Spooky arrives at a wilderness boot camp for troubled teens with two suitcases and an ultimatum: either she keeps her head down over the summer or she won’t be allowed home at the end of it. All she wants to do is survive the pyros, bullies, and power-tripping counselors, get through senior year, and start her life somewhere new. She’ll do just about anything to protect that future.
But when an encounter with another camper goes awry and ends with Spooky hiding in the woods, something else finds her. Something ancient and powerful has sent out feelers, hoping to catch a human alone. For its purposes, one human is as good as any other. Even a delinquent teen will do.
If Spooky wants to survive to see any kind of future, she will have to figure out how to gain leverage over a god. And as if the one wasn’t bad enough, a pantheon of dark entities are lining up between her and the life she’s always wanted...
For fantasy fans, comes one girl’s journey through dark worlds of magic, gods, and monsters.
Finalist Fiction: Young Adult 2021 Best Book Awards
Professor Percival Marlowe is a brilliant, elderly astrophysicist who's dying, his greatest achievement still unfinished and now beyond his diminished means.Doctor Carl Dorning, a neurosurgeon, finally discovers a secret method of transplanting memories from one person to another thanks to Marlowe's millions.Miguel Sanchez, a homeless boy, agrees to become the recipient of Marlowe's knowledge and personality in the unorthodox experiment, enticed by Dorning's promises of intelligence, wealth and respect but dangerously unaware that his own identity will be lost forever.What results is a seesaw battle for control of Miguel's body as Marlowe learns to his dismay what his lifetime of arrogance and conceit has earned him. And when Marlowe stumbles upon the shocking procedure Dorning used in desperation to succeed, the professor does what he must to defeat Dorning and redeem himself at last.
Finalist Fiction: Young Adult 2021 Best Book Awards
Two worlds, one fate …
Alora was born with the ability to Lift, a power no other women on Terra possess. If the wrong people find out, there’s no telling what will happen. But when she almost kills a man in self-defense, her secret is exposed and she’s forced to run for her life.
On Earth, Alora's running from something else: hazy memories of her parents’ death and the social worker who wants to separate her from her brother. When she sees the man she almost killed on Terra at work, she's stunned. She’s never recognized anyone from there before—after all, Terra exists only in her dreams…
When her dreams begin to leach into reality, something incredible awakens in Alora. But she knows better than anyone that everything comes with a cost. As the barrier between worlds crumbles, Alora must decide which is safer, which is more powerful, and which world is worth saving.
Finalist Fiction: Young Adult 2021 Best Book Awards
Reckless courage, desperate loyalty, and the will to survive.
Redmond knows three things about the woman who has imprisoned his archers. She is beautiful. She is cunning. And she cares nothing for their lives.
When she drugs his men in preparation for enslavement in the deadly salt mines, Redmond embarks on an audacious and impossible plan—steal the castle from her and sell it to the highest bidder. To do that, he and his band of archers must hold the castle against an overwhelming force of men who believe Redmond murdered their relatives and a King more preoccupied with territorial expansion than peace and security in his realm. Failure means a lingering death in the mines, but success might be just as dangerous.
Finalist Fiction: Young Adult 2021 Best Book Awards
In the first book in THE RISE AND FALL OF DANI TRUEHART series, RISING STAR, fifteen-year-old Dani Truehart is living a life that is not quite her own. Driven by her mother's desire for fame and fortune, she has spent her childhood dutifully training for a career as a pop star. On the brink of discovery, doubts begin to creep into Dani's mind as she questions her own desire for fame, and she wonders whether she can trust the motivations of the adults who are driving her forward.
Following a brilliant audition arranged by her vocal/dance coach and former '80s pop icon Martin Fox, Dani is thrown full-force into the music industry. She leaves her friends, family and scheming mother behind to move with Martin, who has become her legal guardian, into the Malibu compound of her new manager, Jenner Redman. Jenner, the former swindling manager of Martin's boy band, leverages what's left of his depleted fortune to launch Dani's career.
Finalist Fiction: Young Adult 2021 Best Book Awards
“We are most courageous at our weakest; when we believe we have faced what we fear the most and have nothing more to lose.”
Set against the backdrop of two warring towns, Oby Aligwekwe’s Young Adult debut—told from the viewpoint of her main character—is inspired by her West African heritage, fables, and spiritual beliefs. Ona’s journey reveals the power of choice, the true source of happiness, and, most importantly, the transformation one must go through to realize and eventually occupy their purpose.
At the sudden death of her grandfather, Ona’s pain transports her to mystical Luenah—a place of infinite possibilities, free of turf wars and other ills that plague the earthly dimension she lives in. In Luenah, where her grandfather awaits her, Ona learns she is an Eri, one bestowed with unique intuitive and spiritual gifts passed down from generation-to-generation.
Finalist Fiction: Young Adult 2021 Best Book Awards
Adversity means nothing in the face of his tenacity.
People consider Diego Herrera different. Not only is he the son of undocumented Mexican immigrants, but he was also born with deaf mutism. Diego has fought all his life to find his path in the world and to change the world's opinion about him, but he is not alone in his journey. Diego has the help of his supportive mom, his little brother, and his best friend, Fernando, who are always cheering him on.
Diego’s greatest passion in life is soccer, and he seeks to prove he is just as capable as anyone else of reaching his goals. However, he must struggle to do so, as he is beset by naysayers he must prove wrong. Diego is not going to give up on his goals, and it finally seems like he has a chance to reach them.
But will Diego be able to achieve his dream, or will the world’s negativity drag him down?
