Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 24, 2015 | 0 comments

Since You've Been Gone

by Morgan Matson

It was Sloane who yanked Emily out of her shell and made life 100% interesting. But right before what should have been the most epic summer, Sloane just…disappears. All she leaves behind is a to-do list.

On it, thirteen Sloane-inspired tasks that Emily would normally never try. But what if they could bring her best friend back?

Apple picking at night? Okay, easy enough.

Dance until dawn? Sure. Why not?

Kiss a stranger? Um…

Emily now has this unexpected summer, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected), to check things off Sloane’s list. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go skinny-dipping? Wait…what?

#9 in YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten 2015

YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Nominees 2015 YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Winners 2015

romance YA fiction

My Life with the Walter Boys by Ali Novak

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 24, 2015 | 0 comments

My Life with the Walter Boys

by Ali Novak

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My Life with the Walter Boys centers on the prim, proper, and always perfect Jackie Howard. When her world is turned upside down by tragedy, Jackie must learn to cut loose and be part of a family again.

Jackie does not like surprises. Chaos is the enemy! The best way to get her successful, busy parents to notice her is to be perfect. The perfect look, the perfect grades-the perfect daughter. And then…

Surprise #1: Jackie’s family dies in a freak car accident.

Surprise #2: Jackie has to move cross-country to live with the Walters—her new guardians.

Surprise #3: The Walters have twelve sons. (Well, eleven, but Parker acts like a boy anyway)

Now Jackie must trade in her Type A personality and New York City apartment for a Colorado ranch and all the wild Walter boys who come with it. Jackie is surrounded by the enemy-loud, dirty, annoying boys who have no concept of personal space. Okay, several of the oldest guys are flat-out gorgeous. But still annoying. She’s not stuck-up or boring-no matter what they say. But proving it is another matter. How can she fit in and move on when she needs to keep her parents’ memory alive by living up to the promise of perfect?

#4 in YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten 2015

Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians

Rebekah rated it ★★★★★ and said, “This wasn’t the most impressive book I’ve ever read. At times, it felt downright mediocre. But there was just something about it, and 15 minutes after I finished I felt the overwhelming desire to immediately read it again.”

YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Nominees 2015 YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Winners 2015

romance YA fiction

The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 23, 2015 | 0 comments

The Winner's Curse

by Marie Rutkoski

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Winning what you want may cost you everything you love…

As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions.

One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin.

But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.

Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.

book 1 in the Winner’s Trilogy

YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Nominees 2015

romance fantasy YA fiction

I Become Shadow by Joe Shine

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 23, 2015 | 0 comments

I Become Shadow

by Joe Shine

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Ren Sharpe was abducted at fourteen and chosen by the mysterious F.A.T.E. Center to become a Shadow: the fearless and unstoppable guardian of a future leader. Everything she held dear—her family, her home, her former life—is gone forever.

Ren survives four years of training, torture, and misery, in large part thanks to Junie, a fellow F.A.T.E. abductee who started out as lost and confused as she did. She wouldn’t admit it was possible to find love in a prison beyond imagining, but what she feels for Junie may just be the closest thing to it.

At eighteen they part ways when Ren receives her assignment: find and protect college science student Gareth Young, or die trying. Life following a college nerd is uneventful, until an attack on Gareth forces Ren to track down the only person she can trust. When she and Junie discover that the F.A.T.E. itself might be behind the attacks, even certain knowledge of the future may not be enough to save their kidnappers from the killing machines they created.

#2 in YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten 2015

YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Nominees 2015 YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Winners 2015

science fiction YA fiction

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 23, 2015 | 0 comments

Grasshopper Jungle

by Andrew Smith

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Sixteen-year-old Austin Szerba interweaves the story of his Polish legacy with the story of how he and his best friend , Robby, brought about the end of humanity and the rise of an army of unstoppable, six-foot tall praying mantises in small-town Iowa.

To make matters worse, Austin’s hormones are totally oblivious; they don’t care that the world is in utter chaos: Austin is in love with his girlfriend, Shann, but remains confused about his sexual orientation. He’s stewing in a self-professed constant state of maximum horniness, directed at both Robby and Shann. Ultimately, it’s up to Austin to save the world and propagate the species in this sci-fright journey of survival, sex, and the complex realities of the human condition.

YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Nominees 2015

GLBT dystopian science fiction YA fiction

The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 23, 2015 | 0 comments

The Geography of You and Me

by Jennifer E. Smith

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Lucy and Owen meet somewhere between the tenth and eleventh floors of a New York City apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they’re rescued, they spend a single night together, wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is restored, so is reality. Lucy soon moves to Edinburgh with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father.

Lucy and Owen’s relationship plays out across the globe as they stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and — finally — a reunion in the city where they first met.

A carefully charted map of a long-distance relationship, Jennifer E. Smith’s new novel shows that the center of the world isn’t necessarily a place. It can be a person, too.

#10 in YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten 2015

Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians

Bekka rated it ★★★★ and said, “Really fun! I enjoy Smith’s books for their feel-good quality, and this one is no different. I really enjoyed the vast amount of locations this time. I think she did a great job with Owen and his dad and their wanders. The characters are memorable and the romance is sweet. This is a fun light read for pretty much anyone.”

Miranda rated it ★★★★ and said, “Another cute story from Smith. I really enjoyed all the traveling they did while still being able to see each other.”

YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Nominees 2015 YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Winners 2015

travel romance YA fiction

Boys Like You by Juliana Stone

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 23, 2015 | 0 comments

Boys Like You

by Juliana Stone

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IF
If I hadn’t fallen asleep.
If I hadn’t gotten behind the wheel.
If I hadn’t made a mistake.

For Monroe Blackwell, one small mistake has torn her family apart–leaving her empty and broken. There’s a hole in her heart that nothing can fill. That no one can fill. And a summer in Louisiana with her grandma isn’t going to change that…

Nathan Everets knows heartache firsthand when a car accident leaves his best friend in a coma. And it’s all his fault. He should be the one lying in the hospital. The one who will never play guitar again. He doesn’t deserve forgiveness, and a court-appointed job at the Blackwell B&B isn’t going to change that…

There’s No Going Back

Captivating and hopeful, this achingly poignant novel brings together two lost souls struggling with grief and guilt–looking for acceptance, so they can find forgiveness.

YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Nominees 2015

romance YA fiction

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 23, 2015 | 0 comments

Lies We Tell Ourselves

by Robin Talley

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In 1959 Virginia, the lives of two girls on opposite sides of the battle for civil rights will be changed forever.

Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily.

Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town’s most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept “separate but equal.”

Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another.

Boldly realistic and emotionally compelling, Lies We Tell Ourselves is a brave and stunning novel about finding truth amid the lies, and finding your voice even when others are determined to silence it.

YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Nominees 2015

GLBT historical YA fiction

The Princess Spy by Melanie Dickerson

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 23, 2015 | 0 comments

The Princess Spy

by Melanie Dickerson

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A new suitor. A shocking discovery.

Margaretha has always been a romantic, and hopes her newest suitor, Lord Claybrook, is destined to be her one true love. But then an injured man is brought to the castle, claiming to be an English lord who was left for dead by Claybrook’s men. She convinces herself “Lord Colin” is just an addled stranger, until Colin retrieves an heirloom she lost in a well and asks her to spy on Claybrook as repayment. Margaretha knows she could never be a spy—not only does she tend to talk too much, she’s sure Colin is completely wrong about her potential betrothed. But she soon discovers her romantic notions may have been clouding her judgment about not only Colin but Claybrook as well. She soon finds herself running for her life–and it may be up to her to save her father and her family from one man’s wicked plot.

book 5 in the Fairy Tales series

#9 in MLD Teen Choice Awards 2015

MLD Teen Choice Award Nominees 2015MLD Teen Choice Award Winners 2015

romance fairy tales fantasy YA fiction