YA SF WER Werlin, Nancy Double Helix

YA SF WES Westerfeld, Scott The Secret Hour (Midnighters v. 1)

Life is getting more complex and more dangerous for the five high school students who are "midnighters"-born at the stroke of midnight with the ability to inhabit a secret 25th hour. Unfortunately, some very scary creatures also inhabit it, and they're out to get the magical teens. Jessica, who has just discovered her special powers as a flame-bringer, learns that humans are stalking her during the 24 hours of the day when she thought she was safe. What is the relationship between these stalkers and the darklings that try to destroy the midnighters? Is Jessica's only "normal" friend involved? And who, or what, is causing dreams of mathematical coordinates in Dess, the polymath? Is there a connection to the new runway being built in the desert by the company that Jessica's mom works for? These and other questions are deftly answered in this latest installment in the series as the five teens must grow into their special powers to combat the growing darkling strength.

This novel continues the Midnighters series, set in Bixby, Oklahoma, where five teenagers were born exactly at midnight and are the only ones who have the ability to see dark creatures from another world who try to feed on humans. The monsters had been able to travel through the barrier between the known world and theirs only at midnight, during the secret hour when time freezes for everyone but the teens and the nasties. The situation has changed in this series entry: The blue time comes in the middle of the day, and the teens are hard-pressed by this new development.

Aptly-named Hunter spots street trends for "a certain shoe company named after a certain Greek god." When he meets Jen, he notices her unique shoelaces, and realizes she is an Innovator, a person who invents trends (he's a Trendsetter, someone who is "cool, so when they pick up an innovation, it becomes cool"). Mandy, Hunter's boss, invites Hunter and Jen to do some "original thinking," but when the two arrive at the location, they find only her cell phone-and "the coolest shoes we'd ever seen." The pair begins their search for Mandy and the people behind the shoes, before the "bad guys" get Hunter. They depend on other cool hunters, from tech-savvy Lexa to high-society Hillary, to help decipher the clues, and they take risks themselves (going undercover to a posh party, breaking into buildings).

Fia and Annie are as close as two sisters can be. They look out for each other. Protect each other. And most importantly, they keep each other's secrets, even the most dangerous ones: Annie is blind, but can see visions of the future; Fia was born with flawless intuition—her first impulse is always exactly right. When the sisters are offered a place at an elite boarding school, Fia realizes that something is wrong . . . but she doesn't grasp just how wrong. The Keane Institute is no ordinary school, and Fia is soon used for everything from picking stocks to planting bombs. If she tries to refuse, they threaten her with Annie's life. Now Fia's falling in love with a boy who has dark secrets of his own. And with his help, she's ready to fight back. They stole her past. They control her present. But she won't let them take her future.

Annie and Fia are ready to fight back. The sisters have been manipulated and controlled by the Keane Foundation for years, trapped in a never ending battle for survival. Now they have found allies who can help them truly escape. After faking her own death, Annie has joined a group that is plotting to destroy the Foundation. And Fia is working with James Keane to bring his father down from the inside. But Annie's visions of the future can't show her who to trust in the present. And though James is Fia's first love, Fia knows he's hiding something. The sisters can rely only on each other—but that may not be enough to save them.

In this follow-up to Icecore (2007), British computer hacker Carl Hobbes is a fugitive after escaping from a high-security prison, where he was sentenced after becoming embroiled in a plan to rob Fort Knox. A CIA-hired bounty hunter is after him and so is a female al-Qaeda assassin. After landing a job at a tightly guarded warehouse run by a supercomputer named Cleopatra, he figures that he can use his computer skills to manipulate Cleopatra into protecting himself and his friend Beth, the thief.

They promised Meredith nine years of safety, but only gave her three. Her father was supposed to be locked up until Meredith turned eighteen. She thought she had time to grow up, get out, and start a new life. But Meredith is only fifteen, and today her father is coming home from prison. Today her time has run out.

When rogue gypsy boy Freedom Smith runs into trouble with the law, he strikes a deal with the police: Instead of going to prison for a crime he didn't commit, he'll go undercover -- and underground -- using his incredible strength and boxing skills to infiltrate a nefarious, high-tech fight club known as The Bear Pit. His mission: to save other street children from the terrible fate the Pit has in store for them. Freedom thinks he can trust Java, his newfound friend, with his secret life. If only he knew that this high-spirited, upper-class girl has a secret of her own...

Adam Canfield has to be the most overprogrammed middle-school student in America. So when super-organized Jennifer coaxes him to be coeditor of their school newspaper, THE SLASH, he wonders if he’s made a big mistake. But when a third-grader’s article leads to a big scoop, Adam and his fellow junior journalists rise to the challenge of receiving their principal’s wrath to uncover some scandalous secrets.

As coeditor of the Slash, the Harris Elementary/Middle School paper, Adam Canfield is used to getting the story. What he's not used to is being the story, which is just what happens after he's mugged by some high-school students for his snow-shoveling money. But it's hard to keep a low profile when there's still baritone and basketball practice, a new principal to figure out, a science fair sham to uncover, a bully survey to monitor, a three-hundred-year-old tree to save, and the next issue of the Slash to take care of. It's enough to drive a kid over the edge. Luckily, Adam's got Jennifer, his trusty (and cute!) coeditor, to help him keep it together. But when the Slash is threatened, will they be able to get the story and keep the paper going, all without getting expelled?

A "dirty" school election, suspicious state test scores — Adam Canfield and his star reporters are chasing some red-hot leads. There’s only one glitch: the school board has shut down THE SLASH for exposing the town’s most powerful family, and now the staff has to find a way to publish it themselves. Enter the Ameche brothers: two goofy kid entrepreneurs with a knack for refurbishing junk — and a talent for selling ads — but a shaky command of journalistic ethics. What’s worse, Adam hasn’t a clue why his coeditor, Jennifer, is suddenly acting weird. . . . With kid-friendly humor and a touch of budding romance, this new adventure revisits a winning cast of characters — and the excitement that comes from uncovering a really great story.

Allie lost everything the night her boyfriend, Trip, died in a horrible car accident—including her memory of the event. As their small town mourns his death, Allie is afraid to remember because doing so means delving into what she’s kept hidden for so long: the horrible reality of their abusive relationship. When the police reopen the investigation, it casts suspicion on Allie and her best friend, Blake, especially as their budding romance raises eyebrows around town. Allie knows she must tell the truth. Can she reach deep enough to remember that night so she can finally break free?

In the right dose, everything is a poison. Even love . . .

Jessamine Luxton has lived all her sixteen years in an isolated cottage near Alnwick Castle, with little company apart from the plants in her garden. Her father, Thomas, a feared and respected apothecary, has taught her much about the incredible powers of plants: that even the most innocent-looking weed can cure -- or kill. When Jessamine begins to fall in love with a mysterious boy who claims to communicate with plants, she is drawn into the dangerous world of the poison garden in a way she never could have imagined . . .
YA FIC WOO Wood, MaryRose Nightshade (Poison Diaries v. 2)

Sixteen-year-old Jessamine Luxton is heartbroken. Her true love, Weed, the strange but intriguing young man who came into her life so suddenly, has disappeared. How could he have left her with no farewell, and no word since? Jessamine may not know why Weed vanished, but she does suspect that her own father, Thomas, may have had something to do with it. Thomas, who was so obsessed with Weed's secret knowledge of dangerous plants that he would do anything to learn it. This suspicion—and her experiences with poisons—has changed her. She is no longer innocent, and now she has her own intimate knowledge of the power of the plants. So when Jessamine learns that Weed is alive, she will do whatever it takes to be reunited with him. She is, after all, her father's daughter. .