The Knife by Ross Ritchell

A powerful, dark, and morally provocative debut novel about a U.S. Special Forces unit operating in the Middle East, written by a former soldier-- No Easy Day meets Redeployment ... It's hot and getting hotter this summer in Afghanipakiraqistan--the preferred name for the ambiguous stretch of the world where the U.S. Special Forces operate with little outside attention. Team Leader Dutch Shaw is missing his late grandmother. She was the last link he had to civilian life, to any kind of world of innocence. But there's no time to mourn. After two helicopters in a sister squadron are shot down, Shaw and his team know that they're going to be spun up and sent back in, deep into insurgent territory, where a mysterious new organization called Al Ayeelaa has been attracting high-value targets from across the region. As Shaw and his men fight their way closer to the source, mission by mission, they begin to realize that their way may have been prepared for them in advance, and not by a welcoming host. The Knife is a debut novel of intense authenticity by a former soldier in a United States Special Operations Command direct-action team. As scenes of horseshoes and horseplay cut to dim Ambien-soaked trips in helicopters and beyond, Ritchell's story takes us deep beneath the testosterone-laced patter into the lonelier, more ambivalent world of military life in the Middle East. The result is a fast-paced journey into darkness; a quintessential novel of the American wars of the twenty-first century.

Ross Ritchell is a former soldier in a United States Special Operations Command direct-action team conducting classified operations in the Middle East. Upon his discharge, he enrolled at Northwestern University, where he earned an MFA. He lives with his family in Illinois.

My name is Julio Ramirez Jr. and baseball is my whole life. Since he was ten, Julio has lived in the shadow of his famous father. Not just because Julio Senior is a pitcher for the Miami Marlins, but because he fled Cuba to play professional baseball, leaving his Julio and his mother and sister branded as the family of a traitor. Now sixteen, Julio dreams of playing for Cuba's national team-until he finds out his father's defection may destroy his chances. When he's given the opportunity to flee Cuba, he has to make the toughest choice of his life. Can he abandon his family, just like his Papi did? Will freedom be worth the perilous journey and risking prison if he's caught? Will his Papi be waiting for him on the other shore-or, with the Marlins in the World Series against the Yankees, has Julio Senior forgotten about his son? Set against the backdrop of the Series on which everything depends, Game Seven is a suspenseful story of loyalty, survival, and baseball.  Author's Website

PROTECT THE RICH. SERVE THE FAMOUS. HUNT THE GUILTY. NYPD Red is the elite, highly trained task force assigned to protect the rich, the famous, and the connected. And Detective Zach Jordan and his partner Kylie MacDonald-the woman who broke his heart at the police academy-are the best of the best, brilliant and tireless investigators who will stop at nothing to deliver justice. Zach and Kylie's New Year's celebrations are cut short when they're called to the home of billionaire businessman Hunter Alden, Jr. after he makes a grisly discovery in his townhouse garage. When Alden's teenage son goes missing soon afterwards, and his father seems oddly reluctant to find him, Zach and Kylie find themselves in the middle of a chilling conspiracy that threatens everyone in its wake-especially their city's most powerful citizens. NYPD Red 3 is the next sensational novel in James Patterson's explosive new series, a thriller that goes behind the closed doors of New York high society

Crystal Keepers: Five Kingdoms #3

Trapped in a world where magic is powerful and dreams are real, Cole continues his quest in book three of a “fanciful, action-packed adventure” series (Publishers Weekly, starred review), from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Beyonders series.

Cole Randolph ventures to a new kingdom as he continues his search for his friends—and also pursues his quest to mend what has gone awry with the magic in The Outskirts. Can he overcome the challenges ahead, or will he be stranded forever in a world between reality and imagination?

Mark of the Thief

An electrifying tale of greed and power, magic and destiny, and one boy's courage at the heart of it all. When Nic, a slave in the mines outside of Rome, is forced to enter a sealed cavern containing the lost treasures of Julius Caesar, he finds much more than gold and gemstones: He discovers an ancient bulla, an amulet that belonged to the great Caesar and is filled with a magic once reserved for the Gods -- magic some Romans would kill for. Now, with the deadly power of the bulla pulsing through his veins, Nic is determined to become free. But instead, he finds himself at the center of a ruthless conspiracy to overthrow the emperor and spark the Praetor War, a battle to destroy Rome from within. Traitors and spies lurk at every turn, each more desperate than the next to use Nic's newfound powers for their own dark purposes In a quest to stop the rebellion, save Rome, and secure his own freedom, Nic must harness the magic within himself and defeat the empire's most powerful and savage leaders.


Also by Jennifer Nielsen: The Ascendancy Trilogy

Beneath by Roland Smith

Exactly one year to the day after my brother, Coop, ditched me, I got a package in the mail. It came to the school, not our house. The secretary handed me the package with a warning that I was never to use the school as my personal address. I was going to tell her that I hadn't when I saw my name: Pat Meatloaf O'Toole scrawled in Coop's familiar handwriting. Meatloaf is not my real middle name. I told her I would never do it again, grabbed the package, locked myself in a restroom stall, and tore the box open. Inside was a handheld digital voice recorder, a supply of memory sticks, and a note written on a greasy hamburger wrapper: "Lil Bro, Pat, just turn the recorder to Play, and I'll explain what you're supposed to do with this. DO NOT share with parents. This is just between you and me. Your big bro, Coop . . ." I made sure the restroom was empty and switched on the recorder. 
-Excerpted from Beneath by Roland Smith

"The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August" & "Touch" by Claire North

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

Harry August is on his deathbed. Again.

No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes.

Until now.

As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. 'I nearly missed you, Doctor August,' she says. 'I need to send a message.'

This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow. - Goodreads.com

Author's Interview

Touch

Kepler had never meant to die this way — viciously beaten to death by a stinking vagrant in a dark back alley. But when reaching out to the murderer for salvation in those last dying moments, a sudden switch takes place.

Now Kepler is looking out through the eyes of the killer himself, staring down at a broken and ruined body lying in the dirt of the alley.

Instead of dying, Kepler has gained the ability to roam from one body to another, to jump into another person’s skin and see through their eyes, live their life -- be it for a few minutes, a few months or a lifetime.

Kepler means these host bodies no harm — and even comes to cherish them intimately like lovers. But when one host, Josephine Cebula, is brutally assassinated, Kepler embarks on a mission to seek the truth — and avenge Josephine’s death.    - Goodreads.com