In My Mailbox (8)

All of these books are for Review

Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Pub. Date: June 23, 2009
Age Range: Young Adult
256pp

Synopsis
A captivating and witty dark fantasy that will have girls lusting after it.

Morgan Sparks has always known that she and her boyfriend, Cam, are made for each other. But when Cam’s cousin Pip comes to stay with the family, Cam seems depressed. Finally Cam confesses to Morgan what’s going on: Cam is a fairy. The night he was born, fairies came down and switched him with a healthy human boy. Nobody expected Cam to live, and nobody expected his biological brother, heir to the fairy throne, to die. But both things happened, and now the fairies want Cam back to take his rightful place as Fairy King.

Even as Cam physically changes, becoming more miserable each day, he and Morgan pledge to fool the fairies and stay together forever. But by the time Cam has to decide once and for all what to do, Morgan’s no longer sure what’s best for everyone, or whether her and Cam’s love can weather an uncertain future.

The Stolen One (ARC) by Suzanne Crowley
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Pub. Date: June 30, 2009
Age Range: 12 and up
416pp

Synopsis (From Suzanne Crowley’s website)
I know what I saw that day in Humblebee Wood, aye, I do, and it was no dream. There was a fog that morning - devil's cover they call it, for you never know what lies beneath. I was running to meet Christian when I tripped and fell over a root, ripping my only dress. I was looking at the tear, deciding on what stitch I'd use to hide it from Grace, when I saw her. A ghost, dressed regally in red, floating through the swirling fog. She looked at me, she looked right through me, her eyes piercing and sad. She wore a crown. I will never forget her.

Kat's true identity is a secret, even from her. All she has ever known are Grace and Anna and their small village. Kat wants more - more than hours spent embroidering finery for wealthy ladies and more than Christian, the gentle young farmer courting her.

But there are wolves outside, Grace warns Waiting, with their eyes glowing in the dark . . . and Grace has given Kat safety and a home when no one else would.

Then a stranger appears in their cottage, bringing the mystery of Kat's birth with her. In one night, Kat's destiny finds her: She will leave. She will journey to London, and her skill with the needle will attract the notice of the magnificant Queen Elizabeth - and of the wolves of the court. She will discover what Grace would never tell her.

Everything will unravel.

Violet Wings (ARC) by Victoria Hanley
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Pub. Date: August 25, 2009
Age Range: 12 and up
288pp

From Publisher: Tween fantasy about a young, orphaned fairy who challenges the powers-that-be to save her friends, both fairy and human.

The Society of Unrelenting Vigilance (ARC) (Candle Man Series #1) by Glenn Dakin
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Pub. Date: September 08, 2009
Age Range: 10 to 12
320pp
Series: Candle Man Series, #1

From Publisher: The first in a three-part series about a teenager who discovers he is the modern-day descendant of a Victorian crime fighter and unearths a terrifying world under the streets of London.

Stealing Death (ARC) by Janet Lee Carey
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Pub. Date: September 08, 2009
Age Range: 12
368pp

From Publisher: The tale of a poor young farmer who steals the Soul Sack and tries to outrun the Death Catcher to save the life of the girl he loves


Give Up the Ghost (ARC) by Megan Crewe
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Pub. Date: September 15, 2009
Age Range: Young Adult
256pp

Synopsis (Megan Crewe’s website)
Cass McKenna much prefers the company of ghosts over "breathers." Ghosts are uncomplicated and dependable, and they know the dirt on everybody... and Cass loves dirt. She's on a mission to expose the dirty secrets of the poseurs in her school.

But when the vice president of the student council discovers her secret, Cass's whole scheme hangs in the balance. Tim wants her to help him contact his recently deceased mother, and Cass reluctantly agrees.

As Cass becomes increasingly entwined in Tim's life, she's surprised to realize he's not so bad--and he needs help more desperately than anyone else suspects. Maybe it's time to give the living another chance...

Candor (ARC) by Pam Bachorz
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Pub. Date: September 22, 2009
Age Range: 12
256pp
Synopsis (From Pam Bachorz’s website)
Oscar Banks has everything under control. In a town where his father brainwashes everyone, he's found a way to secretly fight the subliminal Messages. He's got them all fooled: Oscar's the top student and the best-behaved teen in town. Nobody knows he's made his own Messages to deprogram his brain. Oscar has even found a way to get rich. For a hefty price, he helps new kids escape Candor, Florida before they're transformed into cookie-cutter teens. But then Nia Silva moves to Candor, and Oscar's carefully-controlled world crumbles.

Mirrorscape (ARC) by Mike Wilks
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Pub. Date: October 13, 2009
Age Range: 12
352pp

Synopsis
Melkin Womper is thrilled to escape his dull future as a weaver and cultivate his artistic talents when he's apprenticed to Ambrosius Blenk, one of Vlam's most famous masters. He's particularly awed by the colors he can now use, since color is a very expensive Pleasure controlled by the scarlet-clad Fifth Mystery. But when Mel inadvertently stumbles into a battle between the Fifth Mystery and the Rainbow Rebellion, an underground band fighting to make Pleasures affordable for all, Mel and his friends, Ludo and Wren, must use Blenk's paintings as portals and enter the Mirrorscape, facing monsters and mazes, talking houses and towering trash heaps, to find the master and save him . . . and themselves.

Deadly Little Lies (ARC) by Laurie Faria Stolarz
Publisher: Hyperion Book CH
Pub. Date: November 10, 2009
Age Range: Young Adult
288pp

Synopsis
Last fall, sixteen-year-old Camelia fell for Ben, the mysterious new boy at school who turned out to have a very mysterious gift--pyschometry, the ability to sense the future through touch. But just as Camelia and Ben's romance began to heat up, he abruptly left town. Brokenhearted, Camelia has spent the last few months studying everything she can about psychometry, and experiencing her own strange brushes with premonition. Camelia wonders if Ben's abilities have somehow rubbed off on her. Can the power of psychometry be transferred?

Even once Ben returns to school, Camelia can't get close enough to share her secret with him. Despite the romantic tension between them, Ben remains aloof, avoiding contact. Then when an unexpected kiss leads to a frightening argument, Camelia makes the painful decision to let Ben go and move on. Adam, the hot new guy at work, seems good for her in ways Ben wasn't. Adam is easygoing, and seems to really care about her.

But when Camelia and Adam start dating, a surprising love triangle results. A chilling sequence of events upturns secrets from Ben's past--and Adam's. Someone is lying, and it's up to Camelia to figure out who-before it's too late.

Beautiful Creatures (ARC) by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Pub. Date: December 1, 2009
Age Range: Young Adult
640pp

Synopsis
There were no surprises in Gatlin County. We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.At least, that's what I thought.Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.There was a curse.There was a girl.And in the end, there was a grave.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.