Library Loot (Jan 25 - Feb 1)

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they've checked out from the library.  If you'd like to participate, just write up your post - feel free to steal the button - and visit the above 2 blogs to see who has the Mr. Linky this week. Don't forget to check out what others are checking out!

Irises

by Francisco X. Stork

Kate is bound for college and an M.D. -- if her family will let her go.  Mary wants only to stay home and paint.  When their loving but repressive father dies, they must figure out how to support themselves and their mother, and how to get along in all their uneasy sisterhood.

Then three young men sway their lives:  Kate's boyfriend, Simon, asks her to marry him, offering the girls some much-needed stability.  Mary is drawn to Marcos, though she fears his violent past.  And Andy tempts Kate with more than romance, recognizing her ambition because it matches his own.

Kate and Mary each find new possibilities and darkness in their sudden freedom.  But it's their mother's life that might divide them for good -- the question of if she lives, and what's worth living for.

The Queen of Kentucky

by Alecia Whitaker

Fourteen-year-old Kentucky girl Ricki Jo Winstead, who would prefer to be called Ericka, thank you very much, is eager to shed her farmer's daughter roots and fit in with the popular crowd at her small-town high school.  She trades her Bible for Seventeen magazine, buys new "sophisticated" clothes, and strikes up an unlikely flirtation with the freshman class's resident bad boy.  She's on top of the world, even though her best friend and neighbor, Luke, says he misses "plain old Ricki Jo."

Caught between being a country girl and wannabe country club girl, Ricki Jo begins to forget who she truly is: someone who doesn't care what people think and who wouldn't let a good-looking guy walk all over her.

After a serious incident on Luke's farm, Ricki Jo realizes that being a true friend is more important than being popular. . . and that the one boy who matters most has been next door all along. 

Unearthly

by Cynthia Hand

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees. . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel.  Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do.  Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town.  When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place -- and out of place at the same time.  Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make -- between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil.  When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Saving Zoe

by Alyson Noel

It's been on year since the brutal murder of her older sister, Zoe, and fifteen-year-old Echo is still reeling from the aftermath.  Her parents are numb, her friends are moving on, and the awkward start to her freshman year proves she'll never live up to her sister's memory.  Until Zoe's former boyfriend Marc shows up with Zoe's diary.

At first Echo's not interested, doubting there's anything in there she doesn't already know.  But when curiosity prevails, she starts reading, becoming so immersed in her sister's secret world, their lives begin to blur, forcing Echo to uncover the truth behind Zoe's life so that she can start to rebuild her own.

Prepare to laugh your heart out and cry your eyes out in this highly addictive tale as Alyson Noel tackles the complicated relationship between two sisters and shows how the bond can endure long after one of them is gone.