Affair

Affair by Amanda Quick, Bantam Books 1997

     Charlotte Arkendale and Baxter St. Ives have one thing in common, their search for a murderer. Charlotte is a resourceful woman, on the shelf in Regency England at twenty five years old and in business looking into the background of potential suitors for women. One of her recent clients is murdered and Charlotte believes it must have been one of the suitors she recently rejected.
     Baxter St. Ives is the bastard son of an earl, a gentleman with a passion for chemistry and a logical investigator. When his aunt asks him to look into her friend's murder the path points to Charlotte. He engages himself as her man-of-affairs and bodyguard, but it quickly becomes clear Charlotte is not the murderer.
     As the pair continues their investigation they discover a passion neither expected. They become lovers as well as partners.When their quarry attempts to break the connection between Charlotte and St. Ives they begin to think their murderer is not a rejected suitor, but something much more dangerous.
     To allow Charlotte to move in society and to provide a plausible reason for the significant amount of time she spends with St. Ives, the pair announce their engagement. The only people aware of the engagement's fraudulence are those aware of the murder investigation: Charlotte's sister and housekeeper, and St. Ives's aunt. So when they are attacked and their relationship is challenged, the motive seems to be completely separate from their investigation.
     When a villain from their separate pasts reappears with a plan to upset the status quo and destroy them both in the process, Charlotte and St. Ives realize that their feelings are more powerful than either thought at first. They manage to find the murderer and the story is wrapped up leaving few questions and several hopes for Charlotte and St. Ives's joint future.
     Affair is a romance novel, more appropriate for more mature readers and generally aimed at women. There are explicit scenes, however the general story arc has merit aside from the romantic fantasy.

A Lady of High Regard

A Lady of High Regard by Tracie Peterson, 2007 Bethany House Publishing

     Mia Stanley is a well-bred young Christian woman in mid-nineteenth century Philadelphia. Her life seems charmed: she plays matchmaker for her sisters and friends, and enjoys the company of the admirable Garrett Wilson, while choosing to work for the Godey's magazine. When Mia discovers the plight of Philadelphia's women, her sympathies are engaged and the simple mission for Godey's Ladies Book becomes a passion that ultimately threatens everything she holds dear.
     In an era where women and children's working conditions are being challenged the wives and widows of Philadelphia's seamen are forced to pay exorbitant amounts and non-existent debts. The women cannot afford to feed their families and maintain the roof over their heads with their menfolk gone for years at a time and the debt collectors turn to other forms of payment: kidnapping children into indentured servitude, or coercing liberties from mothers with nowhere else to go. The sheltered Miss Stanley is introduced to this downtrodden world when her editor asks her to try and help the women.
     At first, working for the magazine and helping the women is just another adventure, one becoming more and more difficult for society to accept. But when Mia's closest friend, Garrett, looks into the situation he quickly discovers the difficulties are more than just the cycle of poverty. Though Mia discounts the danger, believing God will protect and bless her for the work she does among the less fortunate, Garrett finds the main perpetrator is more dangerous than Mia will accept.
     While committed to her activism and the surrounding events, Mia begins to discover that her feelings for Garrett aren't always what she assumed them to be. Finding a match for him brings her more anxiety and jealousy than the pleasure of finding love for her friends has. Garrett realizes the love he has always had for Mia is not that of a sister as he always assumed. Neither is willing to speak of their desires for fear of rejection until the matter is taken from their hands.
     While mainly a story of romance, A Lady of High Regard deals with the changing social climate of the mid-nineteenth century: young women from the heights of society begin to venture outside the home into activism and the worksphere, women and children's labor conditions become a major issue in politics. But the changes cannot make up for the corruption throughout all levels of society. Mia is a passionate woman living the values her Christian upbringing has instilled in her, fighting the dictates of society even while trying to live within them. It is a story of persistence and caring for fellow humans, despite differences of class and wealth.
     Once the reader gets into the story, it is a fairly quick read. Mia's story is inspiring with characters one can relate to, familiar language, and an easily adopted cause. A Lady of High Regard is a read for fluent readers: high school or older will get more from the story than younger children who may not be able to connect to the main conflicts.

The Calling

The Calling by Kelley Armstrong, HarperTeen 2012

     Maya Delaney has discovered a secret within her genes--she is a skin-walker! After evading a forest fire and bogus rescue team in The Gathering, Maya and her friends are kidnapped by the same shady corporation. They escape when their evacuating helicopter goes down of the shore of Vancouver Island. Again the group of teens is fleeing a mysterious corporation, hoping to assure their parents they're still alive.
     The lives Maya and her friends cherished prove to be projections based on the genetic experiments run by the town's corporate owners, the St. Clouds. Supernatural abilities begin to manifest as the friends run further from the safe haven of their pasts.
     Gradually their group is picked up, one by one, and the friends must deal with the losses of not only their lives, as shocking truths come to light, but also their possible futures. They manage to return home to find the town deserted and abandoned. But the shock is softened when one of their own is returned. But all is not what it seems: betrayal is behind every tree and Maya must make decisions that could mean salvation or cost her friends their lives.
     This second novel is all about betrayal and the power of friendship in unsteady times. As they fight for survival, Maya and each of her friends must choose: are they willing to give up preconceived notions about each other to ensure they make it, and will they trust each self-sacrifice means survival and eventual rescue? The Calling is a fast-paced read meant for high school readers, complete with romance, betrayal, and suspense.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling, 1999 Bloomsbury

     After nearly being killed by a book, Harry Potter is seeing strange shapes in the shadows. First a cloaked figure then a large, shaggy dog, but things are getting out of hand when one of the strangely cloaked figures attacks him while Harry and his cousin, Dudley, are in a public playground. Harry is sent an owl from the Ministry of Magic and scolded for his use of magic in front of a Muggle.
     When Aunt Marge comes to visit she, like the rest of her family, demeans Harry's parents and Harry himself. In a fit of rage Harry unwittingly uses magic to inflate her like a helium balloon and escapes in the aftermath. He is picked up by the Knight Bus and travels to Diagon Alley where he runs into the Minister of Magic himself. Fudge asks Harry to spend the rest of his summer in Diagon Alley where he may be protected and looked after.
     As he takes the train back to Hogwarts with Ron and Hermione, Harry discovers that Fudge wanted him accounted for because Sirius Black, Harry's Godfather and a convicted murderer has escaped from Azkaban Prison. Nearly everyone assumes Black plans to murder Harry and the Ministry has sent Dementors to patrol the school and surrounding areas.
     The Dementors are soul-sucking hooded creatures capable of stealing an individual's happiness and making them relive their worst memories. When one appears on the train, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts' Professor Lupin defends the trio and helps them recover with chocolate. It is not the first or last time Harry encounters the Dementors: he falls nearly fifty feet during a Quidditch match when a group swarms him. The problems urge Harry to take lessons from Lupin on a patronus charm, which repels the creatures.
     Third Years are offered the opportunity to visit the nearby town of Hogsmeade, but when Harry doesn't have permission from his guardian he is confined to the grounds. Fred and George Weasley, however, have other plans and deliver into Harry's possession the Maurader's Map. The Map was created by Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs in years gone by and shows the location of any person within Hogwarts grounds, as well as passages off campus. Harry uses the map and his father's invisibility cloak to sneak into Hogsmeade where he meets up with Ron and Hermione. On one such trip Harry overhears several professors speaking about Black: how he betrayed Harry's parents, his true relationship to Harry, how he murdered not only muggles but friend Peter Pettigrew, and how he is thought to be working for Voldemort.
     The boys' relationship with Hermione is strained when she reports Harry's Christmas gift of a state-of-the-art broomstick (to replace his Nimbus 2000 after it was destroyed by the Whomping Willow), and only made worse when Ron thinks her cat ate his rat. But when Hagrid needs their support, the friends reconcile to be there for him as Buckbeak the Hippogriff is executed for attacking Malfoy (but not without reason).
     Harry, Ron, and Hermione go to the gamekeeper's cottage where they hear the axe of Buckbeak's execution. As they prepare to leave Ron's rat flees and Ron chases after him, only to be dragged down a tunnel beneath the Whomping Willow by a large black dog that has been following Harry about.
     Hermione and Harry follow where they discover Sirius Black with Ron. Lupin interrupts their standoff to explain the situation. Lupin is a werewolf and his friends became animagi, wizards who could transform into a chosen animal, so they might spend time with their friend. James Potter became a stag, Sirius Black became a large black dog, and Peter Pettigrew transformed into a rat. That rat became Scabbers, Ron's pet. Old feuds break out among the three remaining friends and Pettigrew escapes. Harry, Ron and Hermione must hurry to make it back to the castle as Lupin transforms into his were-self and Sirius chases him away from the children. They run into several Dementors and wake in the hospital wing.
     Dumbledore explains that Black is awaiting the Dementor's Kiss, which sucks the soul out of a person's body, and Harry and Hermione must go back with Hermione's Time Turner to save the day. They manage to save Buckbeak and themselves and arrive back in their hospital wing beds when Dumbledore returns with the news that Black has escaped.
     The trio's third year at Hogwarts is full of caution and the results of misrepresented facts. Though Black was not the one to betray the Potters, he feels guilty for being unable to stop them. The guilt has sentenced him to twelve years in the wizarding world's high security prison, a punishment beyond his perceived crimes. Yet when the truth is revealed, he relieves himself of that guilt to become the man James Potter made godfather to his only son. Without Harry's search for the truth and Sirius' insistence he must repay the debt to his only remaining family, Sirius Black might have continued to live in a self-imposed prison.
     This story illustrates the power of forgiveness and how strongly guilt can hold a person in thrall. It is aimed at young adults from middle school age through adulthood. Though some concepts of time travel can be difficult for young readers to understand, the ideas behind them and that the travel supports are simple and easily explained.