Read This!: THE SHIP BEYOND TIME by Heidi Heilig

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The Ship Beyond Time (The Girl From Everywhere, #2)The Ship Beyond Time by Heidi Heilig

Summary: After what seems like a lifetime of following her father across the globe and through the centuries, Nix has finally taken the helm of their time-traveling ship. Her future—and the horizon—is bright. Until she learns she is destined to lose the one she loves. To end up like her father: alone, heartbroken. Unable to face losing Kashmir—best friend, thief, charmer extraordinaire—Nix sails her crew to a mythical utopia to meet a man who promises he can teach her how to manipulate time, to change history. But no place is perfect, not even paradise. And everything is constantly changing on this utopian island, including reality itself. If Nix can read the ever-shifting tides, perhaps she will finally harness her abilities. Perhaps she can control her destiny, too. Or perhaps her time will finally run out.

I loved THE GIRL FROM EVERYWHERE and I found myself utterly swept away by THE SHIP BEYOND TIME. It actually took me a couple of weeks to read it, not because it was hard to get through, but because this is the kind of book I wanted to just lose myself in, so I refused to even pick it up unless I had time to do so. This is a book to savor, from the lush, intricate worldbuilding, to the complex characters and their shifting relationships, to the rich premise that Heilig constantly takes in bold, unexpected directions. Heilig writes my very favorite kind of fantasy: the kind that engages both your brain and your heart. Nix is one of my favorite YA heroines; she’s smart and studious and full of agency, and strong without ever falling into Girl Warrior tropes. Her conflicted relationship with her father is one of the highlights of the books, and is heartbreakingly resolved in this book. And the swoon level in this book is high; let’s just say that getting several chapters from Kashmir’s point of view felt like a gift. If you’ve been looking for a wonderful fantasy novel to lose yourself in, dive deep into THE SHIP BEYOND TIME.

THE SHIP BEYOND TIME is out now.

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Read This!: THE HATE U GIVE by Angie Thomas

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The Hate U GiveThe Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Summary: Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life

Can I just say “READ IT!!” over and over again and call that a review? There are a lot of reviews out there that do a better job than I ever could of exploring the place of this book at this moment in society, but all I can say is how it impacted me as a reader. When a book gets as much buzz as this one has, and wins so many awards, I always go into reading it a little suspiciously, like, “Can it really be THAT good?” The answer, in this case, is “OMG absolutely!” Even all the accolades didn’t prepare me for what a gut punch of a book this would be, for how immersed I would become in the world of the story -and for how much, despite the heavy subject matter, I would truly enjoy spending time with Starr and the other characters. It’s an incredibly timely book, but its message and its story and the depth of its characters situate it as a classic for the ages. I full expect to see it on required reading lists for years to come.

THE HATE U GIVE is out now.

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Coming Even Sooner: DAGGER AND COIN

Dagger and Coin, Sword and Verse, Upcoming events

Yesterday I got some terrific news: the publication date of Dagger and Coin has been moved earlier, to October 9.  And Sword and Verse will now be released in paperback on September 4.

Of course this is exciting because it means that my ambitious, impatient, sarcastic, smart, determined heroine will be out in the world even sooner…but it’s also exciting because I get to announce that the book’s launch with be happening at the coolest place – the Maryland Renaissance Festival! I’ll be at signing at Page After Page Bookstore inside the festival village all day on October 13 and 14, with special Dagger and Coin launch festivities happening on Saturday, October 13. Mark your calendar!  Details to come!

Read This!: HOLDING COURT by K.C. Held

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Holding CourtHolding Court by K.C. Held

Summary: Sixteen-year-old Jules Verity knows exactly what’s in store at her new job at castle-turned-dinner-theater Tudor Times. Some extra cash, wearing a fancy-pants dress, and plenty of time to secretly drool over the ever-so-tasty–and completely unavailable–Grayson Chandler. Except that it’s not quite what she imagined. For one, the costume Jules has to wear is awful. Then there’s the dead body she finds that just kind of…well, disappears. Oh, and there’s the small issue of Jules and her episodes of what her best friend calls “Psychic Tourette’s Syndrome”–spontaneous and uncontrollable outbursts of seemingly absurd prophecies. The only bright side? This whole dead body thing seems to have gotten Grayson’s attention. Except that the more Jules investigates, the more she discovers that Grayson’s interest might not be as courtly as she thought. In fact, it’s starting to look suspicious…

This book has it all – a winning heroine, a quirky cast of characters, a chilling mystery, an unexpected love triangle , not to mention a gorgeous castle. The reader is carried along by Jules’ funny and warm narration as she approaches the fantastical events of the story – including her own inconvenient psychic blurts – with practical humor. This is the kind of book you’ll be excited to dive into each time you sit down to read; spending time with Jules and her friends is just fun (dead bodies notwithstanding).

HOLDING COURT is out now.

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Read This!: THE CASE FOR JAMIE by Brittany Cavallaro

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The Case for Jamie (Charlotte Holmes #3)The Case for Jamie by Brittany Cavallaro

Summary: It’s been a year since the shocking death of August Moriarty, and Jamie and Charlotte haven’t spoken. Jamie is going through the motions at Sherringford, trying to finish his senior year without incident, with a nice girlfriend he can’t seem to fall for. Until strange things start happening to him. Strange things that might mean nothing at all—or that someone is after him again. Charlotte is on the run, from Lucien Moriarty, and from her own mistakes. No one has seen her since that fateful night on the lawn in Sussex. Charlotte wants it that way. She knows she isn’t safe to be around. She knows that her Watson can’t forgive her. Holmes and Watson may not be looking to reconcile, but there is someone who wants the team back together. Someone who has been quietly observing them both. Making plans. Biding their time. Someone who wants to see one of them suffer and the other one dead. Holmes and Watson face the ultimate test: they must unravel the case of their lives without unraveling each other.

Given how much I absolutely adored the first two books in this series, it will come as a surprise to no one that I savored this third installment twice, just basking in its awesomeness, before I could bring myself to review it. I was afraid, in the beginning, that this would be an anxiety-inducing book, because the idea of Jamie and Charlotte being apart was difficult for me. But Cavallaro is such a masterful storyteller that even when they are apart, we see, in chapters alternating Jamie and Charlotte’s points of view, how much they are still entwined in each other’s lives, and how they are being irrevocably drawn back together. And when their paths do collide again, at exactly the right time and place, and in the most Holmes-and-Watson way possible, well, it’s just magic. Jamie and Charlotte occupy an important place in my heart, of course, but Cavallaro made me fall in love with so many other characters too, even when I was resisting like mad. (Especially Elizabeth, the girl Jamie dates when he’s trying to get over Charlotte. There is no earthly way I should like Elizabeth, and yet, she won me over in a few pages.) With gripping action, realistic relationships, and characters that are funny, flawed, and real, this book does not disappoint. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to read it again.

THE CASE FOR JAMIE is out now.

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