Monday, November 18, 2013

New Fiction











Asylum by Madeleine Roux
”For sixteen-year-old Dan Crawford, a summer program for gifted students is the chance of a lifetime. No one else at his high school gets his weird fascination with history and science, but at the New Hampshire College Prep program, such quirks are all but required. Dan arrives to find that the usual summer housing has been closed, forcing students to stay in the crumbling Brookline dorm – formerly a psychiatric hospital. As Dan and his new friends Abby and Jordan start exploring Brookline’s twisty halls and hidden basement, they uncover disturbing secrets about what really went on here…secrets that link Dan and his friends to the asylum’s dark past. Because it turns out Brookline was no ordinary psych ward. And there are some secrets that refuse to stay buried.” –Jacket.
 
Champion by Marie Lu
Legend; Book Three
“June and Day have sacrificed so much for the people of the Republic--and each other--and now their country is on the brink of a new existence. Jane is back in the good graces of the Republic, working with the government’s elite circles as Princeps-Elect, while Day has been assigned a high-level military position. But neither could have predicted the circumstances that would reunite them: just when a peace treaty is imminent, a plague outbreak causes panic in the Colonies, and war threatens the Republic's border cities. This new strain of plague is deadlier than ever, and June is the only one who knows the key to her country’s defense. But saving the lives of thousands will mean asking the one she loves t give up everything.” –Jacket.
 
Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
Falling Kingdoms; Book One
In a land where magic has been forgotten three kingdoms grapple for power, brutally transforming their subjects' lives in the process. Amidst betrayals, bargains, and battles, four young people find their fates forever intertwined... and the only outcome that's certain is that kingdoms will fall. Who will emerge triumphant when all they know has collapsed? –Summary.
 
How To Love by Katie Cotugno
A tumultuous love affair between Reena and Sawyer ends when Sawyer abruptly abandons their Florida town, causing Reena to bear their child alone and struggle with mistrust when Sawyer returns three years later. –Summary.
 
Longbourn by Jo Baker
A novel whose principal characters are the servants in Jane Austen's Pride and prejudice. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants' hall threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended. –Summary.
 
Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein
When young American pilot Rose Justice is captured by Nazis and sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious women's concentration camp, she finds hope in the impossible through the loyalty, bravery, and friendship of her fellow prisoners. –Summary.
 
The First Phone call From Heaven by Mitch Albom
The story of a small town on Lake Michigan that gets worldwide attention when its citizens start receiving phone calls from the afterlife. Is it the greatest miracle ever or a massive hoax? Sully Harding, a grief-stricken single father, is determined to find out. –Summary.
 
The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle
”For eighteen years Wren Gray has been the model daughter, which in her family means all As, zero boyfriends, and early acceptance into a pre-med program. But as high school graduation nears, so does an uncomfortable realization. Pleasing her parents once overlapped with pleasing herself, but now . . . not so much. Wren needs to honor her own desires, but how can she if she doesn’t even know what they are? Charlie Parker, on the other hand, knows exactly what he wants. A gentle boy with a troubled past, Charlie has loved Wren since the day he first saw her. But a girl like Wren would never fall for a guy like Charlie—at least not the sort of guy Charlie believes himself to be. And yet certain things are written in the stars. And in the summer after high school, Wren and Charlie’s souls will collide. But souls are complicated, as are the bodies that house them….” –Jacket.
 
The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman
It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and menace unleashed - within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it. His only defense is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duck pond is ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang. –Summary.