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The Blood Guard
Carter Roy
Synopsis: When thirteen-year-old Ronan Truelove’s seemingly ordinary mom snatches him from school, then sets off on a high speed car chase, Ronan is shocked. His quiet, nerdy dad has been kidnapped? And the kidnappers are after him, too?

His mom, he quickly learns, is anything but ordinary. In fact, she’s a member of an ancient order of knights, the Blood Guard, a sword-wielding secret society sworn to protect the Pure—thirty-six noble souls whose safety is crucial if the world as we know it is to survive.

Now all those after-school activities—gymnastics, judo, survival training—she made him take, make sense. For suddenly Ronan is swept up in a sometimes funny, sometimes scary, but always thrilling adventure—dashing from one danger to the next, using his wits to escape the Bend Sinister, a posse of evil doers with strange powers. Falling in with two unlikely companions, Greta, a scrappy, strong-willed girl he’s never much liked and Jack, a devil-may-care teenage pickpocket, Ronan is left with only his wits and his mom’s last words of advice: Trust no one.

That’s a lot for an ordinary kid to deal with. But then again, maybe Ronan’s not ordinary at all.

Publication Date: 03/04/14
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Series
Illuminate-Alive, She Cried: The Talisa Santiago Saga
Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Talisa Santiago is the granddaughter of a shaman and going between two different worldly dimensions is something she realizes she is destined to do; however, what she doesn’t count on is what fate has in store for her. After surviving the first hurricane of the season on the island where she lives, Talisa learns her life is in grave danger. She must retreat immediately to live with a secretive clan of Indians on a remote reservation deep within the Great Smokey Mountains. Her blood brothers, three shifters who have the desires of both man and animal surround her, promising everlasting friendship and protection. However, the majestic mountains hold many secrets and danger lurks in the night. As Talisa falls prey to the evil tricksters that want her dead, she unleashed an untamed passion that may get them all killed.
Publication Date: 03/04/14
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Lightning's Run (Bareknuckle)
Synopsis: Bullied relentlessly, Hiram Goldfarb, a Jewish immigrant in nineteenth-century New York City, learns bareknuckle fighting from a former slave wanted for a heinous crime in the South.
Publication Date: 03/01/14
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fiction
The Other Way Around (Fiction - Young Adult)
Synopsis: "Andrew has seen a flash of his future. (Dad: unfinished PhD. Mom: unfulfilling career. Their marriage: unsuccessful.) Based on what he's seen, he's uninspired to put a foot on the well-worn path to the adulthood everyone expects of him. There must be another way around.



After a particularly disastrous Thanksgiving (his cousin wets Andrew's bed; his parents were too chicken to tell him his grandmother died), Andrew accidentally (on purpose) runs away and joins the circus. Kind of.



A guy can meet the most interesting people at the Greyhound station at dinnertime on Thanksgiving day. The Freegans are exactly the kinds of friends (living out of an ancient VW camper van, dumpster diving, dressing like clowns and busking for change) who would have Andrew's mom reaching for a third glass of Chardonnay. To Andrew, five teenagers who seem like they've found another way to grow up are a dream come true. But as the VW winds its way across the USA, the future is anything but certain.



The path of least resistance is a long, strange trip."
Publication Date: 03/01/14
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fiction
The Giant (Bareknuckle)
Jonathan Mary-Todd
Synopsis: "Luc doesn't like to fight. He wins his matches anyway. Men always turn out to see the Boy Giant box—he's taller and stronger than anyone else at the Woodrat Club. Luc takes part to help Mr. Chilton, the man who brought him to New York.



When a fast-talking stranger brings a kangaroo to the club, the Woodrat gains another attraction. The kangaroo boxing makes Luc queasy. But Mr. Chilton befriends the kangaroo owner. Soon Luc is torn between loyalty and his conscience. And if he makes a move, the kangaroo's mysterious trainer is ready to cut him down to size."
Publication Date: 03/01/14
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: For Reluctant Readers
The Big Fix (Bareknuckle)
Synopsis: "George Choogart has just stepped off the boat to Manhattan. In England, he was a teenage star reporter. But he'll have to prove himself all over again if he wants an American newspaper job. When George stumbles across the Woodrat, an underground boxing club, he realizes he's found his next story.



The Woodrat's owner shows George a world of corruption—a world that might be too dangerous for either of them. Woodrat staffers are disappearing. Big Jim Dickinson, one of New York's wealthiest men, might be to blame. But if George wants to stop Big Jim, he'll have to conquer the boxing ring first."
Publication Date: 03/01/14
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fiction
The Story of Owen
E. K. Johnston
Synopsis: "Listen! For I sing of Owen Thorskard: valiant of heart, hopeless at algebra, last in a long line of legendary dragon slayers. Though he had few years and was not built for football, he stood between the town of Trondheim and creatures that threatened its survival.



There have always been dragons. As far back as history is told, men and women have fought them, loyally defending their villages. Dragon slaying was a proud tradition.



But dragons and humans have one thing in common: an insatiable appetite for fossil fuels. From the moment Henry Ford hired his first dragon slayer, no small town was safe. Dragon slayers flocked to cities, leaving more remote areas unprotected.



Such was Trondheim's fate until Owen Thorskard arrived. At sixteen, with dragons advancing and his grades plummeting, Owen faced impossible odds armed only with a sword, his legacy, and the classmate who agreed to be his bard.



Listen! I am Siobhan McQuaid. I alone know the story of Owen, the story that changes everything. Listen!"
Publication Date: 03/01/14
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
The Shibboleth
John Hornor Jacobs
Synopsis: """There are certain shibboleths to our condition.""



At the end of the first book of The Twelve-Fingered Boy Trilogy, Jack and Shreve are incarcerado—physically locked up. Shreve's back in the custody of the state of Arkansas, and Jack's somewhere in the clutches of Mr. Quincrux—both problems Shreve aims to rectify.



Cages might hold Shreve's body, but the power that's been growing since his encounter with Quincrux has reached a pinnacle. Nothing can prevent his mind from scaling the etheric heights. Freed from his body, Shreve discovers the magnitude of the evil that's stirring in the east. The wave of insomnia that's paralyzed the nation is only the beginning.



To save Jack—and maybe all of the humanity he no longer feels part of—Shreve has no choice but to join Quincrux and the Society of Extranaturals."
Publication Date: 03/01/14
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Returning to Shore
Corinne Demas
Synopsis: "Her mother's third marriage is only hours old when all hope for Clare's fifteenth summer fades. Before she knows it, Clare is whisked away to some ancient cottage on a tiny marsh island on Cape Cod to spend the summer with her father—a man she hasn't seen since she was three.



Clare's biological father barely talks, and when he does, he obsesses about endangered turtles. The first teenager Clare meets on the Cape confirms that her father is known as the town crazy person.



But there's something undeniably magical about the marsh and the island—a connection to Clare’s past that runs deeper than memory. Even her father's beloved turtles hold unexpected surprises. As Clare's father begins to reveal more about himself and his own struggle, Clare's summer becomes less of an exile and more of a return."
Publication Date: 03/01/14
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Tramp: A Detective's Story
Synopsis: The world's best dog detective can't be taught his sleuthing skills. They are in his genes passed down through the generations. Tramp realizes this after he is taken forcefully from his home and put up for sale in the neighborhood pet store. He makes friends with an assortment of very smart animals and yes, a human family that loves him. He soon discovers that with the help of the animals and the humans in his life he can solve the most intricate of mysteries.
Publication Date: 03/01/14
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Losing It
Ross Gilfillan
Synopsis: "It's a sight seen countless times along the seafront at Whitby, just one more girl kissing one more vampire" 17 is a difficult age for B.J. Neither his three friends, his secretive family nor Roger, the decor-loving football hooligan, can help him in his search to find himself – and lose his virginity. A darkly comic novel about love, death, sex (and Goths) by the author of The Snake Oil Dickens Man.
Publication Date: 02/28/14
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
South Coast Son
Claire Merchant
Synopsis: You would think that living in a ‘castle’-like house, being waited on hand and foot and being the best player in minor league football with the potential of signing to major league, would be every university student’s idea of heaven. Not in the case of Samuel Saber. Between the scandals and bad publicity involving his father, to the complication that is his love life, Sam Saber’s life is far from the blissful content you would be led to believe. Sam is a simple guy with only a couple of ambitions, so why is it turning out to be so hard to achieve them? Sam begins his journey of a few life lessons and a series of unexpected turns of events with the break up with his year-long girlfriend. Sam soon starts to realise that a name can be a hindrance and that people are not always who he originally thought them to be.
Publication Date: 02/27/14
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Romance
Freakling
Lana Krumwiede
Synopsis: A thrilling, fast-paced dystopian novel about the dangers of unchecked power and the dilemmas facing a boy torn between two ways of life.

In twelve-year-old Taemon’s city, everyone has a power called psi — the ability to move and manipulate objects with their minds. When Taemon loses his psi in a traumatic accident, he must hide his lack of power by any means possible. But a humiliating incident at a sports tournament exposes his disability, and Taemon is exiled to the powerless colony. The "dud farm" is not what Taemon expected, though: people are kind and open, and they actually seem to enjoy using their hands to work and play and even comfort their children. Taemon adjusts to his new life quickly, making friends and finding unconditional acceptance. But gradually he discovers that for all its openness, there are mysteries at the colony, too — dangerous secrets that would give unchecked power to psi wielders if discovered. When Taemon unwittingly leaks one of these secrets, will he have the courage to repair the damage — even if it means returning to the city and facing the very people who exiled him?
Publication Date: 02/25/14
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Boy on the Edge
Fridrik Erlings
Synopsis: Can a boy on the edge find his way back? From award-winning Icelandic author Fridrik Erlings comes a novel as cruel as it is tender.

Henry has a clubfoot and he is the target of relentless bullying. One day, in a violent fit of anger, Henry lashes out at the only family he has — his mother. Sent to live with other troubled boys at the Home of Lesser Brethren, an isolated farm perched in the craggy lava fields along the unforgiving Icelandic coast, Henry finds a precarious contentment among the cows. But it is the people, including the manic preacher who runs the home, who fuel Henry’s frustration and sometimes rage as he yearns for a life and a home. Author Fridrik Erlings offers a young adult novel that explores cruelty and desperation, tenderness and remorse, but most importantly, kindness and friendship.
Publication Date: 02/25/14
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Fiction
Timmy Failure: Now Look What You've Done
Stephan Pastis, Stephan Pastis
Synopsis: The clueless, comically self-confident kid detective returns in a sequel to the New York Times bestseller Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made.

"When you lose hope, find it." —Timmy Failure

He doesn’t like to pull rank. To reveal that he’s this guy: Timmy Failure, founder, president, and CEO of the greatest detective agency in town, perhaps the nation. But he is.

And he’s about to crack the biggest case of his generation: a school competition to find a stolen globe. It’s his ticket to bringing home a $500 prize, which is guaranteed to set him up for life. But someone is clearly trying to game the system. Hoodwink. Con. Defraud. So it’s up to Timmy Failure, with the dubious help of Total, his lazy polar-bear partner, and his unlikely new ally, eccentric Great-Aunt Colander, to find a way to avenge these shenanigans. Defeat this injustice.
If he can only get his entry form in on time.
Publication Date: 02/25/14
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: For Reluctant Readers
White Hot Kiss
Jennifer L. Armentrout
Synopsis: #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout draws readers into the extraordinary, irresistible world of Wardens and demons in the New York Times bestselling first book of The Dark Elements series.

One kiss could be the last

Seventeen-year-old Layla just wants to be normal—fit in at school, and go out on a real date with the gorgeous Zayne, whom she's crushed on since forever. Trouble is, Zayne treats Layla like a sister—and Layla is anything but normal. She's half demon, half gargoyle, with abilities no one else possesses. And even though Zayne is a Warden, part of the race of gargoyles tasked with hunting demons and keeping humanity safe, Layla's kiss will kill anything with a soul—including him.

Then she meets Roth—a tattooed, sinfully hot demon who claims to know her secrets. Though Layla knows she should stay away, it's tough when that whole no-kissing thing isn't an issue. Trusting Roth could ruin her chances with Zayne—and brand her a traitor to the Warden family that raised her. But as Layla discovers she's the sole reason for a violent demon uprising, kissing the enemy suddenly pales in comparison to the looming end of the world
Publication Date: 02/25/14
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Romance

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