Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig

Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig - 276 pages

Miriam Black knows that information is power, but in her case it is a curse.  All she has to do is touch you to know how and when you are going to die.  It may be hours or decades away but she sees it all.  This window into darkness has led Miriam to a nomadic life on the fringes of society where she crosses paths with a con man, a trucker with a heart of gold, and a violent criminal conspiracy.  This is a very dark and violent look at the nature of fate and whether redemption is possible when your life has gone down a very twisted path into the heart of darkness.  Miriam is an unapologetic antihero that you don't want to root for, but you will. 

Black is for Beginnings by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Black is for Beginnings by Laurie Faria Stolarz - 168 Pages

"Stacey’s nightmares are back. And all she wants to do is go to Colorado and work things out with Jacob. But before Stacey and Jacob can have a future, they must face their pasts. Black is for Beginnings reveals the never-before-seen backstory—and what lies ahead—for the young, spellcasting lovers."

Red is for Remembrance by Lauri Faria Stolarz

Red is for Remembrance by Laurie Faria Stolarz - 320 Pages

"After Jacob's disappearance, Stacey tries to move on with her life, and meets fourteen-year-old Portia, struggling with her own nightmares that foretell murder--the girls find the boy in Portia's dreams living in a cult-like community with a dark side, where another member bears a remarkable resemblance to someone Stacey used to know."

Silver is for Secrets by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Silver is for Secrets by Laurie Faria Stolarz - 277 Pages

"School is over, and now Stacey, her boyfriend Jacob, and their friends have rented a beach cottage for the summer. No more stress, secrets, or stalkers. But then Stacey's nightmares return—predicting the cruel death of Clara, a mysterious girl with a secret. And now Jacob, the only one who understands Stacey's magic, is keeping secrets, too. Is he betraying Stacey's trust or protecting her from revenge and tragedy?"

White is for Magic by Laurie Faria Stolarz

White is for Magic by Laurie Faria Stolarz - 301 Pages

"Sixteen-year-old hereditary witch Stacey Brown is having nightmares that predict death again, but this time the murderous stalker is after her."

Blue is for Nightmares by Laurie Faria Stolarz

Blue is for Nightmares by Laurie Faria Stolarz - 283 Pages

"Sixteen-year-old hereditary witch Stacey Brown has nightmares of her roommate being murdered and hopes that her magick will be enough to protect Drea--unlike the last person whose death Stacey dreamed."

Silver by Rhiannon Held

Silver by Rhiannon Held - 317 Pages

"Andrew Dare is a werewolf. He's the enforcer for the Roanoke pack, and responsible for capturing or killing any Were intruders in Roanoke's territory. But the lone Were he's tracking doesn't smell or act like anyone he's ever encountered. And when he catches her, it doesn't get any better. She's beautiful, she's crazy, and someone has tortured her by injecting silver into her veins. She says her name is Silver, and that she's lost her wild self and can't shift any more. The packs in North America have alive-and-let-live attitude, and try not to overlap with each other. But Silver represents a terrible threat to every Were on the continent. Andrew and Silver will join forces to track down this menace while discovering their own power and their passion for each other."

Gold by Chris Cleave

Gold by Chris Cleave - 324 Pages

" Cyclists Zoe and Kate are friends and athletic rivals for Olympic gold, while Kate and her husband Jack, also a world-class cyclist, must contend with the recurrence of their young daughter's leukemia."

A Swollen Red Sun by Matthew McBride

A Swollen Red Sun by Matthew McBride   243 p.

Author Chuck Wendig calls McBride’s particular brand of fiction Chainsaw Noir. While that’s a beautiful term, I will stick with “Missouri noir”, putting it firmly into Daniel Woodrell territory while taking nothing from this unique piece. Gasconade County is a contender for Missouri meth capital, and not so very far from here. Deputy Sheriff Dale Banks keeps the $52,000 he finds, knowing it’s drug money, knowing it’s wrong, but Dale is not a bad guy. Unfortunately, our actions do come back to haunt us, sometimes with a vengeance. McBride starts out with a number of disparate story lines, gradually weaving them together with brutal black humor, so that the finale is as inevitable as it is surprising.

White Lies by Jayne Ann Krentz

White Lies by Jayne Ann Krentz - 371 pages

Clare Lancaster is summoned to Arizona by her father.  Unfortunately, this visit goes no better than the last time.  Once again someone is murdered and the killer is trying to frame Clare for it.  Luckily, she has Jake Salter on her side to help her investigate and determine what is going on.

This is the first novel in the Arcane Society series.  While I guessed the killer fairly quickly in the story, I still enjoyed the book.

Quicksilver by Amanda Quick

Quicksilver by Amanda Quick - 342 pages
An Arcane Society Novel

Virginia Dean wakes up next to a dead body with no idea of how she got there.  Luckily she is rescued by Owen Sweetwater.  Together they must discover who killed the man and keep Virginia safe from the madman wanting to kill her for her psychical power.

This is a historical novel in the Arcane Society series.  I enjoyed the audio version of this book quite a bit.  The story was interesting and the narrator was good. 

The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles by Katherine Pancol

The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles by Katherine Pancol - 434 Pages

"When her chronically unemployed husband runs off to start a crocodile farm in Kenya with his mistress, Joséphine Cortès is left in an unhappy state of affairs. The mother of two—confident, beautiful teenage Hortense and shy, babyish Zoé—is forced to maintain a stable family life while making ends meet on her meager salary as a medieval history scholar. Meanwhile, Joséphine’s charismatic sister Iris seems to have it all—a wealthy husband, gorgeous looks, and a très chic Paris address—but she dreams of bringing meaning back into her life. 

When Iris charms a famous publisher into offering her a lucrative deal for a twelfth-century romance, she offers her sister a deal of her own: Joséphine will write the novel and pocket all the proceeds, but the book will be published under Iris’s name. All is well—that is, until the book becomes the literary sensation of the season.."

Green Rider by Kristen Britain

Green Rider by Kristen Britain - 450 Pages

"After an unexpected confrontation with a dying knight, Karigan G'ladheon becomes the unlikely bearer of a vital message to the king, on a mission during which she faces assassins and other deadly dangers in a world of complex magic."

Golden by Jessi Kirby

Golden by Jessi Kirby - 277 pages

Seventeen-year-old Parker Frost has never taken the road less traveled. Valedictorian and quintessential good girl, she's about to graduate high school without ever having kissed her crush or broken the rules. So when fate drops a clue in her lap--one that might be the key to unraveling a town mystery--she decides to take a chance.

Julianna Farnetti and Shane Cruz are remembered as the golden couple of Summit Lakes High—perfect in every way, meant to be together forever. But Julianna’s journal tells a different story—one of doubts about Shane and a forbidden romance with an older, artistic guy. These are the secrets that were swept away with her the night that Shane’s jeep plunged into an icy river, leaving behind a grieving town and no bodies to bury.

Reading Julianna’s journal gives Parker the courage to start to really live—and it also gives her reasons to question what really happened the night of the accident. Armed with clues from the past, Parker enlists the help of her best friend, Kat, and Trevor, her longtime crush, to track down some leads. The mystery ends up taking Parker places that she never could have imagined. And she soon finds that taking the road less traveled makes all the difference.

Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard

 

Red Queen - 416 pages

Glass Sword - 464 pages

King's Cage - 528 pages

War Storm - 672 pages

Fans of the Hunger Games and the Darkest Minds will find lots to like in this series that follows Mare Barrow as she is plucked from obscurity in a "red" town and thrust into a new identity with the "silver" elite.  The silver bloods have used forced conscription of reds to fight the Lakeland war for centuries and have also used forced red labor to keep their society running.  A new class of reds with powers that rivals the silvers upends the order of things and leads to huge changes for both Mare and the rest of the world at large.

I like the world building / destroying of dystopian fiction and this series did  a great job of drawing the reader in to caring about these characters and the challenges they faced.  Mare does get a bit of a savior complex towards the end that is mildly annoying but the plot carries the story forward well.  

The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson

The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson -- 282 pages

Ginny Blackstone thought that the biggest adventure of her life was behind her. She spent last summer traveling around Europe, following the tasks her aunt Peg laid out in a series of letters before she died. When someone stole Ginny's backpack—and the last little blue envelope inside—she resigned herself to never knowing how it was supposed to end.

Months later, a mysterious boy contacts Ginny from London, saying he's found her bag. Finally, Ginny can finish what she started. But instead of ending her journey, the last letter starts a new adventure—one filled with old friends, new loves, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Ginny finds she must hold on to her wits . . . and her heart. This time, there are no instructions.

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson -- 322 pages

Inside little blue envelope 1 are $1,000 and instructions to buy a plane ticket.

In envelope 2 are directions to a specific London flat.

The note in envelope 3 tells Ginny: Find a starving artist.

Because of envelope 4, Ginny and a playwright/thief/ bloke about town called Keith go to Scotland together, with somewhat disastrous though utterly romantic results. But will she ever see him again?

Everything about Ginny will change this summer, and it's all because of the 13 little blue envelopes.

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence - 467 Pages

"At the Convent of Sweet Mercy, young girls are raised to be killers. In some few children the old bloods show, gifting rare talents that can be honed to deadly or mystic effect. But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls.

A bloodstained child of nine falsely accused of murder, guilty of worse, Nona is stolen from the shadow of the noose. It takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist, but under Abbess Glass’s care there is much more to learn than the arts of death. Among her class Nona finds a new family—and new enemies.
 
Despite the security and isolation of the convent, Nona’s secret and violent past finds her out, drawing with it the tangled politics of a crumbling empire. Her arrival sparks old feuds to life, igniting vicious struggles within the church and even drawing the eye of the emperor himself.

Beneath a dying sun, Nona Grey must master her inner demons, then loose them on those who stand in her way."

Blue is the Warmest Color by Julie Maroh

Blue is the Warmest Color by Julie Maroh - 156 Pages

"In this tender, bittersweet, full-color graphic novel, a young woman named Clementine discovers herself and the elusive magic of love when she meets a confident blue-haired girl named Emma: a lesbian love story for the ages that bristles with the energy of youth and rebellion and the eternal light of desire."

Red Ink by Julie Mayhew

Red Ink by Julie Mayhew - 303 Pages

"When her mother is knocked down and killed by a London bus, fifteen-year-old Melon Fouraki is left with no family worth mentioning. Her mother, Maria, never did introduce her to a living, breathing father. The indomitable Auntie Aphrodite, meanwhile, is hundreds of miles away on a farm in Crete, and she is not likely to jump on a plane to come to East Finchley anytime soon. But at least Melon has The Story. The Story is the Fouraki family fairy tale. A story is something. Balanced with tenderness and humor, this time-shifting novel offers a narrator by turns angry and vulnerable, hurt and defiant as she struggles with sudden grief—and the unfolding process of finding out who she really is."