reviews

Cliff-Hanger Mystery Author: Barbara Vine There is no death more precisely calculated than an execution. To Faith, her aunt Vera Hillyard’s hanging brings this fact unalterably home. While Faith has lived on the periphery, she has watched the entire family drama unfold, seeing her father’s respect for his supposedly perfect sisters dwindle into something shameful, hidden in a box, forgotten, unspoken, and covered by  the dust of time and disappointment. She has seen her strange nephew who grew up shrouded in secrecy, and now she is being approached all these years later by a journalist who wants to drag it [...]

The Destiny in History Author: Isabel Ibanez Ximena has lived entire life as someone else. She will probably die as someone else. To her people, she is the Condessa. More importantly, to her enemies, especially the usurper King Atoc, she is the Condessa. This illusion needs to remain strong if the real Condessa and her army are to reclaim their lands from the Llacasans, dethrone King Atoc, and bring the realm back under Illustrian rule. To pull this off, the Illustrians need to appear to bow to King Atoc, and so they offer a fake Condessa for his upcoming marriage. But [...]

Mended Lives Author: Cheryl Grey Bostrom Ten-year-old Aggie has done something terrible, and she can never go home again. As a girl who loves all things about nature, especially birds, her only comfort now is scaling the trees and hiding from her would be rescuers, hiding from the police, hiding from the consequences of the fire she set that killed her entire family. Meanwhile, sixteen-year-old Celia is intrigued by the stories of a fire and the missing girl. Celia’s mother recently left, a selfish woman who never regretted or cared about leaving husband and children. Now Celia’s father is called away [...]