Everneath - by Brodi Ashton

Synopsis:  In this modern twist on the Persephone myth, Seventeen-year-old Nikki Beckett has just returned from the underworld, having spent the last six months in a place called Everneath. She has been given only six months to spend with her family, friends, and her boyfriend Jack before she has to return to Everneath forever. Her heart aches for Jack, and now that she is back, she longs to spend as much time with him as possible. However, Cole, the one responsible for taking her to Everneath, has other plans. He is certain she is the one who can help him take over the throne and has followed her back home. Using all of his power he tries to convince her to come back with him to Everneath and become his queen. 



Genre:  fantasy, romance, mythology

Pages:  370

Level:  intermediate, advanced/mature

Author's website

Opening paragraph:

The Everneath.

History books call it the Underworld.  Or even hell.

But I know it's neither.  It is really call the Everneath,

and it's not a place for the dead.  It's a place for the

Everliving--beings who have discovered the secret to

eternal life.  It's a place for their Forfeits--the humans

who give up everything to nourish the Everliving.  It's

the world caught between this one and the next, a layer

between Earth and hell.  I know because I was a Forfeit.

I would give anything to change this.

Tiger Lily - by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Synopsis:  This is a much darker version of the Peter Pan story, narrated by Tinkerbelle.  In this story, we meet 15-year-old Tiger Lily, who rescues and falls in love with Peter Pan; but when Wendy Darling arrives, everything changes. 



Genre:  fantasy, romance, fairy tale

Pages:  292

Level:  intermediate

Author website

Opening paragraphs:

Let me tell you something straight off.  This is a love story, but not like any you've ever heard.  The boy and the girl are far from innocent.  Dear lives are lost.  And good doesn't win.  In some places, there is something ultimately good about endings.  In Neverland, that is not the case.

To understand what it's like to be a faerie, tall as a walnut and genetically gifted with wings--who happened to witness such a series of events--you must first understand that all faeries are mute.  Somewhere in our evolution, on our long crooked journey from amoeba to dragonfly to faerie, nature must have decided language wasn't necessary for us to survive.  It's good in some ways, not to have a language.  It makes you see things.  You turn your attention, not to babbling about yourself, broadcasting each and every thought to everyone within earshot--as people often do--but to observing.  That's how faeries became so empathic.  We're so attuned to the beating of a heart, the varied thrum of a pulse, the zaps of the synapses of a brain, that we are almost inside others' minds.  Most faeries tune this out by only spending time with other faeries.  They make settlements in tree stumps and barely venture out except to hunt mosquitoes.  I get bored by that.  I like to fly and keep an eye on things.  That was how I saw it, from the beginning.  Some would like to call it being nosy.  That's what my mother would say, at least.

Glitch - by Heather Anastasiu

Synopsis:  In the Community, there is no more pain or war. Implanted computer chips have wiped humanity clean of destructive emotions, and thoughts are replaced by a feed from the Link network.  When Zoe starts to malfunction (or “glitch”), she suddenly begins having her own thoughts, feelings, and identity. Any anomalies must be immediately reported and repaired, but Zoe has a secret so dark it will mean certain deactivation if she is caught: her glitches have given her uncontrollable telekinetic powers.




Genre:  dystopian, science fiction, fantasy

Level:  intermediate

Pages:  336

Author's website

Author Interview

First 3 paragraphs:

I felt it coming this time.  I shoved my drawings into the hidden slit I'd made in the back of my mattress, then grabbed the metal bed frame to steady myself as my brain suddenly jolted back into connection with the link.

the retina display flickered into view and scrolled a chatter of date at the edges of my field of vision.  Auditory inputs clicked back online too, a slight hum in the background.  One by one, each of my senses dimmed, replacing my connection to the physical world with the connection to the Link.  In a blink, the small bit of color in my room seeped away to a monotone gray.  I inhaled deeply and tried to hold on to the smell of my small concrete quarters - antiseptic and dust - but they, too, were lost by my next breath.  Panic gripped my chest a I drowned in the Link's rising tide, but I concealed it behind my perfectly still mask.  I was lucky it happened while I was alone in here in my quarters, where I was safe.  I could use the practice.  I focused, carefully relaxing each of my facial muscles into perfect, expressionless stillness, betraying nothing of the turmoil inside.

I'd glitched for a little over an hour.  Precious silence in my head.  Sometimes I could fight the creeping dullness of the Link, but I didn't have any time to waste this morning.  The glithcing woke me an hour before my internal Link alarm, but if I didn't get moving, I'd be late.

Read more - click here.

Crewel - by Gennifer Albin

Synopsis:  Book 1 in the Crewel World trilogy:  Adelice is gifted with the ability to weave time with matter and is chosen as a Spinster.  It is a life of privilege, laced with secrets and lies.


Genre:  fantasy

Pages:  368

Level:  ages 12 and up, intermediate difficulty

Author's website:  genniferalbin.com

First 5 paragraphs:

I can count the days until summer draws to a close and autumn seeps into the leaves, paint them ginger and scarlet.  Right now, though, the dappled light of mid-afternoon is glorious emerald, and it's hot on my face.  With sun soaking into me, everything is possible.  When it is inevitably gone--the seasons programmed to begin and end with smooth precision--life will take its predetermined route.  Like a machine.  Like me.

It's quiet outside my sister's academy.  I'm the only one waiting for the girls to be released.  When I first began my testing cycle, Amie held her pinkie finger up and made me swear to meet her each day after I got out.  It was a hard promise to make, knowing they could call me anytime and sweep me away to the Coventry's towers.  But I make it, even today.  A girl has to have something constant, has to know what to expect.  The last bit of chocolate in the monthly rations; the tidy ending to a program on the Stream.  I want my little sister to be able to count on a sweet life, even if the heat of summer tastes bitter now.

A bell tolls and girls pour out in a surge of plaid, their giggles and shouts breaking the perfect stillness of the scene.  Amie, who's always had more friends than me, bounces out, surrounded by a handful of other girls in the awkward stages of early adolescence.  I wave to her and she dashes toward me, catching my hand and pulling me in the direction of our house.  Something about her eager greeting every afternoon makes it okay that I don't have many companions my age.

"Did you do it?"  she asks in a breathless voice, skipping ahead of me.

I hesitate for a moment.  If anyone will be happy about my mistake, it will be Amie.  If I tell her the truth, she'll squeal and clap.  She'll hug me, and maybe for a moment I can leach her happiness, fill myself up with it, and believe everything is going to turn out fine.

Read more - click here.