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Rufus Holt is having the worst night of his life. It begins with the reappearance of his ex-boyfriend, Sebastian—the guy who stomped his heart out like a spent cigarette. Just as Rufus is getting ready to move on, Sebastian turns up out of the blue, saying they need to "talk." Things couldn’t get much worse, right? But then Rufus gets a call from his sister April, begging for help. And then he and Sebastian find her, drenched in blood and holding a knife, beside the dead body of her boyfriend, Fox Whitney. April swears she didn’t kill Fox—but Rufus knows her too well to believe she’s telling him the whole truth. April has something he needs, though, and her price is his help. Now, with no one to trust but the boy he wants to hate yet can’t stop loving, Rufus has one night to prove his sister’s innocence…or die trying. This review has been temporarily removed in anticipation of an official review being released through Booklist. Once that review has become public, this r...

Trees can't tell jokes, but they can certainly tell stories. . . . Red is an oak tree who is many rings old. Red is the neighborhood "wishtree"—people write their wishes on pieces of cloth and tie them to Red's branches. Along with her crow friend Bongo and other animals who seek refuge in Red's hollows, this "wishtree" watches over the neighborhood. You might say Red has seen it all. Until a new family moves in. Not everyone is welcoming, and Red's experiences as a wishtree are more important than ever. Katherine Applegate does it again with Wishtree . In this book, the wishtree examines its life and recounts stories from its 216 rings of experience. Some of the stories are funny, others are sad, but all of them are important. With her usual spare writing style and empathetic characters, Applegate explores friendship, love, family connections, and even the complex issues around racism and immigration. Though Samara and Stephen are important to ...

Flynn's girlfriend has disappeared. How can he uncover her secrets without revealing his own? Flynn's girlfriend, January, is missing. The cops are asking questions he can't answer, and her friends are telling stories that don't add up. All eyes are on Flynn—as January's boyfriend, he must know something. But Flynn has a secret of his own. And as he struggles to uncover the truth about January's disappearance, he must also face the truth about himself. This was certainly an intriguing tale that went in directions I did not expect. It was pretty brutal at times, but Roehrig did manage to examine some intense themes throughout the narrative, including rape culture, murder, intimidation, and dirty politics. Flynn in particular was a deeply flawed but interesting character, trying to hide is sexuality even when he knew deep down how he felt about other guys. I kind of expected a relationship to develop eventually, but not quite how it actually happened in t...

For nearly a century, the Nomeolvides women have tended the grounds of La Pradera, the lush estate gardens that enchant guests from around the world. They’ve also hidden a tragic legacy: if they fall in love too deeply, their lovers vanish. But then, after generations of vanishings, a strange boy appears in the gardens. The boy is a mystery to Estrella, the Nomeolvides girl who finds him, and to her family, but he’s even more a mystery to himself; he knows nothing more about who he is or where he came from than his first name. As Estrella tries to help Fel piece together his unknown past, La Pradera leads them to secrets as dangerous as they are magical in this stunning exploration of love, loss, and family. Lyrical, rich in detail, and full of magic, Wild Beauty  is a feast for the senses. McLemore is a talented writer, and one who understands how to quietly and slowly develop characters and connections. Her previous work, When the Moon Was Ours  and The Weight of Fe...