An author of sports fiction and thrillers, Michael Northrop shows his versatility as he turns to realistic fiction in Rotten. After spending the summer away from home, 16-year-old Jimmer Dobbs (or preferably JD) returns to his small town to discover that his single mother has rescued an abused Rottweiler that’s not too fond of men, including him. Their tenuous relationship causes JD to name the dog Johnny Rotten (or preferably JR) after the lead singer of the classic punk rock band, the Sex Pistols.

JD spends his last few days of summer earning the dog’s trust with pizza rolls until he can finally approach JR comfortably. But when good friend Mars corners JR and the canine responds with a bite, it’s JD who feels like he’s in the doghouse. Mars’ lazy family threatens legal action to make quick money, which means not only that JD and his mother could lose their house, but also that their now-beloved pet will have to be euthanized.

Suspense drives the story as JD solicits the help of his buddies to do some intelligence gathering on Mars’ family. JD may also have to come clean about where he really spent his summer (and it was no vacation). In the process of trying to save his dog, JD may earn another shot at dating Janie, his on-again, off-again and hopefully on-again girlfriend.

Northrop knows just how to get into the male mind, blending subtle humor with convincing dialogue throughout. But above all, the author knows that nothing gets between a guy and his dog.

Ellie O’Neill is probably the last person you’d expect to get involved with a movie star. She doesn’t really care about celebrities, and a secret in her own family’s past has made her skittish of even the idea of fame. Thanks to a misspelled email address, however, Ellie finds herself the unwitting pen pal of none other than Graham Larkin, teen heartthrob, who is about to start shooting a film in Ellie’s coastal Maine hometown. This shooting locale is more than just a coincidence, though—Graham pressured the director to choose it because he wants to meet the funny, smart, poetry-quoting girl with whom he’s been corresponding for the past several months. Even if she has no idea—yet—who he is.

Over the course of a single summer, Graham and Ellie’s relationship is characterized by a series of awkward encounters, miscommunications and mixed signals—and by some truly sweet and lovely discoveries. Graham loves Ellie because she sees him for who he is, apart from all the fame and rumors. Ellie loves Graham because he seems to hear and understand her when no one else does. But what will happen if the press gets wind of their romance? Can Ellie risk having her family’s secret uncovered? And can Graham’s career survive him dating someone other than another A-list star?

Told through adorably worded emails and chapters from both Ellie and Graham’s points of view, This Is What Happy Looks Like is both breezy and thoughtful. Author Jennifer E. Smith’s bittersweet romance certainly stretches the boundaries of believability at times, but readers likely won’t care as they’re swept away by the small-town resort atmosphere and the aura of Hollywood glamour that underlie Graham and Ellie’s love story.

Unlike many of her countrymen, 15-year-old Nina has no desire to leave her native Dominican Republic for the United States. She would much rather tend her garden and live simply with her overbearing mother. Unfortunately, when pretty Nina catches the eyes of some unsavory tourists, her mother sends her to New York City to live with her older brother, Darrio.

In Washington Heights, Nina discovers a world of gray concrete, a far cry from the tropical colors of her island. Despite being surrounded by fellow Dominicans, Nina feels strange and alone. Darrio does his best to make Nina feel at home—he enrolls her in high school, buys her new clothing and even helps her plant orchids on the fire escape—but he cannot hide that he’s in serious trouble. Things get emotionally confusing for Nina when she falls in love with a suspected drug dealer. This is not the America that Nina expected. Despite all the turmoil, Nina does make a life for herself.

Told in Nina’s lyrical first-person narrative, Flowers in the Sky is a story about expectations and the pressure to succeed in the “land of opportunity.” Nina’s acclimation to New York is aided by those who came before her, especially her brother, whose criminal activities have provided Nina and her mother with a comfortable life in the Dominican Republic and even afforded Nina a visa to get to the U.S. Although readers might take issue with Nina’s dependent relationship with men, they still will be able to sympathize with her circumstances. It takes a strong person to leave one’s homeland for opportunities—both good and bad—in another country. Faced with numerous choices, Nina must decide what kind of woman she wants to be: naive or empowered.

When he was 7 years old, Vane Weston became known as “the Miracle Child” for surviving the Category 5 tornado that killed his parents. That was 10 years ago. And though Vane has found friends and a new home with loving adoptive parents, he is still haunted by unanswered questions and recurring dreams about his past. Just how did he survive? And why does he see the face of the same girl, night after night?

Speaking of girls, Vane seems to have bad luck in that department. He’s not bad looking, but every date ends in a disaster. So Vane is delighted when things go well on a blind date with a visiting Canadian called Hannah. Until, that is, the girl from his dreams suddenly appears in real life.

From that moment, Vane’s world turns upside-down. Instinctively, Vane knows that the stranger, who calls herself Audra, holds the key to unlocking memories of his parents and his life before the storm. But Vane is not at all prepared for what Audra tells him about who he really is, or for the challenges that lie ahead if he is to keep his new family safe—nor is Audra prepared for the forbidden attraction she feels for someone she knows is promised to another.

Told in alternating voices, Let the Sky Fall brings readers into a world of fantasy close enough to touch but impossible to see. Messenger has created an intriguing paranormal romance filled with suspense, adventure and realistic, likable characters. By the end, fans will be eager for the second book in the series.

In Sherri L. Smith’s futuristic Orleans, six deadly hurricanes have followed Hurricane Katrina, each more devastating for the land and the people than the last. When an incurable sickness called Delta Fever follows, the Gulf Coast is quarantined and ultimately abandoned as the rest of the United States separates from the affected states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.

Twenty-five years later, the rest of the union believes that the Delta is dying; rather, a new society has formed, where bonds are forged and broken around blood type, and primitive tribes rule the land now called Orleans.

Daniel, a scientist from the Outer States, is determined to find a cure for Delta Fever, but the only way to test his hypothesis is to illegally sneak into the Delta. There he meets Fen, an O-Positive teenage girl who has been left with her tribe leader’s newborn baby after a deadly ambush.

In a moment of danger, Fen and Daniel make a deal: Daniel will take the baby over the wall to a better life before her blood becomes tainted in exchange for Fen’s guidance through the Delta. But what starts as a simple agreement becomes a deep alliance as Fen and Daniel fight for survival across the wasteland, encountering enemies and so-called friends alike as they learn they can trust no one but each other.

Sherri L. Smith, whose mother survived Hurricane Katrina, builds upon real New Orleans landmarks and history to create a feel of authenticity that will drive readers to keep reading until the very last page. Orleans is a heart-pumping meditation on the worst-case scenario in a region recently plagued by natural disasters, and thankfully, it’s fictional.

June Costa is an artist in the post-apocalyptic city of Palmares Tres, in what was once Brazil. She is a “waka,” a citizen younger than the age of 30, in a matriarchal society ruled by a Queen and “Aunties” (powerful older women). The matriarchy came into power following a horrific plague that killed many of the males and was largely attributed to the negligence of the male rulers.

Although the Queen manages the city, a Summer Prince (a waka) is chosen to rule alongside her as the Summer King for one year, after which time he will be sacrificed. A romance blossoms between June and Enki, the new Summer King, as they develop a relationship based upon their mutual love for artistic expression. As a result, June is forced to question the rules of her society and the wisdom of the ruling class.

In her debut novel for young adults, Alaya Dawn Johnson creates a society where homosexuality, heterosexuality and bisexuality are equally accepted. Women are the accepted leaders, and elders command respect and obedience. However, corruption among the powerful is still very much in existence, and race and culture are still obstacles for those with ambition.

The Summer Prince is a complicated story that weaves together elements of romance, art, moral dilemmas and dystopian themes. The heroine is deeply flawed but still intriguing, and readers of all ages will find themselves craving more from this fresh new voice in young adult fiction.

Emily Booth Masters reviews from Nashville, Tennessee.

Adam Strand is bored. He thinks that his birth was a mistake and is constantly trying to correct that mistake—by jumping off bridges, drowning himself or taking poison. In total, he's killed himself 39 times, but each time he survives unharmed.

Adam doesn't understand why he keeps coming back, and the people around him don't understand why he keeps trying. Adam's driven by an irresistible urge for something he can't articulate—something that's only satisfied in the moments after each suicide. In the meantime, life goes on around him. His friends take constant votes on what words and actions will be banned in their friendship, and a 10-year-old girl who's wiser than her years turns out to have a problem that perhaps Adam alone can help her solve.

Set in a middle-American small town, The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand is as much Adam's story as the story of the town as a whole. Adults are trapped in dead-end jobs, and teenagers have nothing to do but get drunk at the waterfront. Yet relationships are still built up—and then broken down, and then built up again. Moments of intense emotion still happen, and mentors and role models are still to be found . . . for those willing to look.

Gregory Galloway, winner of the Alex Award for As Simple as Snow, has written a subtly snarky, darkly edgy mood piece that requires a certain suspension of disbelief and a willingness to approach a serious topic from an unusual perspective. But the story delivers an intense and ultimately rewarding experience to the reader willing to enter its world.

Three years ago, Vanessa Adler's sister Margaret disappeared from the prestigious New York Ballet Academy. Her family was told that Margaret cracked under the high pressure of life as a prima ballerina. But Vanessa, now a freshman at NYBE, doesn't believe that. Although she's the most talented dancer in her class—with a strange ability to fall into a trance-like state when her steps are completely perfect—Vanessa hasn't enrolled at the elite boarding school to study ballet. Instead, she intends to track down the truth about how her sister vanished . . . and where Margaret might be now.

Vanessa immediately makes friends and almost as quickly finds herself drawn to two upperclass boys: the sensual but mysterious Zep and the disturbingly astute Justin. But events take a sinister turn when freshman orientation includes a creepy nighttime ritual, and when Vanessa discovers something distinctly disquieting about a subterranean practice room. When Vanessa is cast in the same lead role her sister was scheduled for just before Margaret's disappearance, she and her friends fear that their time to discover the ballet academy's secrets may be running out. But as they learn more about the school in general—and one unnerving, arrhythmic dance in particular—they find themselves embroiled in a plot beyond anything they could have suspected.

Inspired by the traditions of Gothic horror, Yelena Black's debut novel crackles with spooky imagery and thrilling suspense. Her detailed descriptions of ballet technique, set against the backdrop of autumn in New York City, transport the reader into Vanessa's world. Fans of classical ballet, dark romances and mysteries set at boarding schools won't want to miss Dance of Shadows . . . or its two upcoming sequels.

The young adult genre can be as repetitive as it is inventive, so the popularity of the dystopian YA subgenre guarantees some familiar storylines. It seems unfair, then, to classify Sally Gardner’s new novel, Maggot Moon, as dystopian YA, as it defies comparison to all of its shelfmates. Rather than looking ahead to a bleak future, Gardner imagines what the 1950s would have been like if the Allies had lost World War II. In the Motherland, “impurities” are “rubbed out,” citizens snitch or starve, and sheep have the best chance for survival.

Fifteen-year-old Standish Treadwell is no sheep. He is dyslexic (like the author)—“Can’t read, can’t write, Standish Treadwell isn’t bright”—and therefore an impurity, an easy target both at school and in the Motherland. His dyslexia, however, is more a power than a hindrance. It keeps his eyes up and his ears open, and through his wry, incisive and original voice, he creates a narrative that is not quite linear, resembling instead the colorful mind of a daydreamer.

Standish escapes his circumstances by retreating into his one remaining vestige of independence, his imagination. He and his best friend Hector dream of the free world, “Croca-Colas” and Cadillacs. They build a rocket ship to take them to Juniper, an imagined utopian planet with a name that feels within the realm of possibility, yet is obviously unobtainable. They are not alone in their dreams of reaching the stars, as the Motherland takes strides each day to be the first nation to land a man on the moon.

When Hector and his family are taken away just before the moon launch, Standish finds himself uniquely positioned to risk all and unveil the Motherland’s elaborate ruse to its citizens and the rest of the world. He is the wolf among the sheep.

In Maggot Moon, hope lies in truth. This is a small victory, but an achievable one, especially for a clear-eyed boy driven by friendship.

At just 14 years old, Celia Door has turned Dark. Not goth or emo, but withdrawn into herself, clad in black and focused solely on getting back at the kids who pushed her over the edge. Befriending a cool new guy at school helps to broaden her horizons, but when he gets entangled in her scheme, it looks like she might lose everything. Will The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door be worth it?

Author Karen Finneyfrock works magic on the page here. We get glimpses of the real Celia, an earnest, slightly nerdy poet, and we can see she’s not cut out for vengeance or darkness. Flashbacks to her mistreatment by classmates are unsparing, though, and it’s easy to understand why she wants so badly to even the score. Celia’s parents are divorcing and think her acting out is a response to them, which leaves her even more alone.

New BFF Drake is a delight, just finding his way in the world and looking for order amid the chaos. His reliance on a kooky self-help book to aid in his coming-out process is both hilarious and poignant. When Celia sticks up for Drake and he drops to one knee and proposes friendship, she thinks: “I didn’t say anything at first because I wanted to see how long those words could hang in the air. Best friend. Best friend. Best friend.”

Readers will like Celia and pull for her to learn that being true to herself is the sweetest revenge of all.

I love a good boarding school novel. Kirsten Miller’s Mandel Academy is different—and far more disturbing—than any other fictional boarding school I’ve come across. The main character, Flick, dubs the school “Hogwarts for hustlers,” and the course catalog reads like a series of ugly jokes. “Mining the Masses: Big Profits from Little People” and “Let Them Eat Cake: Exploiting America’s Obesity Epidemic” are just two of the courses at this school that also teaches the fine arts of hacking, blackmail and assassination.

Flick, a skillful pickpocket, is a “legacy kid,” the son of a Mandel alumnus. But Flick enrolls in the academy not because he aspires to be like his dad but because he longs to take him down and expose his secret, murderous history. As Flick rises to the top of the class, he discovers just how sinister the academy is. When his “one good thing,” his girlfriend Joi, winds up at the academy, too, she shows him that there may be another option, one that will keep Flick alive while maintaining his moral integrity, one that will turn Mandel upside down.

In How to Lead a Life of Crime, Miller has created a gruesome school environment, one in which ambition turns bloodthirsty and loyalties are tested. Along the way, she raises significant questions about the origins of evil, the capability of the individual and the distribution of wealth and power. Readers might not want to enroll in the Mandel Academy, but their time spent there will certainly make them think.

“It’s like he came out of nowhere.”

So begins Maria Padian’s engaging novel about the impact a young Somali refugee and his family have on high school senior and avid soccer player Tom Bouchard. Saeed, the new player in Tom’s small Maine town, may not yet be fluent in English, but he is a master of the language of soccer. And thanks to Saeed’s skills, for the first time the school’s team is winning. That is, until Saeed’s eligibility to play for the team is questioned.

As Tom learns, real life is not nearly as clear-cut as the final score of a soccer game. He finds himself negotiating new and unfamiliar territory—not only in his relationships with Saeed and Samira, Saeed’s sister, but with Myla, the progressive, outspoken young college student who volunteers her time with the Somali community. At the same time, Tom is torn by old loyalties, especially to his girlfriend, Charisse, and his troubled best friend, Donnie. But the more he gets to know Saeed, Samira and Myla, the more he finds himself growing apart from his old friends and family members—and their attitudes. 

Negotiating this new cultural landscape is not easy for Tom or his new Somali friends. Maria Padian’s third novel for young adults includes well-drawn characters and a compelling story with sports themes that will be especially appealing to male readers. Most of all, the author is not afraid to show us that there are no easy solutions—and that even simple actions, no matter how well-intentioned, can have serious cultural consequences.

In Homeland, Cory Doctorow’s stand-alone sequel to the award-winning Little Brother, it’s been a few years since Marcus Yallow stood up to the Department of Homeland Security. With unemployed parents (partly because of his DHS run-in) and insurmountable student loans, recent college dropout Marcus is still dating Ange and looking for a job in his San Francisco neighborhood. Just when he scores a webmaster position with a progressive, independent senatorial candidate, he receives a load of incriminating files from former DHS operative Masha, who asks him to make them public if she goes missing.

When Masha is indeed kidnapped, Marcus must sort through the hundreds of thousands of files containing information about government corruption. Releasing the information—without linking it back to himself—is no easy task, as the teen’s perpetual (and justly earned) paranoia against the Department of Homeland Security, the police department and rogue technology thieves drives this high-tech thriller. Once again, smart dialogue gives the story energy as Marcus turns to his old friends from Little Brother to help arrange the information and evade trouble. As tech guru Doctorow returns to issues of privacy rights, he offers up more descriptions of cutting-edge, often underground technology.

The story serves a fine blend of technological expertise for Doctorow’s legions of followers and limited jargon for less tech-savvy readers. Now that Marcus and his pals have matured, they’re also trying to figure out where they stand in their relationships. This can be just as exciting and scary as dodging the DHS. This modern dystopia also rewards readers with a revelation of a disturbing future with a hint of the present—or perhaps a snapshot of the present with a hint of disturbing events that could infiltrate our future. Either way, it’s downright riveting.