Uglies -- Scott Westerfeld

Everyone wants to be pretty. And in Tally's society, everyone gets to be. At age 16, everyone in Uglyville undergoes a surgery to turn them pretty -- a term defined over years and by determining the "ideal" look -- and they move into New Pretty Town where life is one big party. Nobody in New Pretty Town is jealous of anyone else, because everyone is pretty and nobody is ugly. And Tally can't wait to be turned pretty and make her move into New Pretty Town where she can join her best friend Peris who turned 16 a few months before she did. But then Tally meets Shay -- another Ugly who shares her same birthday. And Shay doesn't want to be pretty. Shay wants to be herself. And Shay wants to escape to the place called The Smoke, the place of legend where Uglies have run to in order to avoid the surgery to become pretty and where no one is "ugly" because no one is "pretty". When Shay leaves and invites Tally to join her, Tally is confused and frustrated that her new best friend wouldn't want to become pretty, and Tally turns her down. As Tally counts down the few remaining days toward becoming pretty, she misses Shay and their adventures, but she eagerly awaits her reunion with the now-Pretty Peris.

Tally's 16th birthday, which should have brought the coveted surgery, instead brings a thing of dread. Tally is transported to Special Circumstances and given her worst fate: a lifetime of ugly if she doesn't travel to The Smoke and betray Shay. With her life-long dream on the line, Tally determines to bring Shay back to Uglyville so that she can be turned pretty, but when she reaches The Smoke, she learns that her whole life back in the city has been full of half-truths and deceit. And she learns horrible truths about what all the surgery entails, and what all is changed on the people who become pretty. And she no longer knows if she wants to become pretty, because with the help of her new friend David, she realizes that, maybe, she already is.

Finger-Lickin' Fifteen -- Janet Evanovich

A famous TV chef, Chipotle, is beheaded in Trenton, NJ, and Lula is a witness. But she's not going this road alone, so she brings her friend, bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, along for the ride! Stephanie, of course, has issues of her own: she has bills to pay, not enough money, an on-again/off-again relationship that is currently in off mode, and her only three skips are not going to make capturing them easy for her.

Facing the reality that she can't afford her bills and isn't likely to catch her skips anytime soon, Stephanie signs on for side work with Ranger, the sizzlingly hot and mysterious ex-Rambo who usually bails her out of her fiascos. Ranger is having problems of his own, because someone is breaking into the houses of people who have security accounts with his company Rangeman. Stephanie is a great solution, since she can snoop around for him, make extra money on the side, and she can enlist Ranger's help in capturing her FTAs.

Meanwhile Lula is being hunted by the Chipotle murderers, and she gets shot at as well as having an attempt at meat-cleavinering made against her. Spooked that the Chipotle killers know where she lives, Lula moves into Stephanie's apartment, and Lula's snoring moves Stephanie out of it!

In the midst of all this craziness, Lula continues undaunted in entering the BBQ sauce contest, which was what had brought Chipotle to Trenton -- and his untimely demise -- in the first place. And so Stephanie finds herself up to her elbows in fires and BBQ sauce, and even manages to find time to dress up like a hot dog!