by John Glynn
John Glynn's first novel, The Lost Book of Lancelot, is a beautiful foray into Arthurian legend from the point of view of one of its most notorious but less explored characters, Lancelot.
Glynn begins Lancelot's story on the Isle of Women, where he is being raised, nameless, by a mysterious and magical sisterhood. He is the only man or boy allowed to reside there, until the handsome Galehaut is brought to train with him to become knights. Lancelot discovers his name, his family, his true love, and the prophecies
Read More »
by Anna Cowan
A desperate woman fleeing chaos from the French Revolution blackmails a powerful noble in Anna Cowan's smoldering sapphic Regency romance, The Duke. In Cowan's England, women can inherit and hold titles, and her female characters are every bit as dissolute or ruthless as the men who populate classic historical romances.
Kate, the Duke of Howard, has single-mindedly fought her way to a level of power that no one can challenge. But she has a secret: she's responsible for her family's death due to accusations
Read More »
by Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett's 10th novel, the exceptional Whistler, ponders the persistence of childhood trauma and of even short-lived bonds.
Daphne Fuller, 53, teaches English at a New York City girls' prep school. She's touring the Metropolitan Museum of Art with her husband, Jonathan, when he notices an older man following them. They're astonished to discover it's her stepfather: Eddie Triplett was (briefly) her mother's second husband when Daphne was nine years old. Daphne starts weeping, indicating a traumatic backstory--which
Read More »
by Aida Salazar
Aida Salazar unites the protagonists of her Pura Belpré Honor recipient, Ultraviolet, and International Latino Book Award winner The Moon Within in Stream, a whipsmart, heartwarming middle-grade verse novel about two 13-year-olds sent to work "on an off-the-grid" rancho in Mexico.
Although recent eighth-grade graduates Elio and Celi have never met, both have parents who are concerned their children are being lost to screens. Both are sent for an Internet-free summer on the Atoyac rancho in Zacatecas,
Read More »
by Niki Smith
Tween stepsisters Kenzie and Quinn try to enjoy what they believe is their final summer together in this thoughtful, luminous middle-grade graphic novel.
Midsummer Sisters by Niki Smith (The Golden Hour; illus. of Sea Legs) opens with red dialogue balloons of Kenzie's dad and Quinn's mom yelling. The young stepsisters (Quinn redheaded and freckled, Kenzie brown-haired and light-skinned with nevus flammeus on her forehead) huddle together under a blanket. Soon, Kenzie's grandma--who sees both girls as hers--sweeps
Read More »
