It’s graduation day for the seniors of East Ridge High School in New Jersey, eleven years after a shooting in a first-grade class killed eighteen of their classmates. It’s a big media event, of course, but it’s also a pivotal… Read More ›
Violence
Four Dead Queens
This 423-page fantasy novel is set in a land called Quadara, a land once ruled by a single king but now devolved into four separate quadrants, each represented by its own queen. The quadrants follow the Henry Ford philosophy of… Read More ›
Enchantee
On the eve of the French Revolution in 1789, seventeen-year-old Camille Durbonne finds herself living in a garret with her fifteen-year-old sister Sophie and older brother Alain, so desperately poor that she turns to the magic taught her by her… Read More ›
The Weight of Our Sky
In 1969 sixteen-year-old Melati Ahmad and her best friend Safiyah (Saf) leave school when classes finish for the day and head to the Rex Theater to see Paul Newman (whom Saf adores) in his latest film. Mel’s mom, a nurse,… Read More ›
Within These Lines
Evalina is a high school senior living in San Francisco, California in a loving Italian-American family whose mafia roots are in Chicago. She helps with the family restaurant, has friends, is headed to university, and–most importantly for the story–is in love… Read More ›
On the Come Up
This story opens with sixteen-year-old Brianna (Bri) Jackson dealing with a lot of worries. Her dad, once a rising rap star on the underground scene, is twelve-years-dead from a gang-related shooting, having left the family his famous name, a prized… Read More ›
Between Before and After
Molly is a young teenager in 1950’s California who unexpectedly discovers that her mother is hiding some secrets about her life. An aspiring writer, she then places an ad in the New York Times seeking clues (her mother grew up… Read More ›
Tarot
Anna is a 16-year-old who is the product of an adulterous affair between her magician father and married-to-someone-else mother. She lives in what sounds like a traditional fairytale kingdom, where she has been locked away in a tower all her… Read More ›
The Dead Queens Club
Annie Marck of Cleveland (Ohio) meets Henry of Lancaster (Indiana) at a summer Overachievers Camp. He nicknames her “Cleves” and they quickly bond as best friends. Their quirky friendship deepens during the second summer’s Overachievers Camp, after which Anne’s family… Read More ›
Orphan Monster Spy
Sarah is the teenage daughter of a beautiful German Jewess whose husband? boyfriend? made himself scarce years earlier. As their situation in Nazi Germany becomes ever more precarious, the mother dissolves into an alcoholic, depressed mess. She rallies finally for… Read More ›
Before You Buy YA 