The Garden of Eve

Written by: K. L. Going

First line: "Once there was a beautiful garden."

Why you should read this book: Evie's mom is dead and now there's no one to help her see the magic in the world, just her father and his ridiculous obsession with orchards. But maybe there is a seed of magic in the twisted, dying apple orchard he's just bought; everyone says it's cursed, even Alex, the ghost boy who lives in the cemetery across from her new house, but then again, if there are ghost boys, maybe there's also such a thing as magic. Together, and Alex and Evie start to unravel the mystery of what happened on this land many years before they were born, and what happens to the living when the dead leave them behind.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Dead moms. Dead siblings. Dead kids. Sort of a tearjerker.