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Juvenile Fiction | Page 70 | LitPick Book Reviews
Juvenile Fiction
Lockdown: Escape from Furnace 1
Lockdown: Escape From Furnace
Alexander Gordon Smith
Furnace Penitentiary: the world's most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth's surface. Convicted of a murder he didn't commit, sentenced to life without parole, "new fish" Alex Sawyer knows he has two choices: find a way out, or resign himself to a death behind bars, in the darkness at the bottom of the world. Except in Furnace, death is the least of his worries. Soon Alex discovers that the prison is a place of pure evil, where inhuman creatures in gas masks stalk the corridors at night, where giants in black suits drag screaming inmates into the shadows, where deformed beasts can be heard howling from the blood-drenched tunnels below. And behind everything is the mysterious, all-powerful warden, a man as cruel and dangerous as the devil himself, whose unthinkable acts have consequences that stretch far beyond the walls of the prison. Together with a bunch of inmates―some innocent kids who have been framed, others cold-blooded killers―Alex plans an escape. But as he starts to uncover the truth about Furnace's deeper, darker purpose, Alex's actions grow ever more dangerous, and he must risk everything to expose this nightmare that's hidden from the eyes of the world.

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The Mystery Stallion (Wild Horse Creek)
The Mystery Stallion
Sharon Siamon
Join Sophie and Liv in the explosive kick-off to the new Wild Horse Creek series. When 13-year-old twins Sophie and Liv spend their spring break vacation with their grandparents in Arizona, they discover that the ranch in the Sonoran Desert is full of surprises. Both girls love horses, and they're thrilled to meet their grandparents' herd of Spanish Barbs who roam freely on the 3,000-acre ranch. Soon, however, the girls encounter more adventure than they bargained for. When their grandfather's stallion is badly injured and the rest of his herd disappears, the twins try to find the missing horses and get to the bottom of the mystery. Along the way, the girls encounter rattlesnakes, good-looking cowhands and an interesting cast of characters who work at the ritzy local spa. Throughout their adventure, the twins come to terms with the fact that they are separate individuals with different paths to follow. About the Wild Horse Creek series: When horses are at the heart of a series, it's pretty much guaranteed that every book will also feature fun, adventure and friendship. This series follows twins Sophie and Liv adventures on their grandfather's ranch.

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Silver Shoes
Silver Shoes
Paul Miles Schneider
WHEN DONALD GARDNER'S parents tell him they'll be taking an exciting road trip through Kansas, he openly cringes. He is sure it will be a boring summer vacation. But at one of their final roadside stops on the way home, they are approached by a poor woman offering to sell a curious item--an antique silver shoe. While Donald's mother is initially reluctant, she is ultimately smitten with the shoe and buys it. Donald is skeptical that the shoe is anything more than a relic, but when the new school year starts, he brings it in for show-and-tell, attempting to impress his classmates. His friends liken it to something out of The Wizard of Oz, and his teacher agrees the idea is not far-fetched considering author L. Frank Baum wrote about silver shoes, not ruby slippers, which were strictly in the movie. Yet when he accepts a dare from his two best buddies to try it on, frightening and incredible things begin to happen. Strange animals cry out in the night. Dark, shadowy shapes lurk in distant corners. Scratching sounds are heard just outside his bedroom window. And when he meets George Clarke, a reclusive man who has been in hiding and on the run for many years, Donald finds out there is a lot more to Baum's story than he thinks. Join Donald as he unravels Baum's earth-shattering secret in Silver Shoes.

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Recipe for Disaster
Recipe For Disaster
Maureen Fergus
Francie's life was almost perfect before the new girl showed up. She had her own business as a weekend baker whose scones almost caused stampedes, a best friend named Holly and a deeply fulfilling crush on Tate Jarvis. She dreamed about the day she'd be famous and have her own baking show. But the new girl at school, Darlene, thinks Francie's obsession with baking is weird, she acts like Holly is her best friend, and she's somehow managed to steal Tate's attention away. Suddenly, everything is unravelling. Unable to stay focused, Francie's pastry-filled dreams are starting to slide. Then Francie gets a chance to meet the sexy celebrity baker Lorenzo LaRue, whose toned pectorals inspire Francie as much as the baking tips she picks up from his TV show. Francie is sure that if Lorenzo could only see how passionate she is about baking, he would help launch her career, and possibly marry her when she reaches legal age. It won't be easy - but Francie is starting to understand that although trying won't guarantee success, quitting will guarantee failure. Young readers will gobble up this hilarious exploration of a girl's recipes for friendship, dating, fame and coconut-drop cookies.

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Shadowfae (Shadowfae Chronicles #1)
Shadowfae
Erica Hayes
Imagine a secret world veiled in fairy glamour and brimming with unearthly delights. A city swarming with half-mad fairies, where thieving spriggans rob you blind, beautiful banshees mesmerize you with their song, and big green trolls bust heads at nightclubs. And once you're in, there's no escape…Enslaved by a demon lord, Jade is forced to spend her nights seducing vampire gangsters and shapeshifting thugs. After two hundred years as a succubus, she burns for freedom and longs to escape her brutal life as a trophy girl for hell's minions. Then she meets Rajah, an incubus who touches her heart and intoxicates her senses. Rajah shares the same bleak fate as she, and yearns just as desperately for freedom. But the only way for Jade to break her bonds is to betray Rajah―and doom the only man she's ever loved to a lifetime in hell.

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City of Screams
City of Screams
John Brindley
Life already hangs in precarious balance for Phoenix and her family and friends as rebellion bubbles beneath every surface, but when the Adults return, offering desperate acts of salvation, they seem to forget that nature itself is calling the shots. By the author of The Rule of Claw.

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The Night Watchman
The Night Watchman
J. L. Manning
This story takes place in any city where there is street crime, street racing, and underground fighting. There is a young man that was in a car accident as a child and was left with physical limitations. Over these years a speech impairment and self-doubt because of how people now saw him left him lonely. A technology that he found did help him gain abilities that he never had and he wanted to use these abilities to help out his city. The abilities that he gained improved and the side effects gave him abilities that he was learning to take advantage of. He started to investigate a criminal that he had found that got him involved in some tight spots. He gained the most unlikely of friends that got him involved with underground activities. His confidence grew, but when the time comes will he do the right thing?

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Dodger for President (Dodger and Me)
Dodger For President
Jordan Sonnenblick
What would you do if your best friend was:1. Still imaginary (and still an oversize blue chimp with major junk-food issues)?2. Nominating you to run for class president - against the most popular kid in your grade?3. In charge of your campaign posters…all blue, of course, including your face!?4. Planning a magical secret weapon to help you win (not fair and square, right?)?5. Driving you crazy?!?! Now you have an idea of what Willie Ryan's life is like as his adventures with Dodger continue. The last thing Willie wants to do is run for class president, but both his running mate, Lizzie, and Dodger won't let him quit - and have their own ideas of how to run a campaign, especially against James Beeks, Mr. Popularity. In this second installment of the Dodger and Me series, the humor runs high, the friendships run deep, and Dodger continues to run on French fries and good intentions.

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Magic Can Be Murder
Magic Can Be Murder
Vivian Vande Velde
Nola's not much of a witch--she can work only a few useless spells, like the one that lets her spy on people. But there's no spell for keeping her crazy mother--who hears voices and is a magnet for witch-hunters--out of trouble. The two flee from town to town until the day Nola magically witnesses a murder. Which is bad enough, but worse is that the murderer may frame Nola and her mother for the crime. And then no amount of magic will save her. And you think your teenage years are tough. . . .

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The Embers: A Novel
The Embers
Hyatt Bass
A once-charmed family is forced to confront the devastating tragedy that struck it years ago in this fiercely tender tale of betrayal and reconciliation It’s the fall of 2007, and Emily Ascher should be celebrating: she just got engaged to the man she loves, her job is moving in new and fulfilling directions, and her once-rocky relationship with her mother, Laura, has finally mellowed into an easy give-and-take. But with the promise of new love Settling into old comes a difficult look at how her family has been torn apart in the many years since her brother died. Her parents have long since divorced, and her father, Joe, a famous actor and playwright who has been paralyzed with grief since the tragedy, carries the blame for his son’s death—but what really happened on that winter night? Why has he been unable to clear his name, or even discuss that evening with Laura and Emily? As spring looms—and with it Emily’s wedding in the Berkshires and an unveiling of Joe’s new play—each Ascher begins to reevaluate the events of long ago, finally facing the truth of his or her own culpability in them. Moving between past and present over the course of sixteen years, The Embers is a skillfully structured debut novel of buried secrets and deep regrets that crush a family while bonding its members irrevocably.

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