Fresh Reads, Honest reviews, Educator-approved
On Stenland, there comes a time known as skeld season: one day, any woman on the island can wake with three black lines on her forehead, the mark of a skeld. Skeld season comes around without warning, and while each window of time lasts only three months, anyone a skeld turns to stone is very much dead. That’s how Tess’s mother killed Soren’s parents. Tess and Soren cannot see eye to eye—and yet, they cannot stay apart.
It’s 1917, and World War I is at its zenith when Hazel and James first catch sight of each other at a London party. She’s a shy and talented pianist; he’s a newly minted soldier with dreams of becoming an architect. When they fall in love, it’s immediate and deep–and cut short when James is shipped off to the killing fields.
It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. Everyone assumes she’s part of the wedding party, but Phoebe has other plans—plans that unravel when the bride herself intervenes. In turns absurdly funny and deeply moving, The Wedding People explores how unexpected encounters can reroute even the most broken lives toward redemption and connection.
This debut novel by Byron Graves tells the story of a young athlete determined to play like the hero his Ojibwe community needs him to be.
In war-torn Ravka, King Nikolai Lantsov battles both external threats and the dark magic still festering inside him from his past encounter with the Darkling. Meanwhile, Grisha soldier Nina Zenik grieves her husband’s death while secretly working to free captured Grisha in enemy territory.