Hot Off The Press March 12-18, 2012

March 12

Spirited: 13 Haunting Tales

by Various Authors

 

Leap Books has summoned some big names in fiction to help put together 13 ghostly stories to support a good cause. Spirited drops this October, with all proceeds to be donated to 826 National. 826 offers free after-school tutoring, workshops, and in-school programs because they believe that "strong writing skills are fundamental to future success." The authors featured in the anthology, from best-sellers to wickedly talented debuts, will participate in a chilling blog tour that's guaranteed to raise your goosebumps.

 

March 13

Spell Bound (Hex Hall #3)

by Rachel Hawkins

Hailed as “impossible to put down,” the Hex Hall series has both critics and teens cheering. With a winning combination of romance, action, magic and humor, this third volume will leave readers enchanted.

Just as Sophie Mercer has come to accept her extraordinary magical powers as a demon, the Prodigium Council strips them away. Now Sophie is defenseless, alone, and at the mercy of her sworn enemies—the Brannicks, a family of warrior women who hunt down the Prodigium. Or at least that’s what Sophie thinks, until she makes a surprising discovery. The Brannicks know an epic war is coming, and they believe Sophie is the only one powerful enough to stop the world from ending. But without her magic, Sophie isn’t as confident.

Sophie’s bound for one hell of a ride—can she get her powers back before it’s too late?

  The Night She Disappeared

by April Henry

Gabie drives a Mini Cooper. She also works part time as a delivery girl at Pete’s Pizza. One night, Kayla—another delivery girl—goes missing. To her horror, Gabie learns that the supposed kidnapper had asked if the girl in the Mini Cooper was working that night. Gabie can’t move beyond the fact that Kayla’s fate was really meant for her, and she becomes obsessed with finding Kayla. She teams up with Drew, who also works at Pete’s. Together, they set out to prove that Kayla isn’t dead—and to find her before she is.

 Infamous (Chronicles of Nick#3)

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

The world has fallen in love with Nick Gautier and the Dark-Hunters. Now Nick’s saga continues in the next eagerly anticipated volume...

Go to school. Get good grades. Stay out of trouble. That’s the mandate for most kids. But Nick Gautier isn’t the average teenager. He’s a boy with a destiny not even he fully understands. And his first mandate is to stay alive while everyone, even his own father, tries to kill him.

He’s learned to annihilate zombies and raise the dead, divination and clairvoyance, so why is learning to drive such a difficulty? But that isn’t the primary skill he has to master. Survival is.

And in order to survive, his next lesson makes all the others pale in comparison. He is on the brink of becoming either the greatest hero mankind has ever known.

Or he’ll be the one who ends the world. With enemies new and old gathering forces, he will have to call on every part of himself to fight or he’ll lose everyone he cares about.

Even himself.

 Wanderlove

by Kirsten Hubbard

It all begins with a stupid question: 

Are you a Global Vagabond?

No, but 18-year-old Bria Sandoval wants to be. In a quest for independence, her neglected art, and no-strings-attached hookups, she signs up for a guided tour of Central America—the wrong one. Middle-aged tourists with fanny packs are hardly the key to self-rediscovery. When Bria meets Rowan, devoted backpacker and dive instructor, and his outspokenly humanitarian sister Starling, she seizes the chance to ditch her group and join them off the beaten path. 

Bria's a good girl trying to go bad. Rowan's a bad boy trying to stay good. As they travel across a panorama of Mayan villages, remote Belizean islands, and hostels plagued with jungle beasties, they discover what they've got in common: both seek to leave behind the old versions of themselves. And the secret to escaping the past, Rowan’s found, is to keep moving forward. 

But Bria comes to realize she can't run forever, no matter what Rowan says. If she ever wants the courage to fall for someone worthwhile, she has to start looking back. 

Kirsten Hubbard lends her artistry to this ultimate backpacker novel, weaving her drawings into the text. Her career as a travel writer and her experiences as a real-life vagabond backpacking Central America are deeply seeded in this inspiring story.

      The Secrets of the Time Society (Timeless #1.5)

by Alexandra Monir 

There exists a secret society where one's ability to travel through time is "gifted" to members only by blood. Those who try to enter the society quickly come to realize that time is a force not to be reckoned with. Alexandra Monir's short story exclusive eBook, SECRETS OF THE TIME SOCIETY, sheds light upon the world created in her novel, TIMELESS, and forecasts the fate that lies ahead for its protagonist, Michele Windsor. Now that Michele is gifted, there are some who will do anything to take that power away.

 Wide Open

by Deborah Coates

When Sergeant Hallie Michaels comes back to South Dakota from Afghanistan on ten days' compassionate leave, her sister Dell's ghost is waiting at the airport to greet her.

The sheriff says that Dell's death was suicide, but Hallie doesn't believe it. Something happened or Dell's ghost wouldn't still be hanging around. Friends and family, mourning Dell's loss, think Hallie's letting her grief interfere with her judgment. 

The one person who seems willing to listen is the deputy sheriff, Boyd Davies, who shows up everywhere and helps when he doesn't have to. 

As Hallie asks more questions, she attracts new ghosts, women who disappeared without a trace.  Soon, someone's trying to beat her up, burn down her father's ranch, and stop her investigation.

Hallie's going to need Boyd, her friends, and all the ghosts she can find to defeat an enemy who has an unimaginable ancient power at his command.

 Another Jekyll, Another Hyde (Another #3)

by Daniel & Dina Nayeri

An elusive stalker is targeting Marlowe kids - and something unearthly has gotten into its wealthiest student - as the Another series builds up to a fiendish finale. When his billionaire father marries French governess Nicola Vileroy, high society is all abuzz - but Thomas, the most popular student at Marlowe, is just plain high. Ever since his girlfriend Belle dumped him, he's been spending less time with old friends and more time getting wasted at clubs. But after someone slips him a designer drug one night - and his stepmother seems to know way too much about his private life - things really start to get scary. As Thomas's blackouts give way to a sinister voice inside his head, and as news of a vicious hate crime has students on edge, Thomas comes to the sickening realization that Madame Vileroy has involved him in a horrifying supernatural plan. How can he muster the strength and will to stop it? The pulse-quickening climax revisits Jekyll and Hyde as a current-day cautionary tale laced with a heady dose of paranormal intrigue.

 The Compelled (The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries #6)

by L.J. Smith, Kevin Williamson, & Julie Plec

The story arc of Stefan's Diaries continues in this sixth installment. 

 Moonsong (The Vampire Diaries: The Hunters #2)

by L.J. Smith

Evil never dies. . . .

After escaping the horrors of the Dark Dimension, Elena can′t wait to attend Dalcrest College, the beautiful ivy-covered campus where her parents met. Life with Stefan is better than ever, and even Damon seems genuinely changed and is getting along with everyone. But moving away from Fell′s Church doesn′t mean she and her friends are free from danger. When students start to disappear from campus, suddenly every new acquaintance is a potential enemy.

Then Elena uncovers a long-hidden secret, one that shocks her to the core, and realizes tragedy may be unavoidable.

Eye of the Storm

by Kate Messner

In the not-too-distant future, huge tornadoes and monster storms are a part of everyday life. Sent to spend the summer in the heart of storm country with her father in the special StormSafe community his company has developed, Jaden Meggs is excited to reconnect with her dad after he spent years researching storm technology in Russia. She’ll also be attending the exclusive summer science camp, Eye On Tomorrow, that her dad founded. There, Jaden meets Alex, a boy whose passion for science matches hers, and together they discover a horrible truth about her dad’s research that is putting countless lives at risk. As a massive tornado approaches, threatening to destroy everything in its path, Jaden is torn between loyalty to her dad and revealing his secret. Can she find the courage to confront her dad and save everyone from the biggest storm yet?

 Out of Sight, Out of Time (Gallagher Girls #5)

by Ally Carter

The last thing Cammie Morgan remembers is leaving the Gallagher Academy to protect her friends and family from the Circle of Cavan--an ancient terrorist organization that has been hunting her for over a year. But when Cammie wakes up in an alpine convent and discovers months have passed, she must face the fact that her memory is now a black hole. The only traces left of Cammie’s summer vacation are the bruises on her body and the dirt under her nails, and all she wants is to go home.

Once she returns to school, however, Cammie realizes that even the Gallagher Academy now holds more questions than answers. Cammie, her friends, and mysterious spy-guy Zach must face their most difficult challenge yet as they travel to the other side of the world, hoping to piece together the clues that Cammie left behind. It’s a race against time. The Circle is hot on their trail and willing stop at nothing to prevent Cammie from remembering what she did last summer.

  

Starters (Starters #1)

by Lissa Price

HER WORLD IS CHANGED FOREVER

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie's only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man.

He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie's head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator's grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. . . .

 Pretty Crooked

by Elisa Ludwig

Willa’s secret plan seems all too simple: take from the rich kids at Valley Prep and give to the poor ones. 

Yet Willa’s turn as Robin Hood at her ultra-exclusive high school is anything but. Bilking her “friends”-known to everyone as the Glitterati-without them suspecting a thing, is far from easy. Learning how to pick pockets and break into lockers is as difficult as she’d thought it’d be. Delivering care packages to the scholarship girls, who are ostracized just for being from the “wrong” side of town, is way more fun than she’d expected.  

The complication Willa didn’t expect, though, is Aidan Murphy, Valley Prep’s most notorious (and gorgeous) ace-degenerate. His mere existence is distracting Willa from what matters most to her-evening the social playing field between the have and have-nots. There’s no time for crushes and flirting with boys, especially conceited and obnoxious trust-funders like Aidan.  

But when the cops start investigating the string of burglaries at Valley Prep and the Glitterati begin to seek revenge, could he wind up being the person that Willa trusts most? 

 How to Eat a Cupcake

by Meg Donohue

Funny, free-spirited Annie Quintana and sophisticated, ambitious Julia St. Clair come from two different worlds. Yet, as the daughter of the St. Clair’s housekeeper, Annie grew up in Julia’s San Francisco mansion and they forged a bond that only two little girls who know nothing of class differences and scholarships could—until a life-altering betrayal destroyed their friendship.

A decade later, Annie is now a talented, if underpaid, pastry chef who bakes to fill the void left in her heart by her mother’s death. Julia, a successful businesswoman, is tormented by a painful secret that could jeopardize her engagement to the man she loves. When a chance reunion prompts the unlikely duo to open a cupcakery, they must overcome past hurts and a mysterious saboteur or risk losing their fledgling business and any chance of healing their fractured friendship.

 The Book of Lost Fragrances (Reincarnationist #4)

by M.J. Rose

A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra—and lost for 2,000 years.

Jac L’Etoile has always been haunted by the past, her memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up surrounded by as the heir to a storied French perfume company. In order to flee the pain of those remembrances—and of her mother’s suicide—she moves to America, leaving the company in the hands of her brother Robbie. But when Robbie hints at an earth-shattering discovery in the family archives and then suddenly goes missing—leaving a dead body in his wake—Jac is plunged into a world she thought she’d left behind.

Back in Paris to investigate her brother’s disappearance, Jac discovers a secret the House of L’Etoile has been hiding since 1799: a scent that unlocks the mysteries of reincarnation. The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion, and suspense, moving from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. Jac’s quest for the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.

Miles from Ordinary

by Carol Lynch Williams

"Imagine Anna Quindlen or Sue Miller turning her attention to writing a young adult novel, and you have an idea what [Williams] has done for early teen readers…" --Audrey Couloumbis, author of the Newbery Honor Book Getting Close to Baby

Thirteen-year-old Lacey wakes to a beautiful summer morning excited to begin her new job at the library, just as her mother is supposed to start work at the grocery store. Lacey hopes that her mother's ghosts have finally been laid to rest; after all, she seems so much better these days, and they really do need the money. But as the hours tick by and memories come flooding back, a day full of hope spins terrifyingly out of control....

“No one can get inside the head and heart of a 13-year-old girl better than Carol Lynch Williams, and I mean no one," said James S. Jacobs, Professor of Children's Literature at Brigham Young University, of her breakout novel, The Chosen One. Now this award-winning YA author brings us an equally gripping story of a girl who loves her mother, but must face the truth of what life with that mother means for both of them.

  

March 14

 The Gilly Salt Sisters

by Tiffany Baker

The author of the "New York Times"-bestselling "The Little Giant of Aberdeen County" returns with a magic-tinged tale of dreams, family secrets, and betrayals on a New England salt farm. 

In the isolated Cape Cod village of Prospect, the Gilly sisters are as different as can be. Jo, a fierce and quiet loner, is devoted to the mysteries of her family's salt farm, while Claire is popular, pretty, and yearns to flee the salt at any cost. But the Gilly land hides a dark legacy that proves impossible to escape. Although the community half-suspects the Gilly sisters might be witches, it doesn't stop Whit Turner, the town's wealthiest bachelor, from forcing his way into their lives. It's Jo who first steals Whit's heart, but it is Claire--heartbroken over her high school sweetheart--who marries him. 

Years later, estranged from her family, Claire finds herself thrust back onto the farm with the last person she would have chosen: her husband's pregnant mistress. Suddenly, alliances change, old loves return, and new battle lines are drawn. What the Gilly sisters learn about each other, the land around them, and the power of the salt, will not only change each of their lives forever, it will also alter Gilly history for good.

March 15

 The Difference Between You and Me

by Medeleine George

Jesse cuts her own hair with a Swiss Army knife. She wears big green fisherman's boots. She's the founding (and only) member of NOLAW, the National Organization to Liberate All Weirdos. Emily wears sweaters with faux pearl buttons. She's vice president of the student council. She has a boyfriend. 

The two girls have nothing in common, except the passionate "private time"they share every Tuesday afternoon.  Jesse wishes their relationship could be out in the open, but Emily feels she has too much to lost.  When they find themselves on the opposite sides of a heated school conflict, they each have to decide what's more important: what you believe in? or the one you love?

Midnight (The Vampire Diaries: The Return #3)

by L.J. Smith

The devil you know . . . 

With the help of charming and devious Damon, Elena rescued her vampire love, Stefan, from the depths of the Dark Dimension. But neither brother returned unscathed.  

Stefan is weak from his long imprisonment and needs more blood than Elena alone can give him, while a strange magic has turned Damon into a human. Savage and desperate, Damon will do anything to become a vampire again, even travel back to hell. But what will happen when he accidentally takes Bonnie with him?  

Stefan and Elena hurry to resure their innocent friend from the Dark Dimension, leaving Marr and Merefith to save their hometown from the dangerous spirits that have taken hold of Fell's Church.  One by one, children are succumbing to demonic designs.  But Matt and Meredith soon discover that the source of the evil is darker and closer than they ever could have imagined...

Dark Eyes

by William Richter

Wally was adopted from a Russian orphanage as a child and grew up in a wealthy New York City family. At 15, her obsessive need to rebel led her to life on the streets. Now the 16-year-old is beautiful and hardened, and she's just stumbled across the possibility of discovering who she really is. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" for teens, this debut thriller introduces a new heroine.

March 16

Scorched Skies (Fire Spirits #2)

by Samantha Young

FEAR THE HEAT...

The White King has crossed the line, sounded the horn, sent out the wolves.  

When blood is shed and life is lost the reality of Ari’s position as both hunter and prey finally sets in. It seems her father will stop at nothing to force her will to his own and distracted by Charlie’s latest mistake and her seemingly misguided attraction to Jai, Ari never thought to fear anyone else but the Jinn King. 

Blindsided and attacked, Ari learns a new wolf has joined the hunt. A dark sorcerer believes he knows a way to bleed the power of the Seal and wield it as his own, and he is even less patient than The White King.  

The War for the Seal has only just begun… and it’s time for Ari to turn it on its head. 

It's time for Ari to stop acting like the hunted.

It's time for Ari to become the hunter.

 Mark of the Seer

by Jenna Kay

CLARITY MILLER always thought of her life as semi-normal. She had friends that would do anything for her, a boyfriend that was madly in love with her, and a roof over her head that she shared with her aunt.

Everything seemed to be falling into place. That is, until the day she met Sam.

When Sam informs her that he’s her guardian angel and that she has been given the gifts of a Seer, her life starts spiraling out of control. She wants nothing to do with the spiritual realm.

All she wants is to have a normal life as a teenager, but when a tragedy occurs that causes the whole town of Garlandton to fall to its knees she realizes that she has a very important decision to make.

Should she embrace the life of a Seer?
Only time will tell . . .

 Ember (Ember #1)

by Madison Daniel

Love never dies...but it can kill.

Ember is the story of Max Valentine, a teenager with secret abilities and many inner demons. His life revolves around music and his love for it. When his father dies he seeks answers with his last living relative, his fathers brother Frank. Frank lives on the island of Maui and eagerly takes Max in as his own. Max soon learns that healing his past will be more difficult than he could have ever believed. Two major complications will tempt and torment him as he tries to make sense of his abilities.

The first temptation comes in the form of a mysterious island girl. Asia Lyn Michaels is rich, spoiled, angry and beautiful. Her path crosses with Max on the beach one afternoon, forever changing both of their lives. Max saves her life and she discovers his secret. From that moment on they are connected, no matter how much they fight it.

The second temptation will test Max’s very soul. Samantha Ann Summers is sweet, artistic, smart and confident. She will help Max find his smile again and maybe even heal his past mistakes. She is possibly his soul mate and Max will fight that with every fiber of his being.

Max’s temper and indecision with the girls will send in motion events that will cost him dearly. He will test the limits of his powers and the new relationship with his protective uncle. He will gain a powerful love and lose another.

What books will you be picking up this week??

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