The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Jude has been living in the High Court of Faerie since she was stolen from the mortal world at the age of seven. Madoc, general to the faerie king and her father in the faerie world, murdered her mother and father. He brought Jude to Faerie along with her twin sister Taryn and her half-sister, Vivi. Jude struggles to fit in the faerie world as a mortal.  She is under the protection of Madoc but mortals are often despised by the folk.  Jude has caught the eye of Prince Cardan, the youngest child of the king and a classmate of Jude’s.  Known as the Cruel Prince, Cardan and his group of fairy friends do everything thing they can to make Jude’s life miserable. Jude isn’t one to back down. Jude has hopes of becoming a knight, but she will need Madoc’s blessing to do so.

Disappeared by Francisco X. Stork

Sara’s best friend, Linda was taken. Sara Zapata, a journalist, writes of the missing girls of Juarez in her articles published in El Sol.  Young pretty girls disappear all of the time.  But Sara’s articles about the missing girls have touched some nerves, and she has received threatening emails.  Emiliano, Sara’s younger brother, struggles with his place in the world ever since their father left Juarez to make a better life in the United States. Emiliano wants nothing to do with him. But Emiliano has stepped up to find ways to support his mother and Sara. Juarez is a dangerous town, and it’s hard to be good and do the right thing. When Sara makes an important discovery about the desaparecidos (a person who has disappeared and presumed killed by the police), her decision to continue her investigation places her family in serious danger.

Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty

behind-stars-book

Serafina is the CRC (Chief Rat Catcher) on the Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate where her father works as a maintenance man. Though she is a child of the night, Pa has warned her to stay away from the deep parts of the forest as there is an evil that lurks there.  Serafina is stealth in her maneuvers around the Biltmore Estate. People do not notice her and she has a skill of making herself almost invisible. But Serafina notices things, and when children start disappearing she knows it is the man with the black cape.  But which man?  There are several men visiting the Biltmore Estate.  Serafina, the CRC, sets out to catch a very dangerous rat! And, yes, she will have to venture into the forbidden forest to catch the man with the black cloak.