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Island


David Almond - 2017
    The arrival of Hassan from war-torn Syria changes everything. Louise is restless and yearning for independence, and the fiercely free and self-reliant Hassan fascinates her. He seems to know the island from long ago as if it were his home from birth. Hassan is an acrobat, maybe a sorcerer, possibly a source of great danger. The wild gang of boys who call the island their home want to cast him out. The forces of love, death and hope move Louise and Hassan towards a deeper understanding of themselves and their place in a world that is both cruel and compassionate. Lindisfarne will change their lives forever. David Almond is the author of many beloved and prize-winning books for children and teenagers. His best known work, Skellig, won the Whitbread Children's Award and the Carnegie Medal and was made into a feature-length film. A Song for Ella Grey, a beautiful retelling of the myth of Orpheus, won the Guardian Children's Book Prize 2015.

Red Tide


Larry Niven - 2014
    This is a theme that has fascinated the author throughout his career and even appears in his seminal work Ringworld, where the central character celebrates his birthday by instantly teleporting himself to different time zones, extending his birthday. The author also discusses the impact of such instantaneous transportation in his essay, Exercise in Speculation: The Theory and Practice of Teleportation. Larry Niven is joined by two younger writers, Brad R. Torgersen and Matthew J. Harrington, as they take on this challenging idea and further develop the theories and concepts that Niven originally presented in Flash Crowd.

No Dogs in Philly


Andy Futuro - 2014
    Elzi on every corner, cops just itching to crack a skull, and the Gaespora lordin' it up in their high towers while the rest of the filth dribbled down the sewer. Saru had a way out. All she had to do was find the girl, one skinny stray with blue, blue eyes—bluer than anyone had ever seen—and ten million fat bucks were hers. Except someone was killing blue-eyed girls, and they were A-list, major-league, cold-sweat effective. And something about the end of all existence if she failed.No Dogs in Philly is a Lovecraftian Cyberpunk Noir with aliens, monsters, extra-dimensional Gods and a tough-as-nails female protagonist. It tickles at questions of existence and the role humans play in this particular universe.Rated R for strong language, mentions of sex, and graphic violence. Contains intense horror and potentially disturbing imagery.

Fanfare


Renée Ahdieh - 2011
    After she meets movie star Tom Abramson, she's determined not to fall for his intelligence, charm and impetuousness because dreams are for the foolhardy, and a modern girl can rescue herself.

Forced Compliance


Bradford Bates - 2017
     Captain Drake was the kind of smuggler that would take any job that needed to be done. That was as long as you had the credits and didn’t mess with his crew. Now one of those very crew members had been taken, and Drake would stop at nothing to find her. Samantha Ripley only wanted one thing, she wanted to get off Hyperion Four. For the last four years, she had dedicated herself to nothing but flight school. Her graduation was so close she could almost taste it. A chance encounter as she finished her shift at the diner was going to change everything. The two of them were separated by a universe of stars, but their lives would intersect like two colliding comets, and the results would shape the future of the verse itself. When Firefly meets Underworld a new legacy is born.

Reluctant Hood


Kendrai Meeks - 2017
    A werewolf on the prowl. With her friends in danger, can she become the red-cloaked hood the world needs? Gerwalta “Geri” Kline has just thrown out generations of tradition. As a descendant of the mythical Little Red Riding Hood, Geri refuses to suffer the fate of a woman who tried to find her fairy tale ending… and ended up dead. Despite possessing the powers of a “hood,” she resolves to head off to college and the big city, and live life as a human… As she attempts to create a new future in Chicago, her old life starts to creep in. Her lab professor turns out to be a vampire and the half-mad werewolf stalking campus is desperate for her help. No matter how much she wants to leave her lupine-lurking days behind, the world of night proves uncooperative. Soon enough, Geri is knee-deep in a terrifying vampire conspiracy. Her only hope to get out is to agree to help the werewolf, and act like the hood she doesn't want to be… Reluctant Hood is an imaginative urban fantasy tale that reinvents the classic Little Red Riding Hood legend. If you like headstrong heroines, original fantasy worlds, and fresh takes on Grimm’s fairy tales, then you’ll love Kendrai Meeks’ bewitching tale. Buy Reluctant Hood to uncover a dark twist on a legendary story today!

Maternal Instinct


Rebecca Bowyer - 2019
    No child lives in poverty and every child is safe. But at what cost?19-year-old Monica never wanted a baby but the laws require her to give birth twice before she can move on with her life.Now that her first son, Oscar, has arrived she's not so sure she wants to hand him over to be raised by professional parents: the Maters and Paters.When Monica turns to her birth mother, Alice, for help, she triggers a series of events that force Alice to confront her own dark past. Alice must decide - help her daughter break the law, or persuade her to accept her fate and do what's best for the nation's children?

The Turn


J. Walker - 2014
    Written specifically for the ever-growing female audience of the zombie apocalypse genre, the story is told through the eyes of Emily Hanson, wife, mother and survivor. Follow the incredible struggles of two families as they prepare for humanities possible extinction and society’s eventual collapse. Witness the devastating isolation of the outbreak’s early days and the unforeseen trials of living in the post-apocalyptic world. Regardless of how prepared they are, there is always another unexpected threat waiting to jeopardize their best laid plans.

Queen & Commander


Janine A. Southard - 2013
    They’ll outrun society as fast as their questionably obtained spaceship will take them.Rhiannon doesn’t technically cheat the Test. She’s smarter than the computers that administer it, and she uses that to her advantage. She emerges from Test Day with the most prestigious future career possible: Hive Queen.Gwyn & Victor are madly in love, but their Test results will tear them apart. Good thing Rhiannon is Gwyn’s best friend. Rhiannon can fix this. Queens can do anything.Gavin is the wild card. Raised off-planet, he can’t wait to leave again... and he’s heard of an empty ship in orbit. The Ceridwen’s Cauldron.Both Luciano and Alan fit in the system. They don’t need to leave. Only their devotion to Rhiannon spurs them to join the Cauldron’s crew.Spaceships. Blackmail. Anywhere but here.US Edition.

Blood Bound


Sharon Stevenson - 2012
    Sarah is desperate to punish Melissa for what she’s been doing but Shaun’s instant attraction to the girl points to a soul-mate bond stronger than anything he’s ever had to fight before…(This a previously-published edition of ASIN B009JBKV96. The latest edition can be found at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4....)

Turning for Home


Barney Norris - 2018
    Everyone needed their stories, the other side of the ribbon of their lives, the real life and the dream, the statement and the meaning, all of them a tape’s breadth apart from each other, impossibly divided, indivisibly close.'Every year, Robert's family come together at a rambling old house to celebrate his birthday. Aunts, uncles, distant cousins - it has been a milestone in their lives for decades. But this year Robert doesn't want to be reminded of what has happened since they last met - and neither, for quite different reasons, does his granddaughter Kate. Neither of them is sure they can face the party. But for both Robert and Kate, it may become the most important gathering of all.As lyrical and true to life as Norris's critically acclaimed debut Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain, which won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize and Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards, this is a compelling, emotional story of family, human frailty, and the marks that love leaves on us.

The Rain Is a Lie


Gennifer Albin - 2013
    The looms that create Arras are as controlled as the Spinsters who work them, ensuring a near idyllic world for the average citizen. But at what price? As an election approaches, a surprise weather forecast and a mysterious stranger hint that not all is as it seems, and a young boy learns that in Arras nothing can be trusted, not even memories. "The Rain is a Lie" is an original short story set in the world of Gennifer Albin's Crewel.

The Last Summer of Ada Bloom


Martine Murray - 2018
    Martha is straining against the confines of her life, lost in regret for what might have been, when an old flame shows up. In turn, her husband Mike becomes frustrated with his increasingly distant wife. Marital secrets, new and long-hidden, start to surface—with devastating effect. And while teenagers Tilly and Ben are about to step out into the world, nine-year-old Ada is holding onto a childhood that might soon be lost to her.When Ada discovers an abandoned well beneath a rusting windmill, she is drawn to its darkness and danger. And when she witnesses a shocking and confusing event, the well’s foreboding looms large in her mind—a driving force, pushing the family to the brink of tragedy. For each family member, it’s a summer of searching—in books and trees, at parties, in relationships new and old—for the answer to one of life’s most difficult questions: how to grow up?The Last Summer of Ada Bloom is an honest and tender accounting of what it means to come of age as a teen, or as an adult. With a keen eye for summer’s languor and danger, and a sharp ear for the wonder, doubt, and longing in each of her characters’ voices, Martine Murray has written a beguiling story about the fragility of family relationships, about the secrets we keep, the power they hold to shape our lives, and about the power of love to somehow hold it all together.

Plague


Graham Masterton - 1977
    The entire eastern seaboard of the United States has been sealed off - all those attempting to flee the contaminated zones will be shot!As men, women and children murder and loot in a world gone mad, one man and his daughters struggle to survive. The bond of love between them strengthens and grows as they fight desperately to keep their fragile hold on hope - and life.Father and daughter - caught in a terrifying world ravaged by an unknown, virulent, super-plague. Will an antidote be found... in time?

Pawn


Timothy Zahn - 2017
    Bleeding out from a knife wound, thug Bungie waves a gun at her and ER doc Sam. Winged aliens speak to her, and kidnap all three. Content, she is still a pawn aboard Fyrantha, hearing directions from the live spaceship to Sibyls for human repair crews. Human leader Plato warns her explorations endanger Earth. Defiantly, she continues, exposing worlds to the ship's warring factions.