Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Park is popular, Eleanor is not.  Park is athletic and sociable, Eleanor is withdrawn and clumsy.  Almost against his will, Park is drawn to Eleanor's strangeness and he begins to share his playlists with her.  Their love of music draws them into a friendship that could be more.  But Eleanor needs help, there's a good reason why she is so strange.  Park steps outside his comfort zone to be a good friend to Eleanor and finds strengths he didn't know he had. Although there is some strong language, this book was hard to put down.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a story of friendship, war, espionage and great courage as she relates what she must while keeping secret all she can.  After Verity is captured by the Gestapo, she has to write her confession.  This story will bend your mind!  

If I Stay by Gail Forman

Mia is a gifted cellist with an awesome family.  Her future is looking good that morning as they all get in the car.  Then the unthinkable happens----car accident.  Her family is killed and Mia is left in a coma.  She is aware that she needs to decide to go with her family to the unknown and leave behind her life, or wake up and live a life without her family.  Which would you choose?  This book is being made into a movie soon.  As things can change so quickly, this book made me stop and smell the roses.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

What if you had only one day to live?  What would you do?  Who would you talk to?  In the first chapter, teen Samantha dies in a car crash.  Then she wakes up again to relive the same day.  She gets seven chances to make it right.  It reminded me of Groundhog Day with Bill Murray.  The most intriguing part for me is how the little choices I make all day long impact the outcome of my day.  

52 Reasons to Hate My Father by Jessica Brody

It's tough to be a spoiled heiress, and this book starts with one named Lexington crashing her new car into a drugstore.  She is just waiting for her 18th birthday, when she will inherit the trust fund that will allow her to live in luxury with her equally shallow friends. After the car crash, however, her father decides that she will have to work at 52 different low-wage jobs, a new one every week, in order to inherit her trust fund.  Her first one is working as a maid, but she also works at a taco stand, a flower shop, a catering service, and a mortuary to name a few.  As I read this book, I was hoping this girl would get what she deserved, but perhaps my judgment was hasty...

The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen

This book is a fun read, full of action and sword-fights, alliances and betrayals. An orphan named Sage, who is quite skilled at "procuring" things that don't belong to him, is adopted (basically, purchased) by a strange man who takes him to his mansion to train him to be a prince.  The king and queen have been murdered, but no one knows about it yet except his strange benefactor.  Their only son, Prince Jaron, has been missing for years and presumed dead.  Sage and two other boys have been chosen to try and impersonate Prince Jaron so that they could become King.  Of course, only one boy is needed, so the competition is fierce.  Sage doesn't know who to trust or which fork to use to eat his salad. This is the first book of a trilogy (the second one is The Runaway King) and it promises to be a great adventure!