What's New in Teen Fiction

Teen Reads

Anxious Hearts by Tucker Shaw
In this dreamy but insubstantial romance, two modern-day teens connect briefly and fall in love but, like their counterparts hundreds of years past, are separated for years before reuniting. Chapters alternate between Eva in the present and Gabriel in the past, as both chronicle the trials they undergo to be together. In the present, Gabe runs away from Eva after his brother dies of cancer; in the past, Gabriel and Evangeline are separated when their village is invaded and their people relocated. Their voices fit their stories, as Gabriel's language is flowery and Eva's more direct, but both are poetic and extremely romantic. However, the two stories are uneven: Eva's narrative voice is more interesting, but her sudden powerful obsession with Gabe is unrealistic and his motivation for disappearing is not well thought out; Gabriel's journey to find Evangeline after forcible separation is more authentically dramatic, but otherwise he has no personality. The swooning romance between the couples will capture love-hungry teens regardless, especially as Eva and Gabe have a happy ending in store.

Maximum Ride #7 Angel by James Patterson

In this seventh book, evil scientists are still trying to convince Max that she needs to save the world, this time by providing the genetic link in speeding up the pace of evolution. Worse, they're trying to convince her that her perfect mate is Dylan, the newest addition to the flock. The problem is that, despite herself, Max is starting to believe it.

Fang travels the country collecting his own gang of evolved humans, but the two separate flocks must unite to defeat a frightening doomsday cult whose motto is Save the Planet: Kill the Humans. And this time, the true heroine, for once, might just be little Angel.

Awakened : A house of night novel by P.C. Cast


At the start of Awakened , the pulse-pounding eighth installment of the bestselling House of Night series, Zoey has returned, mostly whole, from the Otherworld to her rightful place as High Priestess at the House of Night. Her friends are just glad to have her back, but after losing her human consort, Heath, will Zoey or her relationship with her super-hot Warrior, Stark, ever be the same? Stevie Rae is drawn even closer to Rephaim, the Raven Mocker with whom she shares a mysterious and powerful Imprint, but he is a dangerous secret that isolates her from her school, her red fledglings, and even her best friends. When the dark threat of Neferet, who is coming closer and closer to achieving her twisted goal of immortality, and Kalona returns, what will it take to keep the House of Night from being lost forever, and what will one desperate girl do to keep her heart from being irreparably broken?