The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman

(Grade 8 and up)
I love Pete Hautman's writing style - I find it witty and wry, and it sets a tone that works well for YA literature. The Big Crunch is a teen love story that is delivered in alternating points of view between June and Wes. June has just moved in - she is discombobulated from 6 moves in 4 years. Wes bumps into her (literally - in fact she gets a black eye from the encounter) and falls hard. And it's not that easy... June starts dating Wes's quirky best friend; Wes really doesn't want to be in another relationship right now; June is shy of commitment because she's afraid of moving again. Hautman follows their relationship through 4 seasons, and the very ordinariness of their budding relationship makes it that much more sweet and poignant.

Dangerous by Shannon Hale

No more princesses in this Shannon Hale book... the unlikely heroine in this Sci-fi thriller is Maisie Danger Brown - who ideas of being an astronaut seem to be no more than a dream, until she wins a scholarship to astronaut camp. The action starts in earnest when she arrives at camp and is assigned to her group (Fireteam). When they go on a spaceship test run and are infected by alien technology - which gives each of them superpowers - they find themselves in an action packed race to save to world.  Threaded throughout the action are spots of romance...Maisie forms a crush on Wilder (the "thinker" in the supergroup) but we wonder if Wilder is part of the master evil plan that Maisie is fighting against. Then there is the "boy next door" who has been Maisie's best friend since, well, forever...and that relationship seems to be shifting too.

I understand there is going to be a marketing push on this book, and I wonder if a movie is in the works.

Time's Edge (The Chronos Files Bk. 2) by Rysa Walker

Kate's race continues in book two.  There is a lot going on here, as Kate and Kiernan use the Chronos Key to jump in and out of different time lines, trying to stop Kate's grandfather Saul and Aunt Prudence from dangerously rewriting history. All of the time jumping takes its toll on Kate, and on her relationships with Trey - her current day boyfriend - who can't remember her from one timeline... And on her confusing feelings for Kiernan - who was her boyfriend in another time... Sound confusing? It is sometimes! But I enjoyed the jumping around in different timelines and figuring out how it was all connecting.

The ending? There wasn't one. It completely leaves you hanging for the third book, which I found quite abrupt (I literally said, "Really??" out loud, and looked to see if pages were missing from the end of the book). But...I'll read the third book to see what happens next!