These titles were recently added to the collection of Yakima Valley Libraries
The drowning game
Bowling, Dusti, author.
It’s the late 1990s, and seventeen-year-old Christian is content with his summer plans to work and hang out with his cat, when he gets a phone call from his best friend that will change his life forever. James invites Christian to Arizona for a whitewater rafting trip, even though he knows Christian is terrified of water. But James is persuasive, and Christian relents. In Salt River Canyon, the heat is scorching, and so is James’s pretty girlfriend, Freya. However, something seems off between the couple as bitter words fly. When James and the others disappear in the second raft, Christian and Freya are left to face the rapids alone. Disaster strikes when Freya falls into the river, and Christian is frozen with fear. One year later, Christian is still wracked with guilt over Freya’s death. Now, he’s a freshman at Arizona State University, and he thinks he sees Freya on campus. It can’t be her. Freya is dead, after all. They found her body. Didn’t they? Christian follows Madison, the girl who looks like Freya, everywhere. He was certain Freya had died that day, but now he’s certain Madison is Freya. Will he ever find out what’s real? Or will his obsession be his downfall?....
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A season for falling
O'Shaughnessy, Kate, author.
Five years ago, Claire was a child star, the goofy punchline of one of America's favorite sitcoms. Until a series of devastating betrayals by her manager-father left her broke, humiliated, and desperate to disappear. Now she's just another high school senior in postcard-perfect Glenridge, Connecticut, determined to leave her past behind. Not even her best friend knows who she used to be -- or that she's scraping together every spare dollar to hopefully attend NYU. When a movie shoot lands in Glenridge -- and with it, her former co-star and ex-best friend, Luke Cordova -- it threatens to stir up not only Claire's past, but also the dizzying crush she once had on Luke. He offers Claire a deal: let him shadow her to research his role, and he'll pay enough to make her college dreams possible. As the woodsmoke-tinged October air grows colder, and she falls for Luke (again), Claire must confront what really drove her to hide -- and whether she can step back into herself without being consumed by everything she's tried to forget.....
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Night of madness
Douglass, Ryan, author.
Mara knows how fear works. The daughter of a horror movie fanatic, she's spent her life watching characters survive blood-soaked nightmares. But watching terror and living it are two very different things. When washed-up horror movie director Jack Stanley announces a televised competition inside an abandoned asylum, it's clear he intends to make a comeback. Mara doesn't expect to be chosen. She isn't famous. She just needs the money and maybe proof she's meant for more than the dull job slowly grinding her down. Five influencers enter the asylum. By morning, one of them will win $100,000. Each contestant is given a panic button. Press it, and you're out. Mara tells herself she'll never touch it. But once the doors close, she quickly realizes the scares aren't staged, and the man running the show seems far more interested in toying with her than entertaining the millions tuning in to see blood. As the night wears on, Mara and the others are forced to confront what they're willing to sacrifice to survive. Inside Jack's game, the asylum doesn't care who deserves to live -- only who refuses to quit.....
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Mischief girls
Avachat, Aashna, author.
The past never dies... but it can kill. Every school has its secrets. Ellison College freshman Raina has no idea that her new school is hiding such a grisly past. But thirty years ago, on Mischief Night the week after Halloween, three students walked into the woods surrounding campus, and only one came out. Their killer was never caught, and the students became known as the Mischief Girls. No one knows what happened. Or do they? Three decades later, Anika, a classmate of Raina's, has gone missing. Turns out Anika was looking into the Mischief Girls' murders before she vanished. And Raina may have been the last person to see her. Old lies die the hardest. With the help of Anika's stepbrother, Rohan, Raina begins to dig into the truth. But the deeper she goes, the more she starts to wonder whether what happened to Anika really began the night she disappeared... or if it goes back further. The past is catching up to Ellison College. And maybe, so is a killer.......
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To our untamed core
Reyes, Sonido, author.
Centuries after the conquistadors claimed the Afueras for their own, Temo spends his life obeying the Holy Order's decree, undergoing their sacraments to tame his supposedly violent nature. The only rule he breaks: hiding that he is trans. If that fact is discovered, Temo will face El Torneo, a brutal, fight-to-the-death game pitting the untamed against one another. No Afuereno who enters El Torneo ever escapes with their life. But when Temo's boyfriend is unexpectedly arrested and thrown into the deadly tournament, he'll do anything to rescue Ollin from his gruesome fate, even if it means entering El Torneo himself. Only there's far more to this tournament than meets the eye -- survival is just the beginning. When the cost of saving the one he loves the most might be higher than he ever imagined, is Temo willing to pay it?....
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The worst is yet to come
Lundy, Trish, author.
High school might be officially over, but the real nightmare is just beginning. When two best friends are attacked on graduation night, only one of them makes it out alive. Left for dead on the side of the road but determined to find out who killed her best friend, Rose is rescued by former high school quarterback and heartthrob, Jake, who becomes an unexpected ally... and maybe something more. But when she learns that fifteen years ago, another girl suffered the exact same fate in the exact same place, she wonders if a murderer might be back with a vengeance... or is a copycat killer on the loose? Time is running out, because whoever the killer is, they're eager to correct their biggest mistake: letting Rose live. As Rose follows the trail of evidence, she's led down a path of medical horrors that threatens to expose the insidious secrets of the most powerful institution in her town -- secrets the killer will do anything to keep quiet.....
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Up from the ashes : based on an extraordinary true story of World War II
Cameron, Sharon, 1970- author.
Astunning story about the fight to survive - and find love - in the face of the ugliest of nightmares, based on the true story of two heroes and their resistance in the Sobibor death camp during the Holocaust... Selma Wijnberg is a criminal, a prisoner. Because she is Jewish. For this crime, in the depths of Hitler's occupation of Holland, Selma is deported to the Sobibor death camp, sentenced to sort the clothes of the dead while a smoke made of thousands blackens the sky. And in the light of this enormous funeral pyre, at the end of a Nazi pistol, Selma is ordered to dance. The hand that offers to dance with her is strong. Steady. It belongs to Chaim Engel. Chaim is a Polish Jew and also a prisoner. Chaim and Selma don't speak the same language. But sometimes, love doesn't need a language. Who falls in love in the middle of hell? Chaim and Selma do. And who knew that love could kindle so much hope. But when the prisoners of Sobibor hatch a daring plan of escape, it is time to kill or be killed. The gate or the fire. Chaim and Selma will go out on their feet, or out with the smoke. In an hour of terror and panic, of bullets and bloodshed, Chaim and Selma discover that hope -- and two hands twined tightly together -- can be the key to keeping two people alive. ....
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Children of Owl
Little Badger, Darcie, 1987- author.
Three cousins find themselves surrounded by strange creatures, ghosts, and dangerous people in and around their trailer park. Maisie, still struggling after the death of her best friend, encounters Owl, a mysterious harbinger of doom who warns her of an approaching tragedy. Joel, a gifted online streamer with questionable judgment, is sent to spend the summer fostering unusual kittens. Verona dreams of escaping the trailer park and agrees to watch a house she knows is haunted. Owl, son of Big Owl, can't help who he is or how much he cares about these aforementioned humans. As their separate experiences unfold, the cousins become connected through supernatural mysteries and unsettling dangers. Their four stories intertwine with a ghost bent on justice, an adorable feline Animal Person, and a vengeful monster headed straight for them. ....
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Everything new again
Watson, Renée, author.
Bliss knows there's more to life than what she's experienced in her small town. She's ready to be the girl who isn't just waiting anymore, who can make something happen. Working in her family's funeral home, she can't help but ponder what it means to truly live and what it takes to leave a lasting legacy. Her existential questions have labeled her the weird “funeral home girl” to most of her peers, except for her best friend, Alex, and the new boy visiting from Portland for winter break. Solomon isn't put off by Bliss's musings. He has questions of his own, like why his mother abandoned him and if she ever did--or ever will--love him. He has come to visit for answers, and to work at his mom's flower shop, where he meets Bliss on a delivery to the funeral home. Their chance meeting changes everything. As they open up to each other, share their hearts and experience something real, something new, they find that even if a relationship has an end, love can last forever.....
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The secret to belonging
Freeman, Megan E., author.
Always sidelined for her troubled brother, a teenage girl receives a scholarship to spend her senior year in a remote village in Norway, where she navigates a new culture, language, and relationships as she tries to protect her newfound peace... You are invisible in your own family. Your parents spend all their care and attention on your brother, who is addicted to drugs. Your dreams don’t matter to anyone but you. Your only ticket out is a college fund left by your grandfather — until your parents use it to pay for your brother’s drug rehab. Just when your future seems about to collapse, you are offered a lifeline: a scholarship to become an exchange student in a remote part of Norway. It’s an invitation to begin a new life in a new place with new people… a place where you might finally feel like you belong.....
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We run the night
Mbengei, Peace, author.
When seventeen-year-old Shani returns to her elite, isolated boarding school after her father’s mysterious death, she just wants to finish senior year with her scholarship intact — which means focusing on her work and staying out of trouble. Even with her best friend, Pendo, by her side, she’s never quite fit in at Taji Academy. But soon, strange things start happening at school — not only are students coming down with odd, grotesque skin maladies, someone is causing chaos on campus after curfew. Are they night runners, the supernatural entities that terrorize rural neighborhoods in the dark? The strict administration insists it’s just students pulling pranks. Everyone knows that night runners are just an urban legend. But when one of the popular students, Adila, goes missing — and Shani wakes up one morning with mud on her feet, torn clothes, and a pounding headache — she knows it’s more than that. As she and others at Taji begin to transform with no way to contact the outside world, she must figure out what is happening — before it’s too late. ....
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Deadly little lessons
Valentine, Danielle, author.
At an experimental boarding school, seventeen-year-old Lia Michaels and her classmates must complete deadly assignments in order to graduate... Lia Michaels can pick any lock and break into most computer systems. But a life of delinquency has her bouncing between foster homes and juvie. So when she applies to Luminary Prep, a new experimental school created to challenge academic conventions, Lia is surprised by the acceptance letter that follows. With state-of-the-art technology, fancy cafeteria food, and a campus that looks like a painting come to life, Luminary seems to be the break Lia needs. That is, if she can excel in class and be one of only five students who will be allowed to graduate. But classes at Luminary are... odd. And dangerous. There is a death-trap obstacle course in Physics, a Chemistry exam with explosives, and guillotines in Political Science. As students keep vanishing, one by one, Lia starts to wonder if it's not that five students will graduate -- but that only five will survive.....
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Empire
Tahir, Sabaa, author.
A falling empire. An ancient evil. A lost homeland. A lie that could destroy the world... In the crumbling Martial Empire, crown prince Quil Farrar and his aunt, Empress Helene, are losing a war against the vicious Kegari horde. Quil’s armies dwindle, his faith falters, and the woman he loves vanished months ago, leaving him brokenhearted. Torn between his duty to his people and his desire to discover Sirsha’s fate, Quil embarks on a dangerous quest for aid—from the most treacherous of allies. Sirsha Westering finds herself tethered to Div, an ancient evil unleashed by a terrible tragedy. Div delights in tormenting Sirsha, hungering for her magical heart. Even as Sirsha struggles for control of her own fate, she is desperate to shield Quil from Div’s destructive power. But Div won’t release Sirsha without a fight. To earn her freedom, Sirsha must uncover Div’s past — and face horrors in her own. Cero bet-Dafra, former right hand of the Kegari leader, Aiz, now finds himself pitted against her. As Aiz slips further into violence and delusion, Cero must discover if his people have any hope of a future or if they’re condemned to an unending cycle of violence. His journey will force him to confront hidden truths, ancient secrets, and a lie that could destroy the world. Told in alternating voices, Quil, Sirsha, and Cero navigate separate endeavors to uncover ancient secrets and neutralize the evil magic fueling the conflict between the Empire and the Kegari people.....
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A thousand nights
On her way across the desert, fleeing the soldiers who have destroyed all she knows, one refugee meets another. And another and another. As they travel together, on a journey in search of safety, they take turns telling one another stories -- stories woven in the imagination; tales with echoes of the reality they face now. Tales of young people stolen away by jinn and tales of siblings rescuing one another; tales of lands encroached on by settlers and abandoned by rain; tales of magic found in caves, deserts, mountains, lakes, and, above all, in people, community, and faith. With a frame story written by Nafiza Azad and Intisar Khanani interwoven with stories from fifteen additional authors of various backgrounds, drawing on the mythologies and legends of their cultures, this extraordinary collection will appeal to lovers of fantasy and to those looking for books that center refugees and diverse narratives.....
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A taste of somewhere else
Ruhlman, Michael, 1963- author.
Junior year was supposed to be Miles’s escape plan—survive one year in Cleveland with Jake, the dad he barely knows, then get back to his real life in New York. But that was before he got suspended. Before his mom died and left a hole nothing can fill. Before Jake’s art house theater started facing closure—and before Jake dragged him on a half-baked quest across Spain to track down a film director who may or may not want to be found. Between wrong turns and cryptic clues through Madrid, Toledo, and Seville, they find themselves at wobbly tables in tapas bars, sharing plates of jamon and squid, talking in ways they never have before. Something unexpected happens over bocadillos and café con leche: Miles stops seeing Jake as the dad who left, and starts seeing him as the person who stayed.....
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