The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade

"A true wretch of a creature crouched in the cage ... On the bottom of the cage a plaque read L'ENFANT DU MONSTRE."

For the last thirteen years of his life, fourteen-year-old Modo has been raised in seclusion at Ravenscroft by Mr. Socrates. Hunchback Modo was found by Mr. Socrates by a traveling freakshow in an orphange near Notre Dame and is purchased by Mr. Socrates when he notices that the grotesque toddler is able to transform his face for limited amounts of time. While at Ravenscroft, he has been tutored by motherly Mrs. Finchley and trained in the martial arts by Tharpa. One day Mr. Socrates determines that Modo is ready to see the world beyond the walls of his windowless rooms and takes him to London. There he abandons Modo in a dangerous part of town with nothing to survive on his own. His first assignment is to either sink or swim.

Octavia Milkweed poses as Audrette Featherstone one night under the pretense of hiring a private detective by the name of Mr. Wellington. Mr. W has never been seen by any of the staff at the Red Boar where he has a room at the top of the stairs. Octavia/Audrette hires Wellington to find out where her brother Oscar goes at night. It soon turns out that Wellington is really Modo. For the past six months, Modo has been working as a private detective with an ad in the London Times. Modo travels through London by walking across the rooftops. On the night he is following Oscar, he stumbles across a meeting of the Young Londoners Exploatory Society. Quite literally, a hornet's nest is stirred up. After escaping death, Modo tracks down Octavia who gets him back to Mr. Socrates.

Turns out Modo passed his test and his first assignment brought to him by Octavia. Modo and Octavia are both agents who work for Mr. Socrates and his secret society. Their job is to find out what the Young Londoners Exploratory Society is and what new steam driven technology they may have created and why experiments are being conducted with humans. Join Modo and Tavia as the race across London to stop the Clockwork Guild's secret weapon.

Modo and Octavia's adventures continue in The Dark Deeps - The Hunchback Assignments 2 is due out on September 14, 2010.

Visit Arthur Slade's website.

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

A long, hot summer

Sixteen-year-old Macy Queen is not having a good summer. Jason, her brainy and driven boyfriend, will be at camp all summer and she is filling in for him at the library's information desk. Jason's coworkers are degrading to her and out right cruel most times. And Macy and her Mom are stil struggling with their grief over her father's sudden and unexpected death eighteen months earlier. Things go from bad to worse when after telling Jason she loves him in an e-mail, he e-mails back with the suggestion that they take a break over the summer and see if their priorities are the same at the beginning of their senior year.

At an open house for her mother's latest housing development, Macy meets the Wish Catering crew. Monica or Monotone is quiet while Kristy Palmetto wants to go someplace where no one knows her and reinvent herself. Delia, who owns Wish, is pregnant, spastic, forgetful and believes "everything happens for a reason." And then there are Delia's nephews, brothers Bert and Wes. Bert has just gotten his driver's license and bought a surplused ambulance to drive around. Wes is the former reform school student and budding artist who holds the gang together

Macy soon joins the Wish crew and begins working with them. As the summer progresses, Macy learns that no one can be perfect and finds herself and her goals in life changing. But what happens when Macy's mother doesn't like the changes in her daughter or her new friends? And what part in Macy's new attitude does Wes play? Can Macy and her mother finally grieve her father's death?

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

A novella of the last six days of Bree Tanner's life that gives readers insight to not only what it is like to be a new vampire but the interworkings of what Victoria's plan was for the battle with the Cullen family that takes place in Eclipse.

Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien

Those marked with a code will determine the future.
One marked by a scar will unravel the past. 

It's the 25th century and Gaia Stone's world consists of those who live inside the wall and those who live outside. For those who live in the Enclave, life seems good. It's residents have just about everything they could want. The people who live in Wharfton by the former shores of Unlake Superior make do with rations from the Enclave and scrape together what they can. The world has become a dry, desolate place where oil is non-existent.

Recently turning sixteen, Gaia Stone has just completed her first unassisted delivery and is now officially a midwife. After cleaning up and quickly marking the newborn with four dots in brown ink on the ankle, Gaia must now do the hardest part of her job. The first three babies born to each midwife every month must be advanced to the Enclave, where it will be well cared for and the mother compensated. Gaia's two older brothers were advanced at one year of age but she was not because of a burn scar on her left cheek. On her way home, Gaia is warned by her mother's assistant that soldiers from the Enclave have taken her parents and that one has stayed behind for her. When asked why, Old Meg informs Gaia that the Enclave believe that her mother can track the advanced babies back to their parents. Old Meg is on her way to the Dead Forest and wants Gaia to come with her. Gaia refuses thinking the Dead Forest is a myth and Meg hands her a package. She tells Gaia it was her mother's and to guard it with her life. If she decides to follow her later, ask for Danni Orion, Gaia's supposedly dead grandmother.

When Gaia arrives home, she finds Sgt. Grey waiting for her. He starts asking her questions about where she was earlier this evening. Sgt. Grey ends by asking her if either of her parents kept records. Gaia then remembers the parcel Old Meg just gave her. She keeps quiet and is given her mother's job as midwife of Western Sector Three of Wharfton. Sgt. Grey has instructed Gaia to come to the gate and request to see Mabrother Iris if she finds any records. Gaia goes on about her midwifery business and delivers three babies a month to the Enclave. When Gaia hears rumors of the baby quota being raised to five a month and receives a message from her mother to destroy the parcel and go to her grandmother, she starts to question whether the Enclave is right, especially when she receives word that her parents are to be executed. Gaia realizes that she needs to see her parents one last time and return the parcel to her mother. But will Gaia's illegal entry into the Enclave be her downfall or the Enclave's?

This book is recommended to those readers who enjoyed Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games. A sequel is planned.
Visit Caragh O'Brien's website.

Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve

"Her name is Fever."

Fever Crumb is the youngest member of the Order if Engineers and the only female. Dr. Crumb found her one evening in a basket by the road on his way home from consulting on an archaeological dig. Although it was well known that females were not capable of rational thought, it was decided that she should stay with the Order. She might make a useful engineer if she was raised in the Order. And her appearance would cause concern if she went to live in London where the rule of the Scriven was still fresh in the minds of its citizens. Her eyes are two different colors; one dark brown and the other a soft lichen gray.

A minor archaeologist named Kit Solent has requested an engineer to come live with him at his home on Ludgate Hill and help him study artifacts from a new dig that he has discovered.  The engineer he requested is Fever. Fever is excited and a bit nervous about her first assignment. She has never left in her home in Godshawk's Head and visited the city itself. Soon after stepping off the tram, Fever gets lost and finds herself at the Stragglemarket where her looks attract a lot of unwanted attention.

Kit Solent believes he has found a seret vault that belonged to Auric Godshawk, the last Scriven overlord. Scriven were not human and were killed in an overthrow by the people. Kit cannot unlock Godshawk's vault but thinks that Fever can. Fever soon finds herself having memories and recalling vivid details from a past time. Meanwhile someone is following Fever with the intent of elimatinating her based on the fact that she looks different. Soon the question that Fever and everyone else is asking is Who or What is Fever Crumb?

Fever's story will be continued in A Web of Air in April 2010.
Visit Philip Reeve's website.

Along For the Ride by Sarah Dessen

Auden West never had a childhood. She was always the perfect little adult for her college professor parents. Academics took precedence over friendship and fun. When her parents began fighting at night, Auden would disappear and hang out at the local diner all night. She soon became an insomniac while her driven mother and clueless father divorce. Auden is a loner who decides to visit her father, stepmother and new baby sister for the summer after receiving a photo of her brother backpacking across Europe for graduation.

Once Auden arrives in the small coastal town of Colby, she soon realizes that all the things her mother said about her father are true. As Heidi struggles with baby Thisbe, Auden watches helplessly from the sidelines as her father goes on like nothing has changed. After going out to pick up dinner, Jake from the bike shop invites her to join him later at the Tip, a local hangout on the beach. After growing tired of hearing the baby cry all evening, Auden decides to walk around town and soon finds herself at the Tip. She briefly hooks up with Jake but in her haste to leave, she bumps into a brooding stranger.

Later on at home with the baby stil crying, Auden decides to give Heidi a break so that she can get some rest. Auden takes Thisbe for a stroll on the boardwalk which calms her down. There she runs into the guy from the night before doing tricks on his bike. Auden realizes that her mother was right. Her father has not changed. He is still selfish and inconsiderate when he hands off Thisbe to her at dinnertime while Heidi is trying to fix things at her shop. While out with the baby, Auden realizes that the strange boy is staring at them. He takes Thisbe from her and instantly soothes her. Heidi soon arrives and introduces Auden to Eli, who is Jake's older brother.

While driving around Colby one night, Auden finds herself at the bike park. Watching frm the shadows, she finds that Eli has come up beside her. Small talk eventually leads to Eli realizing that Auden hasn't ridden a bike in years. A few nights later while hanging with the girls at a party, Auden once again strikes up a conversation with Eli only to have his former girlfriend try and pick a fight. Afterwards the gilrs fill Auden in on Eli past, including the fact that his best friend was killed in a car accident. Eli was driving but not a fault.

Auden and Eli soon realizes that they have a lot in common and begin to hang out at night. Eli shows her a side of Colby she didn't know existed and begins to take her on adventures of doing things she never did as a child. But will Auden turn over a new leaf or will she once again shut everyone out?

White Cat: The Curse Workers series by Holly Black

Curse workers have the ability to change someone's emotions, luck or memories with the touch of their hand. Nowadays curse work is illegal so most workers are part of one of the six big worker families. Cassel Sharpe comes from a family of curse workers, only he isn't a worker. What Cassel is good at is faking and lying. He is trying to live a normal life. That is as normal as can be for someone who killed their best friend three years ago and doesn't remember doing it.

One night Cassel wakes up on the roof of his dorm. He was sleepwalking while dreaming of a white cat that bit his tongue out. He is kicked out of Wallingford Preparatory and is sent to live with his brother Philip since his mother is in prison for doing curse work. Soon Cassel's Grandad comes to take him home. The house is trashed since Cassel's parents were hoarders. No one has lived there in three years since Cassel's father died and his mother went to prison. He and his Grandad start to clean up the mess.

While at home, Cassel notices a stray white cat, the same one from his dreams. It seems as if the cat is trying to tell him something. And being back around his brothers he notices that they are keeping secrets from him and his memories have been altered. Soon Cassel realizes that his life is not what it seems and he has a few secrets of his own.

Cassel's story continues in Red Glove out May 2011 and picks up about six months after White Cat ends.

Visit Holly Black's website.