Beasts of Prey- Ayana Gray

Genre- Fantasy Fiction

Summary-

Indentured to the notorious Night Zoo, Koffi cares for its fearsome and magical creatures to pay off her family’s debts and secure their eventual freedom. When her family’s safety is threatened by the Zoo’s cruel master, Koffi unleashes a power she doesn’t fully understand– and the consequences are dire. As the second son of a decorated hero, Ekon is all but destined to become a Son of the Six– an elite warrior– and uphold a family legacy. On the night of his final rite of passage, a fire upends his plans. In its midst, Ekon encounters the Shetani, a vicious monster that has plagued the city for nearly a century– and Koffi, who seems to have the power to ward off the beast. Koffi and Ekon form a tentative alliance to capture the Shetani– but it quickly becomes unclear whether they are the hunters or the hunted.

Paper Towns- John Green

Genre- Novel, YA fiction, Mystery

Summary-

Quentin has loved Margo Roth Spiegelman since they were kids riding their bikes, but after they discovered the body of a local suicide they never really spoke again. Now it’s senior year and Margo appears in his window one night. She has enlisted the help of Quentin to help her with her eleven-part plan to exact revenge against her friends who have wronged her. After Margo and Quentin’s adventure, Margo disappears. However, Margo has left clues for Quentin to follow and he is determined to put these clues together to figure out where she has gone. Quentin enlists his best friends, Ben and Radar, to help him find Margo, and Margo’s friend Lacey joins them. A detective is enlisted to search for Margo, but he is neither helpful nor hopeful that she will be found.

“The book “Paper Towns¨ by John Green is a very eye opening book about living life to the fullest and learning to take risks. I really enjoyed reading about the experiences and memories Margo and Quentin had together. Reading this book has helped inspire me to live in the moment and not to take anything I have for granted.” said Great Bend High School sophomore Sydney Mattison.

Fable- Adrienne Young

Genre- YA Fantasy 

Summary-

As the daughter of a powerful trader in the Narrows, the sea is the only home 17 year old Fable has ever known. Its been 4 years since she saw her mother drown during an unforgiving storm and the next day her father abandoned her on a legendary island filled with thieves and little food. To survive, she must learn to trust no one and to rely on the unique skills her mother taught her. The only thing that keeps her going is the goal of getting off the island, finding her father and demanding her rightful place beside him and his crew. To do so Fable must enlist the help of a young treader named West to get her off the island and across the Narrows to her father. As Fable realizes that her fathers rivalries and the dangers of his trading enterprise have only multiplied since she last saw him, she soon finds that West isn’t who he seems. Together, they will have to survive more than the treacherous storms that haunt the Narrows if they’re going to stay alive.

“Fable is an excellent read! The story includes something for every reader – romance, intrigue, and LOTS of action and adventure! I read this book quickly and snatched up the sequel, Namesake, to finish Fable’s story. Everyone should read Fable and be whisked away on a swashbuckling, ocean adventure.” said Great Bend High School Librarian, Rebecca Lehew.

Tokyo Ever After- Emiko Jean 

Genre- Fiction 

Summary-

Iumi Tanaka has never really felt like she fit in–it isn’t easy being Japanese American in her small, mostly white, northern California town. Raised by a single mother, its always been Izumi–or Izzy, and her mom against the world. Then Izumi discovers a clue to her unknow fathers identity…and it turns out that he is none other that the Crown Prince of Japan, which means that outspoken, irreverent Izzy is literally a princess. Izzy travels to Japan to meet the father she never knew, but being a princess isn’t all ball gowns and tiaras. There are conniving cousins, a hungry press, a scowling but handsome bodyguard who just might be her soulmate, and thousands of years of tradition and customs to learn practically overnight. As Izzy finds herself caught between worlds and between versions of herself, will she crumble under the weight of the crown, or will she live out her fairy tale, happily ever after?

House of Salt and Sorrows- Erin A. Craig 

Genre- Fantasy Fiction 

Summary-

In a villa by the sea, twelve sisters are cursed. Annaleigh guarded life at Highmoor with her sisters and their father and stepmother. There once was twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girl’s lives have been cut short. Each death more tragic than the last– the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge– and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods. Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that her sisters deaths were no accident, when she is deisturbed by a series of ghostly visions. The girls have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn’t sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who–or what–are they really dancing with? When Annaleigh’s involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it’s a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family–before it claims her next.