Synopsis: Decades after a cataclysmic nuclear war, Ghanaian scientists develop technology that store consciousness onto data orbs called retcons. Seventeen-year-old forensic specialist, Feeni Xo, is a Enhuman (a radiation-enhanced metabolic human) that, similar to a vampire, need blood for sustenance. Through a game called the House of Oware, Feeni discovers that the virtual construct is... Continue Reading →
Q: When did you begin writing The Legend of Sarah Press? About 1986 or 7, when my son was still in high school. Q: What inspired you to write the novel? I could see that there were two distinct groups in the school, the "nerds", and everybody else, and the two groups didn't interact very... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Carved from the rugged Chiricahua Mountains, the intimidating spire, Thunder Peak, slashes the sky, haunting the southern reaches of the Arizona Territory and looming over Itza Chu Canyon. Hidden in the valley below, beset by the mountain's odd weather patterns and wrapped in chilling legends of its own, is Storm Town. The canyon offers... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Lobizonas do NOT exist. Both of these statements are false. Manuela Azul has been crammed into an existence that feels too small for her. As an undocumented immigrant who's on the run from her father's Argentine crime-family, Manu is confined to a small apartment and a small life in Miami, Florida. Until Manu's protective... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: For seventeen-year-old Fable, the daughter of the most powerful trader in the Narrows, the sea is the only home she has ever known. It’s been four years since the night she watched her mother drown during an unforgiving storm. The next day her father abandoned her on a legendary island filled with thieves and... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Stevie Rosenstein has never made a true friend. Never fallen in love. Moved from city to city by her father’s unrelenting job, it’s too hard to care for someone. Trust in anything. The pain of leaving always hurts too much. But she’ll soon learn to trust, to love. Twice. Drew and Shane have been... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: From bestselling author Jillian Cantor comes a smart, edgy update of Jane Austen's beloved classic Emma.Emma Woodhouse is a genius at math, but clueless about people. After all, people are unreliable. They let you down—just like Emma's sister, Izzy, did this year, when she moved to California for college. But numbers...those you can count on.... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Hogwarts meets The Bourne Identity in this thrilling sequel to Desert Dark that keeps the twists and turns coming! With the trials of first semester behind her, sixteen-year-old Nadia Riley hopes to quietly rejoin her friends and complete her junior year at Desert Mountain Academy. But at a covert CIA school that trains high-achieving... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: From the beloved author of Tweet Cute comes Emma Lord's You Have a Match, a YA novel of family, friendship, romance and sisterhood…When Abby signs up for a DNA service, it’s mainly to give her friend and secret love interest, Leo, a nudge. After all, she knows who she is already: Avid photographer. Injury-prone tree climber. Best... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Twelve-year-old Myrtle Hardcastle has a passion for justice and a Highly Unconventional obsession with criminal science. Armed with her father’s law books and her mum’s microscope, Myrtle studies toxicology, keeps abreast of the latest developments in crime scene analysis, and Observes her neighbors in the quiet village of Swinburne, England. When her next-door neighbor,... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: A haunted mansion.A community at risk.A group of teens with mysterious abilities. Strange sightings at the Payne mansion and baffling incidents in the countryside place the community of Kingston on edge. Did opening the portal to Paragon draw evil entities to Kingston? In facing this new threat, Matt Monroe soon realizes he is not... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Jenny Cavanaugh, the ghostly lady of 926 Augur Lane, has enlisted the investigative services of her fellow residents to solve a decade-old murder—her own. Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, Detective R. F. Jackaby, dive into the cold case, starting with a search for Jenny’s fiancé, who went missing the... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Some say the great mystery of how one can live in two worlds at once died with Thomas Hunter many years ago. Still others that the gateway to that greater reality was and is only the stuff of dreams. They are all wrong. Rachelle Matthews, who grew up in the small... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Some say the great mystery of how one can live in two worlds at once died with Thomas Hunter many years ago. Still others that the gateway to that greater reality was and is only the stuff of dreams. They are wrong. In the small town of Eden, Utah, a blind... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Eliyana Ember is stranded in a foreign country in the Third Reflection with no passport, the inability to mirrorwalk, and zero clue where the nearest Thresholds back into the Fourth or Second might lie. Her mind is a haze, her memories vague. She knows a wormhole from the Fourth sent her... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Alora is a young girl born into a divided society. Even her kind aren’t safe from its cruel rulers. After losing her brother, and her parents acting like nothing happened, it’s time for Alora to take the test. The Bleeding Rite. Fear mixed with curiosity, it is that day which changes... Continue Reading →
Author Interview UBR: Can you briefly tell us, readers, what your debut novel, Death’s Kiss, is about? RK: Death's Kiss is a character-driven dystopian story set 38 years later after the Blackack virus ravaged the world, killing everyone who was older than 21 years old. The story revolves around the lives of Yuri and Ryoma... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Life is valuable. Death is a necessity. In Yliria, this is not a contradiction.New Year’s Eve 2054. A virus, later named the BlackJack, struck and killed 3/4 of the world’s population. Only those who were 21 and younger were not infected. Treaties broke off. Countries severed connection to the outside world.... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Everything about Jessie is wrong. At least, that’s what it feels like during her first week of junior year at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago, she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short),... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Emmett Atwater isn’t just leaving Detroit; he’s leaving Earth. Why the Babel Corporation recruited him is a mystery, but the number of zeroes on their contract has him boarding their lightship and hoping to return to Earth with enough money to take care of his family. Forever. Before long, Emmett discovers that... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Magic is real, Thomas. No matter what happens, always remember that magic is real. Seven years have passed, and Thomas hasn't forgotten. He hasn't forgotten the blue of his dad's eyes either, or the tickle of beard on his cheek as they hugged goodbye. Last moments with a parent are... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Maddie thought she and Logan would be friends forever. But when your dad is a Secret Service agent and your best friend is the president's son, sometimes life has other plans. Before she knows it, Maddie's dad is dragging her to a cabin in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness.... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Two struggling teenagers find an unexpected connection just when they need it most. Sometimes a new perspective is all that is needed to make sense of the world. KIT: I don’t know why I decide not to sit with Annie and Violet at lunch. It feels like no one here... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Hailed as Italy’s The Fault in Our Stars, this Italian bestseller is now available for the first time in English. “I was born on the first day of school, and I grew up and old in just two hundred days . . .” Sixteen-year-old Leo has a way with words,... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: A bad storm, two canceled flights, stuck in an airport with a hot stranger and the guy who broke her heart... what could go wrong? After Sari caught her boyfriend Zev cheating on her, their romantic Florida vacation was ruined. She can't get back to NYC soon enough. Unfortunately,... Continue Reading →
Extra Attention Author of Factory Man and Truevine Beth Macy investigates the opioid crisis in Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America (Little, Brown and Company, 8/7). The late Hans Rosling, along with co-authors Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Ronnlund, gives ten reasons why we are wrong about the world around us in Factfulness (Flatiron, 8/3)*. Bill Gates recommends it... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: After a perfect first kiss, Aurora's second kiss lands her boyfriend in the hospital, and her matchmaking strategies start to backfire in this sequel to Tara Eglington's How to Keep a Boy from Kissing You. For a girl who shares her name with a princess (aka Sleeping Beauty), Aurora Skye’s... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Rock music, a broken family, challenging sisters, and the crush of first love—Red Velvet Crush has everything you need in a summer read. For fans of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Eleanor & Park, and This Song Will Save Your Life. Teddy Lee’s mother ran off when she was in second grade. And ever... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: When Miranda Black’s mother abandoned her, she took everything—the sun, moon, and stars—and Miranda found shelter in her friendship with Syd, who wore her own motherlessness like a badge of honor: Our mothers abandoned us. We won’t go begging for scraps. When Syd runs away suddenly and inexplicably in the... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: As they race to untangle the past and thwart a power-hungry Wizard, Tasia must face her toughest decision yet. Can she take a leap of faith and risk her deadliest secret? Tasia Armstrong is no longer a nondescript, friendless and naïve Wizard flying under the radar on the fringes of Chosen society.... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Rose Madsen will do anything to keep from being married off to one of the men in her Fundamentalist Mormon (FLDS) community, even endure the continued beatings and abuse of her mother. But when her mentally handicapped baby sister is forced to strangle the bird... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: As Myra Jackson and her friends set out to find the First Continuum, Captain Aero Wright and two companions from the outer space Second Continuum find themselves banished for treason and stranded on Earth. Wright has vowed to complete his late father's mission to recolonize their ancestral planet,... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: The epic tale of two teens in a fight to save a warming planet . . . the universe . . . and their love. A cli-fi quest full of romance, honor, and adventure. LitPick 5-Star-Review Award winner #1 Top Fiction Read (ARC)... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Second Place in Epic Fantasy, Virtual FantasyCon 2017! Dasha is a gift from the gods. Only she’s not very gifted. Or at least so it seems to her. Eighteen years ago, Dasha’s mother made a bargain with the gods. She would bear a gods-touched child, one who would stand on the threshold between the... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Two dimensions - And the girl who connects them. Yesterday, Drea Smith couldn’t do anything spectacular—even walking and texting at the same time was a challenge. But today, she suddenly has more answers than Google, can speak and understand numerous languages, and she can fight. Like a boss.... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: When 15-year-old Carolyn moves from New Jersey to Alabama with her mother, she rattles the status quo of the junior class at Adams High School. A good student and natural athlete, she’s immediately welcomed by the school’s cliques. She’s even nominated to the homecoming court and begins dating a senior, Shane, whose on again/off again... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: What would the world be like today had the greatest civilization never fallen? By the time Spanish explorers reached the Americas, the Aztec Empire was one of the greatest powers in the world. The ancient priests would slaughter human sacrifices, sometimes by the thousands, all under the pretext that their gods needed blood to... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, this unrequited love story will appeal to fans of Jennifer Niven, John Green, and Jesse Andrews. Seriously, how can you see a person nearly every day of your life and never think a thing of it, then all of a sudden, one... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: The Titanic meets the delicious horror of Ransom Riggs and the sass of Mean Girls in this follow-up to the #1 New York Times bestseller How to Hang a Witch, in which a contemporary teen finds herself a passenger on the famous “ship of dreams”—a story made all... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: No one knows what really happened on the beach where Roxanne Cole’s body was found, but her boyfriend, Cage, took off that night and hasn’t been seen since. Until now. One year—almost to the day—from Ro’s death, when he knocks on the door of Blue Gate Manor and asks where she... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Danny is a grumpy video-game junky. He daydreams in school and has a long-standing rivalry with his neighbor. Yet Danny soon finds himself ensnared in a bizarre dream. Controlling his dream is Nostrildamus, an odd-looking creature with a huge nose and no eyes, yet can oddly see into the future. Taken on a time-traveling... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: David Barnes returns home from boarding school, only to find that the life he left behind is completely different. Lost in a town he no longer knows, David falls into a downward spiral until awakened by a reality he never anticipated. The first novel by Christopher F. Viceconte, The Woods is a contemporary coming-of-age... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: In Croswald, the only thing more powerful than dark magic is one secret... For sixteen years Ivy Lovely has been hidden behind an enchanted boundary that separates the mundane from the magical. When Ivy crosses the border, her powers awaken. Curiosity leads her crashing through a series of adventures at the Halls of Ivy,... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: What happens when happily ever after starts to unravel? Eliyana Ember doesn't believe in true love. Not anymore. After defeating her grandfather and saving the Second Reflection, El only trusts what's right in front of her. The tangible. The real. Not some unexplained Kiss of Infinity she once shared with the ghost of a... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Princess Nia and her people have always publicly hated all witches. Witches are evil. Witches are cruel. But in one night, Nia must convince a deadly coven of sorceresses to help her defeat an army, or her family will be executed. Nia has always been adored by the masses. She is beyond reproach. Her... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: With this stunning debut novel, New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver emerged as one of today's foremost authors of young adult fiction. Like Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why and Gayle Forman's If I Stay, Before I Fall raises thought-provoking questions about love, death, and how one person's life can affect so many others.... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Anika Mason—simple name. Brown hair—average color. Blue eyes—she wished they were brown. But somehow she's attracted the attention of the new boy at highschool, and he is becoming quite obsessive and possessive over her. She needs to figure out how to get rid of him, fast. But when she's forced to lie about having... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: Leah’s run-of-the-mill teenage life has never been too eventful. That is, until the boy-next-door who’s just moved in, turns out to be none other than her old childhood best friend, Damon. Rekindling their friendship, the two become inseparable and life seems perfect, until Leah learns a tragic secret; Damon is terminally ill and has... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: She looks like a maiden of eighteen (acts like one too) but the Faery Nahia is sixty-seven when her future husband, a human, is born. Twenty-eight years pass before Anahi a sees him and follows her heart - she hides her true identity from him, she forsakes her home, and joins the human family... Continue Reading →
Synopsis: On the day she was born, Maite received a cradle gift from the faery Nahia-a gift that allows her to travel into other worlds while in a dream state. At seventeen, Maite's mortal world is torn apart with the tragic loss of her parents. Uprooted from the only home she's ever known and isolated... Continue Reading →
Urban Book Reviews 