There are lots of great books we are looking forward to this year, many of them continuations of series that have already been popular at CA Library. Here are 12 titles I am especially excited about getting into the library:

• Sara Shepard’s Pretty Little Secrets (1/3/12) — Shepard’s “Pretty Little Liars” series (the inspiration for the ABC Family series of the same name) continues with this story which takes place between Unbelievable and Wicked, revealing the liars’ never-before-seen misadventures over their junior-year winter break.

• John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars (1/10/12) — Green, author of Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns, returns with his most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love. Although a medical miracle has shrunk her cancerous tumor, buying her a few years, Hazel still faces a terminal diagnosis.

• Orson Scott Card’s Shadows In Flight (1/17/12) — The 5th book in the Ender saga follows Bean and three of his children into space, where they search for a cure for the giantism that is the price of their genetic enhancement. “Card’s latest installment in his Shadow subseries…does a superlative job of dramatically portraying the maturing process of child into adult.” — Publishers Weekly

• Jodi Picoult’s Lone Wolf (1/28/12) — In Picoult’s latest family drama, Edward Warren has been living in Thailand for five years, a prodigal son who left his family after an irreparable fight with his father. Then he gets a frantic phone call: his dad lies comatose, gravely injured in the same accident that has also injured his younger sister Cara. With her father’s chances for recovery dwindling, Cara wants to wait for a miracle. But Edward wants to terminate life support and donate his father’s organs. Is he motivated by altruism, or revenge?

• Stephen King’s The Wind Through The Keyhole (4/24/12) — King returns to the rich landscape of Mid-World, the setting for his epic Dark Tower series. This story within a story within a story finds Roland Deschain, Mid-World’s last gunslinger, in his early days during the guilt-ridden year following his mother’s death.

• Rick Riordan’s The Kane Chronicles, Book 3 (5/1/12) — In the final volume of the Kane trilogy, Carter and Sade Kane can’t seem to keep Apophis, the chaos snake, down. Now Apophis is threatening to plunge the world into eternal darkness, and the Kanes are faced with the impossible task of having to destroy him once and for all.

• Veronica Roth’s Insurgent (5/1/12) — The 2nd book of the dystopian Divergent series is another thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature. Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

• James Patterson’s 11th Hour (5/7/12) — In the “most shocking, most emotional, and most thrilling Women’s Murder Club novel ever,” millionaire Chaz Smith is mercilessly gunned down, and homicide detective Lindsay Boxer discovers the murder weapon is linked to the deaths of four of San Francisco’s most untouchable criminals. And it was taken from her own department’s evidence locker.

• Cassandra Clare’s City of Lost Souls (5/8/12) — The 5th book in the Mortal Instruments series.

• Michael Scott’s The Enchantress (5/22/12) — The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series continues with The Enchantress. The twins of prophecy have been split, Nicholas Flamel is near death, John Dee has the swords of power, and Danu Talis has yet to fall. The future of the human race lies in the balance.

• Justin Cronin’s The Twelve (8/28/12) — The 2nd book in a planned trilogy, Cronin’s follow-up to the 2010 best-seller The Passage is expected in August.

• Ken Follett’s Winter of the World (9/18/12) — The 2nd book in Follett’s epic The Century trilogy continues the story of five interrelated families caught up in the events of the 20th century.