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Dead Things
Stephen Blackmoore
Synopsis: Stephen Blackmoore's dark urban fantasy series follows necromancer Eric Carter through a world of vengeful gods and goddesses, mysterious murders, and restless ghosts.

Necromancer is such an ugly word, but it's a title Eric Carter is stuck with.

He sees ghosts, talks to the dead. He's turned it into a lucrative career putting troublesome spirits to rest, sometimes taking on even more dangerous things. For a fee, of course.

When he left LA fifteen years ago, he thought he'd never go back. Too many bad memories. Too many people trying to kill him.

But now his sister's been brutally murdered and Carter wants to find out why.

Was it the gangster looking to settle a score? The ghost of a mage he killed the night he left town? Maybe it's the patron saint of violent death herself, Santa Muerte, who's taken an unusually keen interest in him.

Carter's going to find out who did it, and he's going to make them pay.

As long as they don't kill him first.
Publication Date: 02/05/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Mystery
Life II
Scott Spotson
Synopsis: Upon discovering a 1958 book titled "Account of Time Travel on Earth Using Wave Theory," 42-year-old Max Thorning's life is thrown into chaos. Seeking answers to the book's cryptic clues, he discovers Dr. Time, a seemingly benign alien who has control of the Time Weaver, a remarkable device that can command any scene from the Earth's past. Dr. Time offers him a choice to go back into Time, to any point in his lifespan that he can vividly recall. The catch: he can only bring his memories, and can only live the future one day at a time. Follow Max's dilemma as he goes back to his 16-year-old self and tries to forge his destiny into a new one called Life II.
Similar books: "Replay" by Ken Grimwood, "11/22/63" by Stephen KingEnjoy the sequel, "Bridge Through Time," which offers parallel universes and even more time travel! 
Publication Date: 02/05/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
The Twelve-Fingered Boy (The Twelve-Fingered Boy Trilogy) [
Synopsis: Fifteen-year-old Shreve Cannon doesn't mind juvie. He's got a good business dealing contraband candy, and three meals a day are more than his drunk mother managed to provide. In juvie, the rules never change and everyone is the same. In juvie, Shreve has life figured out. Then the new fish shows up.

Jack's a quiet kid. Small. Cries himself to sleep too. He's no standard-issue titty-baby, though. There's his hands--more specifically his fingers, all twelve of 'em. And when he gets angry, something weird happens. The air wavers. You feel a slight pressure in your chest. And then…well, best take cover.

Jack isn't the only new face in juvie. There's Mr. Quincrux. Quincrux has an unusual interest in Jack and Shreve, and it quickly becomes clear that innocent bystanders aren't going to get in his way. So Jack and Shreve bust out.

On the lam, they quickly discover that Jack has abilities--hell, superpowers--that might just give them a fighting chance against Quincrux, if they can stay alive long enough to figure them out.
Publication Date: 02/01/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Bad Girls: Sirens, Jezebels, Murderesses, Thieves & Other Female Villains
Synopsis: From Jezebel to Catherine the Great, from Cleopatra to Mae West, from Mata Hari to Bonnie Parker, strong women have been a problem for historians, storytellers, and readers. Strong females smack of the unfeminine. They have been called wicked, wanton, and willful. Sometimes that is a just designation, but just as often it is not. "Well-behaved women seldom make history," is the frequently quoted statement by historian and feminist Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. But what makes these misbehaving women "bad"? Are we idolizing the wicked or salvaging the strong?

In BAD GIRLS, readers meet twenty-six of history’s most notorious women, each with a rotten reputation. But authors Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple remind us that there are two sides to every story. Was Delilah a harlot or hero? Was Catherine the Great a great ruler, or just plain ruthless? At the end of each chapter, Yolen and Stemple appear as themselves in comic panels as they debate each girl’s badness—Heidi as the prosecution, Jane for context.

This unique and sassy examination of famed, female historical figures will engage readers with its unusual presentation of the subject matter. Heidi and Jane’s strong arguments for the innocence and guilt of each bad girl promotes the practice of critical thinking as well as the idea that history is subjective. Rebecca Guay’s detailed illustrations provide a rich, stylized portrait of each woman, while the inclusion of comic panels will resonate with fans of graphic novels.
Publication Date: 02/01/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Educational
Stolen Nights
Rebecca Maizel
Synopsis:

STOLEN NIGHTS by Rebecca Maizel
A Vampire Queen Novel

A new year is beginning at Wickham Boarding School. A new chance at life, at reversing the evil in my past. But nothing is ever as simple it seems...

Last year, the love of my life died performing a ritual to fulfill my one wish and make me human. And now I've performed the same ritual for my friend Vicken – and survived. Why am I here, back safe on Wickham campus?

The strong magic I used in the ritual did more than just make Vicken human. It drew someone to Lover's Bay who does not belong here. She wants the ritual. Then she wants me dead. And she will take down any and everyone in my life to get what she wants.

As if that weren't enough, the ritual has also summoned the anger of the Aeris, the four elements and most fundamental powers on earth. They have a surprise and an unbearable punishment for me – like stepping into the sun for the first time, only to be put into a cage. And now I have to make an impossible choice – between love or life, yearning or having, present or past…

Publication Date: 01/29/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Mystery
The Prey
Andrew Fukuda
Synopsis:

"Action-packed, heart-pounding, page-flipping action. I'm thoroughly in love with this riveting, thrilling read. –YA Reads



Don't miss the electrifying second book in the must-read trilogy of the year!

With death only a heartbeat away, Gene and the remaining humans must find a way to survive long enough to escape the hungry predators chasing them through the night. But they're not the only things following Gene. He's haunted by Ashley June who he left behind, and his burgeoning feelings for Sissy, the human girl at his side.

Their escape takes them to a refuge of humans living high in the mountains. Gene and his friends think they're finally safe, but not everything here is as it seems. And before long, Gene must ask himself if the new world they've entered is just as evil as the one they left behind. As their enemies close in on them and push Gene and Sissy closer, one thing becomes painfully clear: all they have is each other…if they can stay alive.

Chilling, inventive, and electrifying, The Prey is the second book in Andrew Fukuda's The Hunt series.

Publication Date: 01/29/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Mystery
Eye of the Desert
N K Bauer
Synopsis: Eye of the Desert, the first novel in the Elizabeth Stanford fantasy series. Elizabeth Stanford begins what she believes is a very simple journey, to find her missing grandmother and bring her home safely. Her bizarre dreams of ancient Egyptian temples portend what awaits her. Elizabeth meets mysterious friends of her grandmother: Violet Teasdale, Trevor Winslowe, Unas, Uraeus, and the Tetrad. A massive earthquake sets it all in motion. Elizabeth is plunged into the center of an ancient power struggle that has lasted for eons. She learns the people she meets are not at all what they seem. Even her beloved grandmother has secrets Elizabeth never suspected. One of these secrets has passed from grandmother to granddaughter. Her journey is so much more complicated than finding her grandmother. Elizabeth is drawn into a world she could never before have imagined. It is a world where time and space are severely limiting terms. A world where information travels on the wind. A world where old scores are begging to be settled.
Publication Date: 01/27/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
All We Know of Love
Nora Raleigh Baskin
Synopsis: A boldly original tale about a girl who journeys through love and loss to find her mother — and discovers that everyone has a story to tell, including herself.

"I used to think that a person would not know who I was, not really know me, until they heard about my mother."

Four years, four months, and fifteen days ago, Natalie Gordon's mother walked out mid-sentence, before she finished what she was going to say. Now Natalie is traveling twenty-four hours on a bus to Florida to find her mother, to find herself, to find out something about love. Along the way, Natalie struggles to understand her relationship with Adam, a boy she pines for with near-obsession, and to her surprise, she meets people with stories like her own, stories about giving love and getting lost in the desire to be wanted. Acclaimed middle-grade novelist Nora Raleigh Baskin makes her young adult debut with a deeply resonant novel about secrets held and secrets shared, about having the courage to uncover all we know — and don’t know — of love.
Publication Date: 01/22/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Chick Lit
Courage Has No Color-The True Story of the Triple Nickles
Synopsis: NAACP Image AwardA 2014 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist

They became America's first black paratroopers. Why was their story never told? Sibert Medalist Tanya Lee Stone reveals the history of the Triple Nickles during World War II.

World War II is raging, and thousands of American soldiers are fighting overseas against the injustices brought on by Hitler. Back on the home front, the injustice of discrimination against African Americans plays out as much on Main Street as in the military. Enlisted black men are segregated from white soldiers and regularly relegated to service duties. At Fort Benning, Georgia, First Sergeant Walter Morris's men serve as guards at The Parachute School, while the white soldiers prepare to be paratroopers. Morris knows that for his men to be treated like soldiers, they have to train and act like them, but would the military elite and politicians recognize the potential of these men as well as their passion for serving their country? Tanya Lee Stone examines the role of African Americans in the military through the history of the Triple Nickles, America's first black paratroopers, who fought in a little-known attack on the American West by the Japanese. The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, in the words of Morris, "proved that the color of a man had nothing to do with his ability."

From Courage Has No Color
What did it take to be a paratrooper in World War II? Specialized training, extreme physical fitness, courage, and -- until the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion (the Triple Nickles) was formed -- white skin.
It is 1943. Americans are overseas fighting World War II to help keep the world safe from Adolf Hitler's tyranny, safe from injustice, safe from discrimination. Yet right here at home, people with white skin have rights that people with black skin do not.
What is courage? What is strength? Perhaps it is being ready to fight for your nation even when your nation isn't ready to fight for you.
Publication Date: 01/22/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Nonfiction
UNDYING MOON
Raveyn Knight
Synopsis: Chandra Kane is a teenager who has a parrot that quotes Shakespeare, a living corpse that hides under her bed, and a pair of magical bracelets that belonged to her dead mother. Her evil clone is seducing her boyfriend and a murderous midget is stalking her girlfriends. Could life be any weirder? Absolutely. Chandra Kane is about to celebrate her one-hundredth birthday.
Publication Date: 01/21/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
The Paganini Curse
Giselle M. Stancic
Synopsis: In 1911 New York City, a teenage violinist must use her ingenuity and determination to find a murderer--before she becomes the next victim of The Paganini Curse.
Publication Date: 01/18/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Vortex
Julie Cross
Synopsis:

Julie Cross's Vortex is the thrilling second installment of the Tempest series, in which the world hangs in the balance as a lovelorn Jackson must choose who to save

Jackson Meyer has thrown himself into his role as an agent for Tempest, the shadowy division of the CIA that handles all time-travel-related threats. Despite his heartbreak at losing the love of his life, Jackson has proved himself to be an excellent agent. However, after an accidental run in with Holly―the girl he altered history to save―Jackson is once again reminded of what he's lost. And when Eyewall, an opposing division of the CIA, emerges, Jackson and his fellow agents not only find themselves under attack, but Jackson begins to discover that the world around him has changed and someone knows about his erased relationship with Holly, putting both their lives at risk all over again.

Publication Date: 01/15/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Romance
The Protector
Daphne Q
Synopsis: Maddy is a typical shy, intelligent teenage girl. Or at least she'd like to be. However, Maddy has learned from folks in an alternate universe that she is a Protector and her job is to shelter her younger brother from evil sources so he can accomplish the great things he is destined to do in his life.
Publication Date: 01/12/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Black Beauty
Anna Sewell
Synopsis: Black Beauty By Anna Sewell
Publication Date: 01/09/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Janie Face to Face (Jane Johnson)
Synopsis: In this riveting and emotional conclusion to the thriller-romance Janie series, that started with The Face on the Milk Carton, all will be revealed as readers find out if Janie and Reeve's love has endured, and whether or not the person who brought Janie and her family so much emotional pain and suffering is brought to justice.
Publication Date: 01/08/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Power Under Pressure (The Society of Steam, Book 3)
Synopsis: Steampunk superheros in Victorian-era New York!

The Society of Paragons is gone--destroyed from within by traitors and enemies. With the death of The Industrialist and the rebirth the Iron-Clad as a monstrous half-human creature known as "The Shell," Lord Eschaton now has almost everything he needs to cover the world in fortified smoke and rebuild it in his image--everything except for the mechanical heart of the Automaton.

The device is nearer than he knows. Just across the East River, hiding in a Brooklyn junkyard, Sarah Stanton is trying to come to restore the mechanical man to life. But before she can rebuild her friend, she must first discover the indomitable power of her own heart and save herself. Only then will she be able to forge a ragtag group of repentant villains, damaged Paragons, and love-mad geniuses into the team of heroes known as "The Society of Steam."
Publication Date: 01/08/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction

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