Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys

  Out of the Easy is a novel set amidst the backdrop of steamy, sultry 1950's New Orleans (the French Quarter to be exact).  Josie is the daughter of a local prostitute whose years of neglect and mental abuse had Josie striking out on her own at a very young age.  Josie lives on top of the bookshop where she works.  She also cleans the quarter's most famous brothel every morning.  Josie is brilliant, but a victim of circumstance until she concocts a scheme that may just get her Out of the Easy.
  This book is wonderfully vibrant, filled with interesting, believable characters.  It's surprising and hopeful, suspenseful with a great sense of mystery until the very end.  I highly recommend this book for mature young adults and plain old adults alike. 

Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.

From the cover and title, I was expecting some froufrou, willowy, Jane Austin chick fest. Surprising then to find - in the first few pages - some raw, gritty imagery set in modern day San Francisco.  An 18 year old orphan is being turned out of onto the street, having been unsuccessfully placed in several unsavory foster homes during her life.  Callous, spiteful, and mean, she begins her life on the outside with nothing but several layers of clothing, a chip on her shoulder, and a prodigious knowledge of flowers and their Victorian meanings. An amazing story unfolds of her life on the street - confronting her tortured past while forging an uncertain future. An unexpected page turner.

The Cutting Room Floor by Dawn Klehr

  The Cutting Room Floor is a suspenseful YA thriller that focuses on two best friends, Desmond and Riley.  Riley is an aspiring actress while Desmond is destined to become a director.  When the book opens we find that Riley has lost her favorite teacher, Ms. Dunn, in a heinous murder.  While navigating through other life struggles, Riley tries to crack the case.  Desmond is her shoulder to cry on but he has an agenda of his own.  There are many twists and turns along the way with a surprisingly realistic ending.
  The chapters alternate between the points of view of Desmond and Riley, with Desmond's chapters frequently opening in film script form.  Some people don't care for the back and forth of alternating points of view, but I didn't find it distracting in this particular story.  At some points I found myself putting the book down because I couldn't take the suspense (the reader knows more than the characters in the book), so if you're looking for something to get your blood pumping in this cold weather try The Cutting Room Floor.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown actually brings fear, death and, most of all, blood back into the vampire genre.  There are no "twinkle in the sunshine" vamps in this book.  Vampirism has spread through the world like the long forgotten bubonic plague.  In response, the government has set up "Coldtowns".  These Coldtowns house the nation's vampires and along with them, those who have been recently infected and those that hope to become immortal. 
  Tana ends up on her way to a Coldtown by pure accident.  After a night of heavy drinking, she wakes in the shower, and as she makes her way out of the bathroom, finds that all of her friends have been brutally slaughtered by a pack of vampires.  Vampires, who more than likely, are still lurking in the basement of the house.  She hears cries from a back bedroom and finds her ex-boyfriend and a very scary vampire bound.  While deciding what to do, the pack of vampires starts to break down the door.  What Tana does next changes her life forever.
  The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is well written, fast paced, and exciting.  Holly Black does a great job bringing the creepy back to YA supernatural fiction - just in time for Halloween.

The Eye of God : A Sigma Force Novel by James Rollins

Nobody, and I mean nobody does Action-Adventure like James Rollins.  The Eye of God is the 9th in the Sigma Force series, and is just as amazing as the others.  Usually, I find myself bored with the characters, plots, or seemingly cookie cutter methods that authors employ when writing long running series, but not with Sigma Force.  James Rollins is a gem and his writing always has you on the edge of your seat.  My favorite part of the Rollins' books is the "fact vs. fiction" section at the end.  James Rollins is a researcher, an academic, through and through, so it's always interesting to find out what pieces of the story were real and which were fictional.
I have read other reviews of this book online and one of the complaints are that the people who work for Sigma Force seem unnaturally talented.  Well, when one is working for a covert government agency you should be resourceful and intelligent - duh.  I never heard anyone complaining about James Bond - geez.  Second, this book may be hard to follow if you have never read any of the proceeding Sigma Force books.  The relationships between the characters have depth, the depth that one may expect after "working together" in nine books.  All in all, I love James Rollins, his characters and his books.  Just a warning, this is probably not a good book for bedtime reading - I was up until 2am one night and eventually put the book down after I couldn't take the suspense.

Roses by Leila Meacham

     Red and White roses - symbols of the warring English houses of Lancaster and York are the inspiration for this novel. However this is a decidedly American story - a sweeping saga ala "Gone With the Wind" which spans some 100 years in east Texas.

     Second sons of 3 rival English & French families, deprived by primogeniture of their estates, move westward from South Carolina intending to establish a gentile Southern enclave of cotton plantations, timber farms, & mercantile stores. 

     Prospering and settling into stately homes set back on tree-lined streets, they leave to generations of offspring -  family mysteries, supposed curses, and legal disputes - in addition to their land and their money.  

     An engrossing, good old-fashioned story of love, land, war, family secrets, and destiny.  

Strawberry Picker by Monika Feth

 I ordered this book because I read a review that touted it as Dexter for teens, and I can't tell you how many teens come into the library asking for suspense and horror books.  Unfortunately, I'd have to disagree.  The book alternates between the viewpoints of the killer and his victims, but it doesn't leave you rooting for the killer.  This guy doesn't kill bad guys, but unsuspecting women.  The reader, or at least I, felt absolutely no empathy for this guy. 
  I decided that if the book turned out to be good I would order it for the library, since no library in the Delaware system owned it.  I think I'll pass.  Our collection dollars could be spent in wiser ways within the same genre.  Oh well, no harm in trying.