Anita Lock

A lowly kitchen maid turned shapeshifter fights against evil forces in Hannah West’s enchanting debut.

Sixteen-year-old Bristal’s life is spared when elicromancers (shapeshifters) Brack and Tamarice rescue her from kidnappers determined to prove that she possesses magical powers. Bristal is surprised to discover her shapeshifting powers, and Brack and Tamarice acknowledge that she is the third in a group of remaining elicomancers. While the duty of elicomancers is to protect mortals, discord arises when Tamarice chooses the dark side of elicromancy. Casting a cruel spell during a royal child’s naming day is just the beginning of Tamarice’s machinations to overcome the realm of Nissera. Bristal takes on several guises to protect the cursed princess as well as to recover a lost duchess. But saving Nissera is more difficult than expected, especially when Tamarice seeks to destroy Bristal’s power.

Bristal, the mistress of disguises, shares common qualities of kindness and meekness as the other female characters she helps—Rosemund, the cursed princess (Sleeping Beauty), and Elinor, the lost duchess (Cinderella). But unlike her regal friends, Bristal is an amazing heroine, and her account is just as intriguing, if not more so, as the beloved fairy tales. Careful readers may catch glimpses from other stories, such as Jane Austen’s Emma and the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan. West’s narrative is replete with an unforgettable cast and wondrously descriptive, imaginative scenes.

A spellbinding, one-of-a kind fairy tale, Kingdom of Ash and Briars is a perfect balance of drama, comedy and romance.

Stacey Lee pens an endearing story of one teen’s determination to survive and succeed amid disaster.

Fifteen-year-old Mercy Wong has high hopes of having her own herbal tea business someday—but the year is 1906, and education available to Chinese-American girls is less than stellar. Using her suave and shrewd ruses, Mercy finagles a business proposition with Mr. Du Lac, the president of the elite St. Clare’s School for Girls. Du Lac offers Mercy a three-month trial period with an agreement that she assumes the role of a Chinese heiress. Unfortunately, life at St. Clare’s is more difficult than Mercy expects, with one grueling situation rolling into the next. While serving a punishment, Mercy has no idea that her life is about to change, when an earthquake devastates much of her beloved Chinatown.

Featuring Mercy as raconteur, Outrun the Moon surrounds its principal character with a complex cast designed to develop her dynamic role. Lee’s characters reflect two distinct racial groups: the marginalized and the affluent. Utilizing the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Lee brings the survivors of these groups together to highlight that which cannot be changed by race or class, those universal elements of humanity that connect us all.

A poignant combination of fact and fiction, Outrun the Moon is a welcome addition to American immigrant historical fiction, punctuated with Mercy’s snarky and often uproariously funny comments, as well as plenty of thought-provoking maxims and proverbs—all leading up to compassion for others.

Oral histories from World War II come to life in Monica Hesse’s historical fiction debut.

In 1943 German-occupied Amsterdam, 18-year-old Hanneke Bakker busily goes about delivering black market goods until she gets to Mrs. Janssen’s home. The old woman insists that Hanneke help find Mirjam, the Jewish girl she’s kept hidden in her home until she recently vanished. Hanneke’s unsuccessful search at Mirjam’s school leads to a chain of events, including a run-in with a resistance group. Hanneke learns that Mirjam has gone to the infamous Hollandsche Schouwburg, an old theater house turned into a deportation center, and develops an escape plan. But when she tries to come to Mirjam’s rescue, Hanneke discovers that there is more to the mysterious teen than her mere disappearance.

Replete with a well-defined fictional cast, Girl in the Blue Coat is heavily laced with locations and events in the Netherlands from this dark period in history. Inspired by oral histories of people affiliated with the theater, Hesse’s first-person tale captures the inner turmoil of one young adult desperately trying to make sense of her irrational environs. Keeping to a continually flowing storyline, Hesse weaves in various subplots that, taken as a whole, give a glimpse into “small betrayals in the middle of a big war” and aptly fulfills Hesse’s goal of illustrating “the split-second decisions we make of moral courage and cowardice, and how we are all heroes and villains.”

This is a stunning literary work as well as a wonderful addition to WWII and Holocaust collections.