Anglet Sutonga, 17, is one, if not the, best steeplejack in Bar-Selehm. Her job involves climbing factories and tall buildings to repair chimneys and the like. She is part of the Lani community, who are mostly in poverty. When Ang finds her new apprentice dead and hears a historical icon stolen in one night, she suspects the two might be connected, and a sneaky politician hires her to look into it. With danger around every corner, Ang will have to solve the mystery before more lives are lost.

STEEPLEJACK by A.J. Hartley bursts with rich imagery and world building. Bar-Selehm is a city in a historical South African fantasy world with three primary communities: the white Feldish, the native Mahweni, and the Lani. One major element of the story is how the communities and races interact together and how Ang feels she has no place as she doesn’t adhere to the more traditional Lani customs. The descriptions of the city and the landscape are beautiful, and even with all the smoke and chaos in the city, it clearly feels like a home to Ang as she knows every roof.

The detective/mystery plot is well layered and holds more than one unexpected twist. The story gets even better as Ang teams up with a newspaper girl and a politician’s sister to figure out some of the clues. All are highly intelligent and savvy, and their dialogues are a joy. Ang’s sisters also play important roles, and the strained family relationships are written well and realistically.

Luscious world building, a tense mystery, and a smart heroine combine to make STEEPLEJACK an absolute thrill ride.

Originally posted at YABC: http://www.yabookscentral.com/yafiction/20086-steeplejack

Power couple Maria and Lily have their sights set on a clear future: attending Stanford together, away from their boarding school, Acheron Academy. The only person who could ruin their chances is Delilah Dufrey, the school queen and nearly guaranteed receiver of a major scholarship. Maria and Lily are willing to do anything to make their future happen…including using a dark power involving the spirits on the school’s land that used to be a plantation. As things spiral out of control, blood will be spilt.

Robin Talley’s AS I DESCENDED takes Shakespeare’s Macbeth and transforms it into a chilling contemporary story with dark magic, a diverse and queer cast, and a haunted boarding school. Talley masters an eerie tone and dangerous atmosphere from the beginning, and readers should be cautious about reading this spooky tale at night. From scratching sounds on windows to stories of La Llorona to spirits who may or may not be deceased family, every chapter is riddled with a dark edge to send shivers up spines.

Lily, Maria, Brandon, and Mateo are beautifully written and develop well. The way Talley parallels the original Macbeth’s tension and stress of royal politics with modern day high school academic culture is masterfully (and a bit painfully) believable. Maria and Lily know how high the stakes are if they both don’t get into Stanford, and that introduces them to their dark journey. The way both the spirits and the characters themselves manipulate each other is wickedly done, but what makes the story so tragic is that each of the characters have good in them, especially in the beginning. You could easily see the bright future they would have had ahead of them, had their series of choices not changed everything.

AS I DESCENDED captures Shakespearean tragedy at its best with several vengeful spirits, a couple whose power together could change everything, and madness waiting around every corner.

Originally posted at YABC: http://www.yabookscentral.com/explore-ya-fiction/discussions/review?id=37714

"Edith has always been a little neglected by her family. Her older sister, Vivienne, and their mother fight like crazy, and their father spends most of his time working to afford his wife's expensive spending. As the years pass, tensions between Edith and Viv grow as Viv rebels. When Edith takes a job at the National Gallery of Canada, she finds it difficult to stop worrying about her sister, wanting Liam to love her, and finds friendship in an unexpected place." Full review at Fresh Fiction: http://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=59904

"Dafne Mailloux is the trusted librarian of the High Queen. She loves learning and researching, and her years doing so have made her good with languages. When the High Queen asks her to journey to a foreign land to gather information, Dafne reluctantly accepts. While journeying, she meets a foreign king whose language she can't translate. Dafne is submitted to a wedding of alliance in an unusual and magical court, and she will find her loyalties more divided than ever as secrets are uncovered." Full review at Fresh Fiction: http://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=59910

"Aubrey Ellis leads a normal life on the outside: a newspaper job, an impending divorce, and a loving grandmother. She keeps her paranormal gift of being able to communicate with the dead as under the radar as she possibly can. When the skeletal remains of a body no one thought would ever be found surfaces, Aubrey is assigned to team up with reporter Levi St John to find the mystery behind the body and why the person locked up for the crime may or may not have been the one to commit it. Keeping her gift a secret has never been harder, and as romance flairs between them, Aubrey is certain of only one thing: justice must be found." Full review at Fresh Fiction: http://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=59975

"Avery West is on a mission to get her mother back. After only a few weeks of meeting her newfound family and being thrust into the mysterious and dangerous Circle society, all she wants is to save the one parent who raised her. However, in order to do so, she has to solve the truth about the Circle and uncover a series of clues that all seem to lead to one conclusion. Alliances will be shattered, hearts will be broken, and trust will be thrown out the window in this sequel to THE CONSPIRACY OF US." Full review at Fresh Fiction: http://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=59965

"Henry Leach the Eighth is rich in magical family lineage, something he is just starting to discover as he tries to get his wand to work. When he seeks help about his wand, he becomes thrust in an entanglement of magic, mysterious books, a father who is more than a little suspicious, and a road trip full of danger. Together with his little sister, Brianna, who used to be his biggest annoyance, Henry must save the world and his family." Full review at Fresh Fiction: http://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=59968