Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin: Book Review

Children are missing from Cambridge, the town’s Jews have been blamed, and King Henry II is receiving less revenue while the Jews are in hiding. Clearly something must be done. Enter Adelia Aguilar. She has been trained at the world-renowned and forward-thinking school of medicine in Salerno, Italy. Her specialty? Corpses. She is a mistress […]

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The Gendarme by Mark Mustian: Book Review

Emmett Conn is 92 years old and he has started having seizures and disturbing dreams/flashbacks. His early years are a mystery to him anyway. He awoke in a British hospital in WWI, a Turkish soldier mistakenly picked up after he was severely wounded. That’s as far back as he can remember. But now in his […]

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The Outer Banks House by Diann Ducharme: Book Review

Abby Sinclair is the neglected daughter of a plantation owner. Three years after the end of the Civil War, she is still mourning the loss of her uncle and her family is still adjusting to the loss of their slaves. When her father decides to move the whole family out to the Outer Banks of […]

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The Bells by Richard Harvell: Book Review

Moses Froben, an opera singer of world-renown, raised a son who could not possibly have been his own. When his son asked how they had come to be together, Moses would studiously avoid the question. On Moses’s death, however, his son found a memoir that told of Moses’s humble beginnings and how father and son […]

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The Ice Soldier by Paul Watkins: Book Review

William Bromley is a World War II veteran living in 1950’s London. In the war, he led a mountaineering expedition that ended disastrously. He has never moved past this and started living again. He’s just existing–teaching school, admiring the secretary from a distance, spending Friday evenings with his one friend, and visiting his father on […]

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Annexed by Sharon Dogar: Book Review

In Annexed, author Sharon Dogar imagines what life in the Annex with Anne Frank must have been like for young Peter. We know all about Anne’s thoughts and feelings, but surely Peter needs a chance to tell his side of things too. The novel begins as Peter is dying and looking back on his life, […]

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The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes: Book Review

The Somnambulist features Edward Moon, a conjurer most easily compared to Sherlock Holmes, but with a freakish twist. His Watson is an 8-foot-tall mute man named–can you guess?–The Somnambulist. The pair are asked to investigate a bizarre murder in the seamier part of London at the beginning of the novel. Within pages, they have solved […]

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Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld: Book Review

POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR LEVIATHAN Now that Great Britain has officially entered World War I, Deryn and Alek find themselves official enemies. Alek knows that he has to escape the Leviathan before his secret is out and he becomes an ultra-important prisoner of war, and Deryn knows that she has to let him go. The two […]

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Juliet by Anne Fortier: Book Review

Julie Jacobs is stunned the day she finds out that her great-aunt Rose, who raised her and her twin sister Janice, has died. She’s even more surprised when she finds out at the funeral that her real name is Giulietta Tolomei and Rose wanted her to go back to Siena, where she was born, and […]

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Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly: Book Review

Andi has pretty much hit rock bottom and kept falling. She’s a gifted musician and student, but her younger brother’s death has sent her into a destructive downward spiral. When her mostly-absent father finds out that she’s in danger of flunking out of school, he hauls her off to Paris with him for winter break, […]

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The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez: Book Review

Lucía Álvarez is your typical teenage girl. She has a crush on cute Manuel, she and her best friend Ivette are interested in all the latest fashions and movies, and she’s trying to fit in at school. So when Fidel Castro cancels classes, her only thought is enjoying her unexpected freedom. She slowly realizes how […]

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