An exciting magical mystery that will have you rooting for your favorites and questioning whom you can trust in this vast...
Fee has a secret...a secret that could get her killed, for magic has been outlawed for generations and a mere whisper of her abilities could bring everything crashing down.
After 10 years of quarantine from the rest of the realm thanks to a deadly illness that wiped out most of Fireli’s population, Fee and Crown Prince Xavi are about to be reunited with those outside the castle walls. However, this change leads to more questions than answers: What really caused the disease that killed most of Fireli? What are neighboring Gwyndom’s real intentions toward them? Can Xavi’s betrothed, Princess Quinn, be trusted? Which side will Prince Rye, Xavi’s brother, be on when he returns home? Fee finds herself wrapped up in a mystery and courtly drama that began with her parents. Jumping between flashbacks and present time, the book starts off slowly as readers gain their footing in the world of Aethusa, its folklore and rules; a world that is familiar and yet just foreign enough to make magic believable. The pace picks up quickly, and while the story offers much predicable fantasy fare, there are still some surprises even for longtime fans of the genre. There are few physical descriptions, although some characters are described as fair or blond.
An exciting magical mystery that will have you rooting for your favorites and questioning whom you can trust in this vast cast of characters. (Fantasy. 13-16)Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-245347-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An enjoyable, if predictable, romantic holiday story.
Is an exuberant extended family the cure for a breakup? Sophie is about to find out.
When Sophie unexpectedly breaks up with her boyfriend, she isn’t thrilled about spending the holidays at her grandparents’ house instead of with him. And when her grandmother forms a plan to distract Sophie from her broken heart—10 blind dates, each set up by different family members—she’s even less thrilled. Everyone gets involved with the matchmaking, even forming a betting pool on the success of each date. But will Sophie really find someone to fill the space left by her ex? Will her ex get wind of Sophie’s dating spree via social media and want them to get back together? Is that what she even wants anymore? This is a fun story of finding love, getting to know yourself, and getting to know your family. The pace is quick and light, though the characters are fairly shallow and occasionally feel interchangeable, especially with so many names involved. A Christmas tale, the plot is a fast-paced series of dinners, parties, and games, relayed in both narrative form and via texts, though the humor occasionally feels stiff and overwrought. The ending is satisfying, though largely unsurprising. Most characters default to white as members of Sophie’s Italian American extended family, although one of her cousins has a Filipina mother. One uncle is gay.
An enjoyable, if predictable, romantic holiday story. (Fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-368-02749-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
A glossy repackaging of a jejune tale.
A reissue of the 2016 novel published as Consider.
Alexandra Lucas and her boyfriend, Dominick, are about to start their senior year of high school when 500 vertexes—each one a doorway-shaped “hole into the fabric of the universe”—appear across the world, accompanied by holographic messages communicating news of Earth’s impending doom. The only escape is a one-way trip through the portals to a parallel future Earth. As people leave through the vertexes and the extinction event draws nearer, the world becomes increasingly unfamiliar. A lot has changed in the past several years, including expectations of mental health depictions in young adult literature; Alex’s struggle with anxiety and reliance on Ativan, which she calls her “little white savior” while initially discounting therapy as an intervention, make for a trite after-school special–level treatment of a complex situation; a short stint of effective therapy does finally occur but is so limited in duration that it contributes to the oversimplification of the topic. Alex also has unresolved issues with her Gulf War veteran father (who possibly grapples with PTSD). The slow pace of the plot as it depicts a crumbling society, along with stilted writing and insubstantial secondary characterization, limits the appeal of such a small-scale, personal story. Characters are minimally described and largely racially ambiguous; Alex has golden skin and curly brown hair.
A glossy repackaging of a jejune tale. (Science fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-72826-839-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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