Delightful Discoveries #61

Delightful Discoveries are books that I have discovered recently... old, new, just released... from blogs, Goodreads, libraries, friends, or bookstores. 

Creature Keepers and the Hijacked Hydro-Hide

  

Twelve-year-old Jordan Grimsley has moved with his family into an old, abandoned house in Florida that belonged to his long-lost grandfather. While clearing stuff out of the attic, Jordan finds a scrapbook filled with old news clippings about local sightings of the mythological South Florida Skunk Ape. Determined to learn more, he persuades Eldon Pecone, the only other kid for miles, to come along on an excursion into the swamp, where many of the sightings occurred.

This is when Jordan makes a startling discovery: not only is the Skunk Ape real, but Eldon is an elite member of a secret society of Creature Keepers—humans assigned to protect a variety of mythical beasts. And when they discover that the Loch Ness Monster has gone missing, it kick-starts a fast-paced, funny, and totally original race across the globe to restore order and balance to the world.

The Headhunters Race

Sixteen-year-old Avene was sentenced to prison at thirteen for a crime she didn't commit. Now she has a chance to win her freedom back – if she enters the Headhunters Race. Second prize isn't so bad either, an upgrade to the Leisure Prison if you make it to the finish line. To win either prize, Avene and the other prisoners must navigate one hundred and fifty miles of dense forest, desert, and worst of all, cannibal territory.

With a mechanical collar timed to strangle the prisoners if they're not back in nine days, Avene allies herself with seventeen-year-old McCoy, another prisoner that insists on helping her at every turn and a boy she's trying hard not to fall for. Together they battle nature, other prisoners, and the timed death collars to win the coveted prize. But when Avene is tested with one deadly conflict after another, she realizes there is more at stake than winning her freedom – first she has to survive.

Now That You're Here by Amy K. Nichols 

NOW THAT YOU'RE HERE is a he-said/she-said sci-fi thriller told in the alternating voices of Danny, a street-smart graffiti artist who is jolted into a parallel world, and Eevee, the quietly alluring science geek he kissed once in his world, and finds himself falling for in this one. Together, they must figure out what caused Danny’s jump, before another jolt in the space-time continuum separates them forever.

The Killing Jar by Jennifer Bosworth 

  
It’s the best night of Kenna Marsden’s life until she comes home to find her family slaughtered and the killer still in the house. Trapped, with death moments away, the killer reveals to Kenna that he didn’t choose the Marsdens at random. He came there for her. She’s the only one who can save him. But Kenna taps into an uncanny ability lying dormant inside her, and the killer winds up dead, while Kenna’s family survives.

Kenna’s relief at having her family back is marred by the inexplicable, dark impulses that plague her now. Her search for help leads her to Eclipse, a nearby utopian commune. There, Kenna discovers an extraordinary new way of life as she learns who she really is, and the wonders she’s capable of. But when she discovers a shocking connection between the unthinkable crime against her family and the commune leaders, she realizes the inhabitants of Eclipse harbor dark secrets about Kenna’s past, their inception, and their plans for Kenna.

Love by the Morning Star by Laura L. Sullivan

Upstairs, downstairs, and in which lady’s chamber? 

On the brink of World War II, two girls are sent to the grand English country estate of Starkers. Hannah, the half-Jewish daughter of a disgraced distant relative, has been living an artistic bohemian life in a cabaret in pre-war Germany and now is supposed to be welcomed into the family. Anna, the social-climbing daughter of working-class British fascists, is supposed to be hired as a maid so that she can spy for the Nazis. But there’s a mix-up, and nice Hannah is sent to the kitchen as a maid while arrogant Anna is welcomed as a relative.

And then both girls fall for the same man, the handsome heir of the estate . . . or do they? 

In this sparkling, saucy romance, nearly everything goes wrong for two girls who are sent to a grand English estate on the brink of World War II—until it goes so very, very right!