Chelsea Roberts is living the dream post high school; no commitments, no stress and nothing to do. Simple times. But life has a funny way of turning your world upside down when you least expect it. A chance encounter with her old high school crush, Noah Kalani, leads Chelsea to uncover her father's secret affair. The discovery leaves Chelsea unsure about her place in the world and in her own family. With Noah by her side, Chelsea is convinced a carefully laid New Year's Eve plan can protect her family and make her world seem right again. Only, this plan will be the beginning of Chelsea unearthing more secrets than she ever imagined.

Set in Italy during WWII and twenty-five years later, this is a story of a mother and daughter, of love and the secrets that echo through generations. In the fields around Tuscany in summertime, sunflowers grow in abundance—wave upon wave of gold and green standing tall against the Italian sky. But for Signora Maria Ferraro, the bright yellow blooms she once loved as a child have come to represent the most painful episode of her life. Not even her cherished daughter, Anabella, knows what happened to her during World War II, when the Germans overran her hometown of Florence and Signora Ferraro fell in love with a Resistance fighter. In the aftermath of loss and grief she found salvation through an unlikely source—cultivating roses on her farm in the Tuscan countryside. Now the blossoms symbolize everything that is both good and safe, and she nurtures them with as much care as she guards her past. Yet to Anabella, the rose farm that once delighted her has become little more than a pretty prison. Despite her beautiful surroundings, Anabella longs for more. During one of her regular visits to Siena to sell their flowers, Anabella encounters a handsome young artist named Dante Galletti. His canvases are filled with images of a girl who looks just like Anabella—and Dante claims to have seen her in his dreams, running through a sunflower field. Through Dante, Anabella begins to see sunflowers, her cloistered existence, and the world itself through new eyes. As their relationship deepens, Anabella knows she will soon have to choose between loyalty to her mother, and the risks and rewards of living on her own terms . . .

joy

A magical middle grade debut, inspired by Filipino folklore, about a ten-year-old girl who embarks on a quest in the world of gods and spirits to save her and her family from a sinister shadow god. Perfect for fans of The Girl Who Drank the Moon and When You Trap a Tiger. A Junior Library Guild Selection Marikit is used to wearing recycled clothes. Her mother, the best seamstress in the barrio, has become an expert at making do ever since Marikit’s father and brother were lost at sea. But for her tenth birthday, all Marikit wants is something new. So when her mother gifts her a patchwork dress stitched together with leftover scraps from her workshop, Marikit vows to never wear it. That is, until the eve of her birthday, when shadow creatures creep into their home, attempt to take Marikit away, and upend the very life she knew. When she’s swept away from the human world, Marikit discovers that her dress is a map, one lovingly crafted to lead her to safety in the magical lands of the Engkantos. She trudges through the enchanted lands of mythical creatures, making friends out of monsters and challenging gods. With the help of her friends, including an exuberant firefly and a cursed boy, Marikit journeys through the land of the Engkantos to find the key to saving her family, all without being eaten alive.

Is the legendary El Fuego Negro, the protector of the forest, for real? Or is the strange new neighbor a threat to them? Whats going on in the forest? Can Sampyre and Gingerella, Sam and Gingers super hero alter egos, figure out the mysteries?

Taking inspiration from the author's own Afghan-Uzbek heritage, this contemporary YA debut is a breathtaking journey into the grief that lingers through generations of immigrant families, and what it means to confront the ghosts of your past. Struggling to deal with the pain of her parents’ impending divorce, fifteen-year-old Sara is facing a world of unknowns and uncertainties. Unfortunately, the one person she could always lean on when things got hard, her beloved Bibi Jan, has become a mere echo of the grandmother she once was. And so Sara retreats into the family business, hoping a summer working on her mom’s latest home renovation project will provide a distraction from her fracturing world. But the house holds more than plaster and stone. It holds secrets that have her clinging desperately to the memories of her old life. Secrets that only her Bibi Jan could have untangled. Secrets Sara is powerless to ignore as the dark truths of her family’s history rise in ghostly apparitions -- and with it, the realization that as much as she wants to hold onto her old life, nothing will ever be the same. Told in lush, sweeping prose, this story of secrets, summer, and family sacrifice will chill you to the bone as the house that wraps Sara in warmth of her past becomes the one thing she cannot escape...

The first woman he ever loved is dead, and Evan Wade is compelled by demons of his own to discover her murderer. As this gripping tale of suspense unfolds, Wade comes to understand his own role in the crime, and the hunter comes to be hunted by the very murderer he seeks. In the chilling climax, Wade finds out more than he ever wants to know about himself, and that knowledge changes him forever. Set against the backdrop of one of the great social and moral controversies of our time, Untimely Ripped explores the relations between parents and their children, born and unborn, loved and abandoned. Yet, however serious and thought-provoking, the novel will delight as much by its uproariously funny scenes as its somber ones. For it tells not only a deeply moving, tragic tale of love and death but a heart-warming and comic story of love, life, and birth.