Geo Librarian

THE DEEP DARK written and illustrated by Molly Knox Ostertag Graphix, 2024 ISBN: 978-1-338-84000-1 Source: public library Ages 14 and up All opinions expressed are solely my own. Book cover and summary provided by publisher through Goodreads.com. ABOUT THE BOOK From Molly Knox Ostertag, writer-illustrator, comes a darkly beautiful story of identity, family, love, loss, and magic. Everyone has secrets. Mags’s has teeth. Magdalena Herrera is about to graduate high school, but she already feels like an adult with serious responsibilities: caring for her ailing grandmother; working a part-time job; clandestine make outs with a girl who has a boyfriend. And then there’s her secret, which pulls her into the basement each night, drains her of energy, and leaves her bleeding. A secret that could hurt and even kill if it ever got out -- like it did once before. So Mags keeps her head down, isolated in her small desert community. That is, until her childhood friend Nessa comes back to town, brin...

A TASTE FOR MONSTERS by Matthew J. Kirby Scholastic Press, 2016 ISBN: 978-0-545-81784-4 Source: purchased Ages 12 and up YA Speculative Fiction (Historical fantasy) All opinions expressed are solely my own. ABOUT THE BOOK Fear the living more than the dead. It’s London 1888, and Jack the Ripper is terrorizing the people of the city. Evelyn, a young woman disfigured by her dangerous work in a matchstick factory, who has nowhere to go, does not know what to make of her new position as a maid to the Elephant Man in the London Hospital. Evelyn wants to be locked away from the world, like he is, shut in from the filth and dangers of the streets. But in Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, she finds a gentle kindred who does not recoil from her and who understands her pain. When the murders begin, however, Joseph and Evelyn are haunted nightly by the ghosts of the Ripper’s dead, setting Evelyn on a path to facing her fears and uncovering humanity’s worst nightmares. RE...

THICK AS THIEVES A Queen's Thief Novel (#5) by Megan Whalen Turner Greenwillow Books, 2017 ISBN: 978-0-06-256824-3 Source: purchased Ages 12 and up YA Speculative/Fantasy All opinions expressed are solely my own. ABOUT THE BOOK Deep within the palace of the Mede emperor, in an alcove off the main room of his master’s apartments,. Kamet minds his master’s business and his own. Carefully keeping the accounts, and his own counsel, Kamet has accumulated a few possessions, a little money stored in the household’s cashbox, and a significant amount of personal power. As a slave, his fate is tied to his master’s. If Nahuseresh’s fortunes improve, so will Kamet’s, and Nahuseresh has been working diligently to promote his fortunes since the debacle in Attolia. A soldier in the shadows offers escape, but Kamet won’t sacrifice his ambition for a meager and unreliable freedom; not until a whispered warning of poison and murder destroys all of his carefully laid plans. Wh...

ELLA'S WILL by Jessilyn Stewart Peaslee Sweetwater Books, 2016 ISBN: 978-1-4621-1908-0 YA/Adult Fairy Tale Retelling/Clean Romance Source: publisher for review All opinions expressed are solely my own. ABOUT THE BOOK Will Hawkins is just a simple stable boy. How can he hope to woo Ella, his once-wealthy childhood friend who is stubbornly independent, especially when his competition is the prince? Without any magic or fairy godmothers, Will must show Ella that he is her true prince charming in this perspective twist of the Cinderella story. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jessilyn Stewart Peaslee graduated with a BA in English from Brigham Young University in 2004. She loved taking creative writing classes, and was particularly fond of the works of Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and the Bronte sisters. She also studied French and the humanities. Jessilyn grew up in the beautiful deserts of Southern California and now resides in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains in Saratoga Springs...

FIRST LIGHT Forever After #1 by Michele Paige Holmes Mirror Press, 2016 ISBN: 9781941145685 YA Fantasy Source: e-book for review All opinions expressed are solely my own. ABOUT THE BOOK Seventeen-year-old Adrielle doesn’t believe in magic; she merely possesses it, though no one has ever mentioned that her unusual gifts—exceptional speed, a flair for fire, and an intimate knowledge of flora—aren’t things she was born with. When Adrielle starts a fire that burns down the family home, she must deal with both her grief and her siblings’ hurtful rejection. While journeying to far away Tallinyne, in search of her older, estranged sister—the only relative who might take her in—Adrielle is separated from her escort when the carriage is beset by thieves. Alone, she is thrust into a dangerous and unfamiliar world where she encounters fairies and gypsies, a wild boar, a drunk cook, and an evil queen whose curse is sweeping death across the land. Adrielle also finds l...

IN THE TIME OF DRAGON MOON Wilde Island Chronicles #3 by Janet Lee Carey Kathy Dawson Books, 2015 ISBN: 9780803738102 Ages 12 and up Source: author for review (Thanks!)All opinions expressed are solely my own. ABOUT THE BOOK On the southernmost tip of Wilde Island--far from the Dragonswood sanctuary and the Pendragon Castle--live the native Euit people. Uma, who is half Euit and half English, and not fully accepted by her tribe, wants to become a healer like her Euit father. But the mad English queen in the north, desperate for another child, kidnaps Uma and her father and demands that he cure her barrenness. After her father dies, Uma must ensure that the queen is with child by the time of the Dragon Moon, or be burned at the stake. Terrified and alone, Uma reaches out to her only possible ally: the king's nephew Jackrun, a fiery dragonrider with dragon, fairy, and human blood. Together, they must navigate through a sea of untold secrets, unveil a ...

A themed tour with   Prism Book Tours . Dearest (Woodcutter Sisters, #3) by Alethea Kontis YA Fantasy Hardcover & ebook, 320 Pages February 3rd 2015 by HMH Books for Young Readers Goodreads “A fabulous fairy-tale mashup that deserves hordes of avid readers. Absolutely delectable.” — Kirkus Reviews , starred review of award-winning series debut   Enchanted Readers met the Woodcutter sisters (named after the days of the week) in   Enchanted   and   Hero . In this delightful third book, Alethea Kontis weaves together some fine-feathered fairy tales to focus on Friday Woodcutter, the kind and loving seamstress. When Friday stumbles upon seven sleeping brothers in her sister Sunday’s palace, she takes one look at Tristan and knows he’s her future. But the brothers are cursed to be swans by day. Can Friday’s unique magic somehow break the spell? Amazon   -   Barnes & Noble   -   Book Deposi...