Fiction

Empty Seats
They were all stars in their hometowns. Then they were drafted to play minor league ball, thinking it would be an easy ride to playing in the big time. Little did they know that they’d be vying for a spot with every other talented kid who aspired to play professional baseball. Young, inexperienced, immature, and without the support of their families and friends, they’re often faced with split-second decisions. Not always on the baseball diamond.
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Behind These Hands
"My hands aren't the same hands as before. Even my friends feel different." Claire Fairchild, 14, has always known music would be her life. So when she has the opportunity to enter a prestigious contest, she goes all in—until she realizes she’s also competing against Juan, a close childhood friend and one of the most talented musicians she knows. It doesn’t help that her thoughts about him are turning romantic. When Claire and her family receive a devastating blow from Batten disease, her world enters a tailspin. Claire decides her musical goals no longer seem relevant. She can’t reconcile the joy that music would bring to her life while her brothers succumb to an early and ugly death. Her decision puts everything at risk: her friendship with Juan, her parents’ expectations, and her own happiness. After Claire accompanies a friend on a school newspaper assignment, she meets a centenarian with a unique musical past and only one regret in life. Claire knows something in her life has to change before it’s too late, but she’s not sure she has the courage to take the next step.
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Aftermath
Secrets don't remain hidden for long in this thrilling read from a #1 New York Times bestselling author that's perfect for fans of Adam Silvera's More Happy Than Not and Barry Lyga's Bang.Three years after losing her brother Luka in a school shooting, Skye Gilchrist is moving home. But there's no sympathy for Skye and her family because Luka wasn't a victim; he was a shooter. Jesse Mandal knows all too well that the scars of the past don't heal easily. The shooting cost Jesse his brother and his best friend--Skye. Ripped apart by tragedy, Jesse and Skye can't resist reopening the mysteries of their past. But old wounds hide darker secrets. And the closer Skye and Jesse get to the truth of what happened that day, the closer they get to a new killer.
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The Explorers: The Reckless Rescue
More mystery, more bravery, more danger, and one amazingly reckless rescue await in the second book in the Explorers series! The perfect read for fans of The Name of This Book Is a Secret and The Mysterious Benedict Society!Reader! Your attention is greatly needed. We have left things unresolved! What began as your average story of a boy stumbling upon a pig in a teeny hat and a secret international explorers society has turned into an adventure of epic proportions. * The bad news: The boy (Sebastian) has been kidnapped by a trio of troublesome thugs. * The good news: His new friend Evie has promised to rescue him! * The bad news: Sebastian has been taken halfway around the world. * The good news: Evie has famous explorer and former Filipendulous Five member Catherine Lind at her side! * The bad news: There's still the whole matter of Evie's grandfather (and the leader of the Filipendulous Five) somewhere out there in grave danger. * The good news: Pursuing Sebastian will lead Evie and Catherine to another member of the Filipendulous Five, who might be able to help!This missive is a call to action and an invitation to join in mystery, bravery, and danger. There will be new people to meet, new places to see, and some dancing along the way. And one amazingly reckless rescue.PRAISE FOR THE FIRST BOOK IN THE SERIES: THE EXPLORERS: THE DOOR IN THE ALLEY:"[A] wildly funny adventure. . . . Animals in teeny hats, Wonderland-style logic, and loads of wordplay and sarcasm will keep readers giggling all the way through."-Kirkus Reviews"Exhilarating. . . . Fans of a Series of Unfortunate Events will be drawn to this."-Booklist"A rollicking read, full of derring-do and old-fashioned villainy."-School Library Journal"Funny, offbeat, and subversive . . . occasional footnotes and other humorous asides from the omniscient narrator break the fourth wall and ramp up the playfulness."-The Horn Book"Narrated with a smart, brisk tone and plenty of snark. . . . The Explorers: The Door in the Alleypacks plenty of twists, turns and danger."-Shelf Awareness
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Hyacinth and the Stone Thief
The hilarious second book in a middle-grade fantasy trilogy about the magical rivers that run through the sewers of London and shape history in ways you'd never learn in school.Magic is real. History is about to be squashed.Now that Hyacinth Hayward knows about the enchanted rivers under London, she's determined to find out more. Unfortunately, London isn't cooperating. Instead, Hyacinth stumbles on a new adversary--a girl who is trying to steal all the ancient stones that keep the city in balance. A girl with glowing, magical fingers, whose entire body is tattooed with spells. A girl called Minnie Tickle. (What? Were you expecting something more . . . fearsome?)To stop her, Hyacinth will need help from stone itself--specifically, a giant talking lion statue and his talking statue friends. Can this enthusiastic but scattered company defeat Minnie before London sinks like a stone?
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Starr Fall
On the run from the Organization, Starr never planned on falling in love.Starr Bishop's the complete package. A perfect smile, brains to match, and a winning attitude. Boys want to date her and girls want to be her. She's the type of girl you want to hate, if only she wasn't so damn likable. But don't worry, she's not interested in your boyfriend. Boys are one complication she can live without.When the Organization decides she's not only the model student but the ideal assassin, Starr'll need a lot more than high test scores and extracurricular involvement to get herself out of that commitment.Dark, moody, and dead sexy Christian Evergood is the last person she'd expect--or even want-- to come to her rescue. From opposite ends of Webster High's social hierarchy, their lives collide in one electrifying moment. Christian isn't the Goth loner he pretends to be, he's a part Cherokee, All-American boy who wants to be a hero, Starr's hero. Christian makes Starr forget that the Organization is after her, but nothing will stop the Organization from collecting their top recruit.By the way, the spot for junior class president just became available. What People Are Saying About Starr Fall... "I was swept up in Kim Briggs' whirlwind of secrets, swoon, and adventure from page one. Beautifully writing combined with a smart, driven protagonist made this a book I couldn't put down."--Isabel Bandeira, Author of Bookishly Ever After (Jan 2016) and Dramatically Ever After (June 2017) As the opener in what promises to be a thrilling series, Starr Fall hits the ground running and hits the water swimming. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough as Starr went from a super-achieving but otherwise pretty normal high school junior to a girl on the run from a shady, powerful government (maybe) agency and a deep, dark conspiracy we only see in glimpses. And why has the weird kid from school suddenly become her ultra-hot sidekick, with a connection between them that literally gives off sparks? He's a lot more than he seems. Every answer raises another question as the reader ricochets between the threat level outside the remote cabin and the heat level inside it. Briggs knows how to crank up both kinds of tension, in the best possible way. Book two can't come soon enough for this reader! - Liz Coley, author of the award winning, internationally best-selling Pretty Girl-13
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Lake Girl
When Lily Lane first accepts the job in the small town of Lakeview Shores, she thinks she’s destined for a lazy summer serving food at the local hangout. She couldn’t have anticipated the disastrous turn her life takes before it ends.Lily dies on the lake, but she has no idea who killed her. Instead, she is stuck in limbo as a spirit. Lily can observe others but has no way of affecting the physical world—that is, until Rose shows up. Rose, a magazine reporter, is Lily’s biological mother. Rose is determined to get justice and shares a special psychic connection with the daughter she has never known. Together with Lily’s best friend, Jeremy, Rose begins investigating a series of crimes occurring in Lakeview Shores. Is Lily’s death connected to the thefts plaguing the community, or is it due to the actions of someone no one would have suspected? As Rose and Lily grow closer, both mother and daughter will discover that nothing is as it seems in this quiet community. Rose’s mission is important, but if she isn’t careful, it may just doom her to the same fate her daughter suffered.
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The Weekend Bucket List
High school seniors Cady LaBrie and Cooper Murphy have yet to set one toe out of line they've never stayed out all night or snuck into a movie, never gotten drunk or gone skinny-dipping. But they have each other, forty-eight hours before graduation, and a Weekend Bucket List. There's a lot riding on this one weekend, especially since Cady and Cooper have yet to admit, much less resolve, their confounding feelings for one another feelings that prove even more difficult to discern when genial high school dropout Eli Stanley joins their epic adventure. But as the trio ticks through their bucket list, the questions they face shift toward something new: Must friendship play second fiddle to romance? Or can it be the ultimate prize?
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My Crunchy Life
John Lennon fought for world peace, but sixteen-year-old hippie hopeful Kale Oswald's only made it as far as tie-dying his T-shirts with organic grape juice. Now he’s ready to cement his new hippie identity by joining a local human rights organization, but he doesn’t fit in as well as he’d hoped. After landing herself in the hospital by washing down a Ziploc bag of pills with a bottle of Gatorade, Julian Mendez came clean to her mother: she is a girl who has been seen as a boy since birth. Puberty blockers have stopped the maturing of her body. They’re also supposed to give her time to be sure she wants to make a more permanent decision, but she’s already Julia in her heart. What she’s not sure she’s ready to face is the post-transition name-calling and bathroom wars awaiting her at school. When Kale and Julian come face-to-face at the human rights organization, attraction, teenage awkwardness, and reluctant empathy collide. They are forced to examine who they are and how they want to present themselves to the world. But until Kale can come to terms with his confusion about his own sexuality and Julian can be honest with Kale about her gender, they cannot move forward in friendship, or anything more.
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From Twinkle, With Love
Sandhya Menon
“Utterly charming.” —NPR “Cinematic.” —Teen Vogue “Funny and sweet.” —Buzzfeed “Dazzling.” —Bustle Three starred reviews for this charming romantic comedy about an aspiring teen filmmaker who finds her voice and falls in love, from the New York Times bestselling author of When Dimple Met Rishi.Aspiring filmmaker and wallflower Twinkle Mehra has stories she wants to tell and universes she wants to explore, if only the world would listen. So when fellow film geek Sahil Roy approaches her to direct a movie for the upcoming Summer Festival, Twinkle is all over it. The chance to publicly showcase her voice as a director? Dream come true. The fact that it gets her closer to her longtime crush, Neil Roy—a.k.a. Sahil’s twin brother? Dream come true x 2. When mystery man “N” begins emailing her, Twinkle is sure it’s Neil, finally ready to begin their happily-ever-after. The only slightly inconvenient problem is that, in the course of movie-making, she’s fallen madly in love with the irresistibly adorkable Sahil. Twinkle soon realizes that resistance is futile: The romance she’s got is not the one she’s scripted. But will it be enough? Told through the letters Twinkle writes to her favorite female filmmakers, From Twinkle, with Love navigates big truths about friendship, family, and the unexpected places love can find you.