Kate Rhodes defies the sophomore slump in A Killing of Angels, the follow-up to 2013's Crossbones Yard, as psychologist Alice Quentin is unable to refuse Detective Don Burns when he comes to her for help on a new case. Someone is killing employees of London's Angel Bank, leaving an angel picture and white feathers at each scene. To find the murderer, Quentin and Burns must discover the connection between the bankers--the sin for which they are being punished--before another of them becomes the avenging angel's next mark.

Despite the plot's relentless summer sun, A Killing of Angels is a dark psychological thriller that's about more than a series of murders, delving into society's idea of what constitutes mental stability. Several supporting characters vie for attention with strong, colorful personalities. Rhodes infuses her whole cast with as much momentum as the plot, filled with strong twists and plausible red herrings. Alice Quentin's job is to analyze others, but her own psychology engages the reader as much as that of the criminals she observes. And Don Burns, forced to deal with department politics while his family life has deteriorated, views his job as the only thing he has left--but the angel killer may snuff that out as well. His devotion, sincerity and compassion will leave readers rooting not only for his success but his redemption. --Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts

Isabella Bradford's A Wicked Pursuit kicks off a new romance trilogy about three noble brothers with a bewitching tale of a most accidental match.

Harry Fitzroy, the future Duke of Breconridge, has finally met a perfectly bred, perfectly beautiful woman, Lady Julia Barclay, to make his wife. Before he can propose, though, a fall from his horse at the country estate of Julia's family leaves Harry injured, sick and abandoned to the care of Julia's younger sister, Lady Augusta.

Practical, capable "Gus" is used to the ways of her dazzling but spoiled older sister, but even she is shocked by Julia's desertion. As she nurses Harry back to health, Gus is further shocked by her own attraction to the arrogant, demanding nobleman, and soon she and Harry both realize he nearly proposed to the wrong sister. When Harry learns his injury may have left one of his legs permanently crippled, his self-confidence is shattered, and Gus will have to fight to convince him that a man is more than the sum of his parts.

While Harry's initially shallow outlook on marriage may seem a bit off-putting, Gus's steadfast sense of duty and wistful longing to be something more than second fiddle to her sister will have readers in her corner immediately. All that remains is the delight of watching Harry learn a woman's worth comes from within as Gus's faith in their love leads to a satisfying happily ever after. --Jaclyn Fulwood, youth services manager at Latah County Library District and blogger at Infinite Reads

The Perfect Score Project chronicles Debbie Stier's year of exploring a variety of test-preparation strategies as she sat for the SAT seven times, with the goal of helping her son, Ethan, prepare for his own college-entrance exams. Stier knew Ethan's ability to obtain merit-based financial aid would depend on high scores on the standardized tests, but her last experience with the SAT had been nearly 30 years earlier, and an extensive test-prep industry has sprouted since then.

Stier tried a different study method before each test, from personal tutoring to online learning to self-directed practice using official College Board materials. The Perfect Score Project discusses the pros and cons of each approach, her test scores serving as the final verdict. Stier's evaluation of her SAT experience weighs its effects on her personal growth and relationship with her son at least as heavily as her test scores. While what she did comes across at times as a particularly intense example of "helicopter parenting," and readers might not agree with either her tactics or her conclusions, she offers many helpful insights about the testing process to parents of the college-bound--as well as to the test-takers themselves. --Florinda Pendley Vasquez, blogger at The 3 R's Blog: Reading, 'Riting, and Randomness

In Dear Abigail, Diane Jacobs returns to the topic of smart women in revolutionary times that she previously explored in Her Own Woman, her biography of Mary Wollstonecraft.

Readers are familiar with Abigail Adams thanks to her sharp-witted and loving correspondence with her husband--but John Adams wasn't the only person who benefited from Abigail's pen. In Dear Abigail, Jacobs uses the correspondence of Abigail and her sisters to build a picture of what it was like to watch the American Revolution from the sidelines.

Mary, Abigail and Betsy Smith were the daughters of a wealthy and influential Massachusetts minister. They were highly educated, well read and opinionated--and they married men who valued those qualities. In their letters, they complain about gender inequalities and household problems while discussing the intellectual issues of the time, from the theological questions of the Great Awakening to the philosophical underpinnings of revolution. They arrange to be inoculated for smallpox--a controversial issue at the time. They share news about the war. They worry about their parents, their husbands and their children.

Much of the book deals with the day-to-day difficulties of the war. Of the three sisters, Abigail suffered the most; some of the most poignant passages show her struggling alone with a difficult pregnancy and ultimate stillbirth. But all of them deal with shortages, lack of information and fear.

Dear Abigail is a perfect companion to David McCullough's John Adams. --Pamela Toler, blogging at History in the Margins

In Blood Royal, Eric Jager returns to the world of medieval true crime that he popularized in The Last Duel.

On a cold November night in 1407, a band of masked men assassinated Louis I of Orléans, the powerful and unpopular brother of the intermittently insane King Charles, on a dark street in Paris. Jager tells the stories of both the criminal investigation that followed and the subsequent impact of the assassination on French politics.

The first half of Blood Royal is presented as a medieval murder mystery, based on working notes of the investigation written by Guillaume de Tignonville, the provost of Paris responsible for finding the duke's killers. Except for the absence of modern forensic science, Tigonville's investigation techniques will be familiar to any fan of police procedurals, from interviewing witnesses to tracing physical clues. Jager maintains a high level of suspense throughout the inquiry as Tigonville and his men eliminate suspect after suspect until they uncover the shocking solution.

The second half of Blood Royal, equally interesting, is more traditional history. Jager examines the power vacuum in the royal family left by Orléans' death, the civil war that followed and Henry V's opportunistic invasion of France. He ends with the rise of Joan of Arc on the horizon.

Blood Royal will appeal to history buffs, true crime fans and anyone who loves historical mysteries or police procedurals. --Pamela Toler, blogging at History in the Margins

Ruth Kassinger (Paradise Under Glass), a frustrated amateur gardener, did what any reasonable science writer would do: research the question of how plants work. In hunting for a layperson's guide to botany, however, she came up short, finding mostly scholarly texts for which "Botany 101 is definitely a prerequisite." From these frustrations was born the masterful, engaging A Garden of Marvels.

Her greatest strength is unquestionably her quirky, conversational tone; even the most science-averse reader will be hooked. While A Garden of Marvels does contain the odd gardening tip, it is more concerned with Kassinger's travels to farms, conservatories and laboratories around the nation. A good student of both the humans she meets and human history, she points out that religious and societal philosophies caused our ignorance of and lack of interest in botany until recently, and highlights those few pioneering minds whose experiments, observations and strange machineries caught us up. Kassinger is properly amazed at the science she discovers in nature, as well as the men ("and they were all men") who broke ground with their scientific studies.

Topics like plant sex, the history of scientific exploration and the fundamentals of genomics are all equally accessible in Kassinger's capable hands. For some readers, though, she may be a trifle overenthusiastic about the possibilities of genetic modifications of plant life and dismissive of concerns regarding these technologies. That she makes botany so approachable is a feat; that she makes it downright enthralling is almost as miraculous as an adorable photosynthesizing sea slug. --Julia Jenkins, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia

Following up on his National Book Award finalist, Endangered, Eliot Schrefer delivers a riveting novel describing one boy's struggle to survive in the jungle, living with an adopted family of chimpanzees. 

With his mother and sister dead, Luc is alone on the streets of Franceville, Gabon, in Africa. One day, a researcher going by the name of Prof shows up. At first, all Luc sees is an opportunity to steal a locked case full of valuables. But Luc is offered a job, and a way out of Franceville, so he agrees to travel into the jungle to help Prof study chimpanzees. Almost immediately, they encounter a family of chimps who are both endearing and aggressive. While Prof prefers to watch and take notes, Luc is drawn into the dynamic of his new neighbors. He learns how to communicate with the "mock men," and becomes increasingly involved with Drummer, Mango and the other chimps nesting nearby.

Life in the jungle is a constant struggle. Hunters stalk the chimps, as do snakes, leopards and other aggressive groups of chimpanzees. Food is hard to find. Separated from Prof, Luc must always be on his guard, but the longer he stays, the more he feels at home. Disaster strikes, time and again, and when it does, Luc fights back, and ultimately learns all he needs to know about family. Schrefer's well-written, complex novel showcases an exotic plot that will keep readers thinking about the plight of the chimps long after the story's conclusion. --Lynn Becker, host of Book Talk, the monthly online discussion of children's books for the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators

With a text that celebrates their perseverance, endnotes that describe their uses and illustrations that commemorate their beauty, this book invites young readers to re-examine their view of weeds.

"Weeds send their seeds into the world in wondrous ways: fluffing up like feathers and floating away on the wind," reads the text as a girl blows on a dandelion and sends its seeds soaring. The red sky and pine-green meadow in the mixed-media and collage illustrations make an ideal contrast for the white umbrella-like seed pods. Next, the girl's red sneakers appear in close-up alongside her dog's paws, moving through long grasses where dandelion seeds catch on "prickly burrs that stick to socks and fur." Elegant language and incidental rhymes make these pages as fun to read aloud as they are to pore over. Author and artist tour the seasons. "Weed seeds find a way to wait, sitting still in icy earth all winter," and others bake on the "white-hot sidewalk" in the summer heat. Fisher invents a visual story line that follows girl and dog through the pages, and tucks in magenta nodding thistle and orange hawkweed aplenty. The final spread erupts in fuchsia-colored fireweed, from which the girl twines a necklace.

Endnotes describe many of the weeds' medicinal and edible uses and make an incisive point: "any plant could be considered a weed if it is growing in a place where someone does not want it to be." This fact-filled picture book that reads like poetry may well cause young readers to rethink the idea of unwanted guests in the garden. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness