Moxie, Jennifer Mathieu
Vivian Carter is fed up with a high school administration that thinks the football team can do no wrong. Fed up with sexist dress codes, hallway harassment, and gross comments from guys during class. But most of all, Viv is fed up with always following the rules. Her mom was a tough-as-nails, punk rock Riot Grrrl in the ’90s, and now Viv takes a page from her mother’s past and creates a feminist zine that she distributes anonymously to her classmates. She’s just blowing off steam, but what she has started is nothing short of a girl revolution. (Publisher summary)
First lines: My English teacher, Mr. Davies, rubs a hand over his military buzz cut. There’s sweat beading at his hairline, and he puffs out his ruddy cheeks. He looks like a drunk porcupine. The drunk part may be true. Even if it is before lunch on a Tuesday.
The warrior, Joseph Delaney
This is the third exhilarating installment in the Arena 13 series by Joseph Delaney, author of The Spook’s Apprentice. After everything Leif has been through in Arena 13, it’s finally time for him to fulfill his destiny and accompany his father’s people beyond the barrier that imprisons all mankind. Meanwhile, Kwin, the girl he loves, is making waves in the arena as the first woman ever to grace its fighting floor. In their own ways, each of them is fighting to bring down the superhuman monsters that threaten the last people on earth. They might have picked fights they can’t win. But freedom could be something worth dying for. (Publisher summary)
First lines: When Math glimpsed the west bank of the River Medie, his heart soared. He was almost home. Ahead, in the far distance, was the Barrier that enclosed Midgard, a black mass of cloud and mist that reached from the ground high into the sky, writhing and churning as if it were alive.
The arsonist, Stephanie Oakes
Molly Mavity doesn’t believe her mother killed herself three years ago– or that her father is about to be executed for his crimes. Pepper Yusef is a Kuwaiti immigrant with a seizure dog, and is about to fail out of school. They are tasked with solving the decades-old murder of Ava Dryman, an East German teenager resistance fighter whose death led to the destruction of the Berlin Wall. (Publisher summary)
First lines: Dear Pepper,
Do you have any idea how depressing it is in this room right now> Your dad can’t look at you for longer than a couple of minutes before falling into tears. You’re not breathing on your own, and I can’t see your bandaged head without remembering you were recently punched in the brain by the bottom of a swimming pool. They say you might never wake up.
Invictus, Ryan Graudin
Farway Gaius McCarthy is the son of a time traveler from 2354 AD and a gladiator living in ancient Rome. His very existence defies the laws of nature. All he’s ever wanted was to explore history for himself, but after failing his entrance exam into the government program, Far will have to settle for a position on the black market: captaining a time-traveling crew to steal valuables from the past. During a routine heist on the sinking Titanic, Far meets a mysterious girl named Eliot who always seems to be one step ahead of him. Eliot has secrets and, armed with the knowledge that history is not as steady as it seems, she leads Far and his team on a race through time to set things right before the clock runs out. (Publisher summary)
First lines: Recorder Empra McCarthy sat in the bleachers of the Ampitheatrum Flavium, her pregnant belly as round as a globe under her indigo stola. The Colosseum -not that it was called that, not yet – was a frenzy of life around her. Nearly fifty thousand souls had come to watch the day’s bloodbath, filling the seats with earth toned togas, popping salted peas and chunks of bread into their mouths, screaming last-minute bets and Latin slang as the gladiators marched through the Porta Sanavivaria into the arena below.
Jane, unlimited, Kristin Cashore
Jane has lived an ordinary life, raised by her aunt Magnolia–an adjunct professor and deep sea photographer. Jane counted on Magnolia to make the world feel expansive and to turn life into an adventure. But Aunt Magnolia was lost a few months ago in Antarctica on one of her expeditions. Now, with no direction, a year out of high school, and obsessed with making umbrellas that look like her own dreams (but mostly just mourning her aunt), she is easily swept away by Kiran Thrash–a glamorous, capricious acquaintance who shows up and asks Jane to accompany her to a gala at her family’s island mansion called Tu Reviens. Jane remembers her aunt telling her: “If anyone ever invites to you to Tu Reviens, promise me that you’ll go.” With nothing but a trunkful of umbrella parts to her name, Jane ventures out to the Thrash estate. Then her story takes a turn, or rather, five turns. What Jane doesn’t know is that Tu Reviens will offer her choices that can ultimately determine the course of her untethered life. But at Tu Reviens, every choice comes with a reward, or a price. (Publisher summary)
First lines: The house on the cliff looks like a ship disappearing into fog. The spire a mast, the trees whipping against its base, the waves of a ravening sea. Or maybe Jane just has ships on the brain, seeing as she’s inside one that’s doing all it can to consume her attention. A wave rolls the yacht, catches her off balance, and she sits down, triumphantly landing in the general vicinity of where she aimed.