Zombies Vs. Unicorns (415 pages) – if it came down to it, which team would you be on? Read the stories and pick your team. There’s even extra content that you can access on the interweb if you’ve got a smart phone – there’s a souped up QR-type code on the back cover. We’re thinking it might just be the book trailer (which is here), but we’ve been known to be wrong.

First sentence (from the introduction): Since the dawn of time one question has dominated all others: Zombies or Unicorns?

 plus an extra  for the cool cover.

Fat Vampire: A Never Coming of Age Story, Adam Rex (324 pages) – Actually, really, being eternally a teenager wouldn’t be the greatest, especially if you’re not exactly cut and chiselled, which Doug Lee isn’t. But what he is is a vampire, and has the stars of the reality television show Vampire Hunters after him.

First sentence: Doug came to, lying on his back in what felt smelled like a field.

 cool cover again.

Torment, Lauren Kate (452 pages) – get your supernatural romance, fallen angel fix here. The hotly anticipated sequel to Fallen, which stayed atop our Most Wanted list for months and months this year. Daniel must go off and hunt the Outcasts, so he hides Luce at an exclusive academy (!) for gifted students, where she finds out more about her special powers and those freaky shadows. Fallen angels keep secrets though, dangerous ones…

First sentence: Daniel stared out at the bay.

I Am Number Four, Pittacus Lore (440 pages) – the much hyped first book in the Lorien Legacies series where nine, um, people, arrive from another planet methinks, and “walk among us”. Trouble is they’re getting picked off, one by two by three, and number four is next. Again, this comes complete with the promise of *extra material* via the QR code on the jacket. Wikipedia will also tell you who Pittacus Lore really is.

First sentence: The door starts shaking.

Good Oil, Laura Buzo (283 pages) – a straight-up romance with no supernatural creatures, Good Oil tells the story of Amelia, who falls for the much older Chris, an engaging university student. She enjoys spending time with him, and he appears to like her company too, but it’s complicated.

First sentence: ‘I’m writing a play,’ says Chris, leaning over the counter of my cash register.

Perchance to Dream, Lisa Mantchev (333 pages) – the marvellously quirky sequel to the marvellously quirky Eyes Like Stars and some of the most fantastical fantasy that might do your head in. Bertie’s left the Theatre in search of Nate the pirate, who has been captured (perhaps killed?) by the Sea Goddess. With her is Ariel, doing his best to distract her in a love-triangle type of way, and the four fairies, thinking of nothing much other than food.  Along the way Bertie learns more about her magic, her father, and which team to pick, Nate or Ariel?

First sentence: ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged,’ Mustardseed said, flying in lazy loops like an intoxicated bumblebee, ‘that a fairy in possession of a good appetite must be in want of pie.’

 for the Jane Austen reference.

The Life of a Teenage Body-Snatcher, Doug McLeod (304 pages) – a funny horror, black comedy story. Thomas is a well-bred sixteen year old in 1828 who falls in with Plenitude, a body-snatcher, and is then pursued by all manner of ghoulish types.

First sentence: There are no stars, no moon to illuminate the grounds of the parish church.

iBoy, Kevin Brooks (290 pages) – Tom was attacked by (I extrapolate) a gang on his estate, and bits of his iPhone became embedded in his brain (hopefully the bubble wrap popping app still works) and now he has special powers. Sounds like fun, having a GPS in your brain, but no: he must make difficult choices that lead to “terrifying” consequences. Sinister.

First sentence: The mobile phone that shattered my skull was a 32GB iPhone 3GS.

Dark Flame, Alyson Noel (The Immortals, 320 pages) – Ever tries to help Haven get to grips with being an Immortal, and must also fight “for control of her body, her soul – and the timeless true love she’s been chasing for centuries.” (Book cover)

First sentence: ‘What the fug?’

The Deathday Letter, Shaun David Hutchinson (240 pages) – Ollie receives a letter saying he’s going to die in one day’s time, so his friend suggests he spend that day attempting to win the heart of the girl of his dreams, Ronnie. He does this (attempt to win: I’m not saying if he’s successful).

First sentence: ‘Oliver! Oliver, I need you downstairs right now!’

Party, Tom Leveen (228 pages) – it’s the end of the school year and there’s a party: eleven characters tell the story of why they went and what happened, leading to a conclusion that “no one saw coming.”

First sentence: I’m the girl nobody knows until she commits suicide.

More to come…