Note: Check out the contest for a signed copy and review here!
Everyone has a past. One that is inescapable. Jude Foster, an L.A. homicide detective, is on the brink of mental collapse. A year ago, he was left for dead by Morgan Cross, a once-close friend and partner. Now, although forced to undergo mindless psychoanalytical diatribes in order to be reinstated into the department, the world apathetically spins on. When a dead body is found in West Hollywood, an investigation is set in motion and Jude realizes, with the aid of Rachel Cragin, his annoying new interim partner, that the first victim is only the beginning. The markings on the bodies are trails to a more sadistic pattern of evil, one Jude may or may not recognize. But how does someone stop a killer who’s slaying his victims by stealing their souls, without ever touching them? As the time ticks, the countdown begins. They will have one week to uncover the sacred sin…and the darkness that lies within all men.
Fade - Lisa McMann
Janie and Cabel continue to work for Captain, and it's freakish how much is going down at their high school. This time around, they're investigating an alleged sex ring--rumor has it there are teachers using the date rape drug on students. But no one's talking. In fact, the suspected teachers are universally loved by the kids. Finally, they catch a break when Janie taps into the nightmares of one star student. Based on what she finds buried in this girl's psyche, she and Cabel move in for the kill, using Janie as bait. But things don't go as planned--not even close. What happens after everything goes down has consequences way beyond Janie's safety.
Meanwhile, Janie has discovered Martha Stubin's journals, and what she learns through them chills her to the bone. For not only is her fate as a Dream Catcher sealed, but what's to come is way darker than she'd even feared...
Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading - Lizzie Skurnick
Launched from her regular feature column 'Fines Lines' for Jezebel.com, this spastically composed, frequently hilarious omnibus of meditations on favorite YA novels dwells mostly among the old-school titles from the late '60s to the early '80s much beloved by now grown-up ladies. This was the era, notes the bibliomaniacal Skurnick in her brief introduction, when books for young girls moved from being 'wholesome and entertaining' (e.g., The Secret Garden and the Nancy Drew series) to dealing with real-life, painful issues affecting adolescence as depicted by Beverly Cleary, Lois Duncan, Judy Blume, Madeleine L'Engle and Norma Klein. Skurnick groups her eruptive essays around themes, for example, books that feature a particularly memorable, fun or challenging narrator (e.g., Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy); girls 'on the verge,' such as Blume's Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret or 'danger girls' such as Duncan's Daughters of Eve; novels that deal with dying protagonists and other tragedies like child abuse (Willo Davis Roberts's Don't Hurt Laurie!); and, unavoidably, heroines gifted with a paranormal penchant, among other categories. Skurnick is particularly effective at spotlighting an undervalued classic (e.g., Joan Aiken's The Wolves of Willoughby Chase) and offers titles featuring troubled boys as well. Her suggestions will prove superhelpful (not to mention wildly entertaining) for educators, librarians and parents.
The Marge Book (The "Simpsons" Library of Wisdom) - Matt Groening
Clean up your room and wash your hands before taking a gander at!The Marge Book Marge Simpson, the woman with the impossibly blue and improbably high hairdo, is a complex woman with an inner life, hopes and dreams and an incorrigible family that she holds together with a healthy homemade helping of common sense. Join the coupon-clipping queen of discount shopping at the nearby Sprawl-Mart, at a meeting of the school PTA, in the middle of the bodice-ripping romance novel, at a theatrical performance of her one-woman show, or in her crusade against cartoon violence, domestic strife and suburbia's quiet life of desperation!or at least her desperate hope that no one will hold anything that Homer or Bart does against her personally.
Oh.My.Gods - Tera Lynn Childs
If Phoebe Castro can keep her grades up and have another stellar cross-country season, her dream of attending USC with her best friends is only a track scholarship away. She’s made all her plans, so it’s a complete shock when her mom announces she’s marrying a mysterious stranger and moving them half-way around the world—to Greece.
Phoebe’s stuck on a secret island in the Aegean attending the super-exclusive Academy, where her new stepfather is the headmaster and the kids are anything but your average students—they are descendants of the Greek gods, super powers included. That’s right, Greek gods are no myth! If Phoebe thought high school was hard, she knows this is going to be mortal misery.
Securing that scholarship seems like Phoebe’s only ticket out of Greece, but training and maintaining her grades will be grueling, even without a sabotaging stepsister from Hades and a gorgeous guy—what a god!—who just might be her Achilles heel. One thing is for sure—summoning the will to win and find her place among the gods could be Phoebe’s toughest course yet.
The Greek gods get a makeover in this romantic odyssey of mythic proportion.
Bad Girls Don't Die - Katie Alender
Alexis thought she led a typically dysfunctional high school existence. Dysfunctional like her parents' marriage; her doll-crazy twelve-year-old sister, Kasey; and even her own anti-social, anti-cheerleader attitude.
When a family fight results in some tearful sisterly bonding, Alexis realizes that her life is creeping from dysfunction into danger. Kasey is acting stranger than ever: her blue eyes go green sometimes; she uses old-fashioned language; and she even loses track of chunks of time, claiming to know nothing about her strange behavior. Their old house is changing, too. Doors open and close by themselves; water boils on the unlit stove; and an unplugged air conditioner turns the house cold enough to see their breath in.
Alexis wants to think that it's all in her head, but soon, what she liked to think of as silly parlor tricks are becoming life-threatening—to her, her family, and to her budding relationship with the class president. Alexis knows she's the only person who can stop Kasey — but what if that green-eyed girl isn't even Kasey anymore?
Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr
The clash of ancient rules and modern expectations swirl together in this cool, urban 21st century faery tale. Rule #3: Don't stare at invisible faeries. Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world, and would blind her if they knew of her Sight. Rule #2: Don't speak to invisible faeries. Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer. Rule #1: Don't ever attract their attention. But it's too late. Keenan is the Summer King and has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost! Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working any more, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything.
Ink Exchange - Melissa Marr
After suffering a terrible trauma at the hands of her brother's dealer friends, Leslie becomes obsessed with the idea of getting a tattoo -- it's the one thing that will allow her to reclaim her body, renew her self-confidence. And when Rabbit, her local tattoo artist, shows her a secret book of his own designs, she finds one of them irresistible. Soon, her back is adorned with a pair of mysterious eyes, framed by black wings. Leslie feels good -- more than good. Nothing bad can touch her. But what she doesn't know is that her new tattoo binds her tightly to the faery whose symbol she chose: Irial, the exquisitely dangerous king of the Dark Court!
Airman - Eoin Colfer
One dark night on the island of Great Saltee, fourteen-year-old Conor is framed for a terrible crime he didn’t commit. Thrown into prison by the dastardly Hugo Bonvilain, Conor is trapped in a seaswept dungeon and branded a traitor. He must escape and clear his name; he wants his old life back – his family, his friends . . . and his princess. Conor knows there is only one way out. It’s an impossible task, which has never been done before. But Conor is determined to do it. He’ll have to fly. Swashbuckling new fiction from the amazing Eoin Colfer, ideal for readers aged 11+.
3 Willows: The Sisterhood Grows - Ann Brashares
seeds
Polly has an idea that she can't stop thinking about, one that involves changing a few things about herself. She's setting her sights on a more glamorous life, but it's going to take all of her focus. At least that way she won't have to watch her friends moving so far ahead.
roots
Jo is spending the summer at her family's beach house, working as a busgirl and bonding with the older, cooler girls she'll see at high school come September. She didn't count on a brief fling with a cute boy changing her entire summer. Or feeling embarrassed by her middle school friends. And she didn't count on her family at all. . .
leaves
Ama is not an outdoorsy girl. She wanted to be at an academic camp, doing research in an air-conditioned library, earning A's. Instead her summer scholarship lands her on a wilderness trip full of flirting teenagers, blisters, impossible hiking trails, and a sad lack of hair products.
It is a new summer. And a new sisterhood. Come grow with them.
The Forest of Hands And Teeth - Carrie Ryan
In Mary's world, there are simple truths.
The Sisterhood always knows best.
The Guardians will protect and serve.
The Unconsecrated will never relent.
And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village....
The Interns: Truth Or Fashion - Chloe Walsh
Your daily fashion Q may be: What's a girl to wear? But at Couture magazine in Manhattan, four glittering interns have even bigger things to worry about. Someone's leaking Couture's trendsetting secrets - and the in-style intrigue doesn't end there.
Hot new designer Callie is feeling the haute couture heat.
Aynsley is fashion's new It Girl . . . and too cool to care.
Nadine has a jaw-dropping look - but she's on the edge of out.
Ava is hiding much more than a few knockoffs in her closet!
Sounds like the interns need fashion therapy! Lucky for them, the Fashionista blog is serving up some mind-blowing style potions, with a sweet supply of garment-industry gossip. Get ready for some knockdown drama in Prada.
Stargazer - Claudia Gray
Stargazer (March 2009) returns to Bianca's story a few months later. Both she and Lucas will stop at nothing to see each other again—even if it means living a life of secrets and lies. But even as Bianca finds herself torn between two worlds, she soon discovers they aren't the only ones keeping secrets. Will powerful forces within Evernight Academy keep her from deciding her own fate, or claim her forever?
Disclaimer: Credit for the implementation of IMM posts go to Kristi of The Story Siren and Alea of Pop Culture Junkie. Credit goes, and will always go, to them, for this and future IMM posts. I take no credit for this meme, and future IMM posts wouldn't exist without them both. It should be taken note of that I won't be writing this for every IMM post. That does not mean that I am taking credit for it. It just means that I'm just too lazy to write it down.
