THE LONELY HEARTS CLUB, by Elizabeth Eulberg

The story: Penny Lane is tired of guys lying and cheating on their girlfriends. And all her friends are having trouble with their loser boyfriends, too--so when Penny Lane (daughter of Beatles fans) decides to start a club modeled on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club, everyone signs up. Everything's great at first--Saturday night fun with the girls, finding the courage to quit doing what everyone else expects and do what YOU want instead. The only problem...is hottie Ryan Bauer, who's super cute AND super nice AND seems to really like Penny Lane. He's just too good to be true, and there's no way she's going to bail on the club. After all, a trip to a concert with a friend isn't really a date, right? Right?

MY LIFE AS A BOOK, by Janet Tashjian

The story: Derek hates to read, so it really stinks when he realizes his parents are signing him up for "Learning Camp" this summer, instead of his usual round of lazing around, feeding the dog, and hanging with his buddies. Then suddenly a mystery turns up that involves Derek's own life, and just as suddenly, he figures out that reading can be useful if you're trying to solve the mystery of the babysitter who drowned while trying to save YOUR two-year-old life. Maybe reading isn't ALWAYS bad for your health!

THE NAME OF THE STAR (Shades of London, Book 1), by Maureen Johnson

The story: Rory Deveux has just started school in Londdon when a near-death experience changes her life forever. Suddenly, she is now able to see ghosts. And ghosts are everywhere in London. Most of them aren't going to cause any trouble for her, but there's always an exception. A series of Jack-the-Ripper style murders is taking place in London, and one night, Rory sees what could very likely be the murderer at the scene of a crime. The only problem--the person with her doesn't see anything, and Rory realizes that the murderer is a ghost. How can she catch him before he gets to her...permanently?

A SPY IN THE HOUSE (The Agency Mysteries #1), by Y.S. Lee

The story: By the time she was twelve, Mary Quinn was a thief, housebreaker, and lock picker. When she gets caught, she's sentenced to die. But somehow, the ladies from Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls save her neck (quite literally), and she's put into training as an undercover agent in 19th-century London. On her first assignment, she runs into the handsome James Easton, who's intrigued by the fact that a girl has enough get-up-and-go to do detective work. He tries to get to know her better--but Mary is all about her work, and she's not going to let some man get in the way of catching a smuggler...no matter how good-looking that guy might be.

THE SURVIVAL KIT, by Donna Frietas

THROUGH THE EVER NIGHT, by Veronica Rossi

The story: Hundreds of years after a massive atmospheric disturbance, Dwellers live in pods and try to keep their lives together. Outsiders rely on nature--and on the strange mutations that have come from living there--to keep them alive. Each is the other's sworn enemy. When an attempt to contact her mother, missing in the Outside, takes Aria away from the safety of the pods, her world collides with Perry's. She comes to realize he's not a Savage after all--and that there's more to both of them than either could ever have understood alone. But will they survive long enough to test their new powers...much less fall in love?

THE UNWANTEDS, by Lisa McMann

The story: In the desert land of Quill, anyone who shows any kind of artistic or creative talent is Unwanted. (Quillens follow rules, conserve resources, and are strictly logical.) When Alex and Aaron Stowe turn 13, they know that Alex, who just can't seem to keep the rules, will be deemed Unwanted and sent to the Death Farm, while Aaron is on his way to Wanted University to be trained as a future leader of Quill. So imagine Alex's surprise when, instead of a death camp, he finds a community protected by magic, where art and music are valued. Little do they know that the people of Quill already suspect something, and that Alex's own homesickness will bring them to the edge of disaster.

UNGIFTED, by Gordon Korman

The story: He didn't do it on purpose--honest! But when Donovan's prank unexpectedly destroys the school gym, our hero goes on the lam. And a weird clerical error allows him to lay low in the most unlikely place possible: the district Gifted & Talented program. It's obvious to everyone from Day 1 that Donovan really doesn't belong here...except, wait. He knows quite a few things that the GT kids don't--including how to act normal, talk to a girl, have fun. Maybe he CAN teach them a thing or two!

THE SELECTION, by Kiera Cass

The story: America Singer has won a chance any other girl would kill for: an entry in the beauty pageant where the winner gets to marry a handsome prince. But America has a secret...Aspen, the boy she loves, is a Caste 8, while she's a Caste 5--high above him socially. She wants Aspen, not some spoiled Prince Charming--but there's really no choice involved. She's packed up and sent off to the competition. It's only when she meets Prince Maxon and comes to understand his life that she realizes there's a lot more to like...or even love...about him than she thought. And when Aspen shows up to work in the palace, the thought of having to choose between them is almost more than her heart can bear.

DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE, by Laini Taylor

The story: blue hair isn't the only thing that makes Karou different from the other students at her school in Prague, even though she doesn't talk about it. Raised by demons, she now works as a messenger between the demonic and human worlds, and in her job, the most important thing is to avoid the angels--beings from the other side who are the demons' sworn enemies. Little does she know that the secrets...and the angels... from her unremembered past are about to catch up and destroy the new life she's come to know.

SHIP OUT OF LUCK (Antsy Bonano series #3), by Neal Shusterman

In honor of Old Man Crawley's 80th birthday, Antsy's family is invited to go cruising with him and Lexie on the world's biggest cruise ship: "The Plethora of the Deep" of the Caribbean Viking line. It's not long till a life of leisure gives way to a life of crime as Antsy meets Tilde, a stowaway with a really big secret, and decides to help her. It's Antsy and Tilde, Lexie and Gustav, and old man Crawley vs. all of them in the latest update to the Antsy Bonano series.

ROT & RUIN (Benny Imura series, book 1), by Jonathan Maberry

The story: More than a decade ago, First Night killed most of the earth's population--who all came back as zombies. Now the regular folks live in small, walled towns, desperate to pretend that things are just like they used to be. Benny Imura wants to avoid the "family business" of zombie hunting outside the walls, convinced that his brother Tom is a coward despite his kick-butt reputation. But when that's the only job available, Benny goes to work...and finds out more about quieting zombies, and more about his brother and all the other famous bounty hunters, than he ever imagined. Who knew that the ugly truth could turn out to be even uglier than you expected?

FOR DARKNESS SHOWS THE STARS, by Diana Peterfreund

The story: Elliot North sacrificed the thing she loved most to keep her home and family safe. Now, four years later, Kai Wentforth has returned--no longer the boy she grew up with and servant of the household, but an explorer who's found both fame and fortune. Elliot sees the contempt Kai has for her moneyed, land-owning class, and knows that things can never be the same between them. At least...her head knows it. Her heart is a different thing.

PRE-PUB REVIEW: Pandemic by Yvonne Ventresca

Imagine a new flu virus that combines deadliness with speed of transmission.  Imagine you are a girl with a few anxiety issues who might also be a germaphobe.  Lily is a high school student whom we discover through the course of the novel, has suffered through being assaulted by everyone’s favorite teacher.  As a result, she has some fears regarding personal contact.  Add to that her father’s occupation as an editor for a magazine devoted to infectious disease, and you can see where this is going.  The “blue flu” kills it’s victims by causing their lungs to fill with fluid.  They become unable to breathe and turn blue before expiring.  Lily’s parents are both out of town, (convenient, right?) when the epidemic hits her New Jersey town and people start going off the rails.  Keeping in contact with them through phone and text, her dad tells her where he has hidden some anti-virals and instructs her to stay home and watch out for looters.  It is only a matter of hours later that looters break in—fortunately, Lily was not home at the time.  While on walk about, she rescues a neighbor’s baby whose parents have both died and makes friends with the new boy down the block.  Together, they get the other surviving teens in town together to try and help where they can.  Society doesn’t take long to break down, once the blue flu hits.  Police and first responders are quickly overwhelmed by the number of dead and looters and black marketeers appear within a week.  I would like to think this is an over dramatization, but if people actually died in the numbers described—no ration is actually given but going off the main characters who die, it looks like about a 50% survival rate—I am afraid these predictions might not be far off.  The good news is that there are still good people around and that they team up to help each other survive.  When I first started this book, I was afraid it would be bleak, and in some ways it was.  I won’t ruin it by telling who dies, but suffice it to say that a lot of people do.  However, even though there is a certain amount of bleakness in the plot, the underlying theme is that of hope.  Refreshing, really.  A fairly tightly plotted disaster book with a dash of romance, what’s not to like?

Scheduled to be published May 2014

June Cleaver’s Ratings:  Language—PG; Nudity—PG;  Sexual Content—PG;  GLBT Content—G;  Violence—PG13  there are a couple of scenes with corpses resulting from the flu.  The descriptions are not graphic, but they are realistic;  Substance Abuse—PG  mostly underage smoking;  Adult Themes—PG13  Lily was sexually assaulted.  It happens off-page, but she has flashbacks and it is discussed in the context of her anxieties. 

Robin’s Comments:  I enjoyed this book as a change of pace from your average teen book.  Yes, the parents are absent, but they are loved and needed, not dysfunctional.  Lily is very mature, but still a kid.  She has to work through her anxieties about germs and about hoarding in order to help others.  The author handled this sensitively without making it too easy for her.  Her fears are realistic and she has to work to overcome them.  Altogether a well done effort. 

THE LAST DRAGONSLAYER, by Jasper Fforde

The story: in the Ununited Kingdom (yep, the UK), magic is fading. Sorcerers used to wield Giant Cosmic Power; now their spells are limited to unclogging drains and, occasionally, re-wiring a house. Jennifer Strange runs a magical employment agency--but who calls a magician when they can just call the plumber? Unexpectedly, when local soothsayers predict the death of the last dragon, there's a sudden rush to cash in on the magical power released by such an event. And stranger still (even for a girl named Strange!) it turns out that fate has chosen Jennifer to be the Last Dragonslayer--not a job she's interested in. In fact, she thinks the dragons should be studied by science, not killed by dorky knight wanna-bes who don't even have shining armor. But with the biggest real estate rush in history happening, and two countries about to go to war over the whole thing, she may end up doing exactly that. Wait! Shouldn't a person have at least a LITTLE say when fate comes knocking on her door?

PRE-PUB REVIEW: Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

Girl cuts class and goes home to possibly do something stupid with her boyfriend, but witnesses mom cheating on dad.  Before girl can confront mom, she finds out she has cancer.  I have to say, the hook had me, but the rest of the book does not live up to the promise.  I feel like I was the one who was cheated.  Out of hours of my life reading this disappointing novel.  OK, it wasn’t all bad, but here’s the gist of it.  Alice has cancer.  She creates a “bucket list” of sorts and enlists her childhood friend, Harvey, who by the way has loved her madly since they were kids, to help her with the list.  Only the list doesn’t have anything very good on it.  It is mostly about revenge.  Revenge against her ex-boyfriend, revenge against fellow mean girl Celeste, etc.  She does do one nice thing, but basically, she uses the fact that she is going to die as a license to act badly.  Then she finds out she isn’t going to die...she is in remission.  Suddenly, she has to go back to school and face the music.  Alice experiences a little taste of what she dished out and after what seems like an excruciatingly long time, and a public embarrassment of her Mom, with a little help from an unlikely source, comes to a sort of self-awareness and more importantly other-awareness—an awareness of the fact that she has treated all the people who love her most appallingly.  Normally, I would be all on board with a teen girl learning that the universe does not indeed revolve around her, but Alice’s change is too abrupt.  She has so many chances prior to the last 20 pages to see what she is doing and doesn’t, not even a bit.  There is no gradual realization, no learning shown, just an about-face.  It is not totally unbelievable, after all many of us have had traumatic experiences that have changed our lives, but it is ultimately unsatisfying, plus, Alice is so unlikeable, the reader who hangs in all the way to the end is probably done with her.  I certainly was.

This title is set to come out in March, 2014.

June Cleaver’s Ratings:  Language—R  There are quite a few F-bombs and more than a smattering of other curse words.  Alice’s parents don’t believe in not swearing in front of the children or in not letting the children swear;  Nudity—R;  Sexual Content—R  Several heavy make-out scenes.  There are two sexual encounters;  GLBT Content—PG-13;  Violence—PG;  Overall—R. 

Robin’s Comments:  I am not sure why the current vogue for such unlikeable main characters.  They are not really anti-heroes, since there is not much of a way for readers to identify with them, even a little.  I must confess, the trend leaves me wishing for an actual person to root for in the story.  Give me a good old-fashioned protagonist, please.

THE VENGEKEEP PROPHECIES, by Brian Farrey

The story: The Grimjinx family features a noted line of thieves, con men, and forgers. But their best forgery and smoothest con turns out to be a disaster for the family: a tapestry, woven by Allia Grimjinx herself, foretells a series of calamities that will befall their hometown. It also shows the Grimjinx family as the only ones who can keep the bad things from happening--and because of this, the family is proclaimed the saviors of Vengekeep. But imagine their horror when the series of grim events actually begins to happen--and now it appears that Jaxter Grimjinx, the least-able thief and most laughable con-man of them all, is the only one who can save the day. The end of the world really MUST be at hand!

THE RITHMATIST, by Brandon Sanderson

The story: All is not well in the United Isles of America, or even at the Armedius Academy. Wild chalklings (2-dimensional chalk figures that can be brought to life by a skilled Rithmatist) are threatening the UIA, and their fearsome presence is now being felt at Armedius. When a student disappears, leaving nothing behind but a trail of blood, faculty and students alike start getting scared. Two students--Joel, a master at Rithmatic strategy, but unable to perform the magic, and Melody, whose talent is drawing unbeatable chalklings, but who has no sense of strategy and no skill and line drawing--form up to help solve the mystery of the murdered students and vindicate their shamed Professor. But of course nothing is as it seems--and their first big battle could easily be their last.

THE SCREAMING STAIRCASE (Lockwood & Co. Book 1), by Jonathan Stroud

The story: There's a Problem in Britain: ghosts are overrunning everything, but only kids of a certain age can actually see them--so companies featuring kid ghost-hunters have cropped up all over London. Lucy Carlyle, a talented ghost hunter, joins up with company owner Lockwood and research whiz-kid George to form an unorthodox but very kick-booty ghostbusting team--but the Screaming Staircase has been scaring even adults literally to death since long before the Problem started--how could mere kids be a match for ghostly monks with razor-sharp claws?

FORTUNATELY, THE MILK, by Neil Gaiman

The story: A dad goes out to buy milk, and his kids wonder what the heck is taking so long. All is explained, however, when dad returns and shares the morning's harrowing, death-defying adventures: he has been kidnapped by aliens, and all might have been lost had he not kept his hand on (fortunately) the milk.

SIXTEEN THINGS I THOUGHT WERE TRUE (Pre-Pub Review), by Janet Gurtler

Morgan McClean has a secret.  Only it isn’t a secret—her former best friend posted a video of Morgan dancing in her underwear to Facebook, it went viral, and Morgan became a pariah.  The only friends she has now are on Twitter and she spends her breaks from work at Tinkerpark (an amusement park) hiding in a forgotten bathroom, checking her phone.  When she receives a text from her brother that her mother is in the hospital, it sets off a chain of events leading to a new best friend, a road trip to find the father she never knew, and an unlikely romance.  Told through a device of a Twitter hashtag #thingsithoughtweretrue, Morgan learns a lot of wisdom in the course of her trip, mostly from her diminutive new friend Amy, who it turns out, has cancer.  Amy has a huge heart and is brave enough to push Morgan to look for the good.  Although there are sad moments, this is a book about a journey to find yourself and accept responsibility for your own mistakes.  Morgan is a little rough around the edges, but entirely likeable.  Strong characters with slightly new twist on the teen road trip novel, I found this a refreshing read.

Due to be published March 2014

June’s Rating System:  Language—PG13 (mostly a**, thankfully, no f-bombs;  Nudity—PG there is the dancing video, which is described and one scene where Morgan falls over a barbed wire fence ripping her pants in a revealing manner;  Sexual Content—PG13 mostly from one “makeout scene”;   GLBT Content—G;  Violence—G; Substance Use and Abuse—PG Morgan’s mother is a heavy smoker and wine drinker, which is why she almost has a heart attack.  She reforms.  It is worth noting that Morgan’s brothers did not share her father and her mother was married to neither man.

Robin’s Comments:  I was worried when I started this that it would be just another sassy teenager with angst book, but really it wasn’t.  The characters were very true to life, and most of them were nice people, even the adults, which is unusual in a YA book. The families in the story are not perfect, but they love each other in a realistic way.  This book is listed by the publisher for grades 7-12, but I would definitely put it at 9-12.