Wildthorn by Jane Eagland
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta SepetyDark secrets and deep betrayals haunt this extraordinary debut set in a Victorian madhouse
Seventeen-year-old Louisa Cosgrove longs to break free from her respectable life as a Victorian doctor's daughter. But her dreams become a nightmare when Louisa is sent to Wildthorn Hall: labelled a lunatic, deprived of her liberty and even her real name. As she unravels the betrayals that led to her incarceration, she realizes there are many kinds of prison. She must be honest with herself - and others - in order to be set free. And love may be the key . . .
Two Girls of Gettysburg by Lisa KleinSepetys' first novel offers a harrowing and horrifying account of the forcible relocation of countless Lithuanians in the wake of the Russian invasion of their country in 1939. In the case of 16-year-old Lina, her mother, and her younger brother, this means deportation to a forced-labor camp in Siberia, where conditions are all too painfully similar to those of Nazi concentration camps. Lina's great hope is that somehow her father, who has already been arrested by the Soviet secret police, might find and rescue them. A gifted artist, she begins secretly creating pictures that can--she hopes--be surreptitiously sent to him in his own prison camp. Whether or not this will be possible, it is her art that will be her salvation, helping her to retain her identity, her dignity, and her increasingly tenuous hold on hope for the future.
Booth's Daughter by Raymond Wemmlinger (no publisher's description found online). From Booklist:In 1861, the Confederacy has just declared its independence from the Union, but life goes on much as usual in the quiet town of Gettysburg. Fifteen-year-old Lizzie Allbauer and her cousin Rosanna, recently arrived from Virginia, have big plans to attend the Ladies' Seminary together in the fall. Then Lizzie's father and brother enlist in the Union army and she must stay home to help her mother run the family butcher shop. Rosanna flees back to Richmond after a Gettysburg beau is killed in one of the early battles. Torn between her romanticized view of the war and her parents' conservative rules, Rosanna impulsively agrees to marry a former beau, John Wilcox. Within a month of marriage, he is injured, and Rosanna rushes to meet up with the Virginia Infantry so that she can care for him. Realizing that she has a gift for healing, she stays on with her husband's company as a nurse. Chapters alternate between Rosanna's journal entries of her life as a Confederate nurse and Lizzie's accounts of the events leading up to the July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. While Klein's extensive research is evident, the alternating voices have only limited success: readers will be drawn to Lizzie's genuine warmth, but frivolous Rosanna's leap to the ultra-responsible wife and nurse and the stilted dialogues in her journal entries stretch credibility. Still, Klein's weaving of the young women's stories to a shared conclusion gives a fresh perspective on the complexities of the Civil War
Stonewall's Gold by Robert Mrazek"[My] last name had a great problem attached to it," says Edwina Booth; in this historically inspired first novel, her complaint applies both to her uncle's years-past assassination of Lincoln and to the burden of living in the shadow of her famous dad, actor Edwin Booth. The curator of New York's Hampden-Booth Theatre Library, Wemmlinger focuses primarily on the father-daughter relationship, which is shaken as Edwina contemplates marriage and begins to question whether her egocentric parent has her interests at heart. The first-person narrative often bogs down in historical details, but elements reminiscent of an Edith Wharton novel--the mannered social interactions, Gilded Age settings, and matrimony-bound momentum--will draw many romantically inclined readers, who will delight in the sweet inevitability of Edwina's love match as much as in the closing message: "Grab your own chance at happiness. You can make others happy only if you're happy yourself." An afterword offers a list of sources that can help readers negotiate the underpinnings of the story. Jennifer Mattson
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Revolution by Jennifer DonnellyFrom Publishers Weekly
Echoing The Red Badge of Courage, Treasure Island and Morte D'Arthur, this tenderly rendered first novel, which takes the form of a manuscript "discovered in the archives of the Rockingham County courthouse in Harrisonburg, VA," irresistibly combines the classic motifs of Civil War, buried treasure and romantic heroism. With money running out and her husband gone to fight under General Lee during the final winter of the Civil War, 15-year-old Jamie Lockhart's mother is forced to take an ominous-looking boarder into their war-ravaged home in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Jamie is driven to kill the blackguard to save his mother from rape, and in the dead man's belongings they find a crude, encrypted map marking "the Mouth of the Devil" as the site of buried gold. On his way to consult a distant tavern owner about the map's legend, Jamie is saved from a thieving, gargantuan deserter by Major de Monfort, a one-armed, knife-throwing Cajun. Six of the giant's cronies pursue Jamie, but he insists on going behind Yankee lines to find the treasure; the Major leaves him, advising the boy to commit the map to memory and destroy it. Seized by the renegade gang, Jamie escapes with Katharine Dandridge, the feisty daughter of an elderly plantation owner murdered by the thugs. Hounded through raging storms by the murderous band, the pair finally reunite with de Monfort, and the trio trudges on in search of the gold. Told by young Jamie, Mrazek's story possesses a compelling narrative drive. His sense of landscape is expert and his cast of heroes and villains is complete, down to a horse, Jamie's Jupiter. Mrazek's exceptional coming-of-age tale will equally delight young adult and adult readers.
BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break.
PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape.
Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.
Jennifer Donnelly, author of the award-winning novel A Northern Light, artfully weaves two girls’ stories into one unforgettable account of life, loss, and enduring love. Revolution spans centuries and vividly depicts the eternal struggles of the human heart.