights to ensure love wins.

PW2019 YA #08: MONSTERS GREAT AND SMALL (Paranormal Fantasy)

Queer WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS meets TO ALL THE BOYS.

Leo has big plans for his first summer as a vampire: travel abroad, hunt cryptids with friends, and don’t get caught. Then a teen monster-hunter drives a wooden stake through his heart, threatening to ruin more than Leo’s favorite t-shirt. The hunter is determined to learn how to kill Leo. Leo is desperate to keep his friends in the dark, which means pretending to date the disgruntled boy who wants him dead.

PW2019 YA #09: THE STONE QUEEN (Fantasy #ownvoices)

After Naia’s choice to steal a magical object results in the death of her family, the warrior priestess must team up with enemy mages—including the dangerous, but intriguing, Kairon—and learn to harness her magical heritage in order to rescue her sister. #Ownvoices South Asian-inspired fantasy.

PW2019 YA #10: SISTERS OF BONE AND SKY (Fantasy – LGBTQ #OwnVoices)

The Chimera’s island is a refuge for desperate girls, who bind themselves to a curse in exchange for sanctuary. Siggi has trained as the Chimera’s warrior daughter so that she may fulfill her oath: free her monster-guardian from the island or transform into a living skeleton, like the girls who came before her. But Siggi dreams of revenge against the raiders who destroyed her village and forced her to seek refuge. To save herself and her bone sisters, Siggi must unravel a web of secrets about the Chimera and the raiders, before the curse claims her too.

SAWKILL GIRLS meets THE WITCHER.