Curl Up With One of February's New Books (part 7)

Never Never by Brianna R. Shrum

Fantasy 

James Hook is a child who only wants to grow up. When he meets Peter Pan, a boy who loves to pretend and is intent on never becoming a man, James decides he could try being a child - at least briefly. James joins Peter Pan on a holiday to Neverland, a place of adventure created by children's dreams, but Neverland is not for the faint of heart. Soon James finds himself longing for home, determined that he is destined to be a man. But Peter refuses to take him back, leaving James trapped in a world just beyond the one he loves. A world where children are to never grow up. But grow up he does. And thus begins the epic adventure of a Lost Boy and a Pirate. This story isn't about Peter Pan; it's about the boy whose life he stole. It's about a man in a world that hates men. It's about the feared Captain James Hook and his passionate quest to kill the Pan, an impossible feat in a magical land where everyone loves Peter Pan. Except one.

Rules for 50/50 Chances by Kate McGovern

Contemporary Fiction 

Seventeen-year-old Rose Levenson has a decision to make: Does she want to know how she's going to die? Because when Rose turns eighteen, she can take the test that tells her if she carries the genetic mutation for Huntington's disease, the degenerative condition that is slowly killing her mother. With a fifty-fifty shot at inheriting her family's genetic curse, Rose is skeptical about pursuing anything that presumes she'll live to be a healthy adult-including her dream career in ballet and the possibility of falling in love. But when she meets a boy from a similarly flawed genetic pool and gets an audition for a dance scholarship across the country, Rose begins to question her carefully laid rules.

Poet Anderson...of Nightmares by Tom DeLonge & Suzanne Young

Paranormal 

Poet Anderson...Of Nightmares follows the epic journey of two orphan brothers, Jonas and Alan, who are Lucid Dreamers. After a tragic car accident lands Alan in a coma, Jonas sets out into the Dream World in an attempt to find his brother and wake him up. What he discovers instead is an entire shared consciousness where fear comes to life as a snarling beast called a Night Terror, and a creature named REM is bent on destruction and misery, devouring the souls of the strongest dreamers to get closer to the Waking World. With the help of a Dream Walker—a guardian of the dreamscape, Jonas must face his fears, save his brother, and become who he was always meant to be: Poet Anderson.

Set You Free by Jeff Ross

Mystery 

The mayor's six-year-old son, Ben Carter, is missing--and Lauren's brother, Tom, is the main suspect. Lauren knows her brother would never harm anyone, but the police don't agree. Ben's stepbrother doesn't agree. The mayor certainly doesn't agree. To some people in Resurrection Falls, Tom is the freak who, rumor has it, once tried to lure a kid into the woods. But if Tom is innocent, why was he lurking around outside the mayor's house the night Ben disappeared? And why has he also vanished? After teaming up with Tom's friend, Grady, a computer enthusiast and part-time hacker, Lauren decides that rather than try to prove Tom's innocence, they should simply give the police some more options. Because everyone, even the mayor's apparently perfect family, has secrets.

Sky Key by James Frey & Nils Johnson-Shelton

Science Fiction

The Endgame trilogy continues in the sequel to the New York Times bestseller Endgame: The Calling. Endgame is here. Earth Key has been found. Two keys--and nine Players--remain. The hunt for Sky Key has begun. Queens, New York. Aisling Kopp believes the unthinkable: that Endgame can be stopped. But before she can act on her own, she is approached by the CIA. And they have their own ideas about how Endgame should be Played. Kingdom of Aksum, Ethiopia. Hilal ibn Isa al-Salt narrowly survived an attack that leaves him horribly disfigured. But the Aksumites have a secret that is unique to their line. A secret that could help redeem all of humanity. London, England. Sarah Alopay has found the first key. But getting Earth Key has come at a great cost to Sarah. And the only thing that keeps the demons at bay is Playing. Playing to win. With only two keys left to claim, the remaining Players will stop at nothing to find Sky Key--wherever it is, whatever it is--as the world begins to crumble.

Curl Up With One of February's New Books (part 6)

Little Dead Man by Jake Bible

Action/Adventure 

Garret Weir has just turned sixteen. But he's not the only sixteen year old in the family. Just the only one alive . Decades after the zombie apocalypse, seventeen year old Garret Weir just wants to be a normal teenager. As if dealing with the zombies isn't hard enough, his annoying twin brother refuses to leave him in peace. And it's not like Garret can just go to his room and shut the door to get away. His brother Garth is a zombie and conjoined to the top of Garret's spine. Good times. Forced from his hidden, mountain compound, Garret must learn who to trust and who to fear as he and Garth are thrust into a world more horrific than anything they could imagine. Fighting for their lives in a foreign landscape, the brothers head north to find their father who may have the answer to the deadly virus that caused the zombie apocalypse. Along their way they meet new friends, learn betrayal the hard way, fight for their mother's life, run from deadly ene-mies, and discover that life may have seemed difficult before, but can al-ways get a whole lot worse. 

The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry
Paranormal
Natalie's last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start...until she starts seeing the "wrong things." They're just momentary glimpses at first--her front door is red instead of its usual green, there's a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn't right. That's when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls "Grandmother," who tells her: "You have three months to save him." The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it's as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.

Lucid by Jay Bonansinga
Paranormal
Lori Blaine is not your average seventeen-year-old high school student--she's cool and iconoclastic in her dreadlocks and natty thrift shop garb. With an IQ that's off the charts, she is the ersatz leader of the eclectic Goth group of Valesburg Central High School. But Lori Blaine has two problems--lack of sleep, and The Door. For months Lori's dreams have been perpetually haunted by a strange ominous door. The door is always there on the periphery. Beckoning to her. Daring her to see what might be waiting for her on the other side. At the urging of an overzealous school psychologist, Lori decides to face her fears, and propels herself through the dream door...and immediately plunges into a shattered, looking glass world. Welcome to the In-Between--the terrifying, surreal, topsy-turvy territory behind peoples' dreams. Here, Lori unwittingly becomes a conduit between nightmares and reality--and not just her own. As the universe begins to unravel and the entire space-time continuum crumbles, Lori is thrust into a new role: savoir, where she quickly learns her powers are beyond anything anyone could have imagined.

Mirrored by Alex Flinn
Paranormal
Celine's life is the stuff fairy tales are made of. She's beautiful, talented, and brave. Unfortunately, her tale comes complete with a wicked stepmother! When Violet steps into Celine's life, everything changes and weird things begin to happen to her--bizarre accidents, strange illnesses, and rabid animal attacks. Celine doesn't feel safe anywhere. It's almost as if some hateful witch is out to get her. And there is. Violet has been waiting all her life to have Celine's father to herself. Getting rid of his gorgeous daughter is child's play for a witch as powerful as she is. Happy-ever-after isn't enough for Violet. She wants to be the fairest of them all, and Celine is in the way . . . but not for long. Forced to take refuge with her friend Goose and his family, Celine gives up everything she loves and goes deep undercover. But will it be enough to fool Violet, or will Celine's fate be decided by a reflection in a magic mirror? And where do you find Prince Charming in Miami anyway? Mirrored is a modern retelling of Snow White--told from the points of view of Violet, Celine, and Goose--with all the magic and mystery readers will love.

The Mystery of Hollow Places by Rebecca Podos
Mystery
All Imogene Scott knows of her mother is the bedtime story her father told her as a child. It's the story of how her parents met: he, a forensic pathologist; she, a mysterious woman who came to identify a body. A woman who left Imogene and her father when she was a baby, a woman who was always possessed of a powerful loneliness, a woman who many referred to as "troubled waters." Now Imogene is seventeen, and her father, a famous author of medical mysteries, has struck out in the middle of the night and hasn't come back. Neither Imogene's stepmother nor the police know where he could've gone, but Imogene is convinced he's looking for her mother. And she decides it's up to her to put to use the skills she's gleaned from a lifetime of reading her father's books to track down a woman she's only known in stories in order to find him and, perhaps, the answer to the question she's carried with her for her entire life.

Curl Up With One of February's New Books (part 3)

Concentr8 by William Sutcliffe

Action/Adventure

In a not-so-distant future London, riots have become the norm. But when the government suddenly stops distributing Concentr8--a behavioral modification "miracle" drug akin to Ritalin--the city's residents rise up fiercer than they ever have before. Amidst the chaos, five teens pick a man seemingly at random and chain him up as a hostage in a warehouse. Blaze is their leader, and Troy has always been his quiet sidekick--the only person he has ever trusted. But even Troy didn't see this coming, and as their story unfolds over six tense days, one thing is clear--none of them will ever be the same again. Told from the perspective of multiple characters in a world familiar to our own, this searing look at a group of teens who push back from the margins of society is perfect for fans of thoughtful fiction like Panic and The Program series.

Conviction by Kelly Loy Gilbert

Contemporary Fiction 

Ten years ago, God gave Braden a sign, a promise that his family wouldn't fall apart the way he feared. But Braden got it wrong: his older brother, Trey, has been estranged from the family for almost as long, and his father, the only parent Braden has ever known, has been accused of murder. The arrest of Braden's father, a well-known Christian radio host has sparked national media attention. His fate lies in his son's hands; Braden is the key witness in his father's upcoming trial. Braden has always measured himself through baseball. He is the star pitcher in his small town of Ornette, and his ninety-four mile per hour pitch already has minor league scouts buzzing in his junior year. Now the rules of the sport that has always been Braden's saving grace are blurred in ways he never realized, and the prospect of playing against Alex Reyes, the nephew of the police officer his father is accused of killing, is haunting his every pitch. 

The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman

Historical Fiction 

Helen must make a choice: Save her reputation, or save the world. London, 1812. Eighteen-year-old Lady Helen Wrexhall is on the eve of her debut presentation at the royal court of George III. Her life should revolve around gowns, dancing, and securing a suitable marriage. Instead, when one of her family's maids disappears, she is drawn into the shadows of Regency London. There, she meets Lord Carlston, one of the few able to stop the perpetrators: a cabal of demons that has infiltrated all levels of society. Carlston is not a man she should be anywhere near, especially with the taint of scandal that surrounds him. Yet he offers her help and the possibility of finally discovering the truth about the mysterious deaths of her parents. Soon the two of them are investigating a terrifying conspiracy that threatens to plunge the newly Enlightened world back into darkness. But can Helen trust a man whose own life is built on lies? And does she have the strength to face the dangers of this hidden world and her family's legacy?

Don't Stay Up Late by R. L. Stine

Action/Adventure 

In the small town of Shadyside, don't stay up late, because horrible things can happen... Both day and night, Lisa Brooks is plagued with nightmares and hallucinations. Could they be caused by the horrifying accident that landed her in the hospital for weeks? When Lisa finds out that a neighbor is looking for a babysitter for her little boy, Lisa jumps at the chance to keep busy and take her mind off of her troubling thoughts. But then the murders start -- and her friends begin dying one by one. Are Lisa's nightmares coming true? 

The Emperor of Any Place by Tim Wynne-Jones

Historical Fiction

When Evan's father dies suddenly, Evan finds a hand-bound yellow book on his desk--a book his dad had been reading when he passed away. The book is the diary of a Japanese soldier stranded on a small Pacific island in WWII. Why was his father reading it? What is in this account that Evan's grandfather, whom Evan has never met before, fears so much that he will do anything to prevent its being seen? And what could this possibly mean for Evan? In a pulse-quickening mystery evoking the elusiveness of truth and the endurance of wars passed from father to son, this engrossing novel is a suspenseful, at times terrifying read from award-winning author Tim Wynne-Jones.