Several lucky contest winners received early access to this extra a few months ago, but now it’s time to unveil it for everyone! I hope you enjoy this story, which begins in the year between chapters 1 and 2 of Sword and Verse, and features Mati wrestling with the question: What do you do when the one person you shouldn’t be with is the one who captures your heart?
Summer of Sloane by Erin L. Schneider
Summary: Warm Hawaiian sun. Lazy beach days. Flirty texts with her boyfriend back in Seattle. These are the things seventeen-year-old Sloane McIntyre pictured when she imagined the summer she’d be spending at her mom’s home in Hawaii with her twin brother, Penn. Instead, after learning an unthinkable secret about her boyfriend, Tyler, and best friend, Mick, all she has is a fractured hand and a completely shattered heart. Once she arrives in Honolulu, though, Sloane hopes that Hawaii might just be the escape she needs. With beach bonfires, old friends, exotic food, and the wonders of a waterproof cast, there’s no reason Sloane shouldn’t enjoy her summer. And when she meets Finn McAllister, the handsome son of a hotel magnate who doesn’t always play by the rules, she knows he’s the perfect distraction from everything that’s so wrong back home. But it turns out a measly ocean isn’t nearly enough to stop all the emails, texts, and voicemails from her ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend, desperate to explain away their betrayal. And as her casual connection with Finn grows deeper, Sloane’s carefree summer might not be as easy to find as she’d hoped. Weighing years of history with Mick and Tyler against their deception, and the delicate possibility of new love, Sloane must decide when to forgive, and when to live for herself.
Make room in your beach bag for this one! Sloane is devastated when her boyfriend cheats on her with her best friend; the only silver lining is that the news breaks (along with her boyfriend’s nose, and her hand when she punches him) just as Sloane and her twin brother are heading to Hawaii to stay with their mom for the summer. Sloane gets a summer job, a summer guy, and is determined to leave the past behind her – but the past has other ideas. Sloane is a tough yet vulnerable heroine trying to find the balance between protecting herself and hardening her heart. The characters around her come to vibrant life, from the immensely frustrating best friend/betrayer Mick, to the OMG-such-a-boy brother Penn, to the enigmatic hottie who might be the next to break Sloane’s heart, Finn. Prepare to be swept away.
SUMMER OF SLOANE is out now.
The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye
Summary: Vika Andreyeva can summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Nikolai Karimov can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are enchanters—the only two in Russia—and with the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakhs threatening, the Tsar needs a powerful enchanter by his side. And so he initiates the Crown’s Game, an ancient duel of magical skill—the greatest test an enchanter will ever know. The victor becomes the Imperial Enchanter and the Tsar’s most respected adviser. The defeated is sentenced to death. As long-buried secrets emerge, threatening the future of the empire, it becomes dangerously clear… the Crown’s Game is not one to lose.
Like the enticing vapors around Nikolai’s enchanted benches, this story draws you in slowly. We are introduced to this magical 1820s Russia through several intriguing points of view, chief among them the impetuous Vika, the enchanter who has trained all her life with her father in a tiny village; the carefully pragmatic Nikolai, her rival enchanter in the titular game, who has kept his powers secret as a ward in the royal court; and the charismatic Pasha, the reluctant crown prince who slowly unravels the mystical secrets of the Russian court without realizing that his best friend Nikolai has been forced to participate in a magical fight to the death. As the three of them dance around one another (both literally and figuratively), the connections of magic, love, and friendship pull them closer together, and eventually strangle. The devastating choices all three must make will have you on tenterhooks for the conclusion to this enchanting duology.
THE CROWN’S GAME is out now.
Summary: Even though they’re identical, Tristan isn’t close to his twin Robbie at all—until Robbie tries to kill himself.
Forced to share a room to prevent Robbie from hurting himself, the brothers begin to feel the weight of each other’s lives on the ice, and off. Tristan starts seeing his twin not as a hockey star whose shadow Tristan can’t escape, but a struggling gay teen terrified about coming out in the professional sports world. Robbie’s future in the NHL is plagued by anxiety and the mounting pressure from their dad, coach, and scouts, while Tristan desperately fights to create his own future, not as a hockey player but a musical theatre performer.
As their season progresses and friends turn out to be enemies, Robbie finds solace in an online stranger known only as “Jimmy2416.” Between keeping Robbie’s secret and saving him from taking his life, Tristan is given the final call: sacrifice his dream for a brother he barely knows, or pursue his own path. How far is Robbie willing to go—and more importantly, how far is Tristan willing to go to help him?
Taut, suspenseful, and teeming with believable characters, this is the story of eighteen-year-old Tristan and his twin brother Robbie. Tristan’s relationship with Robbie is incredibly complex, spanning fear, hatred, longing for closeness, protectiveness, and finally, true brotherhood. Siegert’s characters are all complicated tangles of motivations, just like real people, and even the most blatantly hateable ones – like Tristan and Robbie’s parents, who are so stubborn in their pursuit of Robbie’s hockey career that they won’t even seek help for him after multiple suicide attempts – are painfully realistic. The push and pull of Tristan and Robbie’s bond will suck readers in, and when Robbie makes a choice that puts him in danger, the story moves into pulse-pounding action mode. Never predictable, always compelling, this is a book you won’t be able to put down.
The BFF Bucket List by Dee Romito
Summary: Ella and Skyler have been best friends since kindergarten—so close that people smoosh their names together like they’re the same person: EllaandSkyler. SkylerandElla.
But Ella notices the little ways she and Skyler have been slowly drifting apart. And she’s determined to fix things with a fun project she’s sure will bring them closer together—The BFF Bucket List. Skyler is totally on board. The girls must complete each task on the list together: things like facing their fears, hosting a fancy dinner party, and the biggest of them all—speaking actual words to their respective crushes before the end of summer. But as new friends, epic opportunities, and super-cute boys enter the picture, the challenges on the list aren’t the only ones they face.
And with each girl hiding a big secret that could threaten their entire friendship, will the list–and their BFF status–go bust?
Ella and Skyler are best friends. Even though they both know that Ella is the one who doesn’t like change, both girls have their worries about moving into high school next year – and how it will affect their friendship. Frightened of what Skyler’s new enthusiasm for hanging out with other friends might mean, Ella proposes the ultimate list – a series of challenges for them to take on together over the summer. Skyler’s in, and a series of adventures ensues, from a best friend photo shoot to temporary tattoos to shopping cart races in their pajamas. But when Ella makes some new friends of her own, and both girls keep secrets for fear of hurting the other’s feelings, their friendship flounders. We see the story through alternating narration from both girls, and their personalities leap off the page. Both are likeable and their struggles are layered and believable. In the end, they must learn to trust the power of their friendship amidst their changing worlds.
THE BFF BUCKET LIST is out now.
Stories By Hand with Kathy MacMillan 