Impervious
A.J. Hartley
Publisher: UCLan Publishing
What is this about?
Trina Warren didn't plan on being anyone's hero. She planned on going to fourth period as normal. But then there was a bang, and an overturned chair, and everything was different.
Now Trina finds herself in a fantasy world, pursued by a faceless, nameless monster that only she can stop. Just one second is all it takes for Trina to turn from a regular clumsy high school girl, to a monster-fighting warrior. Just one second is all it takes for everything to change ...
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The Rules
Tracy Darnton
Publisher: Stripes Publishing
What is this about?
Amber’s an expert when it comes to staying hidden - she's been trained her whole life for it. But what happens when the person you’re hiding from taught you everything you know?
When a letter from her dad arrives, Amber knows she's got to move - and fast. He's managed to find her and she knows he'll stop at nothing to draw her back into the extreme survivalist way of life he believes in.
All of a sudden the Rules she's spent so long trying to escape are the ones keeping her safe. But for how long?
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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (A Hunger Games Novel)
Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic
What is this about?
It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.
The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined — every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favour or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.
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The Short Knife
Elen Caldecott
Publisher: Andersen Press Ltd
What is this about?
It is the year 454AD. The Roman Empire has withdrawn from Britain, throwing it into the chaos of the Dark Ages. Mai has been kept safe by her father and her sister, Haf.
But when Saxon warriors arrive at their farm, the family is forced to flee to the hills where British warlords lie in wait.
Can Mai survive in a dangerous world where speaking her mother tongue might be deadly, and where even the people she loves the most can’t be trusted?
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Dark Blue Rising
Teri Terry
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
What is this about?
Tabby lives a transient life with her mum Cate, never sticking in one place long enough to make friends.
Until one day, an accident changes everything. Cate is arrested and Tabby realises her life has been a lie: Cate is not her mother.
As she adjusts to her new life, Tabby finds herself drawn to the ocean - the only place she feels happy - and enrolls at a swimming summer school to help her heal.
But all is not as it seems. She and her new friends are cut off from the outside world and she's plagued by a repeating symbol of interlocking circles that follows her everywhere.
As Tabby begins to learn the truth about what the circles mean, and uncovers the terrible lies she's been told about her past, a final twist awaits her - a secret hidden in her DNA...
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Far From Perfect (The Valentines, Book 2)
Holly Smale
Publisher: HarperCollins
What is this about?
The second sensational book in the Valentines series – a hilarious and heart-aching story about the impossible standards for being a girl.
Be yourself but, you know, someone else... Enthusiastic but not desperate; calm but not dull; funny but not try-hard; sparky but not crazy; feisty but not aggressive; beautiful but relatable; elegant but not icy; confident but not arrogant; feminine but not girly; nice but not boring.
Faith Valentine has it all - fame, money and extraordinary beauty. But what she wants more than anything is a quiet life away from the cameras. Except nobody ever asks Faith what she wants, and her family's expectations are crushing her.
The world thinks she’s perfect, but is there is more to perfection than meets the eye?
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We Are Blood & Thunder
Kesia Lupo
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
What is this about?
Lena has never left the sealed-off city she calls home. The treacherous storm cloud surrounding the Duke's Forest prevents most from entering or leaving. But then Lena's deepest secret is revealed--she is a mage. And according to the law, all mages must die. With little other choice, she flees for her life, straight into the treacherous forest.
Constance's family and friends believe her to be dead. She fled the Duke's Forest six years before, and no one believed she'd survive outside the city walls. And even though she isn't sure if she can trust anybody back at court, she's intent on reclaiming her place as the duke's daughter and heir.
Lena and Constance meet for only a moment, but even after their paths diverge, the terrifying storm cloud keep them linked. A dark revelation lies at the heart of their connection--the truth behind who cast the storm cloud's spell. Only the girls can expose this secret and dispel the storm for good. . . but unveiling the truth could cost them everything.
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We Are Bound by Stars
Kesia Lupo
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
What is this about?
On a mysterious island where the very earth holds magic, masked assassins plague the city and strange creatures rise from the desert. Livio has riled against his destiny his whole life. Beatrice longs to escape her life of servitude. But when a twist of fate unites them, it is up to them to stop a deadly revolution.
Are they just puppets in someone else's game? Will they have to accept the hands they have been dealt or can either change their fortunes?
Another thrilling, plot-driven adventure, with an even bigger twist, We Are Bound by Stars is a tale of masks, politics, desire and deception that will have you gripped once again in Kesia Lupo's rich fantasy world.
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Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know
Samira Ahmed
Publisher: ATOM
What is this about?
It's August in Paris and 17-year-old Khayyam Maquet - American, French, Indian, Muslim - is at a crossroads. This holiday with her professor parents should be a dream trip for the budding art historian. But her maybe-ex-boyfriend is probably ghosting her, she might have just blown her chance at getting into her dream college, and now all she really wants is to be back home in Chicago figuring out her messy life instead of brooding in the City of Light.
Two hundred years before Khayyam's summer of discontent, Leila is struggling to survive and keep her true love hidden from the Pasha who has 'gifted' her with favoured status in his harem. In the present day - and with the company of a descendant of Alexandre Dumas - Khayyam begins to connect allusions to an enigmatic 19th-century Muslim woman whose path may have intersected with Alexandre Dumas, Eugene Delacroix, and Lord Byron.
Echoing across centuries, Leila and Khayyam's lives intertwine, and as one woman's long-forgotten life is uncovered, another's is transformed.
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The Book of Mysteries
J.R. Wallis
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Childrens Books
What is this about?
Welcome to the Badlands ... a hidden part of our world full of creatures which most people think exist only in fairy tales and nightmares.
Ruby is trying to change the future. Her fate is in the hands of the council as they prepare to decide once and for all if girls can be Badlanders too.
Jones is running from his past. He’s determined to help Ruby fulfil her destiny, but first he will need to shake off the vengeful ghost of Maitland, the Master he betrayed.
Then they are challenged to solve a notoriously unsolvable case from The Book of Mysteries, and Ruby and Jones think it might just be the lifeline they need. But there’s a reason no Badlander has ever returned from Great Walsingham, and the two friends will have to rely on more than magic if they want to survive...
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Again Again
E. Lockhart
Publisher: Hot Key Books
What is this about?
When Adelaide Buchman's younger brother succumbs to a drug overdose, she saves his life. In the aftermath, looking for distraction, she becomes a stylish, bright charmer who blows off school and falls madly in love - even though her heart is shattered.
Adelaide is catapulted into a summer of wild possibility, during which she will fall in and out of love a thousand times while finally confronting her brother, their history, and her own strength.
A raw and funny story that will surprise you over and over, Adelaide is an indelible heroine grappling with the terrible and wonderful problem of loving other people.
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The Switch Up: L. A. Exchange
Katy Cannon
Publisher: Stripes Publishing
What is this about?
Alice can't wait to visit Willa in LA - home of Hollywood, where dreams come true. Their plan is to explore the city and see the sights, but then Willa gets the opportunity to work on the film project of her dreams and she can't say no! The only problem is she is absolutely 100% supposed to be taking part in a beach clean-up. Which, now she thinks of it, sounds pretty perfect for Alice...
Can the girls really swap lives again? Cue plotting, outfit swapping and award-winning performances. But everyone knows that real life is nothing like the movies...
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Here Lie the Secrets
Emma Young
Publisher: Stripes Publishing
What is this about?
This is a tense psychological thriller. Spending the summer in New York, Mia is hoping to escape the visions of Holly that haunt her life at home. There she meets Rav, a parapsychology student, who convinces her to take part in a study into why some people see ghosts.
Soon Mia is caught up in the investigation of Halcyon House, which is reputed to be haunted by a poltergeist. As Mia confronts her fears, what she learns about the house and herself will change her life forever.
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Midnight's Twins
Holly Race
Publisher: Hot Key Books
What is this about?
Fern King is about to uncover a place that she could not have imagined in all her wildest dreams. Annwn is the dream mirror of our world, a place where Dreamers walk in their slumber, their dreams playing out all around them. An enchanted, mysterious place that feeds our own world - as without dreams, without a place where our imaginations and minds can be nourished, what kind of humans would we be?
But Annwn is a place as full of dangers as it is wonders: it is a place where dreams can kill you. Annwn and its Dreamers are protected by an ancient order known as the Knights - and when Fern's hated twin Ollie is chosen to join their ranks, Fern will have to do whatever she can to prove she is one of them too.
But the world Fern discovers in Annwn, in this dream mirror of her London, is a fragile one, threatened by vicious nightmares. Nightmares that are harder and harder for the Knights to defeat. Something dark is jeopardising the peace and stability of Annwn, something that must be rooted out at all costs. And gradually, Fern realises that the danger lurking inside our sleep is more insidious and terrifying than any nightmare. Because if you can influence someone's dreams, you can control their thoughts ...
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Nightshade
Anthony Horowitz
Publisher: Walker Books Ltd
What is this about?
Alex Rider is back in this new adventure from Anthony Horowitz. Having just returned to school and enjoying his normal life, after being informed he will no longer be used for secret missions, Alex finds himself agreeing to take on one more mission for Mrs Jones, Chief Executive of MI6 Special Operations.
All Alex has to go on is the name 'Nightshade' (an organisation which turns out to be as shady and deadly as its botanical namesake) and the knowledge that London is the under threat of attack.
To find out more, he must take on the identity of a previous adversary, Julius Grief, who was an identical clone of Alex and the only person he has shot. But Alex will have to go gadget 'cold turkey' for this mission and he will only have his previous training and wits to get him through the mission.
The occupants of a super high security prison in Gibraltar are unaware that their former inmate and prison escapee Julius is dead, and Alex must infiltrate the prison with his new identity and befriend the only member of Nightshade the Secret Service know about - Freddy Grey, then find out about Nightshade and get out before his real identity is discovered.
This should be a straight forward task and he should be back in London in time for half term. But events don't go to plan,
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