A captivating story of a reluctant hero that will leave readers eagerly anticipating the next installment.
Ruthless mercenaries invade a posh New England prep school and confront resourceful teens in this high-stakes YA thriller.
Seventeen-year-old Cade Dixon is part Holden Caulfield, part Jason Bourne, with a touch of MacGyver. He was raised by a single mother whose administrative position at a prep school enables him to attend. He covertly sells homework assignments to his wealthy classmates and harbors a crush on a student named Kira but hasn’t yet kissed a girl. He’s inordinately curious, highly intelligent, and knows every hiding place in the school. These characteristics, combined with his mastery of mixed martial arts, make him a terrific foil for brilliant, diabolical criminal mastermind Reilly, who’s employed 14 heavily armed men to lay siege to the school. He has sophisticated, encrypted communication devices enabling him to jam all cellphones and electronics on campus and to tap into law enforcement agencies’ feeds. Cade avoids the initial student roundup and works to prevent what horrors he can; he manages to get his mother released, enlist Kira’s aid, and inflict serious injury on some henchmen. Meanwhile, Reilly announces his plan: The 10 richest parents of the hostages must transfer as much money as they can raise in an hour into an offshore account. The child whose parents raise the least will be executed. The story’s pacing is taut and its tension intense, but it’s tempered by the enjoyable pairing of Cade and Kira. Both are supersmart, funny kids whose knowledge base includes physics, chemistry, psychology, and even Morse code to help them outfox Reilly. Apt high school references abound, as when Cade notes that a weaponized 1922 school trophy is solid metal because “back then you only gave out one”—no participation awards necessary. Kira pulls off a few acts that are reminiscent of Katniss Everdeen’s exploits because, due to the popularity of The Hunger Games and Brave, “every girl in school had been obsessed with all things archery.” The book’s positive depictions of female roles and slyly understated politics are also appealing.
A captivating story of a reluctant hero that will leave readers eagerly anticipating the next installment.Pub Date: April 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73469-241-9
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Waterfall Films, LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Cracking page-turner with a multiethnic band of misfits with differing sexual orientations who satisfyingly, believably jell...
Adolescent criminals seek the haul of a lifetime in a fantasyland at the beginning of its industrial age.
The dangerous city of Ketterdam is governed by the Merchant Council, but in reality, large sectors of the city are given over to gangs who run the gambling dens and brothels. The underworld's rising star is 17-year-old Kaz Brekker, known as Dirtyhands for his brutal amorality. Kaz walks with chronic pain from an old injury, but that doesn't stop him from utterly destroying any rivals. When a councilman offers him an unimaginable reward to rescue a kidnapped foreign chemist—30 million kruge!—Kaz knows just the team he needs to assemble. There's Inej, an itinerant acrobat captured by slavers and sold to a brothel, now a spy for Kaz; the Grisha Nina, with the magical ability to calm and heal; Matthias the zealot, hunter of Grishas and caught in a hopeless spiral of love and vengeance with Nina; Wylan, the privileged boy with an engineer's skills; and Jesper, a sharpshooter who keeps flirting with Wylan. Bardugo broadens the universe she created in the Grisha Trilogy, sending her protagonists around countries that resemble post-Renaissance northern Europe, where technology develops in concert with the magic that's both coveted and despised. It’s a highly successful venture, leaving enough open questions to cause readers to eagerly await Volume 2.
Cracking page-turner with a multiethnic band of misfits with differing sexual orientations who satisfyingly, believably jell into a family . (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62779-212-7
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
BOOK TO SCREEN
A romantic, heart-pounding adventure.
In 1884, a 19-year-old Argentine and Bolivian heiress sets sail to investigate the mysterious deaths of her parents in Egypt.
Inez Olivera grew up in Buenos Aires largely without the presence of her mother and father, who often were in British-ruled Egypt, assisting Tío Ricardo, her archaeologist uncle, with his expeditions. When word comes that Inez’s parents have disappeared in the desert and are presumed dead, she intends to find out exactly what happened to them—much to the chagrin of secretive, smoldering Whitford Hayes. Former British soldier Whit works for Tío Ricardo, who orders him to send the reluctant Inez back home for her own safety. But Inez repeatedly and craftily evades this demand. She realizes that a golden ring her father sent from Cairo before he disappeared has imprinted her with magic that may help unearth Cleopatra’s tomb. Tío Ricardo, a historical preservationist who opposes colonial exploitation, is desperate to find it before greedy treasure hunters can rob Egypt of its artifacts. As the story unfolds through Inez’s and Whit’s alternating points of view, the chemistry between them sizzles, and they run into danger and deception at every turn of their epic quest—all while remaining unsure if they can even trust one another. Extensive worldbuilding in the first half pays off with a fast-paced conclusion laden with shocking twists. A jaw-dropping cliffhanger in the epilogue will leave readers deliciously questioning everything and hungering for the sequel.
A romantic, heart-pounding adventure. (map, timeline, author’s note) (Historical fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9781250803375
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
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