Across the Universe by Beth Revis

This is an incredible book! I usually don't like sci-fi, but this was amazing. Amy is leaving everything behind on Earth to go into space with her parents. They will be cyogenically frozen for 300 years on a ship until they are woken up and they will start their own civilization. Amy is marked as nonessential. Her parents are the only reason she's going. One day, after she is frozen, she is unplugged, and begins to melt earlier than she's supposed to. A boy, the next in line to be leader of the ship becomes fascinated with her. But she will soon learn that life on a spaceship is much more different than on Earth, and more surprise is in store. This book includes romance, the battle to understand what is right, and what makes a good leader.

Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve

This was another REALLY good book. This was really thought-provoking. It takes place sometime in the future, where the only memories of our civilization are those left by artifacts. In London, Fever Crumb is an Engineer. She is the only girl with such a prestigious position. Engineers believe in always being rational, surpressing emotion, and hair is unnecessary. She is happily living in Godshawk's head with Mr. Crumb and the rest of the Enginners, until one day, a man requests her specifically for a job, which changes everything she ever knew about herself, history, and the universe. This book is Post-apocalyptic steampunk done right. Highly recommend it.

Hourglass by Myra McEntire

This was one of those books that I just couldn't put down. It was good straight through. It's about a girl who's parents died a few months ago in a skiing accident. She lives with her brother and his wife, and she's really happy. Except for the visions. Where you or I would find empty space, she sees ghosts from the past, walking around just like anyone else. Most of the time, she can tell them apart. But sometimes, she ends up talking to thin air. She has one loyal friend who has a few secrets of her own, and her brother is fiercely loyal. So when he calls a consultant to try to help her, she agrees. The person she meets changes her life. This is a story about theoretical physics, superheroes, and love that transcends time. I definitely couldn't put it down.

The Faire Folk Trilogy by Gillian Summers

Keelie Heartwood is just your average American teenage girl- she loves to shop, hang out with friends, go to the beach, and party. Just one little problem. She's allergic to wood. It doesn't help that when her mother dies, she's sent to live with her father, who travels with Renaissance Festivals and does woodworking. So, she's stuck with her eccentric father in a place where it's cool to be old fashioned, she has no freedom, and the one guy she likes is practically royalty, with a princess for a girlfriend. On top of it all, she has just stumbled upon a secret that will change her life forever: she's part elf. Which explains her one pointed ear, and the fact that her allergy to wood isn't an allergy at all. Not to mention the fact that when she's around trees, they tend to talk to her. Can she save the lives- and livliehoods- of her people? Or is she part of a species that is destined to die out? And, can a poor shepherd's daughter actually be with a prince, when a princess is her competition? The first book is The Tree Shepherd's Daughter, then Into the Wildewood, then The Dread Forest. I give the series 4 stars, for being a bit slow at times, but it's very good even so.

Dragonfly By Julia Golding

Princess Taoshira of the Blue Crescent Islands is used to order. Every single day is planned out to the minute, from what time she wakes, what she dresses in, how she dresses, the ceremonies she does, she doesn't have any room for movement. Prince Ramil is used to freedom. He can do as he likes pretty much every second of his life, and that's how he likes it. So when they learn that they are to marry each other, they are understandably rather appalled. But when they get kidnapped, they find that they will have no escape- from their kidnappers, or each other. They must avoid brainwashing, unarmed combat, and imprisonment- from the very kingdom that their two countries strove to bring down in their alliance. In this cute, Shannon Hale- like novel, we find out what happens when two completely different people from other sides of the world are brought together and fall in love. I whole-heartedly give it 5 stars, and reccommend it to everyone, from 10 year olds to moms.

Angel by Cliff McNish

This book hit me unusually hard when I was reading it. At first, it struck me as annoying, because I figured it would be just another book about a girl who is trying to fit in with the popular crowd, but instead decides to make friends with someone less than popular. But, promised an interesting plot by the name and the summary on the cover, I read on. As it would turn out, the girl, Freya, has actually just gotten over a bit of an obsession with angels that started when she was 9 years old. So, her wanting to fit in is understood, if not enjoyed. The girl who she ends up befriending believes in angels, and she isn't afraid to say so, which makes her not so popular with the students at the school she goes to. Add in the fact that Freya is, in fact, half angel half human, and that it's her purpose to help others, it creates a really good plot. I think the best part of the book, however, was illustrating the world's pain so well. I think that Cliff McNash did excellently with that, and I hope that when others read this book that it will make them inspired to help others as I was. I give this story 4 stars, because although the plot was exceptional and the theme was tear-worthy, the story could have been written, I think, a bit better. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

Token of Darkness by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

After a car crash that he was in, that two men died in, Cooper Blake's life is torn apart. First of all, he was injured, so his football career is down the drain, not to mention the survivor's guilt he felt for the people who were killed. It also doesn't help that he has a ghost following him around all the time. Yep. A ghost. Samantha, the extremely colorful, blonde, pale, ghost. Did I mention that she has no clue of anything before she met Cooper? He stays in his own little world, trying to cope with reliving the car crash every night, trying to walk again, and return to a normal life, until he meets Brent. Brent can read minds, and he can even see Cooper's ghost. With his help, and the help of an arrogant sorcerer, and a sorceress who is actually the head cheerleader at his school, Cooper will attempt to not only get his life back to normal, but to understand his newfound powers, get the shadows under control, and discover who Samantha's real identity. Before it all destroys him.