Reviews

I spent a fair share of grade school years intrigued/fascinated by the idea of orphan trains. It probably all started when my school librarian gave me a copy of A Family Apart by Joan Lowery Nixon, a series I loved and read over and over again.

Fear Itself is a World War II thriller that focuses on German-Americans and their activities before and during the war. At that time, the FBI, under the rule of the legendary J. Edgar Hoover, was focused on unearthing communists.

In the introduction, Kaling says of herself, “I’m only marginally qualified to be giving advice at all. My body mass index is certainly not ideal, I frequently use my debit card to buy things that cost less than three dollars, because I never have cash on me, and my bedroom is so untidy it looks like vandals ransacked the Anthropologie Sale section. I’m kind of a mess.” And yet, she’s written a compelling, humorous memoir, with occasional advice. The advice she does offer is based on her own, real-life experiences and all the more valuable for its lack of childhood trauma.

The Kingmaker’s Daughter is another in the Cousin’s War series by Philippa Gregory. She writes historical fiction in a very realistic way.

Following the first novel in the series (The Selection), The Elite takes readers deeper into the horrors of the Illea Society.

Relish is a memoir done as a graphic novel (that is, a story told through pictures and text). Lucy's life includes divorced parents, moving a lot and the food that was always there to comfort her. Lucy grew up with her chef mother and then traveled to visit her food critic father.

The sequel to last year’s Lies Beneath, picks up thirty days later with Lily taking the reigns as narrator, waiting for her merman Calder to come back to her.

Noa's life has been looking up. She ran away from the foster care system that failed her, set up a fake foster care family using her amazing hacker abilities, and has been working odd jobs to stay afloat. But that all changes when Noa wakes up on a cold metal table in an abandoned warehouse with a mysterious incision in her chest. Noa barely manages to escape the men in black suits who pursue her out of the warehouse and through the back alleys of Boston's southside.

In a world ruled by Barrons, magically gifted fighters, and their soulbound Healers, Kaya grew up in a small unskilled village. The daughter of two Barrons-in-hiding, as Barrons are not meant to marry each other, Kaya knows nothing of the hierarchy of Barrons and Healers that keep the countryside safe from Graplars (large dragonlike creatures) until one attacks at the village fair, killing her best friend. By killing the beast, her father draws attention to the family and Kaya is forced to attend Shadow Academy to become a healer.