A captivating story filled with suspense and magic.
Three sisters face hardships amid frequent dust storms in 1934 Kansas.
The Fischer girls’ mother died, their father left for Wichita in search of work, and their aunt has turned their home into a boarding house. Middle sister Stella dreams of Hollywood and tries to make that dream a reality by delivering moonshine. That side hustle introduces her to Lloyd McCormick, a handsome vagabond who begins doing odd jobs around the house. While the sisters and Lloyd are scavenging lumber from a dilapidated cider mill, a ghost appears, guiding them to a portal. On the other side, they find mill owner Archie Bright trapped in an alternate world where the air is clear and everything broken is healed. Archie conjures up lavish parties from his memories, and they dance the night away. The others are able to leave, and they promise Archie they’ll try to set him free. But despite experiencing the glamour Stella has craved, the sisters feel the toll of their regular visits to this newfound paradise, leaving them depleted in the mornings and fracturing their relationships. And it soon becomes clear that there’s more to Archie’s story than he’s told them. The author makes the most of every page in this short novel, bringing to life characters who are worth supporting. The compelling narrative seamlessly blends genres as it unfolds against the harsh, dusty backdrop. The characters are cued white; the Fischer sisters had a Romani grandmother.
A captivating story filled with suspense and magic. (Paranormal historical fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9780744308464
Page Count: 272
Publisher: CamCat Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
An enticing, turbulent, and satisfying final voyage.
Adrian, the youngest of the Montague siblings, sails into tumultuous waters in search of answers about himself, the sudden death of his mother, and her mysterious, cracked spyglass.
On the summer solstice less than a year ago, Caroline Montague fell off a cliff in Aberdeen into the sea. When the Scottish hostel where she was staying sends a box of her left-behind belongings to London, Adrian—an anxious, White nobleman on the cusp of joining Parliament—discovers one of his mother’s most treasured possessions, an antique spyglass. She acquired it when she was the sole survivor of a shipwreck many years earlier. His mother always carried that spyglass with her, but on the day of her death, she had left it behind in her room. Although he never knew its full significance, Adrian is haunted by new questions and is certain the spyglass will lead him to the truth. Once again, Lee crafts an absorbing adventure with dangerous stakes, dynamic character growth, sharp social and political commentary, and a storm of emotion. Inseparable from his external search for answers about his mother, Adrian seeks a solution for himself, an end to his struggle with mental illness—a journey handled with hopeful, gentle honesty that validates the experiences of both good and bad days. Characters from the first two books play significant secondary roles, and the resolution ties up their loose ends. Humorous antics provide a well-measured balance with the heavier themes.
An enticing, turbulent, and satisfying final voyage. (Historical fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-291601-3
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
A deftly balanced mix of history, intrigue, and romance.
Against the backdrop of World War II, four young women codebreakers put their minds together to find a serial killer.
It’s early 1943, and Arlington Hall, a one-time girls’ school in Virginia, is now the site of a covert intelligence facility where an 18-year-old former maid secretly assumes the new identity Kit Sutherland and becomes a codebreaker. A night out turns deadly when one of their own is murdered, and Kit stumbles across her body in the bathroom. Kit, roommate Dottie, and Moya, the supervisor of their floor, work alongside Violet, one of the Black girls from the segregated codebreaking unit, to bring the culprit to justice. As the budding friends turn their sharp minds and analytical abilities to covertly investigating what turns out to be a series of murders, Kit struggles to keep her own dangerous secret—and her attraction to Moya—under wraps. Meanwhile, Moya will do everything in her power to help her girls while trying not to fall in love with Kit. The novel deftly addresses questions of inequality across class, race, and sexuality in a story that combines well-researched historical background with a nifty whodunit, a strong focus on friendship, and an empowering queer romance. The narrative follows Kit and Moya, making them the better developed characters in the largely White cast. An author’s note includes many resources about the real women whose behind-the-scenes espionage work informed this story.
A deftly balanced mix of history, intrigue, and romance. (Historical thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-33958-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
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