My gift to you...New Books for December! (part 7)

Of Monsters and Madness by Jessica Verday

In 1820s Philadelphia, a girl finds herself in the midst of a rash of gruesome murders in which her father and his alluring assistant might be implicated.

 On the Day I Died by Candace Fleming

In a lonely Illinois cemetery one cold October night, teen ghosts recount the stories of their deaths in different time periods, from 1870 to the present, to sixteen-year-old Mike, who unknowingly picked up a phantom hitchhiker.

Otherwise by Linda Oatman High

A law has been passed. There will be no more genders. Everyone must appear gender neutral. No more boys. No more girls. Just ... Otherwise. Same bland clothes. Same fuzzy heads. "Spark" dreads the countdown leading up to the finality of the new law's passage. Her parents are for it. They're tired of conforming to society's standards. But they allow her to take off for a quick camping trip to gather her thoughts. At the campsite, she meets "Whistler." And the attraction is instant and mutual. But who is Whistler? And what is Whistler? Boy? Or girl? This gender-bending story in verse will make readers question everything they thought they knew about love, chemistry, and cultural norms.

Perfectionists by Sara Shepard

Ava, Caitlin, Mackenzie, Julie, and Parker are all driven to be perfect--no matter the cost. At first the girls think they have nothing in common, until they discover that they all hate the same person: handsome womanizer Nolan Hotchkiss, who's done things to hurt each of them. They come up with the perfect plan to murder Nolan--jokingly, of course. They'd never actually go through with it. But when Nolan turns up dead in the exact way they'd discussed, the girls suddenly become prime suspects in his murder. Only, they didn't do it. So who did? Unless they find the real killer, and soon, their perfect lives will come crashing down around them.

Phantom Thief Jeanne vol 1 by Arina Tanemura
High school student Maron Kusakabe has a secret: she's Phantom Thief Jeanne. She sneaks into private art collections to steal paintings in which demons reside. Jeanne's task is to seal the demons before they can devour human hearts. So far she's been able to evade the police on her midnight outings, but now another thief has come onto the scene-Phantom Sinbad-and he's trying to take the paintings before she does!

New Books for October ~ Part 3

Here is the tumultuous, heartrending, true story of the Romanovs--at once an intimate portrait of Russia's last royal family and a gripping account of its undoing. Using captivating photos and compelling first person accounts, award-winning author Candace Fleming ( Amelia Lost ; The Lincolns ) deftly maneuvers between the imperial family's extravagant lives and the plight of Russia's poor masses, making this an utterly mesmerizing read as well as a perfect resource.

Jessamin has been an outcast since she moved from her island home of Melei to the dreary country of Albion. Everything changes when she meets the gorgeous, enigmatic Finn, who introduces her to the secret world of Albion's nobility, a world that has everything Jessamin doesn't--power, money, status. and magic. But Finn has secrets of his own, and the vicious Lord Downpike will do anything to possess them. Unless Jessamin, armed only with her wits, can stop him.

When the boy she likes at school disappoints her, fourteen-year-old Thea connects with a fellow player of the online game, Skadi, but although he claims to love her she becomes more and more uncomfortable with him and having to cover up their relationship.

In alternating chapters, eighteen-year-old Darcy Patel navigates the New York City publishing world and Lizzie, the heroine of Darcy's novel, slips into the "Afterworld" to survive a terrorist attack and becomes a spirit guide, as both face many challenges and both fall in love.

Lillian Firestone is Chinese, but the kids in her 1951 Kansas City high school can't separate her from the North Koreans that America is at war with. Sick of the racism she faces at school and frustrated that her adoptive white family just sees it as 'teasing,' Lily begins to search for her birth mother.