1) "Blackhearts" by Nicole Castroman
In 1697 Bristol, England, the daughter of a wealthy merchant and his West Indian slave falls in love with the man who will become Blackbeard.
Anne has become a maid in the Drummond household, where she meets seagoing scion Edward—"Teach”—whose father insists that he remain ashore to learn the family business. He has been betrothed to the titled Patience for years. Anne, meanwhile, wants only to escape her life as a maid, scrimping and stealing small objects so that she can buy passage to the West Indies. Despite their initial intense dislike of one another, it will surprise no one when Edward and Anne fall in love. When Anne’s past becomes known, the elder Drummond takes her in as his ward, but he would never approve of a romance between the biracial girl and his son. Castroman promotes Anne as the main character despite the alternating chapters. Her plight in the household mirrors Edward’s, as he also yearns to escape to the sea, though the power imbalance between the two is largely elided. The story ends hanging in the air with Teach having just been dubbed Blackbeard, paving the way for a sequel. The author largely invents Edward as a romantic lead, giving few character-based hints of his piratical future.
Little history, large romance. (Historical romance. 12-18)
2) "Sword and Verse" by Kathy MacMillian
Literacy becomes the key to liberation in a thoughtful debut fantasy.
Tutor-in-training Raisa may be one of the most privileged Arnathim in Quilara, but she is still a slave, like all her people. Unlike them, she has learned to read and write the sacred symbols in order to teach future kings. Her relative freedom would make her an ideal recruit for the Resistance, but she fears being executed like her predecessor; besides, she’s interested only in writing and in pursuing her torrid, forbidden romance with Prince Mati. But when Mati’s throne, their lives, and all Quilara come under threat, she may lose any choice. Raisa’s narration is cleverly interwoven with the myths of the divine origins of writing and the oppressive system it sustains, providing a fascinating spin on a common fantasy plot. Unfortunately, Raisa herself—vacillating, selfish, and shallow—is an unimpressive protagonist, and an attempt to reinscribe racial power dynamics (the Arnathim are white and curly-haired, while their oppressors are olive-skinned with straight, black hair) falls flat. While she condemns the Resistance for their distrust in Mati’s (impotent) promises of reform, the Arnathim suffer mostly offstage, allowing Raisa to wallow over her ill-judged (and inherently abusive) affair. Once the nation collapses into treason, revolt, and armed invasion, the literal deus ex machina (or ex tabula) resolution seems awfully pat for a society scarred by generations of bigotry and exploitation.
Kudos for a fresh take on a fraught topic but not for derailing slavery into a vehicle for romantic angst. (Fantasy. 12-18)
3) "This Is Where It Ends" by Marieke Nijkamp
A minute-by-minute account of mass murder at a high school by a former student.
Four students from a range of different backgrounds at Alabama's Opportunity High, all of whom have a history with Tyler, the gunman, take turns telling this harrowing story in the first person. They include his sister, Autumn, and her clandestine girlfriend, Sylv, who have only each other for solace as the home lives of both are in upheaval. Tomás, Sylv's brother, recounts his and his friend Fareed's desperate efforts to help from outside the school's auditorium, where their fellow students and teachers are locked in with Tyler as he picks them off one by one. Finally, Claire, Tyler's ex-girlfriend, realistically agonizes over what to do when she and a few others outside running track realize that the gunshots they hear are coming from inside the school. Grounded in the present, the story makes effective use of flashbacks that lay bare the pain and deception that have led up to the day's horror. The language can occasionally feel a bit melodramatic, with lines like "we're fighting for hope and a thousand tomorrows," but this is a minor side note to this compelling story of terror, betrayal, and heroism.
This brutal, emotionally charged novel will grip readers and leave them brokenhearted. (Fiction. 14-18)
4) "A Study in Charlotte" by Brittany Cavallaro
Watson’s and Holmes’ descendants try to live up to and with their ancestors’ legacies in this debut.
Stuck at Sherringford, a Connecticut boarding school, Londoner James Watson craves excitement, action, and romance. He tries to vent his rage on the rugby field during practice and hone his writing skills at night—emulating Dr. Watson but aiming to manage his money better—yet lives in hope of befriending classmate (and predestined companion) Charlotte Holmes. Like Sherlock, genius Charlotte plays violin, dabbles in disguises, conducts forensic experiments, and has a weakness for opiates. When a student turns up dead after harassing Holmes and fighting with Watson, and his death scene is staged like “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” Watson and Holmes become both suspects and detectives…and where there’s a mystery, there might be Moriartys. While Watson wants to solve the case, he is equally absorbed in decoding enigmatic Charlotte, who is cunning, cruel, and fragile. Although death, drugs, rape, and betrayal make for a grim tale, slapstick humor and wit enliven the story. These sleuths may still be in school—and working out of a supply closet with smartphones—but Cavallaro’s crackling dialogue, well-drawn characters, and complicated relationships make this feel like a seamless and sharp renewal of Doyle’s series.
An explosive mystery featuring a dynamic duo. (Mystery. 14-18)
5) "The Girl From Everywhere" by Heidi Heilig
She was born in Honolulu’s Chinatown late in the Hawaiian monarchy, but the only home Nix has known is the Temptation, the ship her father, Slate, and his crew sail through time to destinations real and imaginary, seeking a way into the past—before her mother died giving birth to Nix.
Nix is unsure what will happen if they succeed. Will she cease to exist? Other concerns include her emotionally volatile father’s opium addiction and her own growing attachment to her friend and crewmate Kashmir. Nix longs to learn Navigation—the secret craft her father’s mastered that allows him to follow maps anywhere, even through time. Though he refuses to teach her, Slate can’t Navigate without Nix’s help. He’s devastated when a map long sought leads them to 1884 Honolulu, years too late. To Nix, Oahu’s almost home (and it contains Blake, the young white American who shares his love for Hawaii with her). She’s fascinated by elderly Auntie Joss, who cared for her as an infant and knows more about Nix’s past, present, and future than she lets on. Meanwhile, her father demands her help when he’s drawn into a plot to rob the royal treasury (an event drawn from an unconfirmed, contemporary account). As narrated by Nix, it’s a skillful mashup of science fiction and eclectic mythology, enlivened by vivid sensory detail and moments of emotional and philosophical depth that briefly resonate before dissolving into the next swashbuckling adventure.
A nonstop time-travel romp. (Fantasy. 14-18)
6) "Into the Dim" by Janet B. Taylor
Hope travels to Scotland to meet her deceased mother’s family and finds herself involved in time travel.
The remote Highlands manor house owned by her mother’s family turns out to be situated on an underground chamber that’s “something like a miniature wormhole.” Hope learns that her mother, thought killed in an earthquake, actually has been lost in 1154 London. Hope has a photographic memory and has easily memorized much of the history of the period and so needs little preparation for a trip to London in 1154 with companions Phoebe and Collum. Once there, she has little difficulty with the language but almost immediately becomes lost. She meets Rachel, a Jewish girl, severely persecuted in that time but who provides medicine to Eleanor of Aquitaine. Through Queen Eleanor, Hope finds her mother, but she also makes an immediate enemy of the powerful (and here villainous) Thomas à Becket. The group also dreams of finding the Nonius Stone, a large opal that will allow them to better control their time travels—and that a rival time-traveling group allied with Becket also wants the stone. Taylor’s adventure is fairly standard, but her depiction of 1154 is satisfyingly alien. Though she cuts linguistic and historical corners, she vividly describes the smelly, dirty, cold, and dangerous medieval period, lifting the book above the average.
Decent suspense with some painless history on the side. (Science fiction. 12-18)
7) "Burning Glass" by Kathryn Purdie
Revolution is brewing in Riaznin, and 17-year-old novice Auraseer Sonya Petrova is the people’s only hope for freedom.
Sonya can divine the feelings of others, and as a result of her ability, she belongs to the empire. When the current sovereign Auraseer is executed for failing in her duties, Sonya, as the next eldest Auraseer, must take her place. In a palace of gold, marble, and amber, she becomes the ruthless Emperor Valko’s sixth sense, his guard against those who seek to destroy him. The blandly drawn and oftentimes whiny Sonya quickly falls into a problematic willing-unwilling love affair with the manipulative and violent emperor. She also falls for Prince Anton, Valko’s treasonous younger brother, but his attitude toward her seems indifferent. The love triangle plays out predictably and resolves, at least for now, in Sonya’s commitment (described without graphic sex in one of many over-the-top ways: “Our auras entwined in a beautiful dance and affirmed the rightness of our union”); the political situation likewise plays out without much suspense. Connections to the world-outside-the-book are clear: Riaznin is certainly czarist Russia circa the revolution, while surrounding empires Estengarde, Abdara, and Shengli are analogous to France, Iran, and China, respectively; the Romska Sonya travels with correspond to the Romany, down to their coloring.
Unfortunately, this debut is just another first in an epic fantasy trilogy that relies on a love triangle to bring tension to the story. (Fantasy. 12-18)
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