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For a debut novel, Renée Ahdieh writes a tale that captivates, intrigues, and fascinates in equal measure.  With threads of romance, fantasy, mystery, and adventure, she weaves a story with deftly drawn characters and colorful imagery. The female star, Shahrzad al-Khaysuran has been brave, loyal, stubborn, and unyielding for her sixteen years of life.  A measure of arrogance allows her to attempt the impossible, to break a cycle of human sacrifice.  She will avenge the murder of her best friend Shiva by volunteering to marry Khalid Ibn al-Rashid, the King of Rey, Khorasan.   As his bride, Shazi will find and exploit the king’s weakness andRead More →

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The Brothers of the Ikkuma Pit have fended for themselves since birth. They have no Mothers; only themselves and each other. When they arrive outside the Pit as babies, they must spend a whole night alone before they are welcomed inside to be cared for and guided by the Brothers that came before them. Every time a new Little Brother enters the Pit, a Big Brother must leave to make room for him. No Big Brother has ever returned after leaving to tell of what the outside world holds. Urgle is a Big Brother and he’s not very good at it. His Little Brother CubbyRead More →

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When they were fifth graders, May Harper—a budding writer—and Libby Deaton—a budding artist, created Princess X.  “A blue-haired girl in a puff-sleeved princess dress, wearing a big gold crown and red sneakers” (3), Princess X was born on a sidewalk as chalk art, but the two girls took her home and built an imaginary empire—filling notebooks and sketchbooks with her adventures.  “The princess became their alter ego, their avatar, their third best friend” (8). Several years later, as the girls were entering high school, Libby and her mother were in a mysterious car accident.  Separated from her best friend, May couldn’t shake the dream that toldRead More →

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Lover of speed, flying, and his mother’s blackberry cobbler, ten-year-old Henry Stevens also idolizes his dad, Max.  In 1926, when Henry’s dad gets a job as an aviation mechanic with Howard Hughes “making the future,” Henry’s world changes dramatically, along with life as he knew it. Before Tomorrowland by Jeff Jensen, Brad Bird, Jonathan Case, and Damon Lindelof is a science fiction mystery-thriller that is as much Henry’s story as it is the story of Lee Brackett and his mother Clara, who is terminally ill with brain cancer.  As the two stories intersect, the reader learns about both possibility and the power of the imagination,Read More →

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A stint as a Paradise Cruise Lines employee on a luxury ship bound for Hawaii was supposed to put cash in his pocket so that seventeen-year-old Shy Espinoza could court a girl and help his mom pay bills, not set him adrift at sea for 36 days in a small sailboat, battling hunger and dehydration, baking in the relentless summer sun, and slipping into schizo territory.  When he and his companions—Carmen, Marcus, and Shoeshine—finally arrive on Venice Beach, they are ready for a hot meal, some protection from nature’s elements, and a reunion with their families. Instead, they encounter the ruined coastline of California causedRead More →

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A story’s first line is often a good indicator of its merit, and Kieran Scott joins the ranks of other great story tellers with her opening line in What Waits in the Woods: “Callie Valasquez wasn’t ready to die” (3). When smart, creative, loyal Callie latches onto a life raft the second week at her new school, she has no idea that the decision may lead to her death, but her choice to befriend coarse, snarky, athletic Lissa and dainty, meek, sweet Penelope leads to a camping trip in the woods and the horror-filled adventure that follows. More secure navigating the concrete and pavement ofRead More →

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Debut author Stacey Lee‘s Under a Painted Sky lyrically intertwines aspects of America’s Western expansion that are rarely, if ever, explored.  Into the very real world of the California Gold Rush, the pioneers’ homesteading journeys  along the Oregon Trail, and the lawlessness of the “Wild West“, Lee creates a powerfully moving story of friendship, race and gender politics, and above all, courage and faith.  It’s a treat to spend time with a writer who takes pains to research and then accurately represent, with beautiful, vivid prose, a world gone by and in so doing, make it vibrant, interesting, and resonant. 15 year old Chinese AmericanRead More →

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A hidden past and an uncertain future.  There are mysteries around every shady corner in Atlantia, a crumbling underwater world, once hailed as the last outpost of humanity on earth.  But now, the formerly glorious city is barely breathing, hanging on by the annual exchange of minerals (and people) for food and resources from their long-estranged sister city Above.  The people are restless, afraid, engaged in black market trading in their Deepmarket, and looking to the corrupt priesthood for answers and hope. At the center of this dying world is Rio, daughter of the recently deceased woman who was the beloved leader of their people, and whose mysteriousRead More →

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Legendary comic book writer Stan Lee‘s first prose novel, Convergence, is going to fly off your shelves.   A mismatched group of regular teens has suddenly been imbued with mystical ancient powers, linked to the animals of the Chinese zodiac.   At the center is 14 year old Chinese American Steven Lee, who has never really felt like he fits in anywhere and more than anything, wishes he could be a hero.  On a school trip to Hong Kong, Steven stumbles into an underground cavern where he’s unwittingly caught up in an energy convergence that gives him the deadly powers of the Tiger.  Steven’s power comesRead More →