Lies I Live By

Gr 7 Up—Seventeen-year-old Callie Sinclair is the only child of her scatterbrained scientist mother; she has a gorgeous artist boyfriend, Charlie, and just happens to be a psychic spy. Callie can sense the presence of a specific kind of radiation associated with deadly, military-grade lasers. She has been recruited by the CIA to participate in their top-secret psychic-spy program. Callie feels called to this work—she loves that she can use her powers to save lives—but the secrets she must keep in order to protect those she loves are tearing her apart. And it turns out she's not the only one with secrets: Callie can't get the handsome new teenage psychic spy, Jasper, out of her mind. But is he trustworthy? The stories Callie's mom has told her about what happened to Callie's dad don't quite add up, and the new benefactor to the spy program clearly has a chip on his shoulder and an agenda all his own. This book doesn't ask very much from its readers—the characters are one-dimensional, any nuance in plot is explained simply rather than teased out, and the conflict is ultimately easily resolved—but it's undeniably fun. While it's a rather hefty length, it's a good choice for reluctant readers undeterred by size looking for an adventure.