New YA: February 8-14.
New hardbacks:
Hattie Ever After, by Kirby Larson:
If my squeefest about the existence of a Hattie-sequel is anything to judge by, I'm sure that any fan of the original will already be planning on reading Hattie Ever After. I'm also sure that any fan of the original will be plenty pleased with it: Hattie, after all, is an infinitely likable narrator, trustworthy, warm, generous, and kind. (But NEVER INSIPID.) I especially love her lack of entitlement or pretension: she's always willing to learn, and always willing to start at the absolute bottom. And there are some lovely bits about storytelling and the writing process that will be hugely inspiring to aspiring writers, regardless of age.
Out of The Easy, by Ruta Sepetys:
Sepetys is true to the era and her characters in how Patrick's story plays out; the romance is sweet and heartfelt; the details about 1950s life and culture work themselves in fluidly; Josie wants what she wants so badly that I was never quite sure about how far she'd go to get it; and while the ending certainly has some fairy-tale elements, there's enough bitter in the sweet to keep cynics (like me) from getting all up on their high horses.
Sever (Chemical Garden), by Lauren DeStefano
Revel, by Maurissa Guibord
Rapunzel Untangled, by Cindy C. Bennett
The Indigo Spell: A Bloodlines Novel, by Richelle Mead:
Although she has strong emotional ties to the Alchemist way of life, her intelligence, her logic, and her critical-thinking skills have led her to start to question what she's been taught... but it's always clear that she's got understandably mixed feelings about it all; in the first two books, she was teetering on the brink of an eating disorder, and her struggles with and thoughts about that have been realistic, believable, and relatable. She's reserved and careful about who she trusts; she can be oblivious to the feelings of others; she's difficult and sometimes bossy; really type-A, and not always in a particularly attractive way; basically, she's wonderfully imperfect and I definitely see what Adrian sees in her.
An Infidel in Paradise, by S.J. Laidlaw
The Lives We Lost, by Megan Crewe
Maggot Moon, by Sally Gardner and Julian Crouch
The Mirrored Shard: The Iron Codex Book Three, by Caitlin Kittredge
Mistle Child (Undertaken Trilogy), by Ari Berk
Notes from Ghost Town, by Kate Ellison
Out of Nowhere, by Maria Padian
Pivot Point, by Kasie West
One Crow Alone, by S D Crockett
Arcadia Burns, by Kai Meyer
Breaking Point, by Kristen Simmons
Dance of Shadows, by Yelena Black
Feral Nights, by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Fractured Soul, by Rachel McClellan
The Gathering Dark, by Christine Johnson
New paperbacks (that I've read):
The Shattering, by Karen Healey:
I realized what the Secret of Summerton’s Success was on page 62—an annual death and inexplicable prosperity in a town with a perfectly static population can really only add up to one thing—but that early realization wasn’t a problem. Rather, it upped the tension because I was aware of how much more danger Our Intrepid Sleuths were in well before they were, and provided a lot of “Nooooo! Don’t go in there!” moments.
Diabolical, by Cynthia Leitich Smith:
Fun stuff, as always. If you like the rest of the series, Diabolical shouldn't disappoint. The strongest aspect, as in previous installments, is in the worldbuilding. That isn't to say that any of the other aspects are weak—the characters are likable and believable, the dialogue rings true, the different voices are all distinct, and the action is fabulously entertaining—but it's the worldbuilding that really shines.