Num8ers by Rachel Ward

15 year old Jem has a gift, or perhaps a curse.  When she looks into someone’s eyes, she sees the exact date of their death.  Jem has been moved from foster home to foster home and does her best to avoid people and not become involved.  One day she meets Spider, another social outcast, and against all her rules, Jem begins a friendship with him.  They become more dependent on each other when they escape a terrorist bombing and run away from police interrogation.  Numbers is an exciting, fast-paced novel filled with suspense, romance, and psychic powers.  The best part – it’s the beginning of a trilogy!  You can bet I already have the next book: Num8ers: the chaos.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

    16 year old Beatrice has grown up in the Abnegation faction and, while she loves her family, the selfless life of her people does not always seem right for her.  The ceremony is approaching where she must choose a faction for the rest of her life.  She has always admired the Dauntless where the members are strong and daring.  Is she ready to leave her family and join a faction that she knows so little about?

     This exciting book takes place in a future Chicago and addresses some issues of identity and social responsibility.  It is a super fun read – I couldn’t put it down!

Adaptation by Melinda Lo

     High school debate team member Reese and her partner David were almost on one of the planes that crashed due to bird attacks.  While they escaped this fate, they have a near-fatal accident trying to get home through riot torn streets.  They are rescued and treated by a high security government medical facility and their recovery is nothing short of amazing.  After all this, Reese and David find themselves running for their lives from mysterious pursuers.  This book has a lot of great themes; avian virus, UFO’s, aliens, government conspiracies, homosexuality, and telepathy.  The problem is, there are really too many themes for this book to address thoroughly.  While the storyline kept moving quickly with lots of exciting plot twists, it kept me wanting more and posed more questions than were answered.