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For those of you (like me!) looking to revel in the Post-Christmas/Pre-New Year's quiet time by curling up with some cocoa and a couple of good books, we have six fantastic titles releasing this week to recommend, including TANGLE, Carolyn Mackler's latest tale about the intertwining lives of four people at a Caribbean resort; Elizabeth Eulberg's (anti)romance THE LONELY HEARTS CLUB; Rachel Vincent's urban fantasy MY SOUL TO SAVE, and and the next installment in the Kimani Tru series, NEXT SEMESTER.


New Releases for December 28th

Paperback

MY SOUL TO SAVE by Rachel Vincent (Harlequin)
When Kaylee Cavanaugh screams, someone dies.

So when teen pop star Eden croaks onstage and Kaylee doesn't wail, she knows something is dead wrong. She can't cry for someone who has no soul.

The last thing Kaylee needs right now is to be skipping school, breaking her dad's ironclad curfew and putting her too-hot-to-be-real boyfriend's loyalty to the test. But starry-eyed teens are trading their souls: a flickering lifetime of fame and fortune in exchange for eternity in the Netherworld --- a consequence they can't possibly understand.

Kaylee can't let that happen, even if trying to save their souls means putting her own at risk….


New Releases for December 29th

Hardcover

THE LONELY HEARTS CLUB by Elizabeth Eulberg (Point / Scholastic)
Penny is sick of boys and sick of dating. So she vows: no more. It's a personal choice. . .and, of course, soon everyone wants to know about it. And a few other girls are inspired. A movement is born: The Lonely Hearts Club (named after the band from Sgt. Pepper). Penny is suddenly known for her non-dating ways . . . which is too bad, because there's this certain boy she can't help but like. . . .

TANGLED by Carolyn Mackler (HarperTeen)
Paradise wasn't supposed to suck.

Not the state of being, but a resort in the Caribbean.

Jena, Dakota, Skye, and Owen are all there for different reasons, but at Paradise their lives become tangled together in ways none of them can predict. Paradise will change them all.

It will change Jena, whose first brush with romance takes her that much closer to having a life, and not just reading about those infinitely cooler and more exciting.

It will change Dakota, who needs the devastating truth about his past to make him realize that he doesn't have to be a jerk just because people think he's one.

It will change Skye, a heartbreakingly beautiful actress, who must come to terms with the fact that for once she has to stop playing a role or face the consequences.

And it will change Owen, who has never risked anything before and who will take the leap from his online life to a real one all because of a girl he met at Paradise. . . .

From confused to confident and back again, one thing's certain: Four months after it all begins, none of them will ever be the same.


Paperback

THE MISSION by Jason Myers (Simon Pulse)
Wake up and do something!

Kaden Norris's life is shattered when his older brother --- his best friend and hero --- is killed in Iraq. All Kaden has left of Kenny is a letter, urging him to break away from his sheltered life and to go to San Francisco to visit his cousin, James.

Kaden is blown away, as James introduces him to a life filled with drugs, sex, and apathy. He goes from extreme high to extreme low, having no idea what to expect. And when Kaden uncovers secrets about his family that have been kept from him for years, his entire world comes crashing down. This may not be the trip his brother had envisioned for him, but it's one Kaden will never forget.


December 31st

Paperback

WHAT SAW AND HOW I LIED by Judy Blundell (Scholastic Paperbacks)
When Evie's father returned home from World War II, the family fell back into its normal life pretty quickly. But Joe Spooner brought more back with him than just good war stories. When movie-star handsome Peter Coleridge, a young ex-GI who served in Joe's company in postwar Austria, shows up, Evie is suddenly caught in a complicated web of lies that she only slowly recognizes. She finds herself falling for Peter, ignoring the secrets that surround him . . . until a tragedy occurs that shatters her family and breaks her life in two.

As she begins to realize that almost everything she believed to be a truth was really a lie, Evie must get to the heart of the deceptions and choose between her loyalty to her parents and her feelings for the man she loves. Someone will have to be betrayed. The question is . . . who?
- Click here to read our review of WHAT I SAW AND HOW I LIED.


New Releases for January 1st

Hardcover

DRAGONS OF DARKNESS by Antonia Michaelis (Amulet)
The author-translator team behind the internationally acclaimed TIGER MOON reunites for this lush, exotic tale of fantasy and adventure --- and dragons galore.

In this thrilling modern-day fable, two boys from very different backgrounds are thrown together by magic, mayhem, and a common foe. Jumar, an invisible prince, wants to free his native Nepal from invaders. Christopher, a shy German boy, wants to find his kidnapped brother. Together they embark on a journey through the wilderness of Nepal --- a journey that proves to be a dangerous rite of passage. Fighting the beautiful but deadly dragons that beset the country, the two boys learn that in order to change the world, they must first change themselves.


Paperback

KIMANI TRU: NEXT SEMESTER by Cecil R. Cross II (Kimani)
Not every lesson is learned in school…

Second semester, second chances, and James "JD" Dawson has a lot to prove at the University of Atlanta. JD needs to shake academic probation, but he and his crew still act as if college is one big frat party. After all the drama of first semester, you'd think JD would learn from his mistakes. But once again he finds himself in trouble --- both in and outside the classroom. What's worse, JD's future hangs on his class assignment: helping Kat get elected student-body president. To do that, he'll have to learn who to trust and who's trying to play him, or his next ticket home to the hood will be one-way.

NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH by AVI (Scholastic Paperbacks)
In this thought-provoking examination of freedom, patriotism, and respect, ninth-grader, Philip Malloy, is kept from joining the track team by his failing grades in English class. Convinced that the teacher just doesn't like him, Philip concocts a plan to get transferred out of her class. Breaking the school's policy of silence during the national anthem, he hums along, and ends up in a crisis at the center of the nation's attention.