Tag Archive | US author

Bloomswell Diaries (fiction)

Feb1

Sinister enemies…
Plots against peace…
Mechanical men…
This is not the way our history books portray the early 1900s!

On this World Wednesday, travel far with young Benjamin Bloomswell as he seeks the answers to his world-trekking parents’ disappearance. The first-generation tinmen of England, like the redoubtable Olivander who works at the Bloomswell house in London, each have an insignia, rather like a badge which binds them loyally to someone.

However, those American tinmen attacking his uncle’s New York townhouse are newer models, with no built-in loyalty feature. Inside their metal torsos, they can store weapons or treasure or young teenagers! These are not friendly Tik-Tok of Oz mechanical men at all!

Steampunk action, intrigue, espionage, and a rambunctious circus group make this diary anything but dull!
Look for The Bloomswell Diaries at your local independent bookstore or library. Here’s hoping that first-time author Buitendag continues the adventure!
**kmm

Book info: The Bloomswell Diaries / Louis L. Buitendag. Kane Miller Books, 2011. [book’s Facebook page] [publisher site]

My Recommendation: Ben hardly settles into his uncle’s house in America before there are sinister phone calls, a break-in, and a murder. Odd answers to his telegrams sent to his big sister Liza’s new boarding school in Switzerland, no way to contact his parents on yet another business trip away from their London home.

The newspaper report that Mr. and Mrs. Bloomswell had been found dead cannot be correct – Ben and his parents were still sailing across the Atlantic on the date given for their funeral! As his uncle explains the true nature of the Bloomswells’ overseas journeys to stop sinister plots against world peace, he accidently lets out secrets that were better left unsaid.

Suddenly, Ben must outrun ruffians and mechanical men sent by a mysterious enemy. These American tinmen have no insignia that binds them to a family in loyalty. Could they be agents of The Buyer his uncle warned him about or someone worse? Ben tries to escape a decrepit orphanage far from the city, using skills learned from Olivander, the Bloomswells’ loyal mechanical man. He must get to Liza so they can solve the mystery of their parents’ disappearance!

Hurrying to hide aboard a steamer in New York harbor, Ben can only pray that the ship is heading for Europe. Down in the ship’s cargo hold, a circus owner guarding crates of super-secret magic tricks swears he won’t report Ben as a stowaway. As the ship slowly journeys toward England, Mr. Holiday and Ben realize that they are being chased by someone or something that wants both them and their cargo.

Are Ben and the circus folk really on the same side? Can they outwit the enemies pursuing them? Is Liza safe at school? Have their parents succeeded in their vital mission?

Crossing oceans and mountains on ships, carriages, and railway trains, pursued by mechanical men and shadowy villains, Ben’s entries in The Bloomswell Diaries are a fascinating alternate view of the early 1900s with a very deep, sinister mystery.
(One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Between Sea and Sky, by Jaclyn Dolamore (fiction) – mermaids, flying folk, love and loss

Jan30

The lure of the forbidden…
The temptation to go just a step further from home…
The realization that you might not ever be able to go back…

Esmerine’s world encompasses not only the classic attraction of mermaids and humans for one another, but also the tensions between the land-dwellers and the flying Fandarsee. Reveling in the ‘life of the mind’ and deeply intelligent discussion, these flying folk also are the messenger corps of this wide place, able to travel faster and farther than even the nobility’s best horses.

Perhaps the memory of their childhood friendship will be enough to convince Alan to defy his overbearing father’s demands long enough to help Esmerine find her sister. Or maybe the elder Fandarsee’s deep loathing of merfolk will hinder their search until it’s too late for Dosia.

You’ll have to read Between the Sea and Sky to find out for yourself. Check with your local library or independent bookstore for this original and complex tale of the peoples of land, sea, and sky.
**kmm

Book info: Between the Sea and Sky / Jaclyn Dolamore. Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site]

My Recommendation: At last, Esmerine has earned her siren’s golden belt, imbued it with magic so she can defend the mermaid village and the sea. She’s excited to join her older sister Dosia as a siren; they’ve always enjoyed that junction of air and ocean, not to mention their glimpses of land-dwellers in boats and on shore.

Merfolk sometimes tease Esmerine about her childhood friendship with that flying boy who brought books to share with her on a tiny island. Paper never lasts under the sea, so she has only memories of the stories she and Alander read together. Perhaps she’ll see other flying folk soon, and one of those messengers can take her greetings to him.

The young sirens patrol near the surface, and if necessary use the power of their alluring songs to stop greedy humans from overfishing or exploring too close to the merfolk. Sometimes they must resort to overturning a boat or letting the ocean claim intruders from the surface. Always, always, always, the sirens have been warned against speaking to human men, for the pull felt between mermaids and men is strong and subtle.

When Dosia doesn’t return from a secret rendezvous with a young man on land, Esmerine knows that she must go ashore, transform her beautiful tail to awkward legs, put on human clothes, endure the fiery pains of each footstep, and find her sister before it’s too late – and Dosia is doomed to have land-legs forever.

At the seaport, she learns that her friend Alander now works at a bookshop – maybe he can check with the flying messengers to help Esmerine find Dosia. Grown up, he’s known as Alan now; the Fandarsee man discovers that Lord Carlo had fallen in love with Dosia and has taken her by carriage to his mountain castle to be married there.

How can Esmerine travel all the way from the shore to the mountains? Will it be too late to help Dosia return to the sea? And why does even arguing about little things with Alan feel better than Esmerine’s patrols with the sirens?

In this richly imagined world where humans, merfolk, and Fandarsee must find ways to co-exist, young Esmerine must discover where her heart can truly live. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Statistical Probability of Falling in Love, by Jennifer E. Smith (book review) – love is in the air?

Jan27

Bridesmaid’s dress? check.
Passport? yes, Mom!
Dickens novel to throw at Dad? of course.

Even if you’ve never missed a travel connection or worried about having to get along with people you’ve never met or been stranded in a crowded airport, you can still imagine Hadley’s anxiety about traveling by herself from JFK to London for her dad’s second wedding…

Meeting Oliver makes the delay and the flight so much more bearable for her. All those crazy statistics he quotes – he must be making them up! Why, oh why couldn’t they have gotten to say a proper goodbye at Heathrow Airport before she had to find a taxi and rush to the wedding?

Twenty-four hours of hurry and bother – wonder if it’s the last thing that Hadley needs or merely what she’d never expect…
**kmm

Book info: The Statistical Probability of Falling in Love / Jennifer E. Smith. Poppy Books, 2012. [author’s website] [book’s Facebook page] [publisher site] [Hadley’s book trailer] [Oliver’s book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Recommendation: Four minutes late! The plane is leaving; Hadley will be late for her father’s wedding. At least there’s a cute guy to talk to as her trans-Atlantic flight is rescheduled and she tries to calm down in the overcrowded airport.

She can understand why Dad went to study in England – he is a poet, after all – but why did he fall in love with someone there? How could he leave her and Mom alone? Just sneaking in and taking his personal things from their house while they were on vacation – ha! How can he expect her to be a bridesmaid in this wedding and be happy? She’s never even met the woman – her new stepmother – arrgh!

Thankfully, the cute guy is on her flight. Oliver is British, studying at Yale, listens a lot, talks a little. He even has the seat next to hers and helps Hadley relax on her first long plane ride, inventing silly statistics and listening to her worries about the future.

Separated at the passport checkpoint in the London airport, Hadley hopes she can see Oliver one last time before she heads into a strange city and a strange new relationship with her father. With the delays, she’ll barely make it to the London church in time for the wedding.

As the day goes on and Hadley moves her jet-lagged self through the ceremony and family photos, she feels compelled to find Oliver, to find out why he was returning to England suddenly, to see if he can come up with a statistic that will make her feel better about what lies ahead.

Can she remember enough from their sleepy conversations to figure out where he is? Can she travel there without getting run over by traffic traveling on the wrong side of the road? Can she just make it through this nerve-wracking day and go back home to Mom, please?

It’s easy to understand Hadley’s fears and frustrations during all the changes in her life and to root for her to find someone special for herself, even if she doesn’t believe in love at first sight. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Breaking Stalin’s Nose (fiction)

Jan25

“The Young Pioneer is devoted to Comrade Stalin, the Communist Party, and Communism.
A Young Pioneer is a reliable comrade and always acts according to conscience.
A Young Pioneer has a right to criticize shortcomings.”

Sasha memorizes the Young Pioneers’ Oath, believes everything that his teachers say about Comrade Stalin and the amazing future of Communism, and is certain that his father will attend the ceremony when Sasha can finally wear the coveted red Young Pioneer scarf.

So why highlight a book about a ten year old boy here? Eugene Yelchin’s father survived the informers who reported neighbors to Stalin’s State Police. As the author of Breaking Stalin’s Nose grew up in Russia, Stalin’s brutal regime was completely ignored, his Purges removing every potentially disloyal citizen never mentioned in the history books.

Only when the author emigrated to the USA did he begin to learn of Stalin’s Great Terror. How can a nation wipe away every memory of such brutality? Brainwashing its children to never question their teachers and parents is one way, and the Young Pioneers movement ensured this unswerving loyalty for many decades. The Young Pioneers organization still exists today in Russia, but only Lenin is mentioned, never his bloodthirsty predecessor Stalin.

Breaking Stalin’s Nose takes us into Sasha’s innocent trust that Comrade Stalin would make everything all right… Find this Newbery Honor Book at your local library or independent bookstore, and be sure to explore its website where Yelchin has collected objects and information that make those dark days under Stalin even more real.
**kmm

Book info: Breaking Stalin’s Nose / written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin. Henry Holt Books, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site]

My Recommendation: Tomorrow! Finally, Sasha will become a Young Pioneer and help Comrade Stalin bring the prosperity of communism to the USSR. His father, an officer in the Soviet State Police, will be guest of honor at the ceremony and will tie Sasha’s red Young Pioneer scarf for the first time.

Waiting in the apartment kitchen that they share with 46 others, he knows that his father will be late to dinner since he is always busy catching spies. Sasha adores his father, but he worships Comrade Stalin who watches over all the people of the USSR. How sad that the children in capitalist countries will never be free enough to live together in such harmony!

But heavy boots come up the stairs late at night, and the State Police arrest Father! A neighbor has reported lies about his loyalty to Stalin, just to get their apartment for his own family. Now Sasha is alone in the darkness and the snow.

There must be some mistake! Comrade Stalin himself pinned a medal on Father’s coat for catching spies. Sasha decides that he must report this error to Comrade Stalin at once, so that his father can attend the Young Pioneer Ceremony at school tomorrow.

Everyone at school knows how children are treated when their parents are arrested as enemies of the State – scorned and mocked and bullied. And if the parents don’t return from bleak Lubyanka Prison, then it’s off to the orphanage for their children… perhaps a worse fate than a mere firing squad.

Can Sasha reach the Kremlin to speak with Comrade Stalin before it’s too late for his father? Will he be able to join the Young Pioneers when his father’s whereabouts are unknown? Can he find his Aunt Larisa on this dark winter night?

Yelchin’s black and white sketches show the bleakness of life under Stalin’s brutal control, even as Sasha begins to realize that the glowing words he has memorized about his Great Leader are no truth at all. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

The Big Picture (reflective)

Jan16

Have you ever WORDLED? I used their free app to create the nifty word cloud here, using my initial blogpost about MotherReader and Lee Wind‘s annual Comment Challenge for kidlit bloggers, 2012 edition.

What fun it’s been to “meet” illustrators, authors, and book bloggers through the Challenge! Getting out of my “writing silo” where I see only my computer screen and the books that I’m recommending so that I interact more with the diverse and supportive kidlit community online – priceless!

Since BooksYALove is a fairly new blog, I’m grateful for new visitors (and new followers – yay!) who will help spread the word about the wonderful YA books from debut authors and smaller imprints that I’m discovering.

After all, I’m writing these recommendations (no spoilers ever! I promise) for YA readers… right book for the right reader!
**kmm

Who started THE VALLEY-WESTSIDE WAR? by Harry Turtledove (YA book review)

Jan13
In 1967,
during “the Summer of Love,”
someone dropped the Bomb and began nuclear holocaust…

Why did it happen in one time-continuum and not the others? What made this time-stream different? If Crosstime Traffic seals off this alternate, will if prevent this blight from spreading to others where they trade undercover for resources?

Yes, it’s all about the money for Crosstime Traffic; researchers are allowed to travel to alternate time-streams if there’s a potential commercial advantage for the corporation.

That’s why Liz is spending her gap year between high school and college with her scientist parents in this fragmented L.A. time-stream, with its hippie-talk lingo and scavenged technology. But can she hide her intellect well enough to pass for a young woman of this era during a war between neighborhoods?

You can read the six Crosstime Traffic books in any order, as there are different teens traveling the alternate time-streams in each. The Disunited States of America (review) never saw the Constitution signed – alternate history is an interesting and dangerous place!
**kmm

Book info: The Valley-Westside War (Crosstime Traffic #6) / Harry Turtledove. Tor Books, 2008 (paperback, 2009). [author’s website] [publisher site] Personal copy; cover image courtesy of publisher.

My Recommendation: Nuclear bombs shattered the US in 1967, leaving pockets of survivors and halting technology development – on this parallel timeline. Sent there by Crosstime Traffic, Liz and her parents pose as traders as they try to discover why this Los Angeles is still a patchwork of neighborhood kingdoms at war with one another 100 years later.

In the nearly abandoned UCLA library lit by oil lanterns, Liz scans crumbling magazines and newspapers with her hidden data device, hunting for the war’s trigger point. She can’t visit the library too often, as women here are expected to run the household and stay quiet – women’s liberation never even got started before someone fired the first deadly missiles. Good thing she’ll be at the real UCLA in the home timeline in just a year, instead of fetching water from cisterns during the ongoing drought.

When the Westside City Council decides to charge a toll for wagons coming through Sepulveda Pass on the old highway, King Zev of the Valley declares war. So it’ll be arrows and knives in hand-to-hand combat, as usual – except someone has found an Old Time machine gun and made it work. As killing from a distance becomes possible for the first time in decades, the stakes are much higher for Dan and the other soldiers.

A chance meeting between Liz and Dan may put both their missions in jeopardy, as Dan invents reasons to visit the Mendoza hacienda in enemy territory so he can talk to her again. It’s hard to transmit data reports to the home timeline when Liz doesn’t know when Dan might show up. He is nice to talk to and look at, of course.

As long as the Mendozas act like regular traders and the locals don’t suspect there’s a time station hidden in their hacienda’s basement, everything will be fine… right?

Turtledove brings readers into another alternate strand of history with this exciting episode of the Crosstime Traffic series, asking “what if?” a single event could change everything we know. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Huntress (fiction)

Jan9

Years of rain,
Crops rotting overnight,
Monsters infiltrating villages near the Great Wood,
a sudden summons from the Fairy Queen to her hidden city.

The most talented sage-in-training for generations, Taisin has seen a vision with Kaede accompanying her on this quest, and the oracle stones have confirmed it. Kaede is an able enough scholar, but her years at the academy have merely proved that she has no ability as a sage, despite her noble father’s hopes. He’d rather solidify a political alliance using her as a marriage pawn, but the King has faith in the oracles and in Taisin’s vision – the two young women will indeed answer the Fairy Queen’s call, along with Prince Con and his best warriors.

Whether you’re saving Malinda Lo’s Ash until you finish reading this prequel or you’re returning to the sea islands and forests of ancient Cathair, you’ll be transported to a far place and a far time as you anxiously accompany Kaede and Taisin on their journey, hoping for their political success and future happiness together.

Find Huntress today at your local library or independent bookseller, and beware the monsters of the Great Wood.
**kmm

Book info: Huntress / Malinda Lo. Little Brown, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

My Recommendation: No sunshine, no crops, no hope for their country unless two teens can learn what the Fairy Queen knows about the new monsters attacking under the never-ending clouds. From the sanctuary of their Academy, 17-year-old Kaede and Taisin must travel far – a daughter of the hunt and a sage just coming into her immense psychic powers against threats from… where?

Kaede thought that this quest would be much better than her noble father’s plan to marry her off as a political move, but as their small group encounters human babies born with writhing monster souls and villages scoured clean by ravening creatures of the fog, she’s not so sure. Is it coincidence that the Fairy Queen’s invitation came to the King’s court at this time of great troubles, when only Prince Con could be spared for the journey?

Traveling further into the Wood, whispering winds taunt with empty promises and Xi ghosts try to lure them off the trail. Taisin worries that her spell-knowledge is not enough to protect them. Warrior Shae opines that worry is useless; only action will see them through. Ceaseless rain leaches color from the world and hope from their spirits. The only warm spark in this dismal place is the growing attraction between Kaede and Taisin.

As they near the Fairy Queen’s city, Taisin’s sleeping- self travels to distant icy halls, the Xi ghosts circle closer, and the Huntsman of legend appears with a message. Can they indeed ford that vast river separating Fairy lands from those of humans? Will the Queen know why Cathair’s weather remains always winter? Can she help them bring springtime back to their world?

This evocative prequel to Ash takes readers into a world of menacing shadows trying to overrun a land like ancient China, where much depends on the hearts of two girls who should still be studying in school and falling in love instead of having to fight monsters in order to save their people. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Unison Spark, by Andy Marino (book review) – social network or mind control?

Jan6

book cover of Unison Spark by Andy Marino published by Henry HoltA perfect world made just for you,
optimized to provide everything that you want,
more realistic than real life.
What could go wrong with that?

Future Friday takes us to sprawling Eastern Seaboard City, where the Haves can access the ultimate social network – Unison – and the Have-Nots are relegated to the below-street slums, with its rampant crime among the scabbed-together shacks and cast-off technology bits.

Mistletoe can engineer and coax her hunk-of-junk scooter into maneuvers just beyond the maximum recommended for that old model – good thing, as gun-wielding topsider goons pursue her and lost Ambrose through Little Saigon’s alleys and hidden passageways. Why would any sensible topsider come down here?

All good things do have their price, and some revolutionaries think that the price of Unison will far exceed its subscription costs. Can the teens trust the revolutionaries or UniCorp or anyone?

How far is UniCorp willing to go in its search for maximum profits? Can they truly predict every individual Unison user’s ultimate needs through process-flow? When does the will of an individual become merely a consumable piece in a worldwide business plan?

This page-turning potential future is available now at libraries and bookstores – grab it!
**kmm

Book info: Unison Spark / Andy Marino. Henry Holt, 2011. [author’s website] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

My Book Talk: When Mistletoe saves a young topsider from uniformed non-police thugs, she wonders why this wealthy teen is in the grotty lower city. She certainly can’t go up into his world of real sunshine and Unison – the social network that knows you better than you know yourself.

Ah, Unison! Just shimmer in (for an appropriate fee) and enjoy limitless data flow, countless friends, your own custom-structured world for work and play. Everything is clearer, brighter, happier in Unison – as long as you keep paying your subscription. And UniCorp provides all the little things in the real world that make it less painful to be part of the “fleshbound parade” of humans during those so-long moments of being out of Unison.

No one can predict process-flow as well as teenaged Ambrose, who is chair of UniCorp’s profits division well ahead of his older brother Len. Ambrose will today move into Unison permanently, when surgery to his hypothalamus will eliminate his body’s need for sleep and give him 24 hours a day in Unison to maximize profits for their father’s corporation.

A rogue data-transfer message as he enters the UniCorp building tells Ambrose to go down into Little Saigon now, before the surgery, or his brain and dreams will be siphoned away by… who? Len? Their father? Revolutionaries? Contrary to best process-flow data, Ambrose flees for the subcanopy’s depths.

As Mistletoe and Ambrose escape through Little Saigon’s grimy alleys and tunnels on a puttering old roboscooter, they discover that both received the same rogue message “Carpe somnium” and wonder why they’ve been told to “seize the dream.”

Bombs in a world where explosives are illegal, closed off from the data of Unison and allies in the subcanopy, the teens must stay alive and free as they try to discover who’s trying to keep Ambrose out of Unison and why the data message brought them together.

Clever and suspenseful, Unison Spark is an adventure story of the future which threads questions of self and community through its action-filled pages. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Once a Witch, by Carolyn MacCullough (book review) – prophecy with no power?

Jan3

book cover of Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough published by ClarionGetting away from a bad situation always seems like a good idea… except when a bigger problem roars down from an unexpected quarter.

There’s always someone, somewhere, who is taller or has a better free throw average or solves the crossword puzzle faster than you – usually we find something else to focus on and things seem better.

But Tam’s birth prophecy said she would be “most powerful” and “a beacon to us all” – she’s not imagining her family’s disappointment as she grows up with no Talent at all. Her mom’s arguments about Tam leaving home made the weather storm and moan; her grandmother’s future-sight never shows whole pictures.

At least Gabriel is here now – his Talent for finding things might help Tam as she searches for the professor’s long-lost family heirloom. And a little time-Traveling with a cute guy…

Followed by Always a Witch which extends and completes the story of Tamsin and the Greenes as they struggle to keep the Knight family from gaining control over humankind.
**kmm

Book info: Once a Witch / Carolyn MacCullough. Graphia HMH, 2009. [author’s website] [book website] [publisher site] [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Recommendation: Boarding school is a better place for Tamsin, unTalented among her family of powerful witches. There, she can almost forget the words of her seer grandmother – that Tamsin will be most powerful of them all. Ha!

At least her childhood pal Gabriel and his mother have moved back to Hedgerow, where the extended Greene family has lived quietly for many decades, more than content to stay out of public notice. He doesn’t yet know that Tam’s Talent never manifested, but someone will surely tell him soon.

When a professor visits the family bookstore and asks her help in tracing an heirloom, mistaking Tam for her very Talented sister, she agrees. A bit odd that McCallum finds them both in New York City soon after, as Rowena shops for her wedding dress…

Tam’s search for the missing clock takes her and Gabriel much further than she had imagined – back to 1899, in fact, thanks to Gabriel’s time-traveling Talent. But finding the clock triggers a new quest as Tam learns more about her family’s history and their past battles with another group of witches who’d rather rule over unTalented humans than avoid their notice.

Can Tam keep the clock away from the professor long enough to discover its secrets? Have she and Gabriel altered the path of time? How can she do anything to help her family when she has no Talent?

Tam tries to balance her personal world with the larger questions of good versus evil in this first book of a duet which is followed by Always a Witch. Surely Rowena will decide on a wedding dress before it’s all over… (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)

Cinder, by Marissa Meyer (book review) – cyberCinderella, human prince, true love?

Dec30


As a plague rumbles across the Earth,
the Lunars’ queen plans conquest.
Can one teenage cyborg-human make a difference?

On this Future Friday, we get a new look at an old story as Marissa Meyer takes Cinderella’s tale into the celebrations commemorating the 124th anniversary of the end of World War IV (yep, more World Wars). Damaged body parts can be replaced with cybernetic-mechanical ones – although most full humans consider cyborgs to be lesser-class citizens. Across the earth, letumosis plague fells rich and poor, young and old, as scientists race to find a cure for the Blue Fever.

Those humans who colonized the Moon centuries ago are Lunars now and have developed mysterious powers. The Lunar queen wants to expand her kingdom, but needs an heir related by blood. Her relentless messages asking for an alliance with Prince Kai’s realm escalate into a personal visit to New Beijing’s palace. Can the Earthers resist her mind powers?

Hurry to your local indie bookstore to get the first book in The Lunar Chronicles series – Cinder will be published on January 3, 2012. In the meantime, you can listen to chapter one of the audiobook version free, and read the prequel story “Glitches” on Tor Books’ website now.

We’ll have to wait for the sequels, of course: Scarlet in 2013 (based on Red Riding Hood), Cress in 2014 (Rapunzel), and Winter (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs).
**kmm

Book info: Cinder (Book One of The Lunar Chronicles)/ Marissa Meyer. Feiwel and Friends, 2012. [author’s website] [author’s blog] [publisher site] [fan-made book trailer]

My Book Talk:When the prince brings his android for repair, Cinder wonders if he suspects that she’s a cyborg. She’s the best mechanic in New Beijing, but must avoid public notice so she can keep her job. Otherwise, her stepmother Adri will sell her to doctors testing plague cures on cyborg teen girls.

Up on the Moon, the Lunars under Queen Levana’s mind control never catch the fatal letumosis. The ruthless Queen continues to hammer at the Eastern Commonwealth for an alliance by marriage, even as its King suffers with the plague’s agonies. Peony also falls ill with letumosis, and Adri blames Cinder for her stepsister’s illness.

If Prince Kai chooses an Earthen bride at the Spring Festival Ball – that would stop the Queen’s plans of conquest. Every young woman in the city prepares her gown for the ball – except Cinder. Her stepmother removes her mechanical foot and turns her over to the research lab; no cyborg has ever come back out.

Queen Levana is coming to New Beijing – in person! Will she be able to control every Earther mind? Can Prince Kai find a way to keep their kingdom free? Will Cinder escape the research lab? Why can’t she remember anything before the accident that led to her body being repaired with mechanical cyborg parts?

This fascinating retelling of the Cinderella tale is the first book of the Lunar Chronicles series, with many secrets underlying the familiar story. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.