Library Loot: 12-16-2009

I have been spending way too much time at the library recently - the problem is that I have actually been combing back over all my Friday Finds and Waiting on Wednesdays and reserving them!

Library Loot is hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Marg at Reading Adventures.

Evermore by Alyson Noel (audio book)

The first book in Alyson Noel's extraordinary new Immortals series. Enter an enchanting new world, where true love never dies.

After a horrible accident claims the lives of her family, sixteen-year-old Ever Bloom can see people's auras, hear their thoughts, and know someone's entire life story by touching them. Going out of her way to avoid human contact and suppress her abilities, she has been branded a freak at her new high school -- but everything changes when she meets Damen Auguste.

Damen is gorgeous, exotic, and wealthy. He's the only one who can silence the noise and random energy in her head -- wielding a magic so intense, it's as though he can peer straight into her soul. As Ever is drawn deeper into his enticing world of secrets and mystery, she's left with more questions than answers. And she has no idea just who he really is -- or what he is. The only thing she knows to be true is that she's falling deeply and helplessly in love. (back cover)

Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie by Maggie Stiefvater

This is the second book following Lament which I should finish by tomorrow - I am the first one to check it out from our library. I don't think that I have ever been the first person to check out a book!

James Morgan has an almost unearthly gift for music. And it has attracted Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and then feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. James has plenty of reasons to fear the faeries, but as he and Nuala collaborate on an achingly beautiful musical composition, James finds his feelings towards Nuala deepening. But the rest of the fairies are not as harmless. As Halloween -- the day of the dead -- draws near, James will have to battle the Faerie Queen and the horned king of the dead to save Nuala's life and his soul. (inside cover)

Velva Jean Learns to Drive by Jennifer Niven

One Sunday when she is ten years old, Velva Jean Hart is saved. But being saved isn't anything like Velva Jean expected, and life soon brings devastating changes: her father disappears on one of his adventures, and her loving mother becomes gravely ill. Before her mother dies, she urges Velva Jean to "live out there in the great wide world."

The only world Velva Jean knows is her home in the gold-mining and moon shining mountains of Appalachia. her secret dream is to become a big-time singer in Nashville -- until she falls in love with Harley Bright, a handsome truant-turned-revival preacher. As their tumultuous love story unfolds, Velva Jean struggles to find happiness. Will it be as the demure wife Harley wants her to be?

Beautifully written, this is an unforgettable story about love, spirit, and finding the courage to follow one's dreams. (back cover)