The fault in our stars, by John Green

 Hazel has known she is going to die from her cancer from the day it was diagnosed. But when she meets gorgeous Augustus Waters at a cancer support group her life suddenly takes a new and unexpected turn.   The fault in our stars is a love story about two teens with cancer that they are going to die from, but it never goes for the easy emotionalism of that situation.  The two teens, Hazel and Augustus (Gus), are real - tough and vulnerable at the same time.  They know what it's like to live with terminal illness and still they celebrate being alive and in love.

Green spent 10 years as a chaplain at a children's hospital before not becoming a priest but a YA author instead.  He knows these people and their hearts, and he knows how to write.  This one will be on my top 10 for 2012 without a doubt.

This dark endeavor, by Kenneth Oppel

Kenneth Oppel has taken the Frankenstein legend and written the backstory.  So this is an explanation of who Victor Frankenstein was, and what events in his teen years explain the man whom he will become - the one able to create the legendary Frankenstein's monster.  The story is dark and Victorian, full of suppressed emotions, high ideals, and passionate challenges.  In other words - a hoot to read and enjoy.  I hope Oppel makes this a series.

The Returning, by Christine Hinwood

An introspective look at the aftermath of war.  Cam Attling is the only villager to return from the war between the Uplanders and the Downlanders.  But he cannot return ever to the old life he once knew.  He has lost an arm, his betrothed has broken their engagement, the villagers look on him with suspicion for returning alive when their loved ones are dead.  And he is haunted by memories of the war.  He can only think of one way to survive - he leaves his village in search of the Upland lord who maimed him but spared his life and then saw that he was nursed back to health. 


No one is spared, and everyone changed by the cataclysm of war.  And the people on both sides have to forge new lives in war's wake.  

The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater

Two desperate people are training for the Scorpio Races - races  held on the island beach every November 1st.  The horses are the magical capall uisce - water horses that come from the sea and are monsters in horse form.  Sean Kendrick is the returning champion.  But his job as horse trainer and jockey with the wealthy Malvern's is threatened by the boss's malevolent son.  If he won the race this year he maybe could buy Corr, the water horse he has trained from a colt, and set himself up in his own business.
Puck (Kate) Connolly is desperate too.  Desperate to hold on to what's left of her family since her parents were killed by water horses and her older brother is determined to leave the island for mainland life.   Desperate to hold on to the family home that the wealthy Malverns are about to forclose on. 
The two are thrown together in preparation for the races that take lives as well as transform lives, and they find themselves drawn together emotionally as well.  But there can only be one winner.
Stiefvater once again weaves a magical story- this one of wild magic against the background of the wild November Atlantic Ocean, and the wild hearts of two islanders facing impossible odds.  A magical fantasy that well deserves the Printz Honor Award it won in January.