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Jennifer Brown is making a name for herself with striking, poignant novels about hard-to-face topics.  Her latest novel, following her fantastic debut Hate List, is Bitter End, which explores with wide-open eyes and complete candor, the emotional roller coaster of a young woman in love with an abusive boyfriend. High school senior Alex is haunted by the tragic accident that killed her mother when she was a young girl; the fact that her father will never talk about the circumstances that lead her mom out onto the road to Colorado so many years ago, and the isolation she feels in her family at being the only one whoRead More →

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The Goodnight farm is engulfed by the McCulloch’s ranch – a pretty good metaphor to describe Amy Goodnight’s life. Her family is different; all of the women are practicing white witches. This is a source of embarrassment for Amy, who sees it as her job to be a liaison between her family and the “normal” world that surrounds them.            Amy and her sister, Phin, are spending the summer caring for the ranch while their aunt is away. What should be an uneventful summer full of chores turns into just the opposite with a series of unexpected events: a ghost comes to visit Amy, humanRead More →

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After four years of separation, Gwendolyn “Dough” Riley’s best friend, and long-distance boyfriend, is moving back to town! The only problem is that while Wish has gotten tall, handsome and charismatic, all Dough has gotten is fat. Wish’s arrival changes Dough’s status at school from pariah to a fringe member of the It Crowd. While she enjoys her lost anonymity, Dough begins to wonder about Wish. It is almost like Wish is a different person; he seems somehow more distant and he is almost too beautiful. Wish is so bright and golden; it’s almost like looking at the sun. Just as Gwendolyn begins to buyRead More →

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23 interwoven stories and poems are edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner in Welcome To Bordertown: New Stories and Poems of the Borderlands.  Carefully crafted, skillfully interwoven, and richly textured, the collection flushes out the dark and the magical, the secrets and the mysteries, of the border between the Faerie Realm and The World.  Truebloods (High and Low-born Elves), Halfies (mixed race elves & humans), and mortals, as well as many other magical creatures live in, search for, and get lost in Bordertown.  It’s a city that’s been lost to The World for 13 years (only 13 days to those in Bordertown) where neitherRead More →

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Set in 1881 in New Pacifica (a fictional territory of the US, much like the Pacific Northwest), James Nelson’s On the Volcano is a coming of age story, laced with romance, loss, and adventure. Katie was born in a small cabin on the rim of a powerful volcano, far from the turmoil and dangers of the pioneer world. She’s only ever known her beloved father and two other adults, Lorraine – a travelling healer who stays with them from time to time, and Old Dan- a nomad who drops in every decade or so to visit.  Approaching 16, Katie wonders about the world off theRead More →

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Gayle Forman’s If I Stay is an incredible book.  It’s heartbreaking, lyrical, visceral and beautiful.  I shed tears a few times while reading it. And when Mia chose to come back to a broken body, a life without her parents and beloved younger brother, to an uncertain future, but to the fierce love of her grandparents and boyfriend Adam, I rejoiced.  Next month, Dutton will release Where She Went, Forman’s sequel to If I Stay.  Three years have passed and now, and from Adam’s perspective we learn what happened to Adam and Mia.  Adam’s band, Shooting Star, has propelled him to rock star existance: he’s rich; hounded byRead More →

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Blake Nelson’s latest YA novel, Recovery Road, is a novel about a journey. At the opening of the book, high school junior Maddie is being committed to a rehab facility after a drunken car accident.  The story gets going a  few weeks later once she’s in the transitional program nearing her release.  On one of the weekly movie nights that the patients in the transitional program are allowed to leave the facility to attend, Maddie meets Stewart, a beautiful but remote guy about her age. Their attraction is instantaneous and soon they are finding ways to be together whenever they can.  Once Maddie is back homeRead More →

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Pete Hautman’s latest, The Big Crunch, is not the kind of love story you’d expect when someone says it’s a love story.  June and Wes are an unlikely couple, both to themselves and to the reader.  June’s parents drag her from city to city every year when her dad changes jobs, so she never has much time or inclination to make any real connections that will have to be dropped and forgotten.  She’s developed a jaded stance that allows her to observe her life and remain aloof and safe from emotional attachments.  Wes thinks of himself as a “semi-cool semi-geek” who at the start ofRead More →

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In a strong follow-up to her debut memoir, I Don’t want to Be Crazy, Samantha Schutz creates a poignant, intimate novel that peels back the layers of loss and grief in You Are Not Here.  Annaleah meet Brian one day by chance. Not long after, the two teens start hanging out, and sparked by what felt like kindred spirits and is certainly mutual attraction, they envelope each other in a sensual, secretive romance.  But because they go to different schools, Annaleah is excluded from parts of Brian’s life.  In addition to not having any mutual friends, Brian erected walls around other parts of his life,Read More →