New Release Round-Up: January 9-15, 2012

Young Adult

The Fault in Our Stars
by John Green

Release date: January 10, 2012
Available as: hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, ebook, audiobook
Pages: 318
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Suggested tags: young adult, contemporary, realistic fiction



From Goodreads:

"Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs... for now.

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind."



Jessica Rules the Dark Side
by Beth Fantaskey

Release date: January 10, 2012
Available as: hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, ebook
Pages: 309
Publisher: Harcourt
Suggested tags: young adult, paranormal, urban fantasy, vampires



Second in the Jessica series. Currently, you can get the Kindle edition of the first book in the series, Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, for free! From Goodreads:

"It’s one thing to find out you’re a vampire princess. It’s a whole other thing to actually rule. Newly married Jessica Packwood is having a hard enough time feeling regal with her husband, Lucius, at her side. But when evidence in the murder of a powerful elder points to Lucius, sending him into solitary confinement, Jessica is suddenly on her own. Determined to clear her husband’s name, Jessica launches into a full-scale investigation, but hallucinations and nightmares of betrayal keep getting in her way. Jessica knows that with no blood to drink, Lucius’s time is running out. Can she figure out who the real killer is—and whom she can trust—before it’s too late?"



Middle Grade


May B.
by Caroline Starr Rose

Release date: January 10, 2012
Available as: hardcover, Kindle edition, ebook
Pages: 231
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade
Suggested tags: middle grade, historical fiction



From Goodreads:

"I've known it since last night:
It's been too long to expect them to return.
Something's happened.

May is helping out on a neighbor's Kansas prairie homestead—just until Christmas, says Pa. She wants to contribute, but it's hard to be separated from her family by 15 long, unfamiliar miles. Then the unthinkable happens: May is abandoned. Trapped in a tiny snow-covered sod house, isolated from family and neighbors, May must prepare for the oncoming winter. While fighting to survive, May's memories of her struggles with reading at school come back to haunt her. But she's determined to find her way home again."