What worked: Intriguing plot of Chloe, a seventeen-year-old super-achiever, who ends up collapsing during her senior year in high school and gets a new heart. Takaoka nails the stress and pressure on some teens who go overboard with their high school academics in order to get into that 'right' university....

What worked: Fascination collection of essays that show the impact of the year 1789 in the world.In this anthology, twelve authors describe how 1789 was such a pivotal year. Rebellion and revolution were in the air not only in the United States, but other countries like France and the West...

What worked: Beautifully written tale where a girl performer breaks away from her cage and enters a competition of magicians that goes terribly wrong. Carnival meets Night Circus with a twist of Phantom of the Opera. The beginning of this novel pulled with in with...

Creepy, suspenseful paranormal where some friends learn that a summoning might bring back something unexpected and evil. The audio version of this novel kept me up late as I didn't want to miss what horrors Hendricks and her friends unleashed. I was totally engaged!...

Immanuelle lives in the town of Bethel where the Prophet's word is law and the highest honor for a woman is to be chosen to be one of his many wives. Immanuelle's mother was chosen, but instead she rejected him and fled to the Darkwood where she met an outsider...

Hendricks and her family move to a rental after Steele House burned down. Her family tries to put that horrible episode aside. Even though Hendricks wants life to go back to normal, she misses her boyfriend Eddie. When Hendricks tries to summon Eddie, something else comes. An evil presence that...

Andra went into cryonic sleep for a hundred years for a trip across the universe to wake up as a colonist on a new planet. Only she wakes up a thousand years in the future and finds out that the people on the planet call her 'Goddess'. She's told her...

Jo March is surprised at how well her novel LITTLE WOMEN has done. Now her publisher and readers want a sequel. She's asked by her publisher to write a happily-ever-after ending to all her characters. Only Jo's having a hard time writing this. Her life has some unexpected twists like...

Friends Dan and Liss find a Black book of magic and try a spell. Only the spell goes terribly wrong when their friend Johnny is snatched and dragged away into darkness. Nine months later and the friends have stopped talking. Out of the blue, Liss shares that she spoken...

Sixteen-year-old Faith Herbert has a secret. She can fly. When she runs into her fangirl crush Dakota, star of the fictional world THE GROVE, she's in heaven. And things even look rosier when Dakota might actually like her too. Then things start happening around town. When animals and then...

Friends Pulga, Chico, and Pequena flee the violence of their Guatemalan homes for the United States. Pulga and Chico have to leave as Rey, a gang leader, has targeted them to help him carry out criminal activities. Pequena has her own reasons for leaving...

What worked: Haunting, tragic tale of the life of Marilyn Monroe, told in verse which gives a powerful punch to the story behind the legend. The story starts at the very beginning of Marilyn's life. Back then she was Norma Jean. Her life was filled...

After the death of her parents, Grace comes to an Alaskan boarding school. Once there, she senses something is 'off' with the other students. It doesn't help that Jaxon, a brooding handsome student, tells her to leave the school. She's drawn to him and wants to know what's going on....

What worked: This is a fun paranormal twist on historical figures set in the Wild West of 1876. I loved the other two books in the 'Lady Janies' series. The latest one in this series doesn't disappoint! Readers follow Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley, Will Bill...

San Solano, Texas is not only known for its Southern charm but also gruesome murders that took place fifty years apart. Eighteen-year-old Natalie Colter doesn't believe the rumors, but later finds out the truth. A truth that involved her own grandmother. Now with the next anniversary coming, Nat seeks...