The Language Thieves is a young adult fantasy by Marc Remus. Sixteen-year-old Daniel is none too happy about his father’s decision to move the family from Arizona to a remote Scottish island, of all places. His mother was stricken by a mysterious illness that has...

Compulsively readable, The Key is the opening entry in the Secret Defenders series by Felicia Rogers, deftly written and well balanced. It’s a beautiful story for fans of paranormal romance and those who enjoyed I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore. Maddie Clevenger is in...

Cedar Springs High students Zelda, Sabrina, Andrew, Gabby, and Justin are the ones everyone around them－peers, parents, and teachers－deem as lost causes, which rightly gives this YA mystery thriller its title. Two undercover FBI agents, Ryan Nash and Patricia Nichols, summoned them to a ‘group-therapy...

In The Unicorn Tree by Cynthia Collins, 17-year-old Lisa Duncan misses her older brother, Matt, who’s one of the crew of the clipper ship Northern Star, embarking on a voyage across the Atlantic. She and her friends visit a 19th-century estate known as Mirabelle Manor,...

Bunny and her family are enjoying their vacation in Fort Morgan near the beach. Sudden stormy weather puts a temporary halt to their activities, and an unexpected guest from her past shows up with a disturbing message－her childhood friend Hannah is in trouble. A call...

A man who has lost everything — his job, his wife and daughter — gets the one chance to redeem himself, to save a person’s life. In The Chosen Ones by Lisa Luciano, Brody gets fired from his job as a reporter and his wife...

The Abyss of Lumberwitch by Dom Cutrupi opens The Abyss Series and it’s a great story in the young adult fantasy genre but it also has hints of science fiction and adventure. The story begins with how Jonathan Brick, journalist for Seattle’s Daily News first...

A young man must accept his painful past and face an uncertain future in the young adult novel, The Staircase of Fire by Ben Woodard. Fourteen-year-old Tom Wallace is no stranger to heartbreak and grief. After an unfortunate accident leaves him an orphan and the...

Riley McCullough's summer in The Summer the World Ended by Matthew S. Cox does not start out very promisingly. She and her best friend had planned to spend the summer together, but then her friend's parents take her on a two-week holiday in Puerto Vallarta....

The Wonderful Whippet of Winifred Weatherwax is a mystery novel for young adults written by Philippa Stasiuk. Eleanor Weatherwax was beside herself in blissful anticipation that she’d finally be getting a Lucky Dog Whippet. She had been waiting so long for that phone call from...