Reading one cup at a time…
Book reviews are spoiler free and age appropriate to each books target audience.
Sarah Havenant discovers–when an old friend points it out–that there are two Facebook profiles in her name. One, she recognizes: it is hers. The other, she has never seen. But everything in it is accurate. Recent photos of her and her friends, her and her husband, her and her kids. Even of her new kitchen. A photo taken inside her house. She is bemused, angry, and worried. Who was able to do this? And why?
It's a few months since Kellen left his people behind. Now aged sixteen, Kellen is an outlaw, relying on his wits to keep him alive in the land of the Seven Sands. He misses home, he misses family and more than anything, he misses Nephenia, the girl he left behind. Then he meets Seneira, a blindfolded girl who isn't blind, and who carries a secret that's all too familiar to Kellen. Kellen and Ferius resolve to help - but the stakes are far higher than they realise. A Shadowblack plague is taking hold - and Kellen can't help but suspect his own people may even be behind it.
Magic is a con game. Kellen is moments away from facing his first mage's duel and the start of four trials that will make him a spellcaster. There's just one problem: his magic is gone. As his sixteenth birthday approaches, Kellen falls back on his cunning in a bid to avoid total disgrace. But when a daring stranger arrives in town, she challenges Kellen to take a different path. Ferius Parfax is one of the mysterious Argosi - a traveller who lives by her wits and the three decks of cards she carries. She's difficult and unpredictable, but she may be Kellen's only hope...
Sixteen-year-old Sorina has spent most of her life within the smoldering borders of the Gomorrah Festival. Yet even among the many unusual members of the traveling circus-city, Sorina stands apart as the only illusion-worker born in hundreds of years. This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel and touch, with personalities all their own. Her creations are her family, and together they make up the cast of the Festival’s Freak Show. But no matter how lifelike they may seem, her illusions are still just that—illusions, and not truly real. Or so she always believed…until one of them is murdered. Desperate to protect her family, Sorina must track down the culprit and determine how they killed a person who doesn’t actually exist. Her search for answers leads her to the self-proclaimed gossip-worker Luca, and their investigation sends them through a haze of political turmoil and forbidden romance, and into the most sinister corners of the Festival. But as the killer continues murdering Sorina’s illusions one by one, she must unravel the horrifying truth before all of her loved ones disappear.
Agent Christopher Rockford has been the best assassin in the agency for eight years, and he loves his job. He loves his solitary lifestyle. He loves eliminating criminals. He loves his comfortable life as a member of society’s wealthy coastal upper class. But in pursuit of a target, he meets Jenna, a mysterious civilian who belongs to society’s lowest and most shunned group. Being around her is fun and intriguing, but it forces him to see things through her eyes—causing him to reconsider the world around them and The Order he so obediently serves. As he falls in love with her, he fears telling her the truth about his profession may cause him to lose her. But Jenna has her own secrets to keep.
Miri Tan loved the book Undertow like it was a living being. So when she and her friends went to a book signing to meet the author, Fatima Ro, they concocted a plan to get close to her, even if her friends won’t admit it now. As for Jonah, well—Miri knows none of that was Fatima’s fault.
Hidden away in Hardwick Hall, Lady Arbella Stuart, an unwilling contender for the throne of sixteenth century England, longs for freedom. But to escape her gilded prison, she must trust those on the outside, who may have their own secret motives in liberating her. Arbella knows that discovery will end in her death. But what choice does any woman have, when trapped in a man's world?
The United States has elected a volatile demagogue as president, and when a war of words spirals out of control and the Commander in Chief comes perilously close to launching a nuclear attack, it's clear someone has to act. When Washington operator Maggie Costello stumbles on an inside plot to kill the president, she is faced with the ultimate moral dilemma. Should she save the president or commit treason?
Diana Cowper starts her day by arranging her own funeral. Six hours later, she's murdered in her own home. Surly and enigmatic Private Detective Hawthorne is on a quest to expose the case's secrets, while hiding his own. And a reluctant Author finds himself drawn into an uncontrollable story by an unsolved mystery, and a trail of bloody clues. Spread the word. The word is Murder.
Claire, a Mono who has only one day’s worth of memory, and her husband Mark, a Duo who has two, are a shining example of a new vision of tolerance and equality in a world where mixed marriages are frown upon. Until Mark's beautiful mistress turns up dead, and he becomes the prime suspect in her murder. When both the investigator’s and the suspect’s memories are constantly erased—how can anyone learn the truth?
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