YA Speculative – Page 4

The Secret Life of Copernicus H. Stringfellow by Lorin Barber

Copernicus H. Stringfellow, a.k.a. Nick, is far from your average, run-of-the-mill genius. His brains are really more like brawn now that he’s learned to control things with his mind.

From fending off would-be muggers to rescuing down-and-out traverlers, there’s no job too small for this superhero, especially after he learns that Twinkies® by the caseload send his super powers skyrocketing!

But with powers so fantastic—he can stop a speeding automobile or stem internal bleeding—he’ll have to face more than a few enemies.

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Title: The Secret Life of Copernicus H. Stringfellow

Author: Lorin Barber

Publisher: Sweetwater (CFI)

Release Date: March 13, 2012

ISBN: 978-1599559292

Size: 304 pages, 6×9, softcover

Genre: Young Adult Speculative

Vodnik by Bryce Moore

Teacups: great for tea. Really sucky as places-to-live-out-the-rest-of-your-eternal-existence. Very little elbow room, and the internet connection is notoriously slow. Plus, they’re a real pain in the butt to get out of, especially when you’ve gone non-corporeal.

When Tomas was six, someone–something–tried to drown him. And burn him to a crisp. Tomas survived, but whatever was trying to kill him freaked out his parents enough to convince them to move from Slovakia to the United States.

Now sixteen-year-old Tomas and his family are back in Slovakia, and that something still lurks somewhere. Nearby. Ready to drown him again and imprison his soul in a teacup.

Then there’s the fire víla, the water ghost, the pitchfork-happy city folk, and Death herself who are all after him.

All this sounds a bit comical, unless the one haunted by water ghosts and fire vílas or doing time in a cramped, internet-deprived teacup is you.

If Tomas wants to survive, he’ll have to embrace the meaning behind the Slovak proverb, So smrťou ešte nik zmluvu neurobil. With Death, nobody makes a pact.

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Title: Vodnik

Author: Bryce Moore

Publisher: Tu Books

Release Date: March 1, 2012

ISBN: 978-1600608520

Size: 368 pages, 6×9, hardcover

Genre: YA Fantasy

The Stones by A.D. Duling

Anna Kippling has collected the final fourth Token and now must quickly learn how to use them all. With the Red stone and the book “Dominion” now in his possession; the Chancellor only needs the “Sister” Blue stone to raise the undefeatable Serpentine Army.

Time is ticking and preperations are being made. More allies are joining their forces…but Anna and her friends must get to the Stones and destroy them or find themselves headed towards a horrific battle.

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Title: The Stones (Anna Kippling Book 3)

Author: A.D. Duling

Publisher: Self

Release Date: February 26, 2012

ASIN: B007EDMN2Y

Size: 169 pages, ebook

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Anna Kippling Series: The Key (bk 1), The Tokens (bk 2)

Partials by Dan Wells

The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by RM, a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island while the Partials have mysteriously retreated. The threat of the Partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to RM in more than a decade. Our time is running out.

Kira, a sixteen-year-old medic-in-training, is on the front lines of this battle, seeing RM ravage the community while mandatory pregnancy laws have pushed what’s left of humanity to the brink of civil war, and she’s not content to stand by and watch. But as she makes a desperate decision to save the last of her race, she will find that the survival of humans and Partials alike rests in her attempts to uncover the connections between them—connections that humanity has forgotten, or perhaps never even knew were there.

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Title: Partials

Author: Dan Wells

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Release Date: February 28, 2012

ISBN: 978-0062071040

Size: 480 pages, hardcover

Genre: Young Adult Dystopian

Hindsight by Sherry D. Ficklin

Grace Archer has come into her full powers as an immortal and has taken up the mantle offered by her father, Prometheus.

Leaving behind everything and everyone she loves, Grace becomes a pawn in a dangerous game that threatens to undo an ancient truce between Gods of Olympus and the Fae.

Can Grace find a way to prevent war or will she become the Harbinger predicted by the Gods of Fate?

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Title: Hindsight (vol. 3)

Author: Sherry D. Ficklin

Publisher: Dragonfly Publishing

Release Date: February 6, 2012

ISBN: 978-1936381388

Size: 162 pages, 5.5×8.5, softcover

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

The Gods of Fate Series: Foresight (vol 1), Second Sight (vol 2)

Kicking Ashe by Pauline Baird Jones

With hearts and lives on the line, a kiss may be all they have time for…

Time has dumped Ashe on a dying planet and she needs to figure out why before she ceases to exist.

Or gets vivisected by some Keltinarian scientists.

Or worse.

Vidor Shan might help—since someone somewhere is trying to hose him, too—if she can convince him to trust her. Probably shouldn’t have told him that only someone he trusts can betray him. Also wouldn’t mind if he kissed her on the mouth.

Vid would love to kiss the girl, but his brother is lost, he’s got hostile aliens on his tail, and the stench of betrayal all around him. Can he trust the woman who told him to trust no one?

Then a time quake hurls them to a nasty somewhere and some when…

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Title: Kicking Ashe (Project Universe bk 6)

Author: Pauline Baird Jones

Publisher: L & L Dreamspell

Release Date: February 20, 2012

ISBN: 978-1603184489

Size: 214 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, softcover

Genre: YA Science Fiction

Project Universe Series: The Key (bk 1), Girl Gone Nova (bk 2), Tangled in Time (bk 3), Steamrolled (bk 4)

The Keeper’s Calling by Kelly Nelson

They come from two different worlds. One fateful discovery will bring them together. Neither of their lives will ever be the same.

Chase Harper’s to-do list for senior year never included fall in love and fight for your life, but things rarely go as planned. Tarnished gold and resembling a pocket watch, the counter he finds in a cave during the summer of 2011 will forever change the course of his life, leading him to the beautiful Ellie Williams and unlocking a power beyond his wildest imagination.

In 1863, Ellie Williams completes school in Boston and returns to the Utah Territory only to discover that her grandfather and his counter, a treasured family heirloom, are missing. When Ellie is abducted and told she must produce the counter or die, an unexpected rescuer comes to her aid.

Title: The Keeper’s Calling

Author: Kelly Nelson

Publisher: Walnut Springs Press

Release Date: February 20, 2012

ISBN: 978-1599928449

Size: 312 pages, softcover

Genre: YA Speculative Romance/Time Travel

Death Cheater by Danielle Thorne

From the shadow of a tangled thorn bush, and soft, padding footsteps shuffled in the late afternoon gloom. My breathing went ragged with fear. Maybe it was a raccoon or an angry squirrel.

Athena.

Whipping around, I stared hard into the murk. A voice. It sounded gentle, but at the same time it sent chills down my arms. I glanced up through the hooded canopy of tree branches and tried to see heaven.

God?

There was a growl, and the terror I’d been holding at bay zipped up my spine into my skull. I was sure my long hair stood on end, like when kids touched the electrostatic generator at the science museum.

Something was coming for me, and it wasn’t something from the woods. It’d been following me all day. Maybe even my entire life.

Athena Gray lives vicariously through her sister because people in general avoid her. Whether it’s strange things like dead butterflies fluttering to life, or the time she saved her dying grandpapa just by willing him to live, Athena knows that she is different. The only person who doesn’t seem to think so is Dan, the most popular boy on Omega High School’s baseball team. But even Dan can’t understand the reason she acts haunted, until a spirit roaming the local historic burial mounds takes an interest in people Athena cares about.

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Title: Death Cheater

Author: Danielle Thorne

Publisher: Desert Breeze Publishing

Release Date: February 13, 2012

ISBN: NA

Size: 178 pages, eBook

Genre: YA Paranormal

Forever by Cheri Schmidt

Danielle and Ethan may have solved their problem with vampires, but other magical beings have taken interest in the ones who discovered the cure.

On the run trying to escape a gaggle of evil pixies, a clan of creepy werewolves, a coven or two of wicked witches, and a school of lovely but malicious mermaids, they fight to have a normal life. But that isn’t so easy when the only aid they have is from slightly dishonest fairies and flirtatious vampire bodyguards.

This is Danielle and Ethan’s happily forever after….

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Title: Forever

Author: Cheri Schmidt

Publisher: Self

Release Date: February 4, 2012

ISBN: 978-1469969367

Size: 300 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, softcover

Genre: YA Paranormal

Fateful Series: Fateful (bk 1), Fractured (bk 2)

Fractured Light by Rachel McClellan

I’m dying, I thought. This was unexpected and not at all how I envisioned my death. I was supposed to die gardening in a flowerbed as a hundred-year-old woman, not as a seventeen-year-old trapped in a lake beneath inches of ice.

Llona Reese is used to living on the run. After a Vyken killed her parents, she knew they would eventually come for her too. She can’t take any chances. But when she starts to make friends for the first time in her life, she gets careless and lets her guard down. Big mistake.

As an Aura, Llona can manipulate light and harness its energy. But if she wants to survive, Llona will have to defy the Auran Council and learn to use her power as a weapon against the Vyken whose sole desire is to take her light. Now she’s caught in something bigger than she can understand, with a power she can’t wield, and no one she can trust, except, just maybe, a mysterious stranger.

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Title: Fractured Light

Author: Rachel McClellan

Publisher: Sweetwater/Cedar Fort

Release Date: February 7, 2012

ISBN: 978-1599559421

Size: 312 pages, 5.5×8, hardcover

Genre: Young Adult Paranormal

The Dark Eagles: First Flight by David R. Smith

Kief loves exploring the rugged mountains on his horse, Natch, with his best friend Tarc. But when he receives a mysterious map on his birthday, left behind for him by his dead grandfather, Kief is thrown into an adventure beyond even his imagination.

Leaving home to pursue his childhood dream of attending the merchant academy on the coast, extraordinary events unfold propelling Kief, along with his friends and his map, toward the same perilous destiny.

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Title: The Dark Eagles: First Flight

Author: David R. Smith

Publisher: Fundautum Publishing

Release Date: January 2012

ISBN: 978-0615571324

Size: 286 pages, 6×9, hardcover

Genre: YA Action Adventure

Crimson by Cheree Alsop

Crimson, the third book of the Silver Series, is about a teenage boy who dies in a car accident and awakens a werewolf. Burdened with heavy guilt over his sister’s death in the same accident, Kaynan escapes with a blind girl named Grace who gives him purpose and direction. They seek shelter with a pack of werewolves who brave dangerous odds to help them. Kaynan is given the ultimate chance to make up for his poor decisions, but dying again might be the only way to redeem himself.

Crimson is a story of love and redemption amid danger and violence, a story where acceptance of change may be the only way to survive.

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Title: Crimson (The Silver Series, book 3)

Author: Cheree Alsop

Publisher: Self

Release Date: January 30, 2012

ISBN: NA

Size: 178 pages, eBook

Genre: YA Paranormal

Series: Silver (bk 1), Black (bk 2)

Everneath by Brodi Ashton

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she’s returned—to her old life, her family, her boyfriend—before she’s banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can’t find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance—and the one person she loves more than anything. But there’s just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.

As Nikki’s time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole’s queen.

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Title: Everneath

Author: Brodi Ashton

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Release Date: January 24, 2012

ISBN: 978-0062071132

Size: 384 pages, 6×9, hardcover

Genre: YA Paranormal

In the Twilight by Fiauna Lund

What if your entire town had a secret and it was your job to keep that secret safe?

Fourteen-year-old Avril Holly lives in a world full of secrets: not only is she half faery, sprouting wings at twilight, but suddenly she also has the ability to read minds. When she is attacked while walking home alone in her otherwise peaceful community, she learns that she must use her mind-reading powers to protect her people from the curious and sometimes dangerous human beings around them.

When she discovers that Vestyn, her best friend’s suddenly crush-worthy brother, helped save her from the attacker, what started out as childhood friendship takes on new depth, growing into a budding romance. Though she worries their telepathic connection will ruin their blossoming relationship, Avril must learn to work with Vestyn to keep their community safe and their faery heritage a secret.

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Title: In the Twilight (The Sprightling Diaries, Book 1)

Author: Fiauna Lund

Publisher: Shady Hill Press

Release Date: January 1, 2012

ISBN: 978-1890718770

Size: 196 pages, 6×9, softcover

Genre: Middle Grade/YA Fantasy

Shadows by Cheree Alsop

Duskies are born in a dangerous world as servants of the lords of light and shadow, but when creatures known as the Sathen threaten all the races, a Duskie named Nexa finds herself caught in the middle of a perilous journey to save her people and unite the races as one.

Facing dangerous odds, prejudice, and violence, Nexa finds strength in those around her and, ultimately, love.

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Title: Shadows

Author: Cheree Alsop

Publisher: Self

Release Date: December 17, 2011

ISBN: NA

Size: 217 pages, 6×9, softcover

Genre: YA Paranormal

Black by Cheree Alsop

Black, the second book in The Silver Series, is about a werewolf raised through the atrocities of a werewolf fighting ring. He is rescued and given the chance at a new life, but haunting reminders of his past follow him as he tries to make a fresh start. He has to confront his dark history in order to protect the girl he loves, or let himself be swept away into the pain and humiliation of the arena once more.

The second book of a fresh new werewolf series, Black is fast paced, dark, and shows that love is something worth fighting for.

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Title: Black (The Silver Series, Book 2)

Author: Cheree Alsop

Publisher: Self

Release Date: December 16, 2011

ISBN: NA

Size: 196 pages, eBook

Genre: YA Paranormal

Series: Silver (bk 1)

Silver by Cheree Alsop

Silver, book one of The Silver Series, is a coming of age story about a teenage werewolf whose father is murdered. He has to come to terms with his new life, new school, and new friends while trying to stop a killer. Attempting to make peace with the territory’s pack and falling in love make his new situation even more perilous.

A fresh new werewolf series, Silver is fast paced and exciting, and shows that with love, there truly are no limits.

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Title: Silver (The Silver Series, Book 1)

Author: Cheree Alsop

Publisher: Self

Release Date: December 16, 2011

ISBN: NA

Size: 179 pages, eBook

Genre: YA Paranormal

Immortal Mine by Cindy C. Bennett

Niahm (pronounced Neeve) Parker is thoroughly content with her life in the small town of Goshen. Her parents, who travel frequently for their work, have raised a headstrong, independent teen. While her peers can hardly wait for the opportunity to leave, Niahm plans to stay forever.

When Shane Coleman and his nephew Sam move into town, it’s the biggest event to happen in as long as anyone can remember. It’s quite remarkable for anyone to move into Goshen rather than out, but when it’s discovered that Sam is 17, it requires some serious burning of the phone lines. All the teen girls are thrilled to have a new hottie in town—all except Niahm. Sam Coleman represents a threat to her perfect way of life.

Sam is drawn to Niahm against his will. He’d prefer to not be bound to this angry, stubborn, unlikeable girl. Unfortunately, he has no choice. However, Sam didn’t plan on falling for Niahm. For Immortals, love is not only forbidden, but dangerous for her. He finds himself in a fight not only for Niahm’s heart, but to protect her from being harmed by those who seek to destroy Sam and those like him.

Niahm is attracted to the tall, copper-headed boy, who becomes her friend and then her support when tragedy strikes. Soon, she begins to realize that there may be more to Sam than she ever suspected… much more. But what he truly is, she can’t begin to imagine.

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Title: Immortal Mine

Author: Cindy C. Bennett

Publisher: CreateSpace

Release Date: December 4, 2011

ISBN: 978-1468031706

Size: 326 pages, 6×9, softcover

Genre: YA Paranormal

Applespell by Danyelle Leafty

Title: Applespell (The Fairy Godmother Dilemma, Book 3)

Author: Danyelle Leafty

Publisher: Danyelle Leafty

Release Date: November 26, 2011

Size: eBook

Genre: YA Fantasy

Series: Catspell (bk 1), Firespell (bk2)

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When the faerie queen is unable to revive Mara, Nerissa decides that she’s done with fairy godmothering, finished with being a winged problem solver, and no longer willing to deal with the heartbreak that comes from wishes, wings, and wands.

She is not, however, going to give up dealing with DIDs. (Damsels in Distress)

But now, rather than mopping up messes and helping them achieve their perfect Happily Every After, she must stand in the way of the DIDs and their Prince Charmings. A good wicked faerie never rests until she uncovers an Unhappily Ever After, and Nerissa is nothing, if not dedicated.

She has already chosen her new DIDs–a girl named Snow White, and her sister Rose Red.

As the tale unfolds, Nerissa soon learns that being a wicked faerie isn’t all that different from being a fairy godmother. It’s all in the application–and where the heart lies.

Cloak by James Gough

Title: Cloak

Author: James Gough

Publisher: WiDo

Release Date: November 15, 2011

ISBN: 978-1937178000

Size: 312 pages, hardcover

Genre: YA Fantasy

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You know the neighbor down the street who looks a little like a rodent? What if he’s part gerbil? Or that beaky store clerk? She could be one-fifth cockatoo. Just suppose that half-humans/half-animals have lived incognito for centuries, blending in seamlessly. And suppose you are the only person on earth able to see through their ruse.

Thirteen-year-old Will Tuttle lives a boring, friendless life trapped in a sterile bubble, suffering from mysterious allergies no doctor can explain. But everything’s about to change as he learns his countless allergies have a single, bizarre source—enchants, a society of half-humans that have lived among mankind for generations. Their existence is history’s best-kept secret. Enchants have become far too clever at keeping their tails, scales, claws and feathers hidden from everyone, everyone but Will.

The ability to see enchants makes Will a target. Soon a misfit team of half-human bodyguards is sent in to keep him alive. Their assignment: to help Will overcome his fears and blend into a society that isn’t supposed to exist. But when Will stumbles upon a sinister plot that threatens to destroy enchants everywhere, blending in becomes the least of his worries.

Faced with wolf-man attacks, deadly stampedes and carnivorous enchants with a taste for thirteen-year-olds, Will scrambles to discover who’s forcing enchants to lose their humanity. Can Will find the culprit in time? Or will he have to sacrifice himself to save his new found friends from becoming slaves to their own instincts?

On the Fringe by Courtney King Walker

Title: On the Fringe

Author: Courtney King Walker

Publisher: Lands Atlantic Publishing

Release Date: October 19, 2011

ISBN: 978-0982500552

Size: 272 pages, 5.5×8.5, paperback

Genre: YA Paranormal

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Claire is struggling to overcome the murder of her childhood friend and secret crush, Daniel. Everyone else seems to be moving on with their lives, but she’s still trying to cope. The fact that she finds herself alone and drowning on her 16th birthday isn’t helping.

Neither is thinking she sees Daniel’s face in murky water as she mysteriously resurfaces. But something happened during those four and a half minutes that will make her realize it was not just her imagination.

As Claire and Daniel try to grasp a possible reconnection, other grudge-holding beings have plans of their own. Now, the two of them have to decide if their fleeting relationship is worth the possibility of Claire being trapped on the fringe forever.

Become by Ali Cross

Title: Become

Author: Ali Cross

Publisher: CreateSpace

Release Date: October 28, 2011

ISBN: 978-1466384965

Size: 344 pages, 6×9, paperback

Genre: YA Fantasy

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Sixteen-year old Desolation Black wants nothing more than to stay in Hell where it’s cold and lonely and totally predictable. Instead, she’s sent back to Earth where she must face the evil she despises and the good she always feared.

When Desi is forced to embrace her inner demon, she assumes her choice has been made—that she has no hope of being anything other than what her father, Lucifer, has created her to be. What she doesn’t count on, is finding a reason to change—something she’s never had before—a friend.

Firespell by Danyelle Leafty

Title: Firespell (The Fairy Godmother Dilemma, Book 2)

Author: Danyelle Leafty

Publisher: Danyelle Leafty

Release Date: November 12, 2011

Size: eBook

Genre: YA Fantasy

Series: Catspell (bk 1)

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When Alora’s Prince Charming is chosen due to political expediency,she tries to put her best foot forward. But thanks to a magicalmishap, her feet are webbed and her body resembles that of anovergrown goose.

Her brother creates a charm that enables her to look human frommoonrise until moonset, so she sets out hoping she can convincethe prince she is a girl, rather than the main course. Alora soonlearns that she isn’t the only one with secrets after she stumblesupon an ancient plot that would warp the threads of magic holdingthe land together. When her plan to foil the plot ends up with herPrince-Charming-to-be walking into a trap, Alora finds herselfcaught between an age old grudge and the most powerful creaturein the world: the Firebird.

What she needs is a fairy godmother. What she gets is a frog.

Exiled by RaShelle Workman

Title: Exiled

Author: RaShelle Workman

Publisher: Polished Pen Press

Release Date: November 11, 2011

ISBN: 978-1465805652

Size: 340 pages, 5.5×8.5, paperback

Genre: YA sci-fi romance

Caution: This book may contain objectionable language. Author says PG-13.

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Stubborn, sixteen-year-old Princess Venus of Kelari wants one thing, to become a kelvieri, that is, until someone exiles her to Earth, kills her irrihunter and takes her family.

Now she wants revenge.

First she’s got to get home. But before she can return to Kelari, the Gods have commanded her to help an arrogant boy named Michael find his soul mate.

Only she doesn’t know the first thing about love.

Rather quickly, her inexperience with human emotion is obscured by other matters—alien-controlled psychotic teens that are out to kill her, and a government group that is set on capturing and dissecting her.

Worst of all, Venus will suffer a painful death-by-poisoning, thanks to Earth’s atmosphere, if she remains on the planet longer than one week.

Still, Venus is a Princess and she’s got a plan. Surely, with her help, Michael will fall in love with a human.

But time is running out and Michael is falling for the wrong girl—her.

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