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All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Available January 6, 2015 from Random House
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All the Bright Places is a heartbreaking and unforgettable exploration of depression, love, and loss. Finch and Violet’s lives intersect by chance when they simultaneously find themselves on a belltower contemplating jumping. For Finch, planning how he’ll kill himself is almost a hobby. For Violet, months of silent pain and guilt following her sister’s death have left her hopeless. To the watching crowd below, it was Violet who talked Finch down, but, in truth, it’s the strangely charismatic boy with a macabre preoccupation that saves the day. As the two are thrown together for a school assignment in which they must explore Indiana’s “natural wonders,” who is saving whom becomes increasingly unclear. Niven chronicles the effects of depression with frank honesty, shedding light on an often misunderstood illness. Keep tissues handy, this novel is painfully real.
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
Available April 28, 2015 from Razorbill/Penguin
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In this remarkable high fantasy debut, Sabaa Tahir creates an elaborate and often shockingly harsh world in which evil constantly threatens and the hope of a better future lies with two seemingly powerless youths. Laia and Elias, strangers with curiously overlapping destinies, must fight to survive their harshly violent world despite overwhelming odds. Laia, a young Scholar willing to risk what little she has left to save her captive brother, is tasked with a highly sensitive undercover rebel mission that may well end with her death. Elias, an elite and deadly soldier of the Martial Empire, struggles to accept the violent life that awaits him as a Mask. When a sudden shift in leadership plunges the Empire into disarray, a desperate and bloody power struggle begins with Laia and Elias positioned at its center.
With An Ember in the Ashes, Tahir presents a complex and dangerous world, two unlikely heroes, and an epic battle of good versus evil that will undoubtedly capture readers' rapt attention.
Pennyroyal Academy by M.A. Larson
Available October 7, 2014 from Penguin
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In a kingdom plagued by evil witches, being a princess is more than shimmering gowns and dashing princes. At Pennyroyal Academy, young girls undergo rigorous training to achieve princess status. Princesses are warriors, with the carefully honed skills to take down their dangerous foes. Cadet Eleven, called Evie by her newfound friends, arrives at the academy dressed in spider webs, with no memory of her past. No one, not even Evie, believes she has what it takes to be a princess. Can she unravel the mysterious threads of her past while taking on witches, bullies, and fairy drill sergeants? Pennyroyal Academy is a magical adventure with an underdog hero readers will love.
