The 5th Wave, by Rick Yancey (2013)

There will be no awakening.
     The sleeping woman will feel nothing the next morning, only a vague sense of unease and the unshakable feeling that someone is watching her.  Her anxiety will fade in less than a day and will soon be forgotten.

Sixteen-year old Cassie is a survivor.  As far as she knows, she could the last human in the universe.

So I'm probably not the last human on Earth, but I'm one of the last.  Totally alone - and likely to stay that way - until the 4th Wave rolls over me and carries me down.

Cassie has devised rules for her survival.

The first rule of surviving the 4th Wave is don't trust anyone.  It doesn't matter what they look like.

The only way to stay alive is to stay alone.  That's rule number two.

The Others, as she calls them, are extra-terrestrial.  Four Waves have washed over earth since the Arrival.  Billions killed.

The 1st Wave killed 500,000 people.
The 2nd Wave killed millions.
The 3rd Wave killed than 3.5 billion people.

How do you rid the Earth of humans?  Rid the humans of their humanity.

Cassie must do whatever is necessary to keep her promise to her younger brother.  And along the way, she must face what she fears the most.

The 5th Wave is an exciting, dark read.  Narrated from two points of view, this dark world is filled with action and intrigue.  This is the first book in the series.

Rating:  7 out of 10 stars
* language, sexual references

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Cinder, by Marissa Meyer (2012)

The screw through Cinder's ankle had rusted, the engraved cross marks worn to a mangled circle.

Sixteen-year old Cinder is the only full-service mechanic at New Beijing's weekly market.  One day an interesting client brings in a outdated, broken android.  That person was Imperial Prince Kaito, the handsome prince of the Eastern Commonwealth.  As Prince Kai explains why he wants Cinder to fix his android, Cinder knows he's lying.

Few people know that Cinder is a cyborg, part human, part robot.  Cinder was an 11-year old orphan when her father brought her home from Europe.  Much to Cinder's step-mother's dismay, cyborgs are considered second class citizens.

Meanwhile letumosis blue fever is a world-wide pandemic.  There is no cure and every victim dies.

"Our research team is determined to find a vaccine for this disease that has now taken one of my parents and threatens to take the other, as well as tens of thousands of our citizens."

When one of Cinder's family members comes down with the plague, things begin to spiral out of control.  Cinder is drawn into the world of imperial secrets and political intrigue.  Is Cinder the key to not only curing letumosis, but saving the world from imminent destruction?

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The Fall of Five, by Pittacus Lore (2013)

Tonight's escape fantasy stars six.  A horde of Mogadorians stands between her and my cell - which isn't technically realistic.

Narrated from several character's point of view, the fourth book in the Lorien Legacies begins with Sam.  Sam is imprisoned by the Mogadorians in a top-secret government base in New Mexico.  The person who finally comes and saves Sam is shocking.

"Sam, I know it might not count for much right now, but you have my word that we're going to do everything we can for the Garde.  Saving them, protecting Earth...it's my life's work."

The rest of the Garde are hiding in Nine's penthouse in Chicago.  Ella is plagued with nightmares about Setrakus Ra.

"He - he gets down on his knees."  Her voice drops to a chilled whisper.  "He holds one of my hands in both of his, and he asks me if I've read the letter." 

Can the Garde find Five?  Can they restore Lorien?  Can they stop Setrakus Ra?

Five seeking 5.  Are you out there?  

Need to meet...Find me.

Rating:  8 out of 10 stars
*language, sexual inferences

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Steelheart, by Brandon Sanderson (September 2013)

I've seen Steelheart bleed.

It happened ten years ago; I was eight.  My father and I were at the First Union Bank on Adams Street.  We used the old street names back them, before the Annexation.

David is now 18 years old.  For ten long years, he has dreamed about revenge.  Everything has been destroyed by Epics, humans who developed super powers when the spaceship Calamity arrived.  One Epic in particular has taken over Chicago.  Steelheart now rules Newcago.

"I have claimed this city, little Epic.  It's mine...Give me your loyalty or die."

David has studied all of the known Epics.  Each Epic has at least one weakness, and David is determined to seek revenge on the Epic who killed his father.

Can David avenge his father's death?  

Rating:  8 out of 10 stars

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Not available at NOLS...yet!

Three Times Lucky, by Sheila Turnage (2012)

Trouble cruised into Tupelo landing at exactly seven minutes past noon on Wednesday, the third of June, flashing a gold badge and driving a Chevy Impala the color of dirt.  Almost before the dust had settled, Mr. Jesse turned up dead and life in Tupelo Landing turned upside down.

Tupelo Landing, North Carolina.  Population 148.

Miss Moses LoBeau is a 6th grader.  She lives with the Colonel and Miss Lana.  They are the closest things to parents that Mo has.

I was born eleven years ago, during one of the meanest hurricanes in history.  That night as people slept, they say, the rivers rose like a mutiny and pushed ashore, shouldering houses off foundations, lifting the dead from graves, gulping down lives like fresh-shucked oysters.

Some say I was born unlucky that night.  Not me.  I say I was three times lucky.

Lucky once when my Upstream Mother tied me to a makeshift raft and sent me swirling downstream to safety.  Lucky twice when the Colonel crashed his car and stumbled to the creek just in time to snatch me from the flood.  Lucky three times when Miss Lana took me in like I was her own and kept me.

Trouble comes with Detective Joe Starr comes to town.  And then Mr. Jesse is murdered.  Three Times Lucky tells the story from Mo's point of view of her quirky town as she solves the mystery behind Mr. Jesse's murder.

I loved this book!

Rating:  10 out of 10

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Anson's Way, by Gary D. Schmidt (1999)

In a small sod house scooped out beneath an embankment of hedges, a master teaches fifteen or sixteen students.  Sometimes there are more, sometimes fewer, depending upon the farm season.  The house - if it might be called a house - is invisible against the embankment.  Nevertheless, one boy stands hidden on guard.

Anson Granville Staplyton has always wanted to be a Staffordshire Fencible.  

I've waited for this day all my life, he thought, and here I am in it.  Drummer for the Staffordshire Fencibles, just like my father, and his father, and his father before him.

He is sent from England to Ireland to keep the king's peace.  In England, anyone said to be teaching superstitions and "the evil customs of his nation" are seeds of Irish rebellion, in violation of King George II's laws.

No one may tell an Irish tale.

There are to be no schools, no, places of learning, no teachers, no lawyers.

There are to be no Catholic churches, no priests, no saying of the Mass...

No Irishman may own a horse of value.

No Irishman may apprentice to a gunsmith.

No Irishman may travel abroad for schooling.

And no Irishman may own the fields he works.

Anson sees the beauty in Ireland and learns that things are not so simple.  And when he is faced with a decision, will Anson remain loyal to the Fencibles, or will he find another way?

Rating:  8 out 10 stars

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Not available at NOLS...yet!