There are many, many new books this week. Here they are!

Oathbreaker : Assassin’s Apprentice, by S. R. Vaught and J. B. Redmond (374 pages) – High fantasy at its highest. Aron is kidnapped and forced to become an assassin in a world of powerful magic and shapeshifters. Should he avenge his family’s death?

First line: ‘Hot winds blew across the Watchline, twisting rusted wires against rotted fence posts.
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Pastworld, by Ian Beck (353 pages) – It is 2048, and London has been transformed into a giant Victorian-era themepark. Its inhabitants do not know this! Visitors are a bit like time-travellers, and Caleb – one such visitor – finds himself accused of a murder by the local olde constabulary.

First line: ‘It was the cold hour before dawn.’
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The Genius Wars, by Catherine Jinks (384 pages) – The conclusion to the Genius Trilogy. Cadel must launch an all-out attack on Prosper English, who is now a fugitive determined to take down all of Cadel’s loved ones.

First line: ‘Two dented lift doors were embedded in a wall of pebblecrete.
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The Waters and the Wild, by Francesca Lia Block (113 pages) – A new book from one of the best writers in YA fiction. And it’s pretty brief, so perfect for a quick & magical read.

First lines: ‘When Bee woke up, there was a girl standing in her room. “You are me,” the girl said. Then she was gone.
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The Glittering Eye, by L. J. Adlington (309 pages) – Shabti wakes in a field and has no memories. And Amy, daughter of an archaeologist, arrives in Egypt. They are connected! But you won’t guess how …

First line: ‘He woke up in a barley field.
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Crashed, by Robin Wasserman (440 pages) – Lia died six months ago. She’s now a mech, and has to choose between humanity and the sheer awesomeness of being a machine. The second book in a trilogy! (The first is Skinned.)

First line: ‘When I was alive, I dreamed of flying.
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The Demon’s Lexicon, by Sarah Rees Brennan (329 pages) – Nick’s mother stole a charm from the most feared of magicians, and his brother, Alan, has been marked by a demon. Which leads to death! Nick must face the magicians, whose powers are sourced from demons, and he must kill them to save his brother.

First line: ‘The pipe under the sink was leaking again.
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After The Moment, by Garret Freymann-Weyr (328 pages) – There is a summary inside, which I can lazily copy. ‘When seventeen-year-old Leigh changes high schools his senior year to help his stepsister, he finds himself falling in love with her emotionally disturbed friend, although he is still attached to a girl back home.’

First line: ‘Leigh Hunter thought he’d said goodbye to her almost four years ago.
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The Twilight Saga – New Moon : The Official Illustrated Movie Companion, by Mark Cotta Vaz (141 pages) – Something about vampires and werewolves? Never heard of it myself. I wonder if it will be popular.

Marcelo In The Real World, by Francisco X. Stork (312 pages) – Marcelo Sandoval has a form of autism that leads him to hear music all the time. His father challenges him to work in his law firm’s mailroom, and there Marcelo faces new challenges. ‘Reminiscent of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time,‘ says the blurb. 

First lines: ‘“Marcelo, are you already?” I lift up my thumb. It means that I am ready.
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Headlong, by Kathe Koja (195 pages) – Lily attends the private Vaughn School, and has done so since preschool. New girl Hazel – whose background is vastly different to Lily’s privileged upbringing – and Lily become firm friends, and Hazel shows Lily what life has to offer.

First line: ‘A black circle-in-a-circle-in-a-circle, a bull’s-eye, a target: I trimmed it from the symbol sheet, painted on glue, stuck it to the underside of the vestal’s upraised wrist, one of the few blank spaces left on her.
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In The Path of Falling Objects, by Andrew Smith (323 pages) – Brother Simon and Jonah take a road trip to find their other brother, who is in the army. They get a ride with a crazy man and a strange woman, and it quickly becomes the ride from Hell.

First line: ‘The only shade there is blackens a rectangle in the dirt beneath the overhang of the seller’s open stall.
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Front and Center, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (254 pages) – Like everyone in her family, D.J.  Schwenk is VERY tall. And she’s wanted by College scouts, town hoops fans, and a couple of fellas. [The one that comes after Dairy Queen and The Off Season – Grimm]

First line: ‘Here are ten words I never thought I’d be saying …
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Hush, Hush, by Becca Fitzgerald (391 pages) – Nora Grey isn’t interested in romance until transfer student Patch appears. He’s dreamy and mysterious and he’s also an angel, I think? If you like Twilight you may appreciate this – reviewers have commented favourably on the character of Nora compared with Bella.

First line: ‘Chauncey was with a farmer’s daughter on the grassy banks of the Loire River when the storm rolled in, and having let his gelding wander in the meadow, was left to his own two feet to carry him back to the chateau.
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Warrior King, by Sue Purkiss (265 pages) – It is the ninth-century. King Alfred the Great has a plan – a good plan! – to get rid of the Vikings invading Britain (I guess they were bad?), but what will it mean for Fleda, his daughter?

First line: ‘Alfred couldn’t find his mother.
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Confessions of a First Daughter, by Cassidy Calloway (214 pages) – Morgan’s mum is the president of the US. Morgan’s tendency for ‘screwing things up’ means that she often makes the news, always for the wrong reasons. When her mother has to go on a secret mission, Morgan steps in for her; with a little makeup, no one will spot the difference. Maybe.

First line: ‘I wonder if my mother ever feels like throwing up before she delivers an important speech.
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Unsigned Hype, by Booker T. Mattison (206 pages) – Fifteen-year-old Tory Tyson and his partner Fat Mike enter the Unsigned Hype contest on a radio station. If he makes it his whole life will change. BUT will he win?

First line: ‘Somebody’s banging on my front door and it’s rocking the house harder than the beat I’m laying down in my bedroom.
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Academy 7, by Anne Osterlund (257 pages) – Aerin and Dane are both new to the most exclusive academy in the whole UNIVERSE. Their secrets will soon unite them in this genre-spanning sci-fi romance mystery.

First line: ‘Aerin tried to ignore the bloodstain on the control panel of the Fugitive.’
(There aren’t enough fishhooks.)

The Center of the Universe : Yep, That Would Be Me, by Anita Liberty (286 pages) – A ‘profound, touching and hilarious’ story of one girl’s junior and senior years at high school. I read parts! It IS hilarious.

First lines: ‘My name is Anita Li … That was stupid. Why am I introducing myself?
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Chasing the Bear : A Young Spenser Novel, by Robert B. Parker (169 pages) – Robert B. Parker has written a LOT of novels about Spenser, a private eye who solves mysteries. They’re all in the adult fiction collection. This book is for younger readers and is about Spenser’s youth in Wyoming.

First line: ‘I was sitting with the girl of my dreams on a bench in the Boston Public Garden watching the swan boats circle the little lagoon.
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Would You Rather?, by Chris Higgins (261 pages)

Serendipity Market, by Penny Blubaugh (268 pages)

Rowan the Strange, by Julie Hearn (332 pages)