With 2012 almost over it’s time to look ahead to 2013 and all the new books being released. Authors like Kiersten White and Shannon Messenger will be releasing the first book in a new series while authors like Miriam Forster debut.
Here are thirteen books that are must reads in 2013. Check out the books and tell us which one you are most interested in reading. Please note we didn’t include any books that are part of a series that will be a different list!
‘The Dead and Buried’ by Kim Harrington Jan 1
A haunted house, a buried mystery, and a very angry ghost make this one unforgettable thriller.
Jade loves the house she’s just moved into with her family. She doesn’t even mind being the new girl at the high school: It’s a fresh start, and there’s that one guy with the dreamy blue eyes. . . .
But then things begin happening. Strange, otherworldly things.
Jade’s little brother claims to see a glimmering girl in his room. Jade’s jewelry gets moved around, as if by an invisible hand. Kids at school whisper behind her back like they know something she doesn’t.
Soon, Jade must face an impossible fact: that her perfect house . . . is haunted.
Haunted by a ghost who’s seeking not just vengeance, but the truth. The ghost of a girl who ruled Jade’s school — until her untimely death last year. It’s up to Jade to put the pieces together before her own life is at stake. As Jade investigates the mystery, she discovers that her new friends in town have more than a few deep, dark secrets.
But is one of them a murderer?
‘Splintered’ by A.G. Howard Jan 1
For sixteen years, Alyssa Gardner has lived with the stigma of being descended from Alice Liddell — the real life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s famed novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. But cruel jokes about dormice and tea parties can’t compare to the fact that Alyssa hears the whispers of bugs and flowers … the same quirk which sent her mother to a mental institution years before. When her mother takes a turn for the worse and the whispers grow too strong for Alyssa to bear, she seeks the origins of their family curse. A set of heirlooms and a moth tied to an unusual website lead Alyssa and her gorgeous best friend/secret crush, Jeb, down the rabbit hole into the real Wonderland, a place more twisted and eerie than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, creepy counterparts of the original fairytale crew reveal the purpose for Alyssa’s journey, and unless she fixes the things her great-great-great grandmother Alice put wrong, Wonderland will have her head.
‘Shadowlands’ by Kate Brian Jan 8
Rory Miller had one chance to fight back and she took it. Rory survived … and the serial killer who attacked her escaped. Now that the infamous Steven Nell is on the loose, Rory must enter the witness protection with her father and sister, Darcy, leaving their friends and family without so much as a goodbye.
Starting over in a new town with only each other is unimaginable for Rory and Darcy. They were inseparable as children, but now they can barely stand each other. As the sisters settle in to Juniper Landing, a picturesque vacation island, it seems like their new home may be just the fresh start they need. They fall in with a group of beautiful, carefree teens and spend their days surfing, partying on the beach, and hiking into endless sunsets. But just as they’re starting to feel safe again, one of their new friends goes missing. Is it a coincidence? Or is the nightmare beginning all over again?
‘Cinders & Sapphires’ by Lelia Rasheed Jan 22
The action begins in 1910 England, when the prominent Averly family returns to their ancestral estate amid a scandal; the household staff must prepare for a sudden wedding that will unite two of the most powerful families in England.
‘Etiquette & Espionage’ by Gail Carriger Feb 5
It’s one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It’s quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to finishing school. Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is the bane of her mother’s existence. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper etiquette at tea–and god forbid anyone see her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. She enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. But little do Sophronia or her mother know that this is a school where ingenious young girls learn to finish, all right–but it’s a different kind of finishing. Mademoiselle Geraldine’s certainly trains young ladies in the finer arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also in the other kinds of finishing: the fine arts of death, diversion, deceit, espionage, and the modern weaponries. Sophronia and her friends are going to have a rousing first year at school. First in a four book YA series set 25 years before the Parasol Protectorate but in the same universe.
‘City of a Thousand Dolls’ by Miriam Forster Feb 5
Nisha Arvi is a casteless orphan in an empire where caste and tradition are as unchanging as the roof of gray sky above her head. The only exception is the City of a Thousand Dolls, an estate where abandoned girls are trained to be anything from assassins to courtesans to nobleman’s wives. Nisha is not so lucky. When she finds out that the City Council want to sell her as a slave, and also that they are hiding a series of mysterious deaths among the girls, Nisha makes a desperate bargain. If she can find the killer, she’ll have a chance at a caste and a future. But it won’t be easy, because in the City of a Thousand Dolls missteps are as easy as wearing the wrong robe. And when Nisha suspects an old friend of the murders, she puts both of their futures in jeopardy.
‘Pivot Point’ by Kasie West Feb 12
Reminiscent of the movie Sliding Doors, Pivot Point is about a girl who has the power to Search alternate futures. When faced with a life changing decision, she lives out six weeks of two different lives (in alternating chapters), both holding the potential for love and loss, and must ultimately choose which path she is willing to live through.
‘Dance of Shadows’ by Yelena Black Feb 12
A Black Swan–like trilogy about a 15-year-old who starts witnessing spooky goings-on at her prestigious ballet school. When Vanessa Adler becomes suspicious of the controlling choreographer at her academy, she stumbles upon the fact that he is staging a performance in which “the school’s dancers become pawns in a world of demons.”
‘Mind Games’ by Kiersten White Feb 19
In a world where psychics and mind-readers are the ultimate tools in corporate espionage, two teen girls try to save themselves and their future.
Two sisters, bound by impossible choices, are determined to protect each other—no matter the cost.
James’s frozen face melts into a smile. “Do you want to know the trick to getting in trouble under the watchful eye of a psychic?”
I think of the nailed-shut windows. I think of Clarice. I think of the two, the two, the two who are now zero. Tap tap. “Yes, I absolutely do.”
“Don’t plan it. Don’t even think about it. The second you get an inkling of what you could do, do it then. Never plan anything ahead of time. Always go on pure instinct.”
I smile. “I think I can do that.”
‘Let the Sky Fall’ by Shannon Messenger March 5
Seventeen-year-old Vane Weston is the only survivor of the category five tornado that killed his parents. Every night since the storm, a beautiful, dark-haired girl has swept through his dreams. She’s the only clue to his past, and he clings to the hope that she’s real. Audra is real, but she’s also a sylph. An air elemental. She walks on the wind, can translate its alluring songs, and can even twist it into a weapon. She’s also a guardian–Vane’s guardian–and has sworn an oath to protect him at all costs. Even if it means sacrificing her own life. When a hasty mistake reveals their location to the enemy who murdered both of their families, Audra must help Vane remember who he is. He has a power to claim–the secret language of the West Wind, which only he can understand. But unlocking his heritage will also unlock a memory Audra wishes could be erased. And as the storm bears down on them she starts to realize the greatest danger might not be the warriors coming to destroy them, but the forbidden romance that’s grown between them. Set amongst the desert airstreams of Coachella Valley in California, and alive with wonderful wind-swept prose, LET THE SKY FALL is about two teenagers broken by their pasts, divided by their futures, and bound by love
‘Weight of Stars’ by Tessa Gratton June 1
The first book in a new series that presents an alternate history of the U.S. In this story the country was founded on elements of Norse religions. Gods walk among humans, with some maintaining powerful positions in the government. Book one follows two teenagers who embark on a cross-country search for a missing god. As the kids travel through the United States of Asgard they encounter “smalltown zealots, trickster gods, and sadistic field trolls.”
‘Starglass’ by Pheobe North July 23
The generation ship Asherah coasts through space, bound for a planet its passengers have never even seen. On the eve of their arrival, sixteen-year-old botanist Terra discovers that her orderly society has fractured. Walking home one night through the long-abandoned engine rooms, she witnesses the murder of an innocent man. Now, called on by the Children of Abel, a group of rebels intent on destroying the High Council, Terra must prove her mettle–assassinate the ship’s rising captain. In order to carry out her task, Terra must betray her father, deceive her teacher, and challenge everything the Council has ever taught her was true. The rebels think that Terra has nothing left to lose. But when she falls for Silvan Rafferty, the boy that she’s meant to kill, Terra learns that “doing your duty” isn’t always as easy as it seems.
‘Control’ by Lydia Kang Dec 19
17 year-old Zelia has a fatal flaw, and it’s not being a lab geek or dressing like a small troll. If she forgets to breathe, she’ll die. Zelia has suffered from Ondine’s Curse since birth, a malady that makes every breath a conscious effort. Yet after she and her younger sister Dyl are orphaned, it’s not Zelia’s misfit status that causes trouble. It’s her sister. Dyl isn’t just pretty and sweet—she’s illegal. In the year 2150, DNA must be pure by law, and anyone with enhanced genes face death. Before an underground foster family can offer the sisters sanctuary, Dyl is abducted by people determined to profit from her trait, whether she’s alive, dismembered, or dead. Zelia’s only allies are the freak-show inhabitants of her new foster home. Along with the unexpected love of a very strange boy, she will need her flaws, their illicit traits, and every single breath to save the only family she has left.
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