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Nicole RichieThe daughter of a wealthy financier arrested by the SEC for fraud escapes Manhattan for New Orleans, where she tries to make it as a jazz singer.
Wendy MassFour children have been chosen to compete in a national competition to find the tastiest confection in the country. Who will invent a candy more delicious than the Oozing Crunchorama or the Neon Lightning Chew? Logan, the Candymaker's son, who can detect the color of chocolate by touch alone? Miles, the boy who is allergic to merry-go-rounds and the color pink? Daisy, the cheerful girl who can lift a fifty-pound lump of taffy like it's a feather? Or Philip, the suit-and-tie wearing boy who's always scribbling in a secret notebook? This sweet, charming, and cleverly crafted story, told from each contestant's perspective, is filled with mystery, friendship, and juicy revelations.
Derek Benz, Jon LewisA year ago, the Grey Griffins were just regular kids from Avalon, Minnesota. That was before they learned about the existence of evil fairies, werewolves, and other things that go bump in the night. Now they are monster-hunters, celebrated heroes, and allies to the legendary Templar knights---but even heroes have to go to school.
When the Griffins enroll at Iron Bridge Academy, a school to train young recruits in the fight against the forces of evil, they find themselves at the center of a whole new adventure. The Clockwork King, a Templar foe from days past, has returned to finish the plan he set in motion decades ago. A plot to steal the souls of changelings---humans infused with fairy blood and supernatural abilities---in order to power his army of clockwork war machines.
In The Brimstone Key, authors Derek Benz and J.S. Lewis deftly blend the mystical wonder of steampunk with magic and adventure to create an action-packed thrill ride.
Wendy ShankerAt age 33, Wendy Shanker was on the verge of Have It All-itis: a Midwestern girl living in Manhattan, writing for television, mingling with celebrities, and publishing her first book. Plus, she had a fierce haircut. Life was good. Then suddenly, it wasn't.
Diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease, Wendy knew she was in for it- at the very least a cocktail of chemo and steroids (certain to challenge her body image), a bustling career put on hold, and a major hurdle to her dating life. When she ran out of medical options, Wendy found herself exploring everything from acupuncture, colonics, and energy healing to detox retreats, tarot card readers, and an intuitive therapist who wanted her to talk to her liver. Surely there must be a guru somewhere who can fix everything-right?
Jake Halpern, Peter KujawinskiTwelve-year-old Alfonso Perplexon is a sleepwalker. He climbs extremely high trees, skis, and performs other physical feats—all in his sleep. The appearance of his long-lost Uncle Hill leads to an explanation for Alfonso's unusual habit. They are from the hidden land of Dormia, whose inhabitants have perfected wakeful sleeping, performing complex tasks while deep in slumber. Hill reveals that the unusual plant Alfonso has nurtured in his sleep is a Dormian bloom, needed to save the last city of Dormia, and Alfonso and Hill travel to the Ural Mountains to take it home. Of course, they don't know exactly where Dormia is, and they find themselves traveling with unlikely—and perhaps untrustworthy—companions. While the complex setup starts out slowly, the action picks up rapidly once Hill and Alfonso reach Europe and find dangers aplenty, leading up to a battle for Dormia's future. Alfonso finds out about his own background and abilities as he travels, and readers learn about Dormia along with the likable young hero. The authors provide a wealth of detail, bringing locales as exotic as a cave city and a decaying icebreaker ship to life, though action often waits for the settings to be explored. Double-crosses and disguises add to the suspense as Alfonso nears Dormia, and readers will be left hoping for their own sleeping adventures.
Cate TiernanNastasya has spent the last century living as a spoiled, drugged-out party girl. She feels nothing and cares for no one. But when she witnesses her best friend, a Dark Immortal, torture a human, she realizes something's got to change. She seeks refuge at a rehab for wayward immortals, where she meets the gorgeous, undeniably sexy Reyn, who seems inexplicably linked to her past.
Nastasya finally begins to deal with life, and even feels safe--until the night she learns that someone wants her dead.
Cate Tiernan, author of the popular Sweep series, returns with an engaging story of a timeless struggle and inescapable romance, the first book in a stunning new fantasy trilogy.
Sarah DessenDessen has built a well-deserved reputation for delicately depicting teen girls in turmoil. Her latest title showcases a socially awkward young woman who seeks solace in the comforting rigidity of academic success. Auden is about to start college in the fall, and decides to escape her control-freak professor mom to spend the summer with her novelist father, his new young wife, and their brand-new baby daughter, Thisbe. Over the course of the summer, Auden tackles many new projects: learning to ride a bike, making real connections with peers, facing the emotional fallout of her parents’ divorce, distancing herself from her mother, and falling in love with Eli, a fellow insomniac bicyclist recovering from his own traumas. The cover may mislead readers, as despite the body language of the girl in pink and the hunky blue-jeaned boy balanced on a bike, this is no slight romance: there’s real substance here. Dessen’s many fans will not be deterred by the length or that cover; they expect nuanced, subtle writing, and they won’t be disappointed. Grades 9-12.
Laura LippmanAward-winning Lippman continues to send depth charges into the sea of crime fiction, taking measure of psychic pain in the wake of violence, and the mysteries of memory. After living in England, Eliza has returned to the Washington, D.C., area where she grew up with her successful husband and their sneaky 13-year-old daughter and sweet young son. Some might consider full-time housewife Eliza a throwback and oddly passive, yet as Lippman slowly reveals, she is actually a woman of considerable, if covert, wisdom and strength. Eliza’s story unfolds in two time frames. One exposes the profound complexity of her horrifying ordeal in 1985 when, at age 15, she was kidnapped and held hostage by Walter, a brooding, diabolically enthralling mechanic on a bloody spree, raping and murdering young women. The other tracks Eliza’s response when Walter, on Death Row just weeks away from his execution, manages to once again exert his sinister, manipulative powers. Stoked by stinging dialogue and arresting evocations of the fog of fear, doubt, and guilt versus the laser-lock pursuit of survival, Lippman’s taut, mesmerizing, and exceptionally smart drama of predator and prey is at once unusually sensitive and utterly compelling.
Ilana Stranger-RossNestled in a tight-knit Brooklyn community, 65-year-old Sima Goldner’s discount lingerie shop is a prime business in her orthodox Jewish neighborhood, and, more importantly, it is also a haven for the many women who frequent her small basement store. Discontented with her marriage to a bumbling, retired schoolteacher named Lev, Sima pours herself into her business and her varied customers, many of whom use the privacy of her shop as a forum to ruminate about their relationships, families, and lives. Sima’s everyday routine is indelibly changed with the arrival of the young, vibrant Timna, an attractive Israeli expatriate who applies to work as a seamstress. As the relationship between Sima and Timna evolves, Sima finds herself confronting the realities of her infertility and the complexities of her past, long shrouded in shame and adolescent regret. Backdropped by the shop’s colorful patrons, Stanger-Ross’ engaging novel follows Sima as she struggles to find balance in navigating her newfound relationship with Timna while exploring the intense depths of personal reconciliation and redemption.
Jemeker Thompson-HairstonJemeker Thompson-Hairston paid a heavy price for her involvement in the drug game. Learning from her sources of a federal investigation, Jemeker went on the run. It was love for her young son that brought her back to Los Angeles, even though she knew she would be arrested. A subsequent 12-year sentence would cost her not only her legitimate business and the fortune she'd amassed through the drug trade, but the most precious thing of all: time with her child. But not all was lost. Fortunately, while Thompson-Hairston was serving out her sentence, one pivotal moment helped her turn her life around, setting her on a path to help and inspire others like her. Now, in QUEEN PIN, written with New York Times bestselling author David Ritz, she reveals in gripping detail her journey of redemption that readers won't soon forget.