NBS recommends fiction cliffhangers

ROBERT LUDLUM’S

THE BOURNE LEGACY: A NOVEL

By Eric Van Lustbader

P399

Once, Jason Bourne was notorious in the clandestine world of covert-ops as one of the CIA’s most expert international killers for hire.  Out of the ashes of his violent past he’s emerged today as a Georgetown professor, living a quiet life, retired from danger — until he narrowly escapes the bullet of a faceless assassin. And when two of Bourne’s closest associates are murdered, Bourne knows that his legacy has followed him — and set him up as the prime suspect for the brutal crimes. The quicksand of lies and betrayals is deeper than Bourne ever imagined.  Hunted by the CIA as a dangerous rogue agent, he has only one option to stay alive — and one last chance to stay one step ahead of an unseen assailant whose vengeance is personal. Pursued across the globe, Bourne’s on the run, and on the edge of discovering the truth, that he’s become the expendable pawn in an international terrorist plot.  One that’s taking every living witness with it and plunging Bourne one step closer to the world-shattering consequences of...the Bourne Legacy.

SIZE 12 AND READY TO ROCK:

A HEATHER WELLS MYSTERY

By Meg Cabot

P595

Summer break . . . and the livin’ ain’t easy! Just because the students at New York College have flown the coop doesn’t mean assistant residence hall director Heather Wells can relax. Fischer Hall is busier than ever, filled with squealing 13- and 14-year-old girls attending the first ever Tania Trace Teen Rock Camp, hosted by pop sensation Tania Trace herself, who just happens to be newly married to Heather’s ex-boyfriend, heartthrob Jordan Cartwright. But the real headache begins when the producer of a reality TV show starring Tania winds up dead . . . and it’s clear that the star was the intended victim.

Grant Cartwright, head of Cartwright Records, wants to keep his daughter-in-law (and his highest-earning performer) alive. So he hires his oldest son, black sheep of the family and private investigator Cooper Cartwright, who just happens to be Heather’s new fiancé. Heather should leave the detecting to Cooper. But with a dorm full of hysterical mini-divas-in-training, she can’t help but get involved. And after Tania shares a really shocking secret with her, this reality suddenly becomes more dangerously real than anyone ever anticipated.

TEN THINGS WE DID (AND

PROBABLY SHOULDN’T HAVE)

By Sarah Mlynowski

P315

If given the opportunity, what 16-year-old wouldn’t jump at the chance to move in with a friend and live parent-free? Although maybe “opportunity” isn’t the right word, since April had to tell her dad a tiny little untruth to make it happen (see #1: “Lied to Our Parents”). But she and her housemate Vi are totally responsible and able to take care of themselves. How they ended up “Skipping School” (#3), “Throwing a Crazy Party” (#8), “Buying a Hot Tub” (#4), and, um, “Harboring a Fugitive” (#7) at all is kind of a mystery to them.

In this hilarious and bittersweet tale, Sarah Mlynowski mines the heart and mind of a girl on her own for the first time. To get through the year, April will have to juggle a love triangle, learn to do her own laundry, and accept that her carefully constructed world just might be falling apart . . . one thing-she-shouldn’t-have-done at a time.

THE GREAT ESCAPE

By Susan Elizabeth Phillips

P725

Being the daughter of the former president of the United States isn’t easy and not nearly as much fun as it might seem. No one knows this better than the perfect Lucy Jorik. A dutiful, responsible daughter (so unlike her best friend, Meg Koranda!), Lucy has always done the right thing: attending the right school, earning the right grades, landing the right guy. But on her wedding day to Ted Beaudine - a.k.a. Mr. Irresistible, the pride of Wynette, Texas — Lucy did the impossible. She took off, leaving the would-be groom at the altar. While she’s thrilled that Ted and Meg have found true love with each other, Lucy is more than ready for an adventure of her own. Still, when a menacing-looking stranger on a motorcycle offers her a ride, should she really say yes? In this dazzling follow up to her New York Times bestseller “Call Me Irresistible”, Susan Elizabeth Phillips tells Lucy’s story - a rollicking road trip full of hilarious mishaps, unexpected fun, and sizzling romance in which a young woman breaks free of her proper life to discover what she really wants — and dares to find it.

THE PRISONER OF HEAVEN: A NOVEL

By Carlos Ruiz Zafon

P555

The internationally acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Carlos Ruiz Zafon takes us into a dark, gothic Barcelona and creates a rich, labyrinthine tale of love, literature, passion, and revenge in which the heroes of The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel’s Game must contend with a nemesis that threatens to destroy them.

Barcelona, 1957. It is Christmas, and Daniel Sempere and his wife Bea have much to celebrate. They have a beautiful new baby son named Julian, and their close friend Fermin Romero de Torres is about to be wed. But their joy is eclipsed when a mysterious stranger visits the Sempere bookshop and threatens to divulge a terrible secret that has been buried for two decades in the city’s dark past. His appearance plunges Fermin and Daniel into a dangerous adventure that will take them back to the 1940s and the early days of Franco’s dictatorship. The terrifying events of that time launch them on a search for the truth that will put into peril everything they love and ultimately transform their lives.

Full of intrigue and emotion, The Prisoner of Heaven is a majestic novel in which the threads of The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel’s Game converge under the spell of literature and bring us toward the enigma hidden at the heart of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a collection of lost treasures known only to its few initiates, and the very core of Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s enchanting fictional world.