New Fiction September 15 copy

IMAGINE

NEW FICTION SEPTEMBER 2015

Can love survive a lifetime? When working-class Clem Ackroyd falls for Frankie
Mortimer, the gorgeous daughter of a wealthy local landowner, he has no hope that
it can. After all, the world teeters on the brink of war, and bombs could rain down
any minute over the bleak English countryside--just as they did seventeen years ago
as his mother, pregnant with him, tended her garden. This time, Clem may not
survive. Told in cinematic style by acclaimed writer Mal Peet, this brilliant coming-of-
age novel is a gripping family portrait that interweaves the stories of three
generations and the terrifying crises that define them. With its urgent sense of
history, sweeping emotion, and winning young narrator, Mal Peet's latest is an
unforgettable, timely exploration of life during wartime.

OVERSEAS FAMILY SCHOOL
HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY

Finn Easton sees the world through miles
instead of minutes. It’s how he makes sense of
the world, and how he tries to convince himself
that he’s a real boy and not just a character in
his father’s bestselling cult-classic book. Finn
has two things going for him: his best friend,
the possibly-insane-but-definitely-excellent
Cade Hernandez, and Julia Bishop, the first girl
he’s ever loved.

Then Julia moves away, and Finn is
heartbroken. Feeling restless and trapped in
the book, Finn embarks on a road trip with
Cade to visit their college of choice in
Oklahoma. When an unexpected accident
happens and the boys become unlikely heroes,
they take an eye-opening detour away from
everything they thought they had planned—and
learn how to write their own destiny.

In eighteenth-century England, young
Christopher “Kit” Bristol is the unwitting servant
of notorious highwayman Whistling Jack. One
dark night, Kit finds his master bleeding from a
mortal wound, dons the man’s riding cloak to
seek help, and changes the course of his life
forever. Mistaken for Whistling Jack and on the
run from redcoats, Kit is catapulted into a world
of magic and wonders he thought the stuff of
fairy tales.

Bound by magical law, Kit takes up his master’s
quest to rescue a rebellious fairy princess from
an arranged marriage to King George III of
England. But his task is not an easy one, for Kit
must contend with the feisty Princess Morgana,
gobling attacks, and a magical map that
portends his destiny: as a hanged man upon
the gallows….

Matt and his best friend, John, only came out to
Montauk for the summer to make a little extra
cash and then head back home. A seemingly
basic plan for two guys from Queens. And then
Matt meets Driana. Because it’s always about a
girl, right?
The girl leads to a party, the party leads to a
boat, which leads to being adrift at sea with
three rich kids who have no clue about how to
navigate a boat, let alone actually survive. Matt
and John are used to creating stability in
unstable situations, but Matt’s busy falling in
love at the worst possible time, and John can
rub people the wrong way when he’s focused
on survival. Driana is trying to keep the peace,
but her friends JoJo and Stef aren’t making it
easy. The longer they are out there, the lower
everyone’s reserves of mental and emotional
strength, which is a problem since the biggest
mistakes can happen when people are tired.

Darcy Patel has put college and everything else
on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds.
Arriving in New York with no apartment or
friends she wonders whether she's made the
right decision until she falls in with a crowd of
other seasoned and fledgling writers who take
her under their wings…

Told in alternating chapters is Darcy's novel, a
suspenseful thriller about Lizzie, a teen who
slips into the 'Afterworld' to survive a terrorist
attack. But the Afterworld is a place between the
living and the dead and as Lizzie drifts between
our world and that of the Afterworld, she
discovers that many unsolved - and terrifying -
stories need to be reconciled. And when a new
threat resurfaces, Lizzie learns her special gifts
may not be enough to protect those she loves
and cares about most.

Senior Paul Wagoner walks into his school with
a stolen gun, he threatens his girlfriend, Emily
Beam, and then takes his own life. Soon after,
angry and guilt-ridden Emily is sent to a
boarding school in Amherst, Massachusetts,
where two quirky fellow students and the spirit
of Emily Dickinson offer helping hands. But it is
up to Emily Beam to heal her own damaged
self, to find the good behind the bad, hope
inside the despair, and springtime under the
snow.

In a world between wars, a young man on the
cusp of taking priestly vows is suddenly made a
fugitive. Fleeing the accusations of police who
blame him for a murder, as well as more sinister
forces with darker intentions, Vango attempts
to trace the secrets of his shrouded past and
prove his innocence before all is lost. As he
crisscrosses the continent via train, boat, and
even the Graf Zeppelin airship, his adventures
take him from Parisian rooftops to
Mediterranean islands to Scottish forests. A
mysterious, unforgettable, and romantic
protagonist, Vango tells a thrilling story sure to
captivate lovers of daring escapades and
subversive heroes.

When Gloria sets out to spend the summer
before her senior year at a camp for gifted and
talented students, she doesn’t know quite what
to expect. Fresh from the heartache of losing
her grandmother and missing her best friend,
Gloria resolves to make the best of her new
circumstances. But some things are proving to
be more challenging than she expected. Like
the series of mysterious clues left by a certain
Professor X before he even shows up to teach
his class, Secrets of the Written Word. Or the
very sweet, but very conservative, roommate
whose coal-industry family champions
mountaintop removal. Not to mention the
obnoxious Mason, who dresses like the Mad
Hatter and immediately gets on Gloria’s nerves
— but somehow won’t escape her thoughts.

It's 1993, and Generation X pulses to the beat
of Kurt Cobain and the grunge movement.
Sixteen-year-old Maggie Lynch is uprooted
from big-city Chicago to a windswept town on
the Irish Sea. Surviving on care packages of
Spin magazine and Twizzlers from her rocker
uncle Kevin, she wonders if she'll ever find her
place in this new world. When first love and
sudden death simultaneously strike, a naive but
determined Maggie embarks on a forbidden
pilgrimage that will take her to a seedy part of
Dublin and on to a life- altering night in Rome
to fulfill a dying wish. Through it all, Maggie
discovers an untapped inner strength to do the
most difficult but rewarding thing of all, live

Two years ago, sixteen-year-old Jamie Henry
breathed a sigh of relief when a judge
sentenced his older sister to juvenile detention
for burning down their neighbor’s fancy horse
barn. The whole town did. Because Crazy Cate
Henry used to be a nice girl. Until she did a lot
of bad things. Like drinking. And stealing. And
lying. Like playing weird mind games in the
woods with other children. Like making sure
she always got her way. Or else.

But today Cate got out. And now she’s coming
back for Jamie.

Because more than anything, Cate Henry needs
her little brother to know the truth about their
past. A truth she’s kept hidden for years. A truth
she’s not supposed to tell.

Kell is one of the last Travelers—rare magicians
who choose a parallel universe to visit. Grey
London is dirty, boring, lacks magic, ruled by
mad King George. Red London is where life
and magic are revered, and the Maresh Dynasty
presides over a flourishing empire. White
London is ruled by whoever has murdered their
way to the throne. People fight to control
magic, and the magic fights back, draining the
city to its very bones. Once there was Black
London—but no one speaks of that now.

Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, personal
ambassador and adopted Prince of Red
London, carrying the monthly correspondences
between royals of each London. Unofficially,
Kell smuggles for those willing to pay for even
a glimpse of a world they’ll never see.

A fantasy set in Tsarist Russia.
Elena Rudina lives in the impoverished Russian
countryside. Her father has been dead for years.
One of her brothers has been conscripted into
the Tsar’s army, the other taken as a servant in
the house of the local landowner. Her mother is
dying, slowly, in their tiny cabin. And there is no
food. But then a train arrives in the village, a
train carrying untold wealth, a cornucopia of
food, and a noble family destined to visit the
Tsar in Saint Petersburg — a family that includes
Ekaterina, a girl of Elena’s age. When the two
girls’ lives collide, an adventure is set in motion,
an escapade that includes mistaken identity, a
monk locked in a tower, a prince traveling
incognito, and — in a starring role only Gregory
Maguire could have conjured — Baba Yaga,
witch of Russian folklore, in her ambulatory
house perched on chicken legs

A wunderkind young set designer, Emi has
already started to find her way in the
competitive Hollywood film world.
Emi is a film buff and a true romantic, but her
real-life relationships are a mess. She has
desperately gone back to the same girl too
many times to mention. But then a mysterious
letter from a silver screen legend leads Emi to
Ava. Ava is unlike anyone Emi has ever met. She
has a tumultuous, not-so-glamorous past, and
lives an unconventional life. She’s enigmatic….
She’s beautiful. And she is about to expand
Emi’s understanding of family, acceptance, and
true romance.

Sixteen-year-old Tess Kendrick has spent her
entire life on her grandfather's ranch. But when
her estranged sister Ivy uproots her to D.C., Tess
is thrown into a world that revolves around
politics and power. She also starts at Hardwicke
Academy, the D.C. school for the children of the
rich and powerful, where she unwittingly
becomes a fixer for the high school set, fixing
teens’ problems the way her sister fixes their
parents’ problems.
And when a conspiracy surfaces that involves
the family member of one of Tess's classmates,
love triangles and unbelievable family secrets
come to light and life gets even more
interesting—and complicated—for Tess.

Fast-forward to a time when Apple and Google
have been replaced by Gnosis, a monolith
corporation that has developed the most life-
changing technology to ever hit the market: Lux,
an app that flawlessly optimizes decision
making for the best personal results.
Just like everyone else, sixteen-year-old Rory
Vaughn knows the key to a happy, healthy life is
following what Lux recommends. When she’s
accepted to the elite boarding school Theden
Academy, her future happiness seems all the
more assured. But once on campus, something
feels wrong beneath the polished surface of her
prestigious dream school.
Then she meets North, a handsome townie who
doesn’t use Lux, and begins to fall for him and
his outsider way of life. Soon, Rory is going
against Lux’s recommendations, listening
instead to the inner voice that everyone has
been taught to ignore saw.

Adam's muscular dystrophy has stolen his
mobility, his friends, and in a few short years, it
will take his life. Virtual reality games are Adam's
only escape from his wheelchair. In his alternate
world, he can defeat anyone. Running, jumping,
scoring touchdowns: Adam is always the hero.
Then an artificial intelligence program, Sigma,
hacks into Adam's game. Created by Adam's
computer-genius father, Sigma has gone rogue,
threatening Adam's life-and world domination.
Their one chance to stop Sigma is using
technology Adam's dad developed to digitally
preserve the mind of his dying son.
Along with a select group of other terminally ill
teens, Adam becomes one of the Six who have
forfeited their bodies to inhabit weaponized
robots. But with time running short, the Six must
learn to manipulate their new mechanical forms
and work together to train for epic
combat...before Sigma destroys humanity

Life is hard for Mikey. He's frightened of open
spaces and would much rather curl up in his
room and avoid the world outside. So going to
a noisy, public place is a big deal-but with his
sister Meggie by his side, it should be safe. And
Mikey is determined to overcome his fear.
But things go badly wrong when he encounters
a gang and witnesses something terrible. To
make matters worse, they know where he lives,
and now they want to see him . . .
This time, there's no hiding place for Mikey .

'He was here again last night, the man with the
dead eyes. He was in my room and in my head.'
There are not many things Nick Mallory knows
for sure.
He knows there was a car crash. He knows he is
in hospital. And he knows he feels furious with
his father. What he doesn't know is why.
As his memories start to return, Nick finds
himself caught in a net of secrets and lies -
where truth and perception collide and heroes
and villains are not easy to tell apart.

In the vein of The Outsiders and the early
Western novels of Elmore Leonard, this
inventive debut novel, a cross between the cult
classic Mad Max movie series and Cormac
McCarthy’s The Road, blends adrenaline-fueled
action with an improbable yet tender romance
to offer a rich and vivid portrayal of misfits and
loners forced together in their struggle for a
better life.
Adam Stone wants freedom and peace. He
wants a chance to escape Blackwater, the dust-
bowl desert town he grew up in. Most of all, he
wants the beautiful Sadie Blood. Alongside
Sadie and the dangerous outsider Kane, Adam
will ride the Blackwater Trail in a brutal race that
will test them all, body and soul. Only the
strongest will survive.
The prize? A one-way ticket to Sky-Base and
unimaginable luxury.

Adelina Amouteru is a survivor of the blood
fever. A decade ago, the deadly illness swept
through her nation. Most of the infected
perished, while many of the children who
survived were left with strange markings.
Adelina’s black hair turned silver, her lashes
went pale, and now she has only a jagged scar
where her left eye once was. Her cruel father
believes she is a malfetto, an abomination,
ruining their family’s good name and standing
in the way of their fortune. But some of the
fever’s survivors are rumored to possess more
than just scars—they are believed to have
mysterious and powerful gifts, and though their
identities remain secret, they have come to be
called the Young Elites.

In Bed Stuy, New York, a small
misunderstanding can escalate into having a
price on your head—even if you’re totally clean.
This gritty, triumphant debut captures the heart
and the hardship of life for an urban teen.
A lot of the stuff that gives my neighborhood a
bad name, I don’t really mess with. The guns
and drugs and all that, not really my thing.
Nah, not his thing. Ali’s got enough going on,
between school and boxing and helping out at
home. His best friend Noodles, though. Now
there’s a dude looking for trouble—and,
somehow, it’s always Ali around to pick up the
pieces. But, hey, a guy’s gotta look out for his
boys, right? Besides, it’s all small potatoes; it’s
not like anyone’s getting hurt.

A severely burned teenager. A guitar. Punk rock. The
chords of a rock 'n' roll road trip in a coming-of-age
novel that is a must-read story about finding your
place in the world...even if you carry scars inside and
out. In attempting to describe himself in his college
application essay--help us to become acquainted
with you beyond your courses, grades, and test
scores--Harbinger (Harry) Jones goes way beyond
the 250-word limit and gives a full account of his life.
The first defining moment: the day the
neighborhood goons tied him to a tree during a
lightning storm when he was 8 years old, and the
tree was struck and caught fire. Harry was badly
burned and has had to live with the physical and
emotional scars, reactions from strangers, bullying,
and loneliness that instantly became his everyday
reality.
The second defining moment: the day in 8th grade
when the handsome, charismatic Johnny rescued
him from the bullies and then made the startling
suggestion that they start a band together. Harry
discovered that playing music transported him out of
his nightmare of a world, and he finally had
something that compelled people to look beyond
his physical appearance.

Witty, sarcastic Ethan and his three best friends
are students at Selwyn Arts Academy, which has
been hijacked by For Art’s Sake, a sleazy reality-
television show. In the tradition of Ezra Pound,
the foursome secretly writes and distributes a
long poem to protest the show. They’re thrilled
to have started a budding rebellion.

But the forces behind the show are craftier than
they seem. The web of betrayal stretches farther
than Ethan could have ever imagined, and it’s
up to him, his friends, and a heroic gerbil
named Baconnaise to save Selwyn.

Celaena Sardothien has survived deadly
contests and shattering heartbreak—but at an
unspeakable cost. Now she must travel to a new
land to confront her darkest truth...a truth about
her heritage that could change her life—and her
future—forever.
Meanwhile, brutal and monstrous forces are
gathering on the horizon, intent on enslaving
her world. To defeat them, Celaena must find
the strength to not only fight her inner demons
but to battle the evil that is about to be
unleashed.
The king's assassin takes on an even greater
destiny and burns brighter than ever before in
this follow-up to the New York Times bestselling
Crown of Midnight.

"With a bolt of lightning on my kicks . . .The
court is SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop
all that quivering. Cuz tonight I'm delivering,"
announces dread-locked, 12-year old Josh Bell.
He and his twin brother Jordan are awesome on
the court. But Josh has more than basketball in
his blood, he's got mad beats, too, that tell his
family's story in verse, in this fast and furious
novel of family and brotherhood.
Josh and Jordan must come to grips with
growing up on and off the court to realize
breaking the rules comes at a terrible price, as
their story's heart-stopping climax proves a
game-changer for the entire family.