This romantic, fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast is sure to make your heart skip a beat. Feyre is a young woman, struggling to support her family. They once lived the lives of prosperous merchants, but now have lost everything and are starving in a hovel. Feyre has taught herself to hunt and spends her time out in the dangerous winter woods. After taking down a deer and an enormous wolf, Feyre finally has food for her family and some extra money from selling the wolf's pelt. Just when she's feeling a little comfortable, an enormous wolf-like creature bursts into her family's home, demanding she pay the price for killing a fairie. It turns out the wolf was actually a fairie in disguise and now Feyre must either forfeit her life, or go with the creature to the fairie lands of Prythian forever. 

Feyre goes with the creature across the border that keeps the mortals safe from the powerful immortal fey and into the land of Prythian. She discovers that the wolf is actually a High Fey male named Tamlin who can change his shape. He tells Feyre that his estate in the Spring Lands is her home now, but Feyre knows that this beautiful place is not all it seems to be. Dangerous creatures roam the woods and an unknown terror is gaining strength across the land. 

Feyre's story will be familiar to readers as well as new and exciting. She is a strong young woman with a mind of her own who refuses to give up who she is. Sarah J. Maas is a wonderful new voice in YA fantasy with both this series and her Throne of Glass series. She writes unforgettable characters who will inspire readers. Her worlds are easy to lose yourself in and will feel very real. Some of the content of this particular series is mature so it's recommended for older teen readers. If you've already read, and loved, this book, then you should pick up A Court of Mist and Fury. The sequel is even better than the first one! Happy Reading!

Love knows no reason, no boundaries, no distance. It has a sole intention of bringing people together to a time called forever.
-- Unknown

Perhaps the quote above was in the mind of Richard Matheson, the author of the book “Somewhere in Time” or in the thoughts of the writers of the screenplay for the film; perhaps not.  It could easily be applied to this story of Playwright Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve) and Actress Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour) and the love that lasted both their lives.   The difficult question posed by the story is understanding just when their love began?  Did it begin at the moment Richard first saw her, after the 1972 opening performance of his play when she presses a watch into his hands; or when Elise first meets him at the elegant hotel where he eventually returns the watch to her sixty years earlier? Theirs is truly a love that transcends time itself. Read more about Somewhere In Time

Despite being short, Etienne St. Clair not only has amazing hair and slightly crooked-cute bottom teeth, but also is a perfect combination of French maturity and American goofiness - with a British accent! Does it get any better? Anna doesn't think so. But it could get worse. St. Clair (as everyone calls him) is taken.

Anna and the French Kiss, a recent Rosie Award nominee, begins with Anna's move for her senior year in high school from Atlanta to Paris. Anna's dad thinks it would be a good experience for her to attend the School for Americans in Paris and pulls some strings to get her into this exclusive school. It is tricky at first, because the school is small and Anna is the only new student (aaaand doesn't speak any French). Despite feeling homesick for her best friend, a new romance from her old job at the movie theater, and her little brother all back in Atlanta, Anna makes friends with her neighbor in the dormitory and starts hanging out with her and St. Clair's circle of friends. Read more about Anna and the French Kiss

When I picked up Shusterman's Bruiser, I expected to read a book about an angry kid who taunts and punches away his insecurities. While this book does deal with bullies, Brewster, the character of the title, is almost the opposite of a bully and a bit magical to boot. A hulking and shabbily dressed 16-year-old, Brewster is an outsider who people vote to be the Most Likely to Go to Jail, and generally treat as if he's not there. Which suits him fine, even if he's never stepped on an ant, because he takes on the physical and emotional pain of anyone he gets close to. Read more about Bruiser by Neal Shusterman

Babe Huggins is one of those young women (my mother was one also) both lucky and unlucky enough to come of age at the start of World War II. She lives in a small New England town and because the men have left to fight overseas, she scores a department store job, and then later, interesting work at Western Union. She loves being the pulse of news in the town, but a big negative is that she is the first to discover which family has lost a young son or a new spouse.

Next to Love gives a vivid portrait of the war at home in America during WW II as lived by three friends who have known each other since first grade. Both Babe and Millie come from poor families on the wrong side of Sixth Street, whereas Grace's family lives in one of the town's mansions.

The novel chronicles the marriages of each of the three women, and shows how it either destroys or strengthens those unions. At the start of the war, there's one giddy summer when the number or marriages skyrockets--a combination of the men responding to the knowledge of their own mortality and the sheer lust for life-- seize this moment because no one knows how long it will last. Read more about Next to Love