TOP PICK! Every Other Day - Jennifer Lynn Barnes December 27, 2011 – EgmontUSA Young Adult 5 Hoots Summary: Every other day, Kali D'Angelo is a normal sixteen-year-old girl. She goes to public high school. She attends pep rallies. She's human. And then every day in between . . .She's something else entirely. Though she still looks like herself, every twenty-four hours predatory instincts take over and Kali becomes a feared demon-hunter with the undeniable urge to hunt, trap, and kill zombies, hellhounds, and other supernatural creatures. Kali has no idea why she is the way she is, but she gives in to instinct anyway. Even though the government considers it environmental terrorism. When Kali notices a mark on the lower back of a popular girl at school, she knows instantly that the girl is marked for death by one of these creatures. Kali has twenty-four hours to save her and, unfortunately, she'll have to do it as a human. With the help of a few new friends, Kali takes a risk that her human body might not survive. . .and learns the secrets of her mysterious condition in the process. (Goodreads) Review: Imagine a world similar to our own - except that two hundred years ago, when Charles Darwin voyaged to the Galapagos Islands, instead of simply finding evidence of evolution, he found evidence of the existence of demons. Now, two centuries later, college students learn about the triple helixes found in the DNA of these preternatural beings. Hellhounds are considered an endangered species. Kali D'Angelo, who finds herself as a non-human demon hunter one day and a simple human girl the next, is breaking the law by hunting these creatures. What a whirlwind of an amazing novel! I could not put this down for even a second! Barnes's writing is eloquent, imaginative and hilarious. The heartfelt emotion of the characters is so real it's tangible. Barnes manages to execute one unforeseeable plot twist after another without ever seeming overdone or obvious. My only hope is that Barnes will turn this into a new series. *Fingers crossed!* I will definitely be checking out her previous novels, as I am now a huge fan of Jennifer Lynn Barnes!                                                                                                                                                                               Reviewed by Cindy

Butterfly Clues - Kate Ellison February 12, 2012 - Egmont USA Young Adult / Mystery 4 Hoots Penelope (Lo) Marin has always loved to collect beautiful things. Her dad's consulting job means she's grown up moving from one rundown city to the next, and she's learned to cope by collecting (sometimes even stealing) quirky trinkets and souvenirs in each new place--possessions that allow her to feel at least some semblance of home. But in the year since her brother Oren's death, Lo's hoarding has blossomed into a full-blown, potentially dangerous obsession. She discovers a beautiful, antique butterfly pendant during a routine scour at a weekend flea market, and recognizes it as having been stolen from the home of a recently murdered girl known only as "Sapphire"--a girl just a few years older than Lo. As usual when Lo begins to obsess over something, she can't get the murder out of her mind. As she attempts to piece together the mysterious "butterfly clues," with the unlikely help of a street artist named Flynt, Lo quickly finds herself caught up in a seedy, violent underworld much closer to home than she ever imagined--a world, she'll ultimately discover, that could hold the key to her brother's tragic death.  (Amazon) Review: Butterfly Clues is a wonderful novel that lingers in your heart and mind. Lo is a young girl who suffers from OCD and has the tendency to be a klepto from time to time. She has moved from place to place with her father and his traveling job as a consultant. She collects trinkets (occasionally steals them) to help her have a sense of home and security. However, since her brother’s death Lo's obsessions with trinkets, OCD and klepto tendencies have escalated to a dangerous point leading her into the hands of danger. Butterfly Clues is a magnificent novel the forces the reader to view life from a different view. The story is told through Lo's perspective, thus the reader is entrapped within her thoughts as a person with OCD. Lo is constantly counting numbers, certain numbers are good omens, while others are bad omens. The constant counting can become annoying along with the repetition, but it is all to help the reader truly understand Lo. When I first started reading Butterfly Clues I was completely confused. The story line seemed choppy and events were not adding up, however once I got past the first few chapters things really started to pick up! Ellison hooks the reader by giving them the smallest of clues and incentives, but they are intriguing enough to keep the reader glued to the story. I was entranced by the mystery surrounding a murder which linked with the murder of Oren. I could not put this book down until the mysteries where solved! This is a wonderful story and heartbreaking when you begin to really understand Lo and the events in her life. A truly enticing read!                                                                                                                                                                               Reviewed by Michelle