Not a meal but an entertainingly tasty snack on the light side of the genre.
With well-earned cynicism, high school junior Jillian is trying to carry on Umbra Investigations, her absent father’s business and area of “expertise”: he’s a paranormal researcher, or, in Jillian’s words, a trafficker “in bullshit.”
She doesn’t believe a scrap of it, but she needs to pay the bills—particularly the electricity, as they have cut her power off. Though the book opens with a hokey and cynical interaction with a client, the stakes rise quickly with the arrival of gorgeous and flirty Sky Ramsey, who horns his way into her investigation into a missing person, possibly abducted by a succubus. Adventures, sometimes violent, and romance ensue. Jillian’s angry at her dad’s abandonment of her (to gather paranormal artifacts from around the world) after the death of her mother, and she hates the babble that has surrounded her most of her life. This combination of feisty and hurt provides Jillian with a somewhat stock appeal. The increasingly weird case tests her assumptions about more than the paranormal, taking readers straight into a world of unexplained phenomena and leading Jillian to understand both her history and herself a little bit better. Some revelations are telegraphed, while others sneak in. Klein builds her underworld with both logic and farce, paralleling Jillian’s own skepticism and quick wit.
Not a meal but an entertainingly tasty snack on the light side of the genre. (Paranormal romance. 12-15)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-61695-434-5
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Soho Teen
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
A romantic maritime epic and a charming tribute to mapmakers, calligraphers, and explorers.
Mysterious maps from opposite ends of the sea cast doubt on the whereabouts of two princes, long presumed dead.
Nineteen-year-old Lord Elias, whose father, Lord Antoni, was the Royal Navigator of the kingdom of St. John del Mar, is summoned by the king, his dear friend Ulises, to examine two recently created maps that have just been discovered. They bear no identifying cartouches and yet they have unmistakably been painted by his late father. Even stranger, they hint that not only Lord Antoni, but also the rightful heirs to the throne are still alive. Eighteen years ago, Elias’ father disappeared and the royal princes were kidnapped by the neighboring kingdom of Mondrago. Eager to find Lord Antoni and the king’s brothers, Elias, Ulises, and Mercedes, Ulises’ beautiful and capable cousin, chase clues gleaned from the parchments, traveling to distant lands through serpent-infested waters only to suspect that the biggest threat to their kingdom lies within their own castle walls. Elias has long, wavy, sun-lightened brown hair, while Mercedes, half Mondragan, half del Marian, struggles with the disdain of her countrymen; she has black hair and golden skin, however her green eyes and freckles are a sign of her Mondragan ancestry.
A romantic maritime epic and a charming tribute to mapmakers, calligraphers, and explorers. (Fantasy. 12-15)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-96857-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
This meshing of romantic classics and modern-day relationships is over-the-top good fun for tween romantics.
When Merrilee enters Reginald R. Hero Preparatory School, she's hopeful that the experience will help her pinpoint her special talent.
BFF brainiac Eliza has science. Younger sister Rory has art. On the other hand, after attending an all-girls school, it's possible that rabid romance-reader Merri will simply be distracted by classes with boys! Especially after English class with magical Ms. Gregoire, where they're reading The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Merri is sure that popular bad-boy Monroe will be her real-life Romeo. Except he turns out to be overbearing and she realizes that actually Romeo might not be so great, and Juliet needs to chart her own course. Maybe Merri's story is really Pride and Prejudice? Is scornful Fielding, the headmaster's son, as misunderstood as Darcy is? He’s swoonworthy handsome but seems to resent the fact that Sen. Rhodes, Merri’s older sister’s future mother-in-law, pulled strings to get Merri and Rory into the prestigious school. In true rom-com fashion, artless Merri creates chaos in her first missteps in romance. A full cast of secondary characters create a chorus and support system as Merri takes charge of her story. Main characters are white, but Merri’s classmates include Korean, Egyptian, and black students.
This meshing of romantic classics and modern-day relationships is over-the-top good fun for tween romantics. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2860-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
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