The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Twelfth Grade Kills - Book Five

SPOILER ALERT!!!: Please don't read any further if you haven't read the first four books in the series and don't want to ruin the ending.

"Twelfth Grade Kills" picks up immediately where "Eleventh Grade Burns" leaves off. Dorian has just sacrificed himself to save Vload's life from the hands of his slayer friend, Joss. Vlad believes that he saw his deceased father but he can't be sure. Having drunk from Dorian before his death, Vlad wonders if he inherited some of Dorian's madness. In this conclusion of the final book in tne series, Vlad discovers the truth about his parents, who his real friends are, hopes to graduate from Bathory High and survive his trial with the council.

Heather Brewer is writing a spin-off series starring Joss and some of your favorite vampires in The Slayer Journals coming out in the fall of 2011.

Visit Heather Brewer's website.

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

"Nailer shrugged and got his own knife. He set it against the joint where it would part easily. He pressed his blade into the girls's flesh. Blood welled up as he cut.
The girl's black eyes blinked"

Nailer is a ship breaker who works light crew for a scavenge team on what was the Gulf Coast. The region was devasted by a killer storm that obliterated the city of New Orleans and altered the region. His job involves crawling through the ductwork of grounded oil tankers looking for reusable materials. After a day of scavenging copper wire, his boss sends him back for more since there is a big storm coming up. The copper wire can be stripped on the beach during the storm and they can't leave behind any easy pickings for the next crew. Nailer reenters the tanker and in his haste to get back out falls through the duct into a room flooded with old oil. Struggling to hold on and find a way out, Nailer is left behind by a fellow crew member, Sloth, who may be intent on keeping Nailer's find a secret. Nailer is able to open an air-tight door and escape death.

Nailer is now seen as having the Fates on his side because of his harrowing adventure. Hailed as a sort of hero, he is showered with gifts while Sloth is left to fend for herself as an outcast. His crewmate Pima takes Nailer to her mother to stitch up his injuries. Upon his arrival back home, Nailer is dishearted to see that his no good father is there. In trying to gage his father's mood, Nailer gives him the last of his liquor. He is pleased by his son's good fortune and nicknames him Lucky Boy. That night, Nailer sees glimpses of the man his father was before his mother's death.

The next morning, Nailer wakes up to what he describes as a city killer storm. He sees everyone in Bright Sands Beach fleeing to higher ground to escape the storm surge. Unable to awaken his father, Nailer runs to Pima's shack for help. Nailer and Pima take shelter in a cave while her mother goes off to see about his father. The storm passes after two days and Pima and Nailer emerge to find their parents but several friends and coworkers are dead or missing. Everyone is in survival mode with the scavenge buyers inland. Until things are organized, people are on their own. Nailer's father takes a position as a strong hand and leaves without a second thought.

Nailer and Pima go to scavenge food and head off for a distant island that hasn't been picked over. There they discover a clipper ship that was wrecked during the storm. Once aboard, they see more than enough scavenge to make them wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. As they go through the ship, they notice that the crew has been killed. In one bedroom, they discover a beautiful young woman with enough gold on her hands to make their lives easier. Her fingers are too swollen for the rings to be removed. Pima decides to cut off her fingers. When Nailer presses the knife to her hand, the girl stirs. She is still alive! Nailer now has some conflicted decisions to make: kill the girl and become extremely wealthy or save her life and return her to her family.

Join Nailer on the adventure of his lifetime where he attempts to make a better life for himself in a world where natural resources are scarce and fierce weather patterns mold the landscape.

Linger: Wolves of Mercy Falls book two by Maggie Stiefvater

"This is the story of a boy who used to be a wolf and a girl who was becoming one."

SPOILER ALERT! Please do not read any further if you have not read Shiver. I don't want to ruin the story for you.

A few months have passed since the conclusion of Shiver. Sam is trying to get use to being in his human form. He can venture out into the cold Minnesota weather and not worry about his body shifting back into wolf form. For now, he just wants to be with Grace and has trouble accepting that he can make plans for his future. On the other hand, Grace is unwell. She is running a high fever and suffering from headaches. Waves of nausea hit her and at times Sam can smell wolf on her. Is Grace's former wish now coming true when she no longer desires to be a wolf?

Isabel Culpepper is still mourning the death of her brother Jack. She blames herself for his death since her idea for a cure didn't work for him like it did for Sam. Her life is thrown into turmoil when she meets one of Beck's new wolves when he starts shifting between his wolf and human forms. Cole St. Clair is looking to hide from his human life. A famous rock star, he has grown to resent who he has become and is loking for escape. When Isabel meets Cole, there is an immediate attraction between them, two tortured souls looking for peace. But can the two of them find it together or separately?

Told from four different points of view; Sam, Grace, Isabel and Cole, readers will be left hanging at the end of the book until the conclusion of the trilogy with Forever due out in 2011. And once again, I love how the font color matches the dust jacket of the book, mossy green.

Visit Maggie Stiefvater's website.

Clockwork Angel: Infernal Devices book one by Cassandra Clare

"Magic is dangerous - but love is more dangerous still."

The Infernal Devices series is a prequel to the Mortal Instruments and deals with characters related to those in the original series.

In 1878, sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray sailed aboard the Main from New York City to London to meet up with her brother Nate after the death of their only remaining relative, Aunt Harriet. Upon her arrival, Tessa is greeted by Mrs. Black and Mrs. Dark who have a letter from her brother stating that the Dark Sisters are his landladies and can be trusted. Tessa soon learns that the two have plans for her and they are not good. Six weeks after intense training with the Sisters, Tessa learns she has the ability to Change. When given an item belonging to someone, Tessa is able to transform herself physically into that person and recall details of their life and especially their deaths. The Dark Sisters praise her for a job well done and declare that she is ready to marry the Magister.

Tessa tries to escape but is soon caught and restrained to her bed. She Changes herself into the last person she atempted and soon makes herself smaller and is able to loosen her bindings. Upon hearing someone coming into her room, Tessa smashes a pottery jug on the arm of a figure who sees her but doesn't move  quickly enough. Tessa soon realizes the figure is a young man not much older than herself. Dressed like a workman with a variety of knives and daggers attached, it is his beauty that causes her to stare. Tessa has just met Will Herondale and he has come to her rescue. The Dark Sisters attempt to stop them from leaving and a battle ensues in the basement where Will is joined by two other guys. Tessa begins to realize that Will and the Dark Sisietrs are not what they seem and is knocked out during the battle.

Later, Tessa wakes up from a distribing nightmare in a room with two strangers. One is Charlotte Branwell who introduces herself as the head of the London Institute and the other Brother Enoch who Tessa thinks is a monster for he has no eyes and his mouth is sewn shut. Charlotte tells Tessa that Will has brought her there because she hit her head. Tessa wishes she could leave and Charlotte informs her that the Accords forbid Nelphilium from trapping Downworlders under duress. Tessa is confused and Brother Enoch draws up his robe hood to leave. In the doorway Enoch stops and "speaks" to Tessa or rather she hears his voice inside her head. "You are Eidolon, Theresa Gray. Shape-changer. But not of a sort that is familiar to me. There is no demon's mark on you." Tessa is surprised that he knows what she is.

Charlotte invites Tessa to stay at the Institute and promises her that she and her husband Henry will search for her brother. At dinner, Tessa meets the other Shadowhunters at the Institute, Jessamine Lovelace, Henry Branwell and once again Will Herondale. Henry is an inventor who works on new weapons and armor for the Shadowhunters. During the course of dinner, Tessa demonstrates her ability to the astonishment of her companions. After dinner, Will takes her on a tour of the Institute and shows her the library. Tessa is touched that he remembers her love of books. Will gives her a brief history lesson on the origins of Shadowhunters and gives her The Shadowhunters Codex to read. Tessa later wakes from a dream to hear beautiful violin music. She crosses the hallway to meet James Carstairs. Jem as he is called, was too ill to come down for dinner. Jem and Tessa soon realize that they are both orphans. 

As the Shadowhunters continue to search for clues about Tessa's powers and her brother's disappearance, they soon realize that something sinister is going. Soon Tessa is drawn into a plan to find out what the Magister is up to. She will have to face some difficult choices,not only whether to save her brother or save the world but between two best friends, Will and Jem. Join Tessa on her journey and discover some background on the Shadowhunters from the Mortal Instruments series. And for fans of the earlier series, one character makes a shocking appearance in this series.

Visit Cassandra Clare's website.

 

The Poison Eaters and Other Stories by Holly Black

In this collection of twelve short stories on which all but two have appeared elsewhere, Holly Black revisits in two of these stories the Modern Faerie Tale setting. The story "The Land of Heart's Desire" picks up at the end of Ironside and tells of an exchange between Roiben and Corny and fills in some background information about Roiben's life and what his thoughts are about Kaye.

And I love "Paper Cuts Scissors" where a library school student takes a job organizing  book collection for an older gentleman with some unexpected consequences. The flow of the story is even subdivided into headings based on the Dewey Decimal System.

Other stories have vampire and werewolves as characters.

Readers will enjoy Holly Black's Modern Faerie Tale and Curse Workers series.

Visit Holly Black's website.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Hunger Ganes trilogy book #3

SPOILER ALERT!!! Please do not read any further if you haven't read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise for you.

"My name is Katniss Everdeen. Why am I not dead? I should be dead."

It has been roughly a month since the breakout in the Quarter Quell arena. Katniss Everdeen's new home is now District 13 since 12 now lies in ruins. reunited with Gale and her family, it seems that Katniss is no longer a pawn in the Hunger Games but a pawn in a long simmering revolution against the Capital. The choice is hers, turn her back on everyone or become the face of the revolution, the mockingjay. What will Katniss choose? Is Peeta dead or alive? Thinhs will never be the same as Katniss is rocked to her very core.

Visit Suzanne Collins' website.

The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod series by Heather Brewer

Eighth Grade Bites: Book One
Thirteen-year-old Vlaidimir Tod is in the eighth grade at Bathory Junior High. Vlad is unlike his best friend Henry or any of his classmates for that matter. He is half vampire and lives with his "Aunt Nelly", his mother's closest friend. Both deceased, Vlad's mother was human while his father was a vampire. Vlad is bullied by his classmates while secretly harboring a crush on Meredith. Things begin to change when Vlad's English teacher, Mr. Craig, disappears around Halloween and is replaced by the mysterious Mr. Otis. Unbeknownest to Vlad, someone is looking for him and Mr. Craig has met his demise at the hands of a vampire.

Mr. Otis Otis is an odd man who until recently taught mythology at Stokerton High. He will substitute for Mr. Craig's English composition class but infuse a study of mythological and supernatural creatures. Class goes well until the day Mr. Otis assigns a written essay and oral report on a supernatural creature that each student will draw from a hat. Vlad prays he will not pull out "vampire". He is quite relieved to see "werewolf" until Mr. Otis clenches his fist as Vlad stares in disbelief and the letters rearrange themselves to say "vampire". "Vampire?" he says as Mr. Otis slyly tells Vlad he "looks forward to reading your perception of vampires."

Vlad takes it upon himself to not only investigate the disappearance of Mr. Craig but the mysterious death of his parents. What does he discover when he reads his father's journal? Just who is Mr. Otis, why does he have a mysterious tattoo and hangs around Mr. Craig's house? And who is D'Ablo and what is his connection to Mr. Otis? Is Vlad's secret close to being discovered and is someone out to kill him?

Visit Heather Brewer's website.

Ninth Grade Slays: Book Two

If Vladimir Tod thought middle school sucked, just wait until high school. Tom and Bill still bully him, he can't get the nerve up to talk to his crush Meredith and best friend Henry's cousin Joss is new in town. Soon things begin to pick up when Vlad and Joss become friends and Meredith makes her move. Even better his uncle is taking him to Siberia over winter break to learn more about his vampire powers. The flip side of the coin is that fellow classmate and newspaper photographer Eddie Poe is out to discover exactly what Vlad is and there is a vampire slayer in Bathory looking for him.

Tenth Grade Bleeds: Book Three

Sophomore year of high school brings more of the same for Vladimir Tod. Eddie Poe bought a new camera and is determined to find Vlad's secret. Otis is searching for a ritual to save Vlad and D'Ablo is still trying to find a way to rid the world if him. Plus a hired killer is looking for revenge. But other things have changed for the better. Meredith is now Vlad's girlfriend. He hangs out with the Goth gang and Henry is pulling away from Vlad and no longer wants to be his drudge. On top of all of this, Vlad's thrist is spinning out of control. Will Vlad survive hi sophomore year?

Eleventh Grade Burns: Book Four
Things are still not looking any better for Vladimir Tod. All summer he has moped sround over his split from Meredith. School is starting and not only on his mind is the girl of his dreams but best friend Henry informs him that his vampire slayer cousin Joss is coming back to town. Otis' trial hyas been set and D'Ablo's secured a lucrative seat on the vampire council. And the one vampire who may be able to save Otis has a desire to drink Vlad's half vampire/half human blood. Will Vlad be able to survive his junior yuear of high school?

Don't miss the final installment of The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod; Twelfth Grade Kills due out September 21, 2010.