Our Books

LARA ZIELIN

Donut Days The Implosion of Aggie Winchester

Donut Days
(Putnam Juvenile)

Donut Days’ main character, Emma Goiner, has a lot going on. Her best friend’s not speaking to her, a boy she’s known all her life is suddenly smokin’ hot, she’s at a camp-out for the opening of a donut shop, and oh yes—her evangelical pastor parents may lose their church. And that’s just this weekend. Suddenly, sixteen-year-old Emma has to make some serious choices: creationism or evolution, faith or freedom, Harley bikers or Frodo wannabes, and of course, cruller or glazed.

The Implosion of Aggie Winchester
(Putnam Juvenile)

Sixteen-year-old Aggie Winchester is that rare mix of principal’s kid and Goth girl — a rebel, or so she’d like to think. The truth is, she doesn’t know who she is or who she wants to be. She only knows she doesn’t want to be a target. Her dark makeup and clothes, along with her tough best friend, Syliva, who bullies freshman and cheerleaders alike, make Aggie feel safe. She doesn’t know what she’d do without Sylvia always having her back.

But when Sylvia finds herself pregnant and determined to turn her booty calls with the most popular boy in school into something real — like family — Aggie finds herself utterly alone and, even worse, the target of her own best friend. Add to that an ex-boyfriend who maybe wants to get back together or maybe just wants to have sex; a new boy with equally unclear intentions; and per principal mom who might be involved in the school scandal of the century, and Aggie’s having a trying junior year. In fact, she’s ready to implode.

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RHONDA STAPLETON

Stupid Cupid, Flirting with Disaster, Pucker Up

Stupid Cupid
(Simon Pulse)

Felicity Walker believes in true love. That’s why she applies for a gig at the matchmaking company Cupid’s Hollow. But when Felicity gets the job, she learns that she isn’t just a matchmaker…she’s a cupid! (There’s more than one of them, you know.)

Armed with a hot pink, tricked-out PDA infused with the latest in cupid magic (love arrows shot through email), Felicity works to meet her quota of successful matches. But when she bends the rules of cupidity by matching her best friend Maya with three different boys at once, disaster strikes. Felicity needs to come up with a plan to set it all right, pronto, before she gets fired…and before Maya ends up with her heart split in three.

Flirting with Disaster
(Simon Pulse)

Felicity is a total romantic. That’s why she follows her heart—not the rules—in her job as a cupid. But when Felicity turns her matchmaking magic on her best friend, Andy, it’s Andy who breaks their golden rule: friends always come first. Andy is so wrapped up in her new guy that she’s ditching everyone else. How can Felicity stop her BFF from letting a BF come between them?

Meanwhile, Felicity decides to get over her crush on Derek by setting him up with someone else—but in her impulsive haste, she accidentally matches him with the whole school, and now everyone is in love with him. The entire student body is headed toward heartbreak, just weeks before prom. Does Felicity have what it takes to make everyone’s heart happy…including her own?

Pucker Up
(Simon Pulse)

Felicity can’t believe her luck. Her longtime crush is now officially her boyfriend, and just in time for prom. Felicity isn’t just smitten with Derek, she’s head-over-heels in love. So when she learns that her boss at Cupid’s Hollow used cupid magic to make Derek fall for her, Felicity is devastated. What will happen when the magic wears off? Felicity has only two weeks to win Derek’s heart for real—no matter what it takes!

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CHRISTINE JOHNSON

Claire de Lune, Nocturne

Claire de Lune
(Simon Pulse)

Hanover Falls hasn’t had a werewolf problem in over one hundred years. Seattle, Copenhagen, Osaka–they’ve had plenty of attacks. But when humans begin dying in Claire Benoit’s town, the panic spreads faster than a rumor at a pep rally. At Claire’s sixteenth birthday party, the gruesome killings are all anyone can talk about. But the big news in Claire’s mind is the fact that Matthew Engle–high-school soccer god and son of a world-renowned lycanthropy expert–notices her. And flirts with her. A lot.

That night, Claire learns that she is the latest in a long line of Benoit werewolves, and that contrary to popular belief, all werewolves are female. Killing humans is forbidden by the code of the pack, but a rogue werewolf has been breaking that law, threatening the existence of Claire’s new pack. As the pack struggles to find and fight the rogue werewolf and Claire struggles with her lupine identity, her heart and her loyalties are torn in two. Claire must keep her new life a secret from even her best friend–and especially from Matthew, whose father is leading the werewolf hunt…and with whom Claire is impossibly and undeniably falling head-over-paws in love.

Nocturne
(Simon Pulse)

After the tragic events of the summer, Claire is looking forward to a new school year. All she wants to worry about is finding the most gorgeous dress to wear to the Autumn Ball with her perfect boyfriend.

But as Claire knows all too well, the life of a werewolf is never that simple, or that sweet.

When Claire’s human and wolf lives start to collide, her worst nightmares come true. She is hurting her best friend. She has been caught lying. And then the unthinkable happens: Someone discovers Claire’s secret.

If Claire’s werewolf identity is exposed, everyone she knows will be put at risk. And the pack’s response comes at a cost higher than Claire can imagine. Claire will be forced to determine just how far she is willing to go to protect her family, her identity and her life, before she loses it all.

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SAUNDRA MITCHELL

Shadowed Summer The Vespertine

Shadowed Summer
(Delacorte Press)

Nothing ever happened in Ondine, Louisiana, not even the summer Elijah Landry disappeared.
His mother knew he ascended to heaven, the police believed he ran away, and his girlfriend thought he was murdered.

Decades later, certain she saw his ghost in the town cemetery, fourteen-year-old Iris Rhame is determined to find out the truth behind “The Incident With the Landry Boy.”

Enlisting the help of her best friend Collette, and forced to endure the company of Collette’s latest crush, Ben, Iris spends a summer digging into the past and stirring old ghosts, in search of a boy she never knew.

What she doesn’t realize is that in a town as small as Ondine, every secret is a family secret.

The Vespertine
(Harcourt Children’s Books)

The summer of 1889 is the one between childhood and womanhood for Amelia van den Broek-and thankfully, she’s not spending it at home in rural Maine. She’s been sent to Baltimore to stay with her stylish cousin, Zora, who will show her all the pleasures of city life and help her find a suitable man to marry.

Archery in the park, dazzling balls and hints of forbidden romance-Victorian Baltimore is more exciting than Amelia imagined. But her gaiety is interrupted by disturbing, dreamlike visions she has only at sunset-visions that offer glimpses of the future. Soon, friends and strangers alike call on Amelia to hear her prophecies. Newly dubbed “Maine’s Own Mystic”, Amelia is suddenly quite in demand.

However, her attraction to Nathaniel, an artist who is decidedly outside of Zora’s circle, threatens the new life Amelia is building in Baltimore. This enigmatic young man is keeping secrets of his own- still, Amelia finds herself irrepressibly drawn to him. And while she has no trouble seeing the futures of others, she cannot predict whether Nathaniel will remain in hers.

When one of her darkest visions comes to pass, Amelia’s world is thrown into chaos. And those around her begin to wonder if she’s not the seer of dark portents, but the cause.