The Haunted House Project

Clasen, Tricia. The Haunted House Project. 2017. 215p. ISBN 978-1-5107-0712-2. Available at FIC CLA on the library shelves.

A year ago, Andie’s mother was hit by a truck and was instantly killed. The tragedy has impacted her family life. Her father has lost his job and is gambling away the insurance settlement. Her older sister Paige now works full time on top of going to school, not so she can afford to go to college but so she can buy groceries for her family. And Andie still miss her mom terribly every day, and her friends have long lost any semblance of commiseration for her and are now just plain annoyed she is no longer the fun free spirited girl she used to be.

At school Andie sees a counselor during the week, sometimes in group sessions, sometimes one on one. Andie is scared that the school counselor will discover how bad her homelife is, and that she will be wrestled from her father, who hasn’t done much fathering in the last year. Still, what you know is better than what you don’t. When she and her partner Isaiah are assigned a project in science, they decide to investigate ghosts. Andie has always read ghost stories, and she often feels like her mother is right here with her. As they discuss the project, a brilliant idea occurs to Andie. What if their project involved faking ghostly communication? Could she pull off making it seem like her mother is talking to Paige and to her father? She could document their reactions and keep track of what happens next.

As Andie and Isaiah begin implementing their haunting project, Andie realizes that her mother truly was the glue that held the family together. She sprays her mother’s perfume on the couch. She moves a picture slightly so it is more visible. She changes the television channel and the radio station. All subtle signs, but they all seem to have an impact on her sister and father.

Meanwhile, her own social life is crumbling as her friends, led by beautiful Becky, snub Isaiah and make demands on Andie she can’t fulfill. Plus, what exactly is the nature of her relationship to Isaiah? As she brings back her mother’s memory from the grave, can Andie save herself as well? A well written story about broken family dynamics, readers will appreciate Andie’s efforts at restarting the pulse of her own family and ensuring that it has a future.

Prisoner of Ice and Snow

Lauren, Ruth. Prisoner of Ice and Snow. 2017. 280p. ISBN 9781681191317. Available at FIC LAU on the library shelves.

Valor is ready to do anything to help her twin sister Sasha. Even if that means making an assassination attempt on Prince Anatol so she can be condemned and sentenced to the ruthless Tyur’ma prison. For that’s where her sister has been sent after she stole a delicate musical box that was intended to cement an alliance between their country of Demidova and the neighboring nation of Magadanskya. And Valor knows that her sister will not be able to survive without her help.

As daughters of royal advisors, Valor and Sasha’s arrests bring disgrace on their family. Valor has a plan, however. She has seen her father’s old maps and knows there is a tunnel beneath Tyur’ma that leads straight to the Royal Palace. All she’s got to do is find her sister, steal a key, and escape with her from the inside of the prison, a feat no one has successfully accomplished in the 300 years’ existence of Tyur’ma. Unfortunately, Valor was not counting on the harsh and treacherous environment imposed by Warden Kirov, head of the notoriously cruel Peacemakers, guardians of the prison.

Now inside the ice walls, Valor finds herself struggling with her captivity. The lack of food, the lack of sleep, the cold, and the overwork is rapidly wearing her down. She knows that Sasha is more delicate, so these conditions must be even harder for her. As she plans her escape, Valor will have to turn to others to help. But with so many spies and criminals surrounding her, whom can she trust?

A well crafted fantasy novel about a place of ice and cold, readers will enjoy discovering how Valor surmounts the struggle to free her sister and prove her innocence.

When My Sister Started Kissing

Frost, Helen. When My Sister Started Kissing. 2017. 193p. ISBN 978-0-374-30303-7. Available at FIC FRO on the library shelves.

When Claire and Abigail’s mother died, the family was heartbroken. Spending every summer at a cabin on the lake, the sisters saw comforting reminders of their mother everywhere. Now that it is summer again, they dread returning to the lake. Their father has remarried, and his new wife is pregnant with their half-brother. Worse, all signs of their mother, from her old easel to her favorite chair to the board games and her books have disappeared from the cabin.

For Claire, however, all of these changes are nothing compared to what is happening with her sister Abigail, who insists on being called Abi. This summer, Abi is boy crazy, and her secrets mean that Claire must cover for her. Unsure of herself, Claire can’t help but wonder why Abi would act this way. As the summer progresses, and as Abi’s affections seem to be divided between two different boys, Claire decides she can’t make excuses for her anymore. But as their family seems to be drifting apart, the lake imparts lessons that just because things are changing doesn’t mean that they will not remain meaningful.

Written in verse, this short book features three points of view, that of Claire, Abi, and of the lake itself observing the sisters. A coming of age novel, readers interested in family relationships will appreciate the dynamics that are at play between two sisters struggling with new feelings and emotions.

Talk to Me

Ellis, Sonia. Talk to Me. 2016. 164p. ISBN 978-1-943431-23-6. Available at FIC ELL on the library shelves.

Fourteen-year-old Sadina Reyes loves her sister, but seven-year-old Maddie suffers from selective mutism,  which results in her not talking very much to her own family members, and never to a stranger. This causes problems for Maddie at school, and Sadina’s friends know her as the girl who doesn’t speak. Sadina would really love to help her sister, but she’s not sure what she can do.

Sadina loses Maddie at the mall after she and Rio, her best friend, go into a computer store, and it takes forever to find her at the pet store. Worse, that night someone breaks into Sadina’s house and steals something out of her mother’s office desk, and Maddie is the only one who notices the robber. The event traumatizes her and now she can’t even talk to her family. Her mother, who is an engineer working on a brand new battery for cellphones, reveals that the only thing that has been stolen is her coworker’s phone, who had left it at the house after dinner the previous night. On that phone was the only evidence that Flynn has been embezzling money from the lab where they both work, and now Sabina’s mother is about to take the rap for the missing money.

Meanwhile, expensive software has disappeared from the school’s computer lab, and Rio is the prime suspect. It doesn’t help when Sabina remembers that Rio had been eyeing this software with envy at the computer store, and her suspicious increase when she discovers that he has installed the same software on his computer at home.

Now she’s got to help her mother by proving that Maddie has seen that the thief was Flynn, and that Rio did in fact not steal the software. Working with the computer club at school, Sadina hopes that they can reprogram Maddie’s cat robot, named Bella, into a cat that can actually talk to her through artificial intelligence and record her answer. If Maddie won’t speak to humans, maybe she’ll speak to Bella! At least, that’s what Sadina hopes...

P.S.: I Like You

West, Kasie. P.S.: I Like You. 2016. 329p. 6 hours 56 minutes long. ISBN 978-0-545-85097-1. Available as an audiobook on Overdrive.

Lily stands out at her high school, and not for the better. Now a junior, her nemesis Cade gave her the nickname “Magnet” back in middle school, and it has stuck ever since. Cade is conceited, thinks he’s the most beautiful boy in the school, and bestows nicknames and insults to everyone that crosses his path. Her inability to catch a basketball was so funny to her classmates that they all kept passing her the ball, hence the nickname Magnet. Lily has never forgiven Cade, and when he dated her best friend Isabelle she did everything she could to undermine the relationship.

Lily wants to become a songwriter. She’s always writing lyrics and accompanying her songs on her trusted guitar. She’s not ready to share any of them, however, not even with Isabelle. Her home life is frantic and loud, with two younger brothers. She also has to share a bedroom with Ashley, her older sister who attends community college but stays at home. Her parents do their best, but there’s never peace at home.

During a moment of inattention in Chemistry, her teacher catches her writing away, and he tells her that from now on she cannot have her trusted green book in front of her. In her despair later on that week, she writes a song lyric on her desk. To her surprise, when she sits back down at her desk she discovers that someone completed the lyric. Soon, she’s exchanging old fashioned letters with an unknown male correspondent. With Chemistry classes taking place all day, it could be anyone. That guy is sensitive, with a distant father and a demanding stepfather. They share the same musical tastes, and they expose each other to new bands.

But when she discovers that Cade is her secret penpal, everything changes. How can the boy she’s falling in love with be the jerk that makes her life hell? Can Lily reconcile Cade’s two dramatically opposed persona into a person she can truly love and who will love her back?

Truthwitch

Dennard, Susan. Truthwitch. Book 1 of the Witchlands series. 2016. 415p. ISBN 978-0-7653-7928-3. Available at FIC DEN on the library shelves.

Many of the inhabitants of the Witchlands have strange powers. Known as witches, they control one or more aspect of life, from water to fire to the threads that bind people together. Twenty years ago the nations of the Witchlands agreed to a binding twenty years truce, but this only provided time for leader to re-arm and re-equip their troops and plan new attacks. Nineteen years later, the last months of the truce are ticking by and everyone is ready to head back to war.

Safiya and Iseult are thread sisters, and both of them are also witches. Current residents of Venaza City in the Dalmotti Empire,  Iseult is a Nomatsi, a group of nomads reviled by non-Nomatsi people. She is a threadwitch, and she sees the connections between people as well as the threads that define their thoughts and feelings. Safiya is a domna of Cartorra, a noblewoman of the Empire of Cartorra. She’s a truthwitch, one of the rarest of witches. She can discern truth from lie, a useful power to have when the world is heading back to war. She was sent to Venaza City by her uncle to get her away from the Emperor of Cartorra, but she has done nothing but get herself in trouble, much to her tutors’ dismay.

When Safiya and Iseult attempt to rob the wrong caravan, they become the target of a bloodwitch, a man with the power to smell the blood and the quality of the witchcraft within. Assisted by Prince Merik, a wind witch, Safiya and Iseult must now run for their very lives are threatened, and as war gets set to resume, the two thread sisters will either be the salvation of the continent as predicted by the old Carwen prophecy or its doom.

Fat Angie

Charlton-Trujillo, E. E. Fat Angie. 2013. 264p. ISBN 0763661198. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

Angie has never been thin, but she’s always had her sister and her adopted brother to protect her from bullies and those who torment the weak and the different. Her sister was dedicated and worked hard towards her goals. A champion basketball player, she turned down a full scholarship and joined the military before being deployed to Iraq.

Nine months ago, she went missing in Iraq and has not been seen since. Angie’s world ended on that day. Called Fat Angie at school by the well-meaning kids and worse names by beautiful Stacey and her clique, Angie attempted suicide during a school assembly, in front of everyone. With divorced parents who don’t care, with a brother now on the skids as well, and with her sister gone, Angie thought she had nothing left to live for and wanted to make a statement. Only she didn’t die. She survived her attempt, and had to return to school after a bout with therapy. Her miserable existence continues, and only the hope that her sister will be found alive sustains her.

Then KC Romance arrives in her little Ohio town. KC is everything Angie is not: bold, outspoken, pretty, thin. But, like Angie, she’s got several secrets. She’s a cutter. She’s gay-girl gay. And she’s attracted to Angie, whom she does not see as fat but rather as exceptional. With someone new in her life, someone who loves her for whom she is, Angie’s life has just gotten more complicated.

This book really has it all: bullying, divorce, homosexuality, body issues, harassment, parental neglect, self-harm, depression, sports competition, and intense sibling rivalry. Readers interested in any of these topics will find their fill by reading the sad, tragic, but ultimately redeeming life of fat Angie.

The Siren

Cass, Kiera. The Siren. 2016. 327p. ISBN 9780062391995. Available at FIC CAS on the library shelves.

Despite the Great Depression, Kahlen’s family is doing well financially. Her family ends up on a transatlantic ship. Feeling uneasy one day, Kahlen witnesses her father, mother, and brothers becoming entranced by a strange music coming from outside the ship, and, along with all of the ship’s passengers and crew, jump in the ocean, answering the call of beautiful sirens singing their death song. As Kahlen sinks, her will to survive is strong enough that the Ocean offers her a bargain: Sing for her for a hundred years, and then Kahlen will be released with no memories of what happened to lead a new life. Refuse the bargain, and drown with the rest of the passengers.

Kahlen accepts Ocean’s bargain and for the next eighty years serves her faithfully, sharing her feelings and emotions as well as luring strangers to their deaths. She cannot talk for a single word from her is enough to send a person to their watery death, and Ocean has warned all of her sirens that they cannot reveal their existence. But when she meets Akinli on a college campus in Miami, she realizes that she doesn’t always have to keep company with other sirens only. Though she loves her three siren sisters dearly, she longs for human companionship, and Akinli provides her with something she never thought she would experience as a siren. Complete and utter acceptance. Suddenly, Kahlen finds herself falling for this beautiful and loving boy, and she quickly develops a relationship despite the difficulties in communicating with him.

But loving a human is forbidden and Ocean will be upsets if she finds out. Kahlen breaks it off with Akinli, but following another shipwreck she runs away from her sisters and inadvertently finds him again, this time in a small town on the coast of Maine where he works as a fisherman. She hopelessly falls in love with him, and him with her. Kahlen cannot wait another twenty years to listen to her heart, but their lives are now in danger. What will be the cost of true love?

If you enjoyed this book, be sure to look at The Selection, also by Kiera Cass.

Egg and Spoon

Maguire, Gregory. Egg and Spoon. 2014. 475p. ISBN 9780763672201. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

Life in Tsarist Russia is hard, harder than most places. For peasants living in hovels in small villages sprinkled in the middle of nowhere, it is even more the case. Elena Rudina has never been outside the boundaries of her village. Now a teen of about 15, she must take care of her sick mother. Her father drowned a few years ago, her younger brother is indentured to the local Baron who has moved to Moscow due to food shortages in the area, and her older brother has just been recruited by the Tsar’s army to dig ditches in St. Petersburg. Elena struggles to survive and find enough food for herself and her mother. Thankfully, old doctor Peter Petrovich provides some humor in an otherwise drab land.

The unexpected always happens, however, and in Russia every peasant knows that despite how bad things are, they can always get worse. When a train pulls in on the disaffected line, Elena’s life irreversibly changes. She meets the Tsar, dressed in a white uniform. But he turns out to be a butler. The train has stopped because the bridge further down the track is out. Onboard is every type of food imaginable, as well as a girl whose looks are very similar to Elena, aside from the fact that she’s an aristocrat. Ekaterina is traveling with her great aunt to St. Petersburg so she can make her debut at the Tsar’s great ball, and even meet the Tsar’s nephew. She carries a Fabergé egg crafted especially for the Tsar.

Through this short stop, Elena and Kat get to know each other a little, but through circumstances they exchange places. Elena now finds herself hurling towards St. Petersburg and the chance to ask the Tsar to release her brother from service so he can return home. Kat, for her part, is left stranded in the middle of nowhere with not enough local lore to be able to survive long in this hostile environment.

Thus begins a most amazing adventure featuring matryoshka dolls, snow soldiers, talking cats, ice dragons, and probably the best character in the book, the famed Baba Yaga, the Russian witch whose house is equipped with chicken legs and travels by itself. Elena, Kat, and Baba Yaga must pull their resources and wits together to solve a danger that threatens the very nature of Mother Russia. A fable with improbable characters, Egg and Spoon takes a train ride through Tsarist Russia exploring some of its myths and legends.

Fans of fantastic fiction will enjoy this book, and should take a look at Far Far Away, a book with similar themes of self discovery.

Fairest: Levana’s Story

Meyer, Marissa. Fairest: Levana’s Story. Book 3.5 of the Lunar Chronicles. 2015. 220p. ISBN 978-1-250-06055-6. Available at FIC MEY on the library shelves.

Levana was never supposed to be queen. As the second child of the royal family, her role was to always be a princess, in the background, ready to be married off to cement an alliance. At fifteen, the Lunar King and Queen are assassinated, and Levana’s sister, Channary, ascends to the throne. But Channary is more interested in being the most beautiful queen Luna has seen than by the political necessities of being a monarch. Levana gingerly steps in the role of advisor, wishing that it was she who made the decisions.

Smitten by one of her guard, she conducts an illicit affair with him once his wife dies, and she even adopts his daughter, the new princess Winter. But Evret is not interested in her, and she has to use her lunar gift to manipulate his mind and his emotions. She convinces herself that he loves her, and she forces a marriage on him. Queen Channary is not impressed, but she has her own issues to deal with now that she’s given birth to Princess Celine, who will succeed her. Levana’s hopes for the thrones all but vanish.

Channary, however, suddenly dies due to a particularly virulent disease, and Levana becomes Regent until Celine grows up to take her rightful place. Celine and Winter are best friends, and Evret loves them both. However, Levana’s dreams of being queen are threatened by Celine’s existence, and she comes up with the most dreadful plan to get rid of her. She will do to Celine what Channary did to her, burn her in the flames of a fire. But unlike Channary, who was stopped on time by attendants, Celine will die in this purifying fire and Levana will be forever queen.

This short novella exposes the Lunar Queen’s darkest secrets and explain her character and who she has become. Fans of Cinder, Scarlet and Cress will enjoy witnessing the life of the most terrifying queen Earth has ever seen, and will enjoy the connection to Meyer’s newest entry in the Lunar Chronicles, Winter.

Cruel Beauty

Hodge, Rosamund. Cruel Beauty. 2014. 352p. ISBN 9780062224736. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

For nine hundred years, the Gentle Lord has ruled over Arcadia. The Lord of Bargains, he protects the inhabitants (mostly) from the shadow demons that lurk on the edge of the world. Sundered from the rest of the world, Arcadia has been mostly at peace, but even while protected there are weak minds and hearts who are willing to pay any price to obtain favors. And thus these mortal men and women seek the Gentle Lord and agree to foolish bargains with him.

At seventeen years old, Nyx and her younger twin sister Astraia should have all their lives in front of them. Unfortunately, this is only true for Astraia, for Nyx is to marry the Gentle Lord. Seventeen years ago, her father made a bargain with the Gentle Lord: Let his wife have children, and in exchange he would marry his daughter to him. The wish was granted. Nyx and Astraia were born, but their mother died in childbirth. Thus, their father was deprived of his love. And as Astraia looks more like her mother and Nyx more like her father, it has been easier for him to not love Nyx and instead prepare her for the day she would be taken away by the Gentle Lord.

Trained to kill and to destroy the Gentle Lord’s house, Nyx is apprehensive when the day comes. But she quickly realizes that the Gentle Lord is in fact more than a cruel demon. Though all powerful, he does not force himself upon her, but instead sets her on a quest to discover how to free both of them from this prison that is Arcadia. Ignifex has a slave, a shadow called Shade. Nyx discovers that Shade is the last prince of the kingdom, forever enslaved to Ignifex nine hundred years ago by the gods for his offense. Both Shade and Ignifex share many characteristics, and Nyx is the only one who can save them both while rescuing her country from its isolation.

But when the choice comes, will she choose the Lord, the slave, or Arcadia? Based on the Beauty and the Beast myth, this story also incorporates several elements of Greek mythology. Fantasy readers will enjoy this love triangle in an exotic locale, and will certainly be clamoring for more.

The Hiding Place

ten Boom, Corrie. The Hiding Place. 2006. 271p. ISBN 9780800794057. Available at B TEN on the library shelves and also as a DVD from the DVD collection.

Born and raised in a loving Dutch family, Corrie stayed at home following a heart-breaking romance, and worked for her father, Haarlem’s watchmaker. Following the death of their mother she learned the craft and managed the shop, while her sister Betsie ran the household.

With the onset of World War II, Holland is in a precarious position. The Germans are on the borders, while France and England are already fighting. Though Holland is assured of peace, the Germans invade the next day and the entire country falls five days later. Now occupied, the lives of Jews become precarious. Corrie decides to begin helping them, and what starts as a charitable thought becomes a true underground cells with hundreds of people moving through their residence on their way out of the country or to safe places. Jews, youth, resistance fighters, and allied pilots all benefited from their assistance.

Eventually, her ring is infiltrated and she is caught, along with her father, brother, and sister. What ensues are years of misery at the hands of the Germans culminating to deportation to Ravensbrück concentration camp, the infamous women’s death camp. But with the help of God, Corrie survived the camp and set about redeeming both perpetrators and survivors. An inspiring story, it demonstrates that love and belief in God can indeed conquer all.

A great companion volume to this book is Schindler, Wallenberg, Miep Gies: The Holocaust Heroes.

A Book of Spirits and Thieves

Rhodes, Morgan. A Book of Spirits and Thieves. Razorbill. 2015. 368p. ISBN 978-1595147592. Available at FIC RHO on the library shelves.

Crystal and Rebecca are not getting along. The two sisters have drifted apart over the years, with Crys spending time engrossed in photography while Becca works at the family’s bookstore. But when a magical book sends Becca into a coma, Crys must help her come back. Becca, meanwhile, is transported to another land where magic exists, and where an evil queen reins. Only appearing as a ghost, she meets Maddox, a necromancer, and becomes party to a conspiracy to overthrow the queen.

Crys discovers that the book is somehow tied to a secret society, called the Hawkspear. This society long ago consumed her father, but now she must infiltrate it to help Becca. She meets brooding Farrell, one of the most trusted members of the society, and she must maneuver carefully among the dangers for her very life, and that of her sister, is at stakes.

A news series based on the Falling Kingdoms, Rhodes tells the tale through multiple perspectives and two different worlds which connect together at the end of the book. Knowledge of the previous series is not necessary, however. The main characters are well developed and possess conflicting emotions and desires. The plot moves quickly, and the evolving relationships between Crys and Farrell and Becca and Maddox promise more conflicts in the future. Amateurs of fantasy will appreciate the mesh of our reality and a magical world, and will look forward to the next installment.

For a similar book, read The Accidental Highwayman.

I Was Here

Forman, Gayle. I Was Here. 2015. 270p. ISBN 978-0-4514-7147-5. Available at FIC FOR on the library shelves.

Cody and Meg have always been two peas in the same pod. Hanging out together, they’ve made plans to go to college together. But a full scholarship to Cascade University meant that Meg got to go west to Tacoma, while Cody, poor and not as scholarly inclined, stayed behind in their little Eastern Washington town to work. The distance between them grew until it felt to Cody like they had fallen apart.

Then Meg committed suicide by drinking a bottle of cleaner by herself in a sleazy motel room. Cody never saw it coming. Meg never reached out to her for help, but she did send everyone she loved a time-delayed email explaining her decision. Devastated, Cody begins to spiral downwards in her own depression. How could she not have known? Why did Meg not seek her help? Cody’s life feels shattered, like the better half of her has been ripped apart.

Meg’s parents, the Garcias, have always been like Cody’s family. Trish, her single mom, has never really taken care of Cody, and all of her life milestones have been spent with them. When they ask her if she could go to Tacoma to pick up all of Meg’s things, Cody can only agree.

Once in Tacoma, however, she discovers there was a lot of things Meg had never shared with her. She’d never told her about the kittens she had adopted. About her roommates. About Ben McAllister, the guitar player who rocked in an Indie band and who dumped her after sleeping with her. About the websites where she spent so much time. And as Cody begins to put together the threads of Meg’s last months of life, she realizes everything she knew about her best friend was only one side of the story.

With the help from Meg’s former roommates and from Ben, Cody embarks on a dangerous trip to explore Meg’s suicide and discover who, really, was responsible for it. She’s worried, for she feels that she in fact was responsible for her best friend’s death, and that by failing her she may have doomed herself.

The reverse coin of If I Stay by the same author, this book explores suicide and the impact it has on those that are left behind. Another great read on the theme of suicide is Falling into Place.

A Turn of Light

Czerneda, Julie E. A Turn of Light. Book 1 of the Night’s Edge series. 2013. 864p. ISBN 9780756407070. Available at FIC CZE on the library shelves.

The small village of Marrowdell is isolated in the northern reaches of the country of Roth, bound on one side by the Bone Hills and the lazy river that runs from them. The colonists who arrived here two decades ago are hearty and healthy, and live long lives. But most visitors cannot stay, for their nights are populated with nightmares. And not everything is what it seems. Toads lay eggs. The wheat harvests itself. It’s almost as if a spirit watches over Marrowdell

Jenn Nalynn was born here, and on the eve of her 19th birthday, she cannot wait to escape. All of her life she’s been willing herself elsewhere. Her most precious possession is a faded map showing a large part of the world, and all of these places attract her. What mysteries lay beyond the limits of her small village? Living with her father and her older sister Pegg, Jenn is ready to leave with her aunt after the fall festival.

For as long as she can remember, Jenn has spent time in the meadow at Night’s edge, near the Bone hills. There, her friend Wisp lives. Invisible, Wisp talks to Jenn, but, more importantly, he listens to her. If she could only have one wish, it would be to bring Wisp to her. When she stumbles upon a magic ritual, she decides to turn Will into a man so they can live happily ever after.

Meanwhile, Bannan Larmensu’s war has concluded with a peace treaty, and the countryside where he fought as a truthseer has been turned over to the enemy. Surrendering his weapon, he makes his way north to the farthest place in Roth, where he hopes to settle with his loyal companion and fellow soldier Tyr and his warhorse Scourge. He arrives in Marrowdell in time to see the results of Jenn’s wishing, when Wisp, now Wyll, falls in the river and must be rescued.

Now Bannan and Wyll are engaged in a battle for Jenn’s heart. But something else is tugging at her too. Marrowdell itself is coming alive, and at the Great Turn, the solar eclipse of this lifetime, the edges of the world will fray with the Verge, and wishes will become possible.

An original tale of magic and wishing, the fantasy setting is exquisite and its inhabitants are worth the read.

If you enjoyed this book, you will like Seraphina.