Legacy of Kings

 

Imagine a world where Game of Thrones meets Percy Jackson and the Olympians.  Are you there yet?  No?  Imagine just a little bit more, and here comes the fantastic made for Teens Tale - Legacy of Kings. A world where magic still lurks in the shadows, Gods walk the earth, and people seek to destroy the sorcerers who rule the world from behind the scenes. This work of historical fiction will sweep you off your feet!

Set in Macedonia, this story embraces the life of Alexander the Great as a  young man, just finding his way as a military leader.  His family are the rulers of Macedonia. 


This is also the tale of a young orphaned girl named Katerina, who has a mission to complete before she can settle down and pursue her dreams.  Haunted by the murder of her mother, Katerina is determined to make the guilty party pay.


Jacob will go to any lengths to win the woman of his dreams - Katerina.  He has loved her with a burning passion since they were children.


As the story begins, Jacob is entering the Blood Tournament.  The winner of the tournament will be selected to be a member of the King's Guard, and wealth which will enable him to win the woman of his dreams.

With the start of the blood tournament, the characters lives entwine in unexpected ways that will influence the outcome of history.


Find this book in a library near you: https://www.worldcat.org/title/legacy-of-kings/oclc/1076593298&referer=brief_results

I Am Number Four

There were Seven.  Seven children who escaped the doomed planet of Lorien with their Cepan.  Upon leaving, each child was given a charm that would protect them - as long as they stayed apart.

When they arrived on Earth, each pair - 1 child and 1 Cepan, disappeared.  They remain safe only as long as they remain separate.  They live their lives on the run, hiding from the terror that haunts them.  For they are hunted.  Hunted by the same Mogadorians that destroyed Lorien, the seven that remain must be killed in the order in which they are numbered - only the charm given them upon Lorien protects them on this strange planet.  As each is killed, a brand burns itself around the ankle of each of the survivors.  Each of the children has at least one Legacy - a powerful gift that will allow them to defend themselves.  But the legacies don't develop until the children become teenagers.

We join Number Seven in Florida.  He is enjoying an evening on a boat with others from school when the third brand appears on his ankle.  He and his Cepan, Henri, pack up and take off for yet another random destination.




They settle in Paradise, Ohio.  Number Four decides to go by the name of John when he enrolls in high school.  For the first time, John decides to fight back against the bullies and not just melt into the background.  John also makes friends.  And finds a girlfriend.




 As they search for more information on the Mogadorians, John is shocked to find just how close they are to taking over the Earth - the same way they took over Lorien.  The race to find out more about the Mogadorians, develop John's Legacies, and run before their location is discovered makes this a compelling read that will leave you hanging on the edge of your seat!


Find this book in a library near you: https://www.worldcat.org/title/i-am-number-four-the-lost-files-the-legacies/oclc/880767678&referer=brief_results

Company Town

Ashby, Madeline.  Company Town.  2016.  Tor Publishing, New York, NY.

Go-Jung Hwa is a unique person.  She is truly organic.  She has no bio-engineered genetic implants.   As one of the few existing humans without any type of engineering, she is truly unique.  Nobody can use her implants to control her or to steer her to their will.  She is uniquely and completely her own person.

Hwa lives in a town that consists of several inter-connected oil rigs off the coast of Canada.  She is a body guard for the United Sex Workers Union.  Quick, fast, strong, and discreet, she is the body guard of choice for the union.

When Hwa gets in the middle of an attempted disturbance on one of the oil rigs, she becomes involved with the Lynch Company.  The company that owns the town.  After the Lynch family meets Hwa, they hire her to be the bodyguard for Joel, the youngest Lynch and future leader of the company.

As Hwa takes on the job of guarding Joel, her friends begin dying left and right.  As she explores their deaths, she finds a deeper, more sinister plot that goes far deeper then you would think possible.

You will be left on the edge of your seat as the revelations and plot twists play themselves out in the final chapter.



Find this book in a Library near you: https://www.worldcat.org/title/company-town/oclc/957635506&referer=brief_results

Full Cicada Moon

Hilton, Marilyn.  Full Cicada Moon. 2015.  Dial Books for Young Readers.  New York, NY.





The year is 1969, and the Apollo Mission is about to land on the moon.  The world is full of wonder about the new territory about to be explored, and the scientific accomplishments of the NASA Scientists.

12 year old Mimi Oliver dreams of becoming an astronaut on the moon.  Growing up in California, surrounded by family and close friends, anything seems possible.

Mimi's Dad has been given his dream job - as a professor at Hillsborough College in Vermont.  And Mimi and her mother journey across the county to join her father in their new home and her new school - just after New Year's Day.

For Mimi, life is full of the usual complications of moving to a new school in a new place;  finding new friends, a place to fit in, getting to new to her classes and proving to the teachers that she really does belong in the classes that she's been placed into.

But there's one unexpected twist. As a half Japanese, half black young woman who wants to be a NASA Scientist in a mostly white very traditional small town in Vermont, she keeps finding unexpected obstacles and hostility where she least expects.

Mimi's journey to win acceptance and follow her dreams will give you the courage to follow your very own big dreams.

When Dimple Met Rishi

Menon, Sandhya.  When Dimple Met Rishi.  2017.  Simon Pulse, New York, NY

Dimple Shah is an average, ordinary American teenager who loves to code.  Her biggest dream for the summer after she graduates from high school is to get away to a coding camp and program a winning App.  An app so wonderful, so spectacular, that she will get a chance to meet her heroine, Jenny Lindt, a world famous coder.  There's only one problem with this perfect scenario.  Did I mention that she is of Indian descent? Her parents want her to find and marry her I.I.H.  (Ideal Indian Husband)

Rishi Patel is an average, ordinary American teenager who is very connected to his roots and his past.  While his passion is drawing and writing comic books.  Instead of pursuing his passion, he has set his sights on going to MIT to become a computer programmer.  He is a hopeless romantic who loves the unconventional story of how his parents met through an arranged marriage.




The parents of Rishi and Dimple are old friends who grew up in India together.  Between them, they believe that Dimple and Rishi would make an ideal couple, and take the steps to arrange a marriage between them.  While Rishi is well aware of the plans for the two to meet during the summer coding camp, Dimple's parents decide that it is best to keep her in the dark.




Dimple begins their acquaintance with each other by throwing her iced coffee all over this strange kid who knows everything about her and calls her "future wife".  Things take a turn for the worse when the two are assigned to be partners during the six weeks of camp.




But, as Dimple and Rishi begin to work together, they find that underneath their prickly exteriors lie a quiet depth that neither one suspected about the other.




Will they follow through on their parent's wishes and pursue a relationship?  Or are they destined to remain friends?  Find out as you journey with Dimple and Rishi through San Francisco!


Find this book in a library near  you: https://www.worldcat.org/title/when-dimple-met-rishi/oclc/1085230806&referer=brief_results

Youth Media Awards

The time is coming when the BIG awards for youth literature published in 2017 are going to be announced.  As always, there's a lot of speculation about who is going to win the prizes.  Which prizes, you ask?  The Printz Award - for Young Adult Fiction.  The Newberry Award for Children's Fiction, and the Caldecott for Children's Picture Books.

I've read books that I think are big contenders this year.  I know I'm wrong about which book will win, but I'm going to list my personal favorites:

1) You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
Author: Sherman Alexie

The true story of Alexie's life growing up on the Rez.  This bold, stark tale of life with alcoholic parents in the extreme poverty of life on an Indian Reservation is a look at the different ways we love - and express our love for the people in our lives.

2) The Hate U Give
Author: Angie Thomas

In a story ripped from the headlines, a young teen is shot by police during a traffic stop.  The following he said/she said story brings a community to the edge of violence, and the jury verdict pushes the city over the edge.  Insightful commentary brings the story out of the headlines and into your hands, turning what you thought you knew about these stories upside down.

3) That Inevitable Victorian Thing
Author: E.K. Johnston

In this Alternative History, the Victorian Empire has flourished, and rules the entire globe.  Set in modern day Canada, Margaret Anne, the next in line for the British Throne, has her coming out disguised as a relatively unknown noble person named Margaret Sandwich.   Margaret has the summer of a lifetime, free from the strictures of the court until she discovers love - an unconventional love that could turn the empire upside down.


I'd love to see You Don't Have to Say You Love Me win it all, but I wouldn't be surprised if The Hate U Give is the winner.

What about you?  Do you have any predictions for this year?

The Cruel Prince

Black, Holly.  The Cruel Prince.  2018.  Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Jude is an ordinary girl growing up in suburbia with her parents and sisters when her world is unexpectedly turned upside down.

A mysterious stranger appears at her parents door one day.  He confronts her mother, and slaughters both of her parents before she has a chance to scream.  He explains that he is from the Faerie Kingdom, and is one of the folk.  Their mother had been his wife, and their oldest sister was his child.  He then takes all three of the children back to Faerie to raise as his own. It turns out that her new father is the General to the High King.

Jude is a mortal who finds herself swept into the strange world of Faerie, with all of the political intrigue and anger that accompany her when The Folk are forced to treat Jude and her sister as equals.



The intrigue deepens when the High King of Faerie is to step down and appoint one of his children as the next High King.  As Jude attempts to remain alive when it seems all about her are trying to kill her, she finds herself swept into the intrigue of the high court.  It turns out that not all is as it seems, and that not everything is as clear cut and straight forward as she thought.  There are plots within plots within plots.



Can Jude survive the transition?  Will she continue to have a place in court?  Who is the mysterious suitor that will be asking for her sister's hand in marriage?  What part does her little brother Oak have to play in this drama?



Plots within plots within plots will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last twisty, turny end of the book.


Find this book in a library near you: https://www.worldcat.org/title/cruel-prince/oclc/1039680704&referer=brief_results