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.

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.