Curl Up With One of February's New Books (part 9)

Velvet Undercover by Teri Brown

Historical Fiction 

Samantha Donaldson's family has always done its duty for the British Crown. In the midst of World War I, seventeen-year-old Sam follows in their footsteps, serving her country from the homefront as a messenger for the intelligence organization MI5. After her father disappears on a diplomatic mission, she continues their studies of languages, mathematics, and complex puzzles, hoping to make him proud. When Sam is asked to join the famed women's spy group La Dame Blanche, she's torn--while this could be an unbelievable adventure, how can she abandon her mother, who has already lost a husband? But when her handlers reveal shocking news, Sam realizes she can't refuse the exciting and dangerous opportunity. Her acceptance leads her straight into the heart of enemy territory on a mission to extract the most valuable British spy embedded in Germany, known only as Velvet. Deep undercover in the court of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Sam must navigate the labyrinthine palace and its many glamorous--and secretive--residents to complete her assignment. To make matters worse she must fight a forbidden attraction to the enemy--a dangerously handsome German guard. In a place where personal politics are treacherously entangled in wartime policy, can Sam find Velvet before it's too late . . . for them both? 

The Wanderers by Kate Ormand

Paranormal

Flo lives an eccentric life—she travels with a popular circus in which the main acts star orphaned children with secret shape-shifting abilities. Once Flo turns sixteen, she must perform, but she’s not ready. While practicing jumping a flaming hurdle in a clearing beside the circus, she spots a dark figure in the trees and fears he saw her shift. The news sends the circus into a panic.

In Flo’s world, shifters are unknown to humans with the exception of a secret organization—the EOS, referred to as “hunters.” Hunters capture and kill. They send some shifters to labs for observation and testing—testing they don’t often survive—and deem others useless, a danger to society, and eliminate them. To avoid discovery, shifters travel in packs, constantly moving and keeping themselves hidden. Up until now, the circus was the perfect disguise.

Zero Day by Jan Gangsei

Action/Adventure 

Addie Webster's kidnapping was the most notorious of the decade - her high-profile parents were forced to go through their grief in the public eye. Mark Webster is now the President of the United States, fighting to keep the oval office after a tumultuous first term when the unthinkable happens: his daughter resurfaces. Addie is brought back into her family's fold, but who is this sixteen-year-old girl with a quiet, burning intelligence now living in the White House? There are those in the president's political circle who find her timely return suspicious.

New Books for the New Year - January 2016 New Books part 10

Until Beth by Lisa Amowitz

Paranormal

Talented rock guitarist Beth Collins has been barely holding herself together for months, ever since her boyfriend and bandmate became the latest victim in a string of suspicious disappearances. When her brother is injured an accident and she sees something dark billowing around him as he hovers close to death, she’s convinced her sanity is collapsing for good. 

Then she's accepted by a boarding school for the musically gifted. All of her new friends are bursting with talent, but they're also keeping secrets. Can she trust Vincent, who's so sweet that his very touch makes her fears melt away? Or Xavier, who's trying to tell her something but is hiding even more? 

And will anyone be safe when her true Talent comes out?

The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore

Paranormal 

Although Lace Paloma knows all about the feud between the Palomas and the Corbeaus, she finds herself falling for Cluck Corbeau when he saves her life while both families are performing in the same town.

Weird Girl and What's His Name by Meagan Brothers

Contemporary Fiction 

In the tiny podunk town of Hawthorne, North Carolina, seventeen-year-old geeks Lula and Rory share everything--sci-fi and fantasy fandom, Friday night binge-watching of old X-Files episodes, and that feeling that they don't quite fit in. Lula knows she and Rory have no secrets from each other; after all, he came out to her years ago, and she's shared with him her "sacred texts"--the acting books her mother left behind after she walked out of Lula's life. But then Lula discovers that Rory--her Rory, who maybe she's secretly had feelings for--has not only tried out for the Hawthorne football team without telling her, but has also been having an affair with his middle-aged divorcee boss. With their friendship disrupted, Lula begins to question her identity and her own sexual orientation, and she runs away in the middle of the night on a journey to find her mother, who she hopes will have all the answers. 

Wendy Darling: Volume One: Stars by Colleen Oakes

Paranormal 

Wendy Darling has a perfectly agreeable life with her parents and brothers in wealthy London, as well as a budding romance with Booth, the neighborhood bookseller's son. But one night, while their parents are at a ball, the charmingly beautiful Peter Pan comes to the Darling children's nursery, and dazzled by this flying boy with god-like powers they follow him out of the window and straight on to morning into Neverland, an intoxicating island of freedom. As time passes in Neverland, Wendy realizes that this Lost Boy's paradise of turquoise seas, mermaids, and pirates holds terrible secrets rooted in blood and greed. As Peter's grasp on her heart tightens, she struggles to remember where she came from and begins to suspect that this island of dreams, and the boy who desires her, have the potential to transform into an everlasting nightmare.

Zebulon Finch: At the Edge of Empire by Daniel Kraus

Historical Fiction 

The story follows Zebulon Finch, a teenager murdered in 1896 Chicago who inexplicably returns from the dead and searches for redemption through the ages.

Thanks for the New Books! ~ November New Books Part 4

Firebug by Lish McBride

Ava, a contracted hit man who can start fires with her mind, hits the road with her friends, desperately trying to escape the Coterie, a magical mafia, while keeping the murder to a minimum after she is asked to kill a family friend by Venus, who killed Ava's mother.

Four: A Divergent Collection by Veronica Roth

A collection of four pre-Divergent stories plus three additional scenes from Divergent, all told from Tobias's point of view, that follow Tobias's transfer from Abnegation to Dauntless, his Dauntless initiation, the first clues that a foul plan is brewing in the leadership of two factions, and the weeks after he meets Tris Prior.

Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond

Sixteen-year-old Jules Maroni's dream is to follow in her father's footsteps as a high-wire walker. When her family is offered a prestigious role in the new Cirque American, it seems that Jules and the Amazing Maronis will finally get the spotlight they deserve. But the presence of the Flying Garcias may derail her plans. For decades, the two rival families have avoided each other as sworn enemies. Jules ignores the drama and focuses on the wire, skyrocketing to fame as the girl in a red tutu who dances across the wire at death-defying heights. But when she discovers a peacock feather--an infamous object of bad luck--planted on her costume, Jules nearly loses her footing. She has no choice but to seek help from the unlikeliest of people: Remy Garcia, son of the Garcia clan matriarch and the best trapeze artist in the Cirque. As more mysterious talismans believed to possess unlucky magic appear, Jules and Remy unite to find the culprit. And if they don't figure out what's going on soon, Jules may be the first Maroni to do the unthinkable: fall.

Girls Vs. Guys: Surprising Differences Between the Sexes by Michael Rosen

Do mosquitoes bite guys more than girls? Which sex is better at diapering babies, remembering birthdays, or hammering nails? Explore the ways that environment, experience, neurology, physiology, and genetics shape gender behavior--in expected and unexpected ways.

Glory O'Brien's History of the Future by A. S. King

Graduating from high school is a time of limitless possibilities--but not for Glory, who has no plan for what's next. Her mother committed suicide when Glory was only four years old, and she's never stopped wondering if she will eventually go the same way...until a transformative night when she begins to experience an astonishing new power to see a person's infinite past and future. From ancient ancestors to many generations forward, Glory is bombarded with visions--and what she sees ahead of her is terrifying: A tyrannical new leader raises an army. Women's rights disappear. A violent second civil war breaks out. And young girls vanish daily, sold off or interned in camps. Glory makes it her mission to record everything she sees, hoping her notes will somehow make a difference. She may not see a future for herself, but she'll do anything to make sure this one doesn't come to pass.