Need

November 24, 2008
It's not hard to see Twilight
in the DNA of this novel: Zara's stepfather has died, her mother isn't capable of caring for her, and she has been sent to live with her grandmother in a small remote town in Maine. When her car spins out of control (Calling Stephenie Meyer!), she's rescued by sexy Nick (who turns out to be a werewolf), and something might be cooking with her overachieving classmate Ian. Too bad she's being followed by someone dark and dangerous—a pixie king. This pixie is no harmless sprite: “when not mated with a queen for an unspecified amount of time,” Zara learns, “the pixie kings will demand... young human men, who they kill after using them for their blood-hungry pleasures.” Will Zara sacrifice herself to this vampire stand-in or let him destroy everything she loves? Jones (Love {and Other Uses for Duct Tape]
) easily wins readers to Zara's side, portraying her as a funny, globally conscious teen who also “collect[s} fears like other people collect stamps” (obscure phobias serve as chapter titles). Genre fans will enjoy the sizzle between Nick and Zara as well as the paranormal cast. Ages 12–up.

December 1, 2008
Leaving behind her warmly quirky realism to jump on the supernatural-romance bandwagon, Jones leans too hard on overly recognizable motifs. Zara 's mother sends her to a remote, frigid Maine town to regain her spirit after her father dies. Boys immediately adore her, but only one electrifies her in return: Nick, an inhumanly fast runner. Polite Ian 's also inhumanly fast, but new friends Issie and Devyn seem to favor Nick, despite his faintly dangerous vibe. A strange man stalks Zara, and she admits that he 's been lurking in her life since the day of her father 's fatal heart attack. He 's a pixie, needing a queen to enhance his power lest he kidnap boys to drink their blood. Several scenes seem illogically manipulated for plot tension; choppy continuity undermines readers ' ability to distinguish awkward prose from Zara 's valid grief. A sense of the derivative outweighs welcome flashes of wit and humor. This one 's for readers already hooked on smug supernatural males and incurious heroines less informed than anyone around them. Twi-lite. (Fantasy. YA)

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