Without a Summer

by Mary Robinette Kowal

What’s it all about?
Jane Ellsworth is an exceptionally skilled magical artisan. In this installment of her continuing adventures Jane and her husband head to London with a two-fold mission: to create a decorative illusion out of magic and also to seek out better marriage prospects for Jane’s sister. During their time in London an uprising of disenfranchised magic practitioners is underway. As Jane gets swept up in the tide of revolution she must uncover the truth behind a political conspiracy and protect her sister from both riots and unworthy suitors.

Tell me more!
This isn’t so much a book recommendation as a Glamourist Histories series recommendation (I don't want to spoil all the juicy stuff from Jane's earlier adventures in Shades of Milk and Honey and Glamour in Glass). You can absolutely read Without a Summer if you haven't read the previous two novels, BUT why would you deprive yourself of the opportunity to enjoy such charming, delightful, and adventurous stories? You wouldn't! So don't! If you do jump into the series starting with this novel, here's the scoop: Jane lives in an alternate Regency England where magic can be plucked out of the air and used for domestic decoration, entertainment, and even military advantage. Totally sweet, right? Right.

But you don't have to take my word for it... Kowal was the 2008 recipient of the Campbell Award for Best New Writer. In 2010 the first book in the Glamourist Histories, Shades of Milk and Honey, was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel (and I had my fingers crossed so hard they almost fell off). That year Connie Willis took the award for Blackout/All Clear, but the second book in the Glamourist Histories, Glamour in Glass, is currently a finalist for the 2012 Nebula Award for Best Novel (here we go again with the furious finger-crossing)!

The main reason I love this series is Jane. She's strong, fierce, and a master at her craft, but she's also deeply flawed. She's quick to judge people and often judges them wrong. She's also relentless in her curiosity about new applications of magic to the point of self-harm. I recommend this series to adults and young adults, Fantasy readers and Regency fans alike.

Look for the fourth book in the series, Valour in Vanity, in 2014.

Last Days

by Adam Nevill

What’s it all about?
What happens at The Temple of the Last Days stays at The Temple of the Last Days... that is until documentarian Kyle Freeman is pulled on board to direct an once-in-a-lifetime project investigating infamous cult leader Sister Katherine and her followers-cum-victims in the temple of her deranged creation. The cult collapsed in 1975 after one night's mass murder/suicide. Thirty-five years later Producer Max Solomon has gained access to previously unavailable interviews. With the chance to film an unprecedented account of the cult, Kyle and his team can't refuse. But when the filming begins, unanswerable questions arise about the final days before Sister Katherine's ritual death and the murky motivations of the film's producer. Oh, and Kyle might have attracted the attention of demonic creatures summoned to the places where he’s filming.

Tell me more!
This novel is a textbook case of unputdownable (which is a workout since it's over 500 pages of ink and nightmares). I survived the reading of this book on adrenaline and snack food alone to avoid breaking for proper-meal cooking. By the last page I was twitchy, exhausted, and nutrient-deprived and that's on you, Mr. Neville. That's on you.

I was initially hesitant about spending a whole book with Kyle, the heavily in debt and disenchanted if aggressively principled documentarian, until the third chapter when he interviewed the first Temple of the Last Days survivor and showed how passionate and excited he was behind the camera. That’s also when the haunting experiences began for him. After that I was hooked hard and was in this thing (whatever it was) until the end.

If you, like me, prefer your ritualistic cult murder mysteries to unfold more X-Files-style than Law & Order-esque, this is the novel for you.

All Our Pretty Songs

by Sarah McCarry

What’s it all about?
The narrator's mom is a witch, her best friend Aurora's mom is an addict, and neither of them have dads, but they have each other. Together they grow up amid the lush and loamy backdrop of the Pacific Northwest. They drink, smoke, mosh, and take care of one another in a wild, post-grunge Seattle and nothing could tear them apart —that is, until the strange summer night that they meet Jack and Minos. Much to her surprise the narrator falls in love for the first time with heavenly guitarist Jack and in her enchanted state doesn't see that Aurora has become deeply entangled with the toxic and bizarre Minos. When Minos lures Aurora into the underworld with promises of fulfilling her deepest desires, the narrator sets out on a journey to find and retrieve her closest friend.

Tell me more!
If someone had handed me this book when I was a teenager growing up in the suburbs of Seattle, it would have changed my life. There's no question about it. So many moments in this book made me put my hand over my heart and whimper a little; whether it was the daily minutia of life in the city (they eat pho! They chill at an unnamed coffee shop that I’m sure is my beloved Bauhaus!) or the big emotional stuff (they learn what it means to love! They reach deep into their pasts to seek healing and reconciliation!). It was all so intimate and familiar. In fact, since moving from Seattle to New York two years ago no book has made me as homesick or as resentful that wearing ripped jeans and hoodies to the office is generally frowned upon as this book.

Reading this incredible debut is sort of like getting lost in the back rooms of a cluttered curiosity shop dedicated to the 1990’s teen experience and then kicking down a hidden door and launching into the hero's journey. In any case it's awesome and I hope, or rather foresee, that for years to come you'll find well-loved copies of this soon-to-be YA cult classic on the shelves, floors, and nightstands of high schoolers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.