A selec­tion of some upcom­ing YA books to look out for!

Click on the book cov­ers to see Goodreads reviews

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Keep Hold­ing On by Susane Colas­anti

31st May 2012

A roman­tic and empow­er­ing book about bullying

Noelle’s life is all about sur­vival. Even her best friend doesn’t know how much she gets bul­lied, or the ways her mom neglects her. Noelle’s kept so much about her life a secret for so long that when her long­time crush Julian Porter starts pay­ing atten­tion to her, she’s ter­ri­fied. Surely it’s safer to stay hid­den than to risk the pain of a bro­ken heart. But when the antag­o­nism of her class­mates takes a dra­matic turn, Noelle real­izes it’s time to stand up for herself–and for the love that keeps her hold­ing on.

 

Mir­a­cle by Eliz­a­beth Scott

5th June 2012

Megan is a mir­a­cle. At least, that’s what every­one says. Hav­ing sur­vived a plane crash that killed every­one else on board, Megan knows she should be grate­ful just to be alive. But the truth is, she doesn’t feel like a mir­a­cle. In fact, she doesn’t feel any­thing at all. Then mem­o­ries from the crash start com­ing back.

Scared and alone, Megan doesn’t know whom to turn to. Her entire com­mu­nity seems unable—or maybe unwilling—to see her as any­thing but Mir­a­cle Megan. Every­one except for Joe, the beau­ti­ful boy next door with a tragic past and secrets of his own. All Megan wants is for her life to get back to nor­mal, but the harder she tries to live up to everyone’s expec­ta­tions, the worse she feels. And this time, she may be falling too fast to be saved…

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For Dark­ness Shows the Stars by Diana Peter­fre­und

12th June 2012

Gen­er­a­tions ago, a genetic exper­i­ment gone wrong—the Reduction—decimated human­ity, giv­ing rise to a Lud­dite nobil­ity who out­lawed most technology.

Elliot North has always known her place in this world. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her child­hood sweet­heart, the ser­vant Kai, choos­ing duty to her family’s estate over love. Since then the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jump­start­ing the wheel of progress, and Elliot’s estate is founder­ing, forc­ing her to rent land to the mys­te­ri­ous Cloud Fleet, a group of ship­builders that includes renowned explorer Cap­tain Malakai Wentforth—an almost unrec­og­niz­able Kai. And while Elliot won­ders if this could be their sec­ond chance, Kai seems deter­mined to show Elliot exactly what she gave up when she let him go.

But Elliot soon dis­cov­ers her old friend car­ries a secret—one that could change their soci­ety … or bring it to its knees. And again, she’s faced with a choice: cling to what she’s been raised to believe, or cast her lot with the only boy she’s ever loved, even if she’s lost him forever.

Inspired by Jane Austen’s Per­sua­sion, For Dark­ness Shows the Stars is a breath­tak­ing romance about open­ing your mind to the future and your heart to the one per­son you know can break it.

 

 

Flirt­ing in Ital­ian by Lau­ren Hen­der­son

12th June 2012

Four girls. One mag­i­cal, and pos­si­bly dan­ger­ous Ital­ian sum­mer. Fam­ily mys­ter­ies, ancient cas­tles, long hot nights of danc­ing under the stars … and, of course, plenty of gor­geous Ital­ian boys!

 

 

 

 

Lies Beneath by Anne Green­wood Brown

12th June 2012

Calder White lives in the cold, clear waters of Lake Supe­rior, the only brother in a fam­ily of mur­der­ous mer­maids. To sur­vive, Calder and his sis­ters prey on humans, killing them to absorb their energy. But this sum­mer the under­wa­ter clan tar­gets Jason Han­cock out of pure revenge. They blame Han­cock for their mother’s death and have been wait­ing a long time for him to return to his family’s home­stead on the lake. Han­cock has a fear of water, so to lure him in, Calder sets out to seduce Hancock’s daugh­ter, Lily. Easy enough—especially as Calder has lots of prac­tice using his irre­sistable good looks and charm on usus­pect­ing girls. Only this time Calder screws every­thing up: he falls for Lily—just as Lily starts to sus­pect that there’s more to the monsters-in-the-lake leg­ends than she ever imag­ined. And just as his sis­ters are los­ing patience with him.

 

Storm by Brigid Kem­merer

13th June 2012

Ever since her ex-boyfriend spread those lies about her, Becca Chan­dler is sud­denly get­ting all the guys—all the ones she doesn’t want. Then she saves Chris Mer­rick from a beat­ing in the school park­ing lot. Chris is dif­fer­ent. Way dif­fer­ent: he can con­trol water—just like his broth­ers can con­trol fire, wind, and earth. They’re pow­er­ful. Dan­ger­ous. Marked for death.

And now that she knows the truth, so is Becca.

Secrets are hard to keep when your life’s at stake. When Hunter, the mys­te­ri­ous new kid around school, turns up with a tal­ent for being in the wrong place at the right time, Becca thinks she can trust him. But then Hunter goes head-to-head with Chris, and Becca won­ders who’s hid­ing the most dan­ger­ous truth of all.

 

 

Keep­ing the Cas­tle by Patrice Kindi

14th June 2012

Seventeen-year-old Althea is the sole sup­port of her entire fam­ily, and she must marry well. But there are few wealthy suitors–or suit­ors of any kind–in their small York­shire town of Lesser Hoo. Then, the young and attrac­tive (and very rich) Lord Bor­ing arrives, and Althea sets her plans in motion. There’s only one prob­lem; his friend and busi­ness man­ager Mr. Fred­er­icks keeps get­ting in the way. And, as it turns out, Fred­er­icks has his own set of plans … This witty take on the clas­sic Regency–Patrice Kindl’s first novel in a decade–is like lit­er­ary champagne!

My Life Next Door by Hunt­ley Fitz­patrick

14th June 2012

“One thing my mother never knew, and would dis­ap­prove of most of all, was that I watched the Gar­retts. All the time.”

The Gar­retts are every­thing the Reeds are not. Loud, numer­ous, messy, affec­tion­ate. And every day from her bal­cony perch, seventeen-year-old Saman­tha Reed wishes she was one of them … until one sum­mer evening, Jase Gar­rett climbs her ter­race and changes every­thing. As the two fall fiercely in love, Jase’s fam­ily makes Saman­tha one of their own. Then in an instant, the bot­tom drops out of her world and she is sud­denly faced with an impos­si­ble deci­sion. Which per­fect fam­ily will save her? Or is it time she saved herself?

 

 

My Life in Black and White by Natasha Friend

14th June 2012

What if you lost the thing that made you who you are?

Lexi has always been stun­ning. Her butter-colored hair and per­fect fea­tures have helped her attract friends, a boyfriend, and the atten­tion of a mod­el­ing scout. But every­thing changes the night Lexi’s face goes through a wind­shield. Now she’s not sure what’s worse: the scars she’ll have to live with for­ever, or what she saw going on between her best friend and her boyfriend right before the acci­dent. With the help of her trombone-playing, defi­antly uncool older sis­ter and a guy at school recov­er­ing from his own recent trauma, Lexi learns she’s much more than just a pretty face.

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Dust Girl by Sarah Zat­tel

26th June 2012

Cal­lie LeR­oux lives in Slow Run, Kansas, help­ing her mother run their small hotel and try­ing not to think about the father she’s never met. Lately all of her energy is spent bat­tling the con­stant storms plagu­ing the Dust Bowl and their effects on her health. Cal­lie is left alone, when her mother goes miss­ing in a dust storm. Her only hope comes from a mys­te­ri­ous man offer­ing a few clues about her des­tiny and the path she must take to find her par­ents in “the golden hills of the west” (California).

Along the way she meets Jack a young hobo boy who is happy to keep her company—there are dan­ger­ous, des­per­ate peo­ple at every turn. And there’s also an oth­er­worldly threat to Cal­lie. War­ring fae fac­tions, attached to the cre­ative com­mu­ni­ties of Amer­i­can soci­ety, are very aware of the role this half-mortal, half-fae teenage girl plays in their fate.