Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

If you want a romance book that you can't put down, pick this book up. I flew threw it in a very short time, and it was completely charming and engrossing. Madeline is allergic to everything, and therefore lives her whole life in her sterile house with her mother and a full-time nurse. (Think the bubble boy from Seinfeld, but not as angry.) She's bright and well-read and as well-adjusted as she can be, but at the age of 18 it's hard to imagine how she will live the rest of her restricted life. Enter the new boy next door, who finds a way to communicate with her and, not surprisingly, they fall for each other. What is surprising is the direction their relationship takes and the risks Madeline takes to live life on her own terms. As I said, it's a wholly engrossing story and I recommend it for romance fans (ages high school-up).

The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz

It is 1911 and a 14-year-old girl from rural Pennsylvania dreams of a better life than she will ever have working on her father's farm. Forced to quit school, she treasures the diary given to her by her beloved teacher. Joan is a reader, and she knows from Jane Eyre and other classic stories that there is more to life for a young girl than cooking and cleaning. She runs away to Baltimore, changes her name to Janet, and gets hired by a wealthy Jewish family to be their hired girl. She learns to navigate a new world of wealth and a bewildering world of religious differences. All the while she writes in her diary about her dreams of travel and education the world beyond the station she was born into. My favorite childhood books are the Betsy Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace, and Janet is clearly akin to Betsy Ray, another girl from 1911 who longed to be a writer and see the great world. Young people who like history and coming of age stories will love this, as well as adult readers. In fact, when I purchased my copy of this book, it was in the adult section of my local children's bookstore. Recommended for grades 7-up.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Middle school kids are going crazy for this book and I'm so glad my 7th and 8th graders chose it for their book club. It's a sci-fi/dystopian Cinderella story, but there's no helpless princess here. Cinder, a cyborg and second-class citizen, is the best mechanic in New Beijing. She lives with her stepmother and stepsisters, who treat her badly (no surprise there). A deadly plague is killing people right and left, and a lunar civilization ruled by Queen Levana is lurking nearby, waiting for a chance to take over the earth by way of marrying Prince Kai. Cinder has a brief encounter with the truly charming Prince and is charged with repairing his android. But shortly thereafter her sister gets the plague, Cinder is "donated" for plague research, and she discovers some shocking secrets about her past. It's fun to catch all the fairy tale references, but Cinder truly is its own story. I listened to the audiobook and couldn't wait to hear more. My only gripe is the ending, which is one of the worst cliff-hangers I've ever read. This book is not short, but there's no reason that younger middle schoolers up through high schoolers won't enjoy it.