Friday Finds! (Dec. 11, 2009)

Credit goes to MizB from Should Be Reading.

The Summer of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Release Date: June 1, 2010
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Pages: 324

Summary: After getting dumped by her boyfriend, sixteen-year-old Mia Gordon is looking forward to spending a relaxing summer in the Hamptons with her glamorous cousins. But when she arrives, her cousins are distant, moody, and caught up with a fast crowd. Mia finds herself lonelier than ever. That's when she meets her next-door-neighbor, Simon Ross. Simon isn't like the snobby party boys her cousins seem obsessed with; he's funny, artistic, and utterly adventurous. And from the very first time he encourages Mia to go skinny-dipping, she's caught up in a current impossible to resist. Timeless in feel, The Summer of Skinny-Dipping is a poignant, literary read sure to dazzle tweens and teens alike.

Nocturne by L.D. Harkrader
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Release Date: June 8, 2010
Publisher: Mirrorstone
Pages: 256

Summary: A romantic tale of vampires and magic from award-winning author L.D. Harkrader Flanders Lane is tired of being protected by her Uncle Anatole. After years of studying magic in the back of his bookshop, she's ready for an adventure of her own. Then one day, strange things start happening. A burglar breaks into the butcher's shop, stealing nothing, but leaving the floors sparkling clean. Soon the seamstress's apprentice vanishes on her way home, leaving behind only a shoe still laced at the top. And then worst of all, Uncle Anatole disappears. That night, a young vampire hunter named Pascoe knocks urgently on the bookshop door. Pascoe insists there is a vampire lurking in nearby Blakely Hall. Flanders looks deep into Pascoe's gorgeous eyes and finds herself agreeing to help him. As Flanders tracks the vampire, her feelings for Pascoe grow until she stumbles upon a secret that turns everything she thought she knew about Pascoe--and herself--upside down.

Things I Know About Love by Kate Le Vann
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Release Date: June 22, 2010
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Pages: 160

Summary: Livia's experience of love has been disappointing to say the least. But all that is about to change. After years of illness, she's off to spend the summer with her brother in America. She's making up for lost time, and she's writing it all down in her private blog. America is everything she ever dreamed of - and then she meets Adam. Can Livia put the past behind her and risk falling in love again?

7 Souls by Barnabas Miller & Jordan Orlando
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Release Date: July 13, 2010
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Pages: 352

Summary: Mary expected her seventeenth birthday to be a blowout to remember, courtesy of her best friends, fellow New York City prepsters Amy and Joon, and her doting boyfriend, Trick. Instead, the day starts badly and gets worse. After waking up in a mortifying place with a massive, unexplainable hangover, Mary soon discovers that nobody at school is even aware that it's her birthday. As evening approaches, paranoia sets in. Mary just can't shake the feeling that someone is out to get her—and, as it turns out, she's right. Before the night is over, she's been killed in cold blood. But murder is just the beginning of Mary's ordeal. Her soul gets trapped in a strange limbo, and she must relive the day of her death through the eyes of seven people—each of whom, she finds, had plenty of reasons to hate her. As Mary explores the mysteries of her world, discovering secrets that were hidden in plain sight while she was alive, she clings desperately to the hope that she can solve her own murder, change the past, and—just maybe—save her own life. With its blend of suspense, horror, fantasy, and realism, 7 Souls is an adrenaline rush of a thriller.