Swirling Tides

Premise :  Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets? A novel about all the choices that go into a life well lived. Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better? Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a...

Premise: Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee. Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling. Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart. Review:      The story of ‘Shadow and Bone’ takes place in an alternate tsarist Russia, known...

Premise:   The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it. But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the murder, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn't so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final year project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth? Review:      5 years prior, Andie Bell was (allegedly) murdered by Sal Singh, who then (allegedly) committed suicide. And no one doubted that he was guilty… except Pippa Fitz-Amobi, a high school senior, who never quite believed the police’s version of events. So when she has to do a final senior project, she jumps at the excuse to re-investigate the murder case which rocked her small town years ago. But when new information is unearthed, Pip digs deeper into the live...

Premise:  When a guy named Martin Nathaniel Munroe II texts you, it should be obvious who you're talking to. Except there's two of them (it's a long story), and Haley thinks she's talking to the one she doesn't hate. A question about a class project rapidly evolves into an all-consuming conversation. Haley finds that Martin is actually willing to listen to her weird facts and unusual obsessions, and Martin feels like Haley is the first person to really see who he is. Haley and Martin might be too awkward to hang out in real life, but over text, they're becoming addicted to each other. There's just one problem: Haley doesn't know who Martin is. And Martin doesn't know that Haley doesn't know. But they better figure it out fast before their meet-cute becomes an epic meet-disaster . . .

Premise:   There will be plenty of time for me to beat him soundly once I’ve gotten what I came for.   Sent on a mission to retrieve an ancient hidden map—the key to a legendary treasure trove—seventeen-year-old pirate captain Alosa deliberately allows herself to be captured by her enemies, giving her the perfect opportunity to search their ship. More than a match for the ruthless pirate crew, Alosa has only one thing standing between her and the map: her captor, the unexpectedly clever and unfairly attractive first mate, Riden. But not to worry, for Alosa has a few tricks up her sleeve, and no lone pirate can stop the Daughter of the Pirate King. Review: The title is pretty self-explanatory. The main character, pirate Captain Alosa, is the daughter and only heir of Kalligan, the Pirate King, who has total monopoly over the ocean. She is sent on a mission to retrieve a piece of an ancient map that leads to the mystical Isla de Canta which holds the world’s greatest treasure, a...

Premise:  Fatima lives in the city of Noor, a thriving stop along the Silk Road. There the music of myriad languages fills the air, and people of all faiths weave their lives together. However, the city bears scars of its recent past, when the chaotic tribe of Shayateen djinn slaughtered its entire population -- except for Fatima and two other humans. Now ruled by a new maharajah, Noor is protected from the Shayateen by the Ifrit, djinn of order and reason, and by their commander, Zulfikar. But when one of the most potent of the Ifrit dies, Fatima is changed in ways she cannot fathom, ways that scare even those who love her. Oud in hand, Fatima is drawn into the intrigues of the maharajah and his sister, the affairs of Zulfikar and the djinn, and the dangers of a magical battlefield. Nafiza Azad weaves an immersive tale of magic and the importance of names; fiercely independent women; and, perhaps most importantly, the work for harmony within a city of a thousand cultures and caden...

Premise:  When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy? This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like t...

Premise: It's 1947, and India, newly independent of British rule, has been separated into two countries: Pakistan and India. The divide has created much tension between Hindus and Muslims, and hundreds of thousands are killed crossing borders. Half-Muslim, half-Hindu twelve-year-old Nisha doesn't know where she belongs, or what her country is anymore. When Papa decides it's too dangerous to stay in what is now Pakistan, Nisha and her family become refugees and embark first by train but later on foot to reach her new home. The journey is long, difficult, and dangerous, and after losing her mother as a baby, Nisha can't imagine losing her homeland, too. But even if her country has been ripped apart, Nisha still believes in the possibility of putting herself back together. Told through Nisha's letters to her mother, The Night Diary is a heartfelt story of one girl's search for home, for her own identity...and for a hopeful future. Bittersweet and Impactful Year 1...

Premise: A hitched ride home in a snow storm turns sinister when one of the passengers is plotting for the ride to end in disaster. When Mira flies home to spend Christmas with her mother in Pittsburgh, a record-breaking blizzard results in a cancelled layover. Desperate to get to her grief-ridden mother in the wake of a family death, Mira hitches a ride with a group of friendly college kids who were on her initial flight. As the drive progresses and weather conditions become more treacherous, Mira realizes that the four other passengers she's stuck in the car with don't actually know one another. Soon, they're not just dealing with heavy snowfall and ice-slick roads, but the fact that somebody will stop at nothing to ensure their trip ends in a deadly disaster. Page-turning and Twisty With Christmas approaching, Mira wants to make it home to her mother for the holidays. On the airplane ride, she meets Harper, the person in the seat next to her. When they reach the airpor...

  Premise: A bizarre chain of events begins when sixteen unlikely people gather for the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will. And though no one knows why the eccentric, game-loving millionaire has chosen a virtual stranger—and a possible murderer—to inherit his vast fortune, one thing's for sure: Sam Westing may be dead ... but that won't stop him from playing one last game!  Cryptic and Enigmatic Samuel W. Westing, an industrial tycoon, is dead. The puzzle-loving chess-expert that he is, he leaves behind one final game in his will. And the prize is his entire $200 Million fortune plus his company and estate. The eccentric millionaire includes sixteen people in his will, all of them strangers, but only the one who solves the mystery will inherit the money. In his will, Sam Westing declares that he would be killed, one of the potential heirs is the murderer, and whoever finds out who’s the murderer wins the Westing Game.  The Westing Game is a brilliant logic puzzle; it h...

  Premise:   Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free. Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear. It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do. But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy. There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertw...

Premise: Five-year-old Heidi goes to live with her grandfather in his lonely hut high in the Alps. She quickly learns to love her new life with him. But her strict aunt decides that Heidi must be sent away again, to live in town. Heidi cannot bear being away from the mountains and is determined to return to the happiness of life with her grandfather. Picturesque and Classical This book begins with a little Swiss girl, five-year-old Heidi who is sent by her aunt after her parents pass away, to live with her estranged grandfather who lives in an isolated hut high in the Alps, away from the rest of the village. His troubled past and his grief over his son’s death makes him reclusive but Heidi immediately loves her carefree life in the mountains with her grandfather, and he comes to like her too. So they are both upset when Heidi’s aunt takes her away and sends her to live with a rich family she had worked for, in a city.  My favorite part of the book was when Heidi gets back to the ...

Premise: Twelve-year-old Crow has lived her entire life on a tiny, isolated piece of the starkly beautiful Elizabeth Islands in Massachusetts. Abandoned and set adrift on a small boat when she was just hours old, Crow's only companions are Osh, the man who rescued and raised her, and Miss Maggie, their fierce and affectionate neighbor across the sandbar. Crow has always been curious about the world around her, but it isn't until the night a mysterious fire appears across the water that the unspoken question of her own history forms in her heart. Soon, a chain of events is triggered, leading Crow down a path of discovery and danger. Vivid and Heart-wrenching This story takes place in the Elizabeth Islands in the 1920s. Crow, a twelve-year-old girl, has always lived on a small island off of Cuttyhunk. She was abandoned and set adrift in a small boat as a newborn. She was raised by a man named Osh, who rescued her, and their neighbor, Miss Maggie, and Crow doesn’t know anything ...

Premise: A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about a girl in Sudan in 2008 and a boy in Sudan in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours’ walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day.  The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay. Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya’s in an astonishing and moving way. Poignant and Compelling This inspiring story will be hard to put down. A Long Walk to Water comprises two separate narratives from two people at two different periods of time. One is from a boy named Salva during the second Sudanese Civil War in 1985, and another from a girl named Nya which takes place in Sudan as well, but begins in ...

Premise: To Master Thief Fin, an orphan from the murky pirate world of the Khaznot Quay, the Map is the key to finding his mother. To suburban school girl Marrill, it's her only way home after getting stranded on the Pirate Stream, the magical waterway that connects every world in creation. With the help of a bumbling wizard and his crew, they must scour the many worlds of the Pirate Stream to gather the pieces of the Map to Everywhere--but they aren't the only ones looking. A sinister figure is hot on their tail, and if they can't beat his ghostly ship to find the Map, it could mean the destruction of everything they hold dear! Heart-pounding escapades and a colorful cast of characters will have readers setting sail through this wholly original and unforgettable tale. Imaginative and Adventurous  This spellbinding book will make you feel obliged to not put it down until finished, portraying a story about a twelve-year old master thief of Khaznot Quay and a twelve-year ol...

Premise: Reborn as the Flame, Emily has saved Olympus from destruction. The Olympic flame now burns strong, and peace has been restored. But not for long... When the gruesome Nirads begin a new invasion, Emily and her friends become entangled in the conflict as old grudges are unearthed and new enemies are discovered. And all the while, Emily yearns for her father, still a prisoner of the sinister CRU, somewhere in New York. Join Emily astride the magnificent winged-stallion, Pegasus, as she embarks on a new flight of adventure through worlds both old and new. Fast-paced and Captivating       This book will make you feel compelled to read it cover-to-cover, telling a story about the Flame of Olympus and Pegasus, and it is the second book in the series. From the moment Pegasus fell on the roof of her apartment building, she was caught in a battle to help save Olympus and its Olympians. Living on Mount Olympus with the friends she made in the previous book and Pegasus,...

Premise:   Two orphaned children are on the run, hiding among the crumbling canals and misty alleyways of the city of Venice. Befriended by a gang of street children and their mysterious leader, the Thief Lord, they shelter in an old, disused cinema. On their trail is a bungling detective, obsessed with disguises and the health of his pet tortoises. But a greater threat to the boys' new-found freedom is something from a forgotten past – a beautiful magical treasure with the power to spin time itself. Touching and Mysterious      This riveting book will make you want to inhale it in “as few sittings as possible”. This book is about two orphaned brothers who run away. Their aunt, Esther Hartlieb, was willing to adopt the younger brother and send the older one to boarding school. However, not wanting to be seperated, they ran away to Venice, Italy since before her death, their mother told them it was the most beautiful place on Earth and would often describe it to them....

Premise:  Some facts about Billy Dickens: * He once saw a biker swerve across the road in order to run over a snake. * Later, that motorcycle somehow ended up at the bottom of a canal. * Billy isn't the type to let things go. Some facts about Billy's family: * They've lived in six different Florida towns because Billy's mom always insists on getting a house near a bald eagle nest. * Billy's older sister is dating a jerk. It's a mystery. * Billy's dad left when he was four, and Billy knows almost nothing about him. * Billy has just found his dad's address--in Montana. This summer, Billy will fly across the country, hike a mountain, float a river, dodge a grizzly bear, shoot down a spy drone, save a neighbor's cat, save an endangered panther, and then try to save his own father.   Crazy and Intriguing      This humorous book will be impossible to put down, already talking about the main character’s fascination for squirming snakes on the first page. Us...