You will find it hard to put down Lovely War by Julie Berry! The book is a combination of historical fiction and myth. The Greek gods Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Ares, Hades, and Apollo appear in the 1940s, as Aphrodite is found secretly meeting with her lover Ares. Stalling for time, Aphrodite recounts what she calls “the love story of the century.” The gods interrupt each other and talk over each other to jointly tell the World War I story of two couples: Hazel and James, and Collette and Aubrey.
Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the world the truth. Over the span of her six decades as an Old Hollywood movie star and icon, she has become known for glamour, scandal, and of course, her seven marriages. But nobody really knows what happened over the course of her journey from daughter of poor immigrants to household name. Now aging and reclusive, Evelyn summons unknown journalist Monique Grant to her Upper East Side apartment to write her biography — a tell-all detailing the truth behind her facade of a life.
The story of Dune begins with Paul Atriedes, son of the Duke Leto. Leto is assigned to govern over the hostile desert world of Arrakis, the only source of melange. This “spice” is highly coveted, as consumption of it can cause, most notably, heightened mental abilities and limited foresight. However, the Duke’s acclimation of the planet was planned so that the Atriedes family might be left vulnerable. Paul must learn to navigate the new worlds of Arrakis and interplanetary politics, or his family will not survive.
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan is a coming-of-age story that follows teenager Leigh Chen Sanders as she deals with the aftermath of her mother’s suicide. Shortly after her mother’s death, Leigh believes that she has been visited by her mother- in the form of a bird. She is convinced that she will be able to see her once again if she journeys to Taiwan to meet her grandparents.
All sixteen-year-old Siria has ever known is darkness. Years ago, the esteemed Queen Iyzabel veiled the kingdom of Terra-Volat in it because the light was too dangerous, becoming a hero to the people. Black hair and pale skin became the popular fashion, and even a slight curiosity in the old days of light is illegal. But Siria, with her flaming red hair and fascination with the sun, has always been considered an oddity, much to the dismay of her parents.
At 40 years old, Linus Baker is a quiet, simple man who lives a solitary, uneventful life. Every morning he goes to the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, where he works as a Case Worker writing report after report, either encouraging or discouraging the continuation of orphanages that serve as homes to children with magical abilities. In the evening, he returns to his tiny house, which is situated in the midst of hundreds of the same identically tiny houses. Rinse. Repeat. Rinse. Repeat.
The Cousins, by Karen M. McManus, is a Mystery/Thriller. A dark, suspicious family continues to hide their secrets. Everything comes to light when Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah's grandmother invite them to work at their grandmother's house. When they go to the island, they realize that their family is more mysterious than they assumed. Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah discover all the secrets.
At the beginning of Chainbreaker, Tara Sim’s sequel to Timekeeper, Danny and Colton’s story continues for a little while before it is interrupted by concerning news: clock towers in India are falling, but time somehow manages to keep running.
For centuries, time has been controlled by clock towers, but when a tower is broken, time upsets. When a tower is destroyed, time Stops. Clock mechanics are tasked with fixing broken towers, but Stopped cities are unable to be rescued. In Victorian England, Danny Hart, a 17-year-old prodigy mechanic with a traumatic past, fixes clock towers that are victims of mysterious bombings across England while trying to find a way to save his father from a Stopped town. But in the process, he meets someone that most people believe doesn’t even exist: a clock spirit, whose name is Colton.
This book is about an African American girl named Starr Carter who lives in two different worlds with her school being predominantly white and located in a suburb and where she lives which is understood to be the ghetto. When she tries and figures out her different worlds, there is suddenly a traumatic event where her childhood best friend is fatally shot by a police officer. In order to take revenge and bring justice for her friend, she starts to protest and advocate for justice about police brutality against African Americans.
