Everlost and Everwild : the skinjacker trilogy by Neal Shusterman

Everlost - book one

Allie and Nick meet in the aftermath of a traffic accident that claimed both of their lives. Neither were wearing seatbelts when they were thrown through the windshields of their respective cars. As they are flying through a tunnel toward a bright light, they bump into one another and go off course. Allie and Nick fall to the ground and sleep a long, dreamless sleep. When they awaken, they see a boy younger than they are and decide to call him Lief since he cannot remember his name. He has been alone for quite a few years. Nick and Allie slowly realize they didn't survive the accident and make it to heaven. They are now known as Afterlights.

Lief is content to spend the rest of his eternity in his beloved forest but Allie and Nick desire a trip home to see if their respective families survived the accident. Lief begs them to stay. He claims they don't know the dangers beyond the dead forest. He warns them to keep moving so they don't sink to the bottom of the earth and beware of the McGill. Anyone who meets up with the McGill is never seen again. They construct "roadshoes", based on the concept of snowshoes, to help them on their journey. They soon find "dead spots" along their way, places where someone has died that Afterlights cannot sink through the earth. On the third day, Nick and Allie come across a welcome sign situated on a dead spot. They stop for an unneeded rest when they are soon surrounded by Johnnie O and his rogue band of Afterlights. They confront Allie and Nick and Allie tells the boys to leave them alone or she will call the McGill. Johnnie O realizes they are "Greensouls", new Afterlights, and calls her bluff. The gang pushes Allie into the ground. She soon realizes that she is being pulled back up and sees that Nick and Lief have rescued her. Lief has been following them and scared off Johnnie O and his boys when they think he is the McGill.

The trio continues traveling until they reach the outskirts of New York City.  Lief is overwhelmed by the sight of the great modern city, as are Allie and Nick but for other reasons. Allie wants to continue on to New Jersey but Nick is determined to go into the city. Once in Manhattan, Lief is overcome by the sight of the World Tarde Center but realizes something is wrong when Allie tells him the buildings no longer exist. The twin towers became a part of Everlost because they could never be truly lost, not when they were "held forever by the memories of a mourning world."

When Allie, Nick and Lief arrive at the twin towers, they are shocked at what they find. Afterlights are playing in the marble plaza in a variety of clothing styles dependent on when they crossed over. They soon meet Mary Hightower, aka the Queen of Snots, who is the leader/caregiver for the assembled band of Afterlights and takes in the trio. Mary explains what it means to be an Afterlight and live in Everlost. Nick is drawn to Mary but Allie doesn't trust her. Allie convinces the boys to leave the towers and go find the Haunter. He has the ability to teach the "criminal arts" such as skin jacking or ecto-ripping. When Lief and Nick are unable to perform and are captured. Allie flees when she realizes that she possess some special abilities but doesn't want to be under the thumb of the Haunter.

What will happen to Nick and Lief and is Allie able to rescue them and with whose help? Will Allie be able to put her special talents to good use? And is the McGill real or just a myth? And are the Afterlights stuck in Everlost forever or is their a way to leave? Join Allie and Nick on their journey through Everlost and see where they go.

Visit Neal Shusterman's website.

Everwild - book two

SPOILER ALERT! : Don't read any further if you haven't read Everlost. I don't want to ruin the story for you.

The further story of Allie the Outcast, the Chocoalte Ogre, the Sky Witch and Mikey McGill as they go their separtae ways into Everwild in an attempt to keep the other faction from having dominance over the Afterlights.

The trilogy concludes with Everfound in June 2011.

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

"Something's rotten beneath the town of Gentry ..."

Mackie Doyle is a replacement. When his sister was four, a man in a black coat came in through a window and grabbed her baby brother. In his place, a thing was left. Emma walked to the crib and put her hand between the slats. She pulled her hand out but didn't leave when it tried to bite her. They spent the night staring at each other. The thing turns out to be Mackie, her new baby brother.

Mackie lives in the town of Gentry, a former steel town. During the day, the town is a "sea of minivans and lawns and golden retrievers." Almost everyone works at one of the computer plants, the dairy farm or the community college. Gentry is the town where everyone wants to be and people rarely leave it's prosperous borders.. But at night, it's a different story. The town is full of secrets. Residents double lock their doors and follow superstitions in an attempt to keep the unwanted out of their lives.

The Doyle family works hard to keep Mackie's secret. It is never discussed and his exposure to metal is kept to a minimum. His pastor father has trained him from an early age not to draw attention to himself so that no one will notice that something is not right about Mackie. But when Tate Stewart's baby sister dies, she refuses to stay quiet about what is going on in the town. She comes to Mackie with her questions and accusations and refuses to take no for an answer. Unfortunately for Mackie, he begins to realizes that living with humans for sixteen years is a rarity. He is slowly dying from his constant exposure to metal. Soon Mackie discovers the secret world that exists under the town of Gentry, the world which he is from. When he is offered a cure for what ails him, Mackie must decide if feeling well is worth the cost, as Tate continues to push him to see that things aren't right in Gentry.

Join Mackie on his journey as he must deide where he truly belongs, what he believes in and make some gut-wrenching decisions. An excellent read especially for those fans of Holly Black.

Visit Brenna Yovanoff's website.

Torment: a Fallen novel by Lauren Kate

"These questions were all detours, which eventually flowed back to the most important one: Would love be different with someone else? Was love even possible with someone else? Love was supposed to be easy, wasn't it? Then why did she feel so tormented?"

SPOILER ALERT!!! Please do not read any further if you haven't read the first book Fallen in the series. I don't want to ruin the ending for you.

Torment immediately picks up where Fallen stops. The angels and demons are caling a truce for eighteen days to protect Luce from The Outcasts: "a sect of spineless, waffling angels, shunned by both Heaven and Hell." News of Luce's mortality is spreading and it is decided that she will leave Sword and Cross in Georgia for the Shoreline school in California. For eighteen days at Shoreline, Luce must figure out everything about her past and Daniel on her own.

At Shoreline, Luce is an instant celebrity. It seems everyone there knows her and Daniel's history, except for her. Once again, she is in the dark about herself. But as she attends special clases with the Nephilim, Luce soon discovers what the shadows are and how they can help her glimpse into her past lives. And in doing that, begins to question her relationship with Daniel. Is he really the love of her life and what is he keeping from her?

There is an unbelieveable twist at the end that I didn't see coming. The ending explains why the author Lauren Kate is writing the third book in the series, Passions the way she is. It is literally a prequel to Fallen. Passions is due out the summer of 2011.

Visit Lauren Kate's website.

The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman

"What if fairy tale magic really existed?"

Elizabeth Rew's life is straight out of a Grimm fairytale that she loved to read so much with her mother as a child. Her mother has died. Elizabeth is friendless at a new school she now goes to because the college expenses of her two older stepsisters. Life at home isn't much better with her father wrapped up in the whims of his new wife leaving little time for her. When assigned a term paper by her history teacher, Elizabeth enthusiastically writes about her beloved Grimm Brothers. Her teacher, Mr. Mauskopf, asks if she could use a part-time job. He refers her to his friend, Dr. Lee Rust, the head librarian at the New York Circulating Materials Repository. After a strange interview, Elizabeth is given the job.

The Circulating Materials Repository is a library of sorts. Not the kind where patrons check out books, but objects. Elizabeth soon falls in love with her job as she is very intrigued by the materials housed in the Repository's collection. She begins to form friendships with several of her fellow pages; Marc Merritt, Anjali Rao and Aaron Rosenberg. After passing a test, Elizabeth is soon given access to the elusive Grimm Collection. The collection consists of objects that the Brothers Grimm amassed related to their stories. Elizabeth soon realizes that magic does exist and that it can be dangerous at times. She relishes her new found responsibilities, but soon discovers that someone is stealing objects from the Grimm Collection for their own gain.

Join Elizabeth, Anjali, Marc and Aaron as they try and solve the mystery of the winged creature and who exactly is stealing the items from the repository before Elizabeth is blamed.

Visit Polly Shuman's website.