1) "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)
2) "Lady Renegades" by Rachel Hawkins
Adolescent Alabama belles have taken on the magical powers of ancient Greek heroes and mystics, with complicated results. Now they try to resolve it all in this third installment of the Rebel Belle series.
Protagonist Harper, now a powerful Paladin fighter, begins the book by getting into a battle with another Paladin. Harper wins but is puzzled—she’s supposed to be the only one. She and her friend Bee, with help from former enemy Blythe, a powerful Mage, realize that the only force able to create new Paladins is David, Harper’s boyfriend and the powerful Oracle whom it’s Harper’s duty to protect. However, the new Paladins she continues to encounter tell her that David believes she will kill him. David is on the run, so Harper reluctantly teams up with Blythe, and the two head out into neighboring states to find him. Harper, however, has another problem: her Paladin powers seem to be fading. And why does David think she’s trying to kill him? Hawkins drives her plot forward while throwing in enough rival-girl and friendly-girl chatter to keep chick-lit fans engaged. If the ending relies heavily on deus ex machina, fans won’t mind. It’s a satisfying conclusion to the mostly paranormal-with-a-bit-of-romance tale, all done with a definitive emphasis on well-to-do white Southern culture.
Mythic adventure at the country club. (Paranormal suspense. 12-18)
Book Three of Three
3) "The Shadow Queen" by C.J. Redwine
“Snow White” forms the loose foundation for this tale of a princess who has lost her kingdom to her wicked stepmother.
Lorelai escaped when Irina killed her family and took over Ravenspire. Both Lorelai and Irina are magic-working mardushkas, but Irina is both strong and evil, using her talents to squeeze the kingdom for power and deliberately leaving her citizens to starve. Meanwhile, in nearby Eldr, populated by beings who can shift shape and become dragons, Kol suddenly becomes king when ogres invade. He turns to Irina for help, unaware that she is evil. Lorelai, who has been hiding, presumed dead, for years, meets Kol and the two form an alliance, despite Kol’s blood oath to kill her for Irina’s aid. The two sides fight back and forth as a predictable fairy-tale romance blossoms between them. Redwine includes some nicely imagined scenes, especially Irina’s use of poisoned apples and Lorelai’s telepathic pet gyrfalcon, which becomes perhaps the most interesting character in the book, with its bird’s worldview: “Kill overgrown lizard. Eat the eyes, tear out the heart,” it declares, seeing a dragon. The story drags when Redwine repeats herself, telling readers numerous times that if Lorelai uses magic, it will reveal her to Irina. For the most part, the story is a full-bore fantasy fairy tale with magic slung around with abandon and battles aplenty.
Undemanding fantasy fun. (Fantasy. 12-18)
4) "Morning Star" by Pierce Brown
Brown completes his science-fiction trilogy with another intricately plotted and densely populated tome, this one continuing the focus on a rebellion against the imperious Golds.
This last volume is incomprehensible without reference to the first two. Briefly, Darrow of Lykos, aka Reaper, has been “carved” from his status as a Red (the lowest class) into a Gold. This allows him to infiltrate the Gold political infrastructure…but a game’s afoot, and at the beginning of the third volume, Darrow finds himself isolated and imprisoned for his insurgent activities. He longs both for rescue and for revenge, and eventually he gets both. Brown is an expert at creating violent set pieces whose cartoonish aspects (“ ‘Waste ’em,’ Sevro says with a sneer” ) are undermined by the graphic intensity of the savagery, with razors being a favored instrument of combat. Brown creates an alternative universe that is multilayered and seething with characters who exist in a shadow world between history and myth, much as in Frank Herbert’s Dune. This world is vaguely Teutonic/Scandinavian (with characters such as Magnus, Ragnar, and the Valkyrie) and vaguely Roman (Octavia, Romulus, Cassius) but ultimately wholly eclectic. At the center are Darrow, his lover, Mustang, and the political and military action of the Uprising. Loyalties are conflicted, confusing, and malleable. Along the way we see Darrow become more heroic and daring and Mustang, more charismatic and unswerving, both agents of good in a battle against forces of corruption and domination. Among Darrow’s insights as he works his way to a position of ascendancy is that “as we pretend to be brave, we become so.”
An ambitious and satisfying conclusion to a monumental saga.
Book Three of Three
5) "Starflight" by Melissa Landers
A penniless girl and a wealthy boy, enemies, are stuck together on an outer-space journey.
Solara has no family, no connections, and knuckle tattoos advertising her criminal record. She wants to turn her mechanical skills into a vehicle for self-sufficient life in the outer realm, but that’s far from Earth, so she needs someone to hire her for the trip and pay her passage. Enter Doran, her high school nemesis, “heir to the galaxy’s largest fuel corporation [and] first-string varsity football star.” Glaringly visible genre tropes include the gruff, motley spaceship crew that becomes family; the pirates and purposely brain-damaged torturers in pursuit; the alternating-between-protagonists third-person narration; and the enmity between Solara and Doran that will obviously turn to lust and love. Despite a far-future time frame and outer-space setting, Landers’ worldbuilding leans on such earthly details as rubber bands, Popsicle sticks, milled cider, funnel cake, and a barn dance with fiddles (on a distant planet). There are no nonhumans or extraterrestrials, and there is little science or technology beyond the outer-space premise. The protagonists are white; their two brown-skinned shipmates (whose blond “dreadlocks” are mentioned again and again) are stereotypically angry. For multiple narrators, creativity, and suspense in outer space, see Beth Revis’ Across the Universe series and Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner’s Starbound series instead. (Science fiction/romance. 12-16)
6) "Riders" by Veronica Rossi
Bickering boys slouch toward something in this semi-apocalyptic action tale.
Feeling helpless after watching his father die, and longing for brotherhood and belonging, Gideon Blake joined the Army Rangers. When he falls from grace—and a plane—and temporarily dies, he returns as red-cuffed and rage-filled War, though he’s afraid of his fiery horse. Inexplicably abandoning his family and Ranger unit, he partners with hot but helpless Seeker Daryn on a road trip to collect the other horsemen: Sebastian/Famine, Marcus/Death, and Jode/Conquest. The seemingly interminable trip and Gideon’s painful flirtation with Daryn are punctuated by bloody encounters with the Kindred, seven former allies of Satan who now seek a realm and slaves of their own. Typical demonic villains, the Kindred are grotesque, ridiculously named, and prone to terrible dialogue. While God and spirituality are repeatedly mentioned, actual religion and Revelation are of little relevance here. Rossi relies on an interrogation as an intrusive framing device to explore all aspects of Gideon but leaves the fellow horsemen underdeveloped, though each boy gets to show off his weapon and steed. Gideon may not be great at flirting, leading the horsemen, controlling his temper, or horseback riding, but he will try to save the world with hooah and some hubris. (Fantasy. 14-20)
7) "The Great Hunt" by Wendy Higgins
When a vicious beast threatens the land, the royal family must make sacrifices to defeat the menace and save the people.
Something is rotten in the kingdom of Lachlanach. Tension simmers between commoners and the Lashed, who are barred by law from performing their magic. Birth rates around the kingdom are down. And, worst of all, a savage beast is making the rounds every night, killing all the men it encounters. In desperation, the king invites hunters from all neighboring lands to enter a contest—whoever slays the beast wins the hand of his eldest daughter, Princess Aerity, in marriage. But this hopeful solution grows complicated when Aerity grows fond of a specific hunter. The beast, too, is a surprise, as it turns out to be a different sort of creature than first assumed. Higgins has written a familiar yet compelling damsels-in-distress novel. A group of talented female hunters who are able to attract the respect of the men and the admiration of the women adds a welcome twist. The princess and her female relatives manage to exhibit a flare for coming through in emergencies, though they are perfectly willing to let the men do the heavy lifting when danger gets too close. As this book is the first in a duology, it fittingly ends with a cliffhanger.
An enjoyable-enough fantasy with a healthy sprinkling of romance. (Fantasy. 13-17)
8) "The Mirror King" by Jodi Meadows
Princess Wilhelmina “Wil” Korte returns to reclaim her kingdom in this sequel to The Orphan Queen (2015).
The action picks up where the last book’s ended: Crown Prince Tobiah of the Indigo Kingdom has been fatally wounded by Wil’s former ally. The intense opening sets a pace that never falters. Tobiah is saved, but his brush with death doesn’t deter him from attempting to fulfil his father’s dying wish that he marry Meredith, though his heart belongs to Wil. The many barriers between Wil and Tobiah are heartbreakingly real, making their romance that much more compelling. The most pressing concern though is the encroaching “wraith”—toxic magical residue that warps everything in its path. Wil finally makes it home to Aecor, her kingdom, but problems persist: her (well-founded) ever present fear that she won’t be a capable queen, her complex relationship with Tobiah, and how to battle the wraith, among others. Truths are revealed, sacrifices are made, nothing is easy—there are no cure-alls (magic has its price) or deus ex machina endings. This story’s the perfect length, and though it’s hard to say goodbye to lovable, flawed, strong Wil, such a well-crafted, enjoyable, and immersive story helps ease the pain. It is a crying shame that Wil—who’s self-described as brown-skinned—is whitewashed on the cover.
Here’s hoping for more tales set in this intriguing world. (Fantasy. 14 & up)
Book Two of Two
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