Ten Rules for Faking It

 Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan, 2020 St. Martin's Griffin

     Everly enjoys her position as a producer at a mid-level radio station. She works with her best friend who drives her to try getting out of her own comfort zone. Stacy is the voice of their radio program and opens the story by trying to make her best friend's thirtieth birthday special. Chris Jensen is the son of the station's new owner and put in charge as a single hoop in a series. Mr. Jensen sees the station as another toy to make him more money, but Chris sees the people. He sees the opportunity to grow the station and create a business which is more than just profit. 

     Unfortunately, Everly had just discovered her boyfriend in bed with his personal assistant and it was the frosting on the top of a series of terrible birthdays. When her explosion hits the airwaves Everly receives both an outpouring of support and the most terrifying series of events in her life. 

     When the owner sees Everly's on-air tirade as a reason to raise the system and sell it off piecemeal Chris tries to keep the crew together by offering the listeners a version of the Bachelorette. Everly agrees, with Stacy's help and support, and the station is able to leverage the success and listener engagement into a bond that ties the crew together and Chris to the crew. 

     Everly challenges her social anxiety to grow closer to the rest of the station's employees, including Chris. But the connection with her boss is more than just co-workers, or even friendship. The growing attraction between Chris and Everly forces each of them to question everything they've ever believed about their futures. But will it be enough? 

     The contemporary romance is the first in a series about the Jensen brothers as they find themselves and their partners. The first is a workplace romance dealing with parental expectations, mental health, and creating the future. Chris and Everly's story is a new adult contemporary romance. 

The Midnight Library

 The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, 2020 Viking

     Nora Seed wants to die. She doesn't feel like her mediocre life is worth living anymore after her cat dies, she loses her job, and she doesn't have a clear way to achieve any of her dreams. Late on that fateful Tuesday night, Nora takes too many pills and finds herself in the Midnight Library. 

     In the midnight library it is always midnight: it is a place between life and death, a sort of Schrodinger's Cat in the plurality of worlds where the Librarian helps Nora chose a book--a life--to try out while she's in between. Nora begins with lives where she made the other choice: stayed with swimming and became an Olympic champion; continued on to study glaciers and join a research team in the Arctic; stayed with her ex, got married, and lived out his dream of owning a pub; or joined her best friend on an adventure in Australia. 

     Each life shows her a new way she could have lived, but there's always a sense of displacement - as if she's joined the race partway through. When she becomes disappointed in her life Nora returns to the Midnight Library and the Librarian. With each new life comes the possibility of perfection, but each life is shown to have it's own disappointments. When Nora experiences motherhood in one of her lives she discovers she does want to live. 

     But is the desire to live enough to keep her alive? Haig's thought experiment about what happens after death is a poignant look into regret, despair, and hope. With suicide at the center of the tale this story is appropriate for adults and mature readers. 

Never Too Late

Never Too Late by RaeAnne Thayne, 2005 Silhouette

    Kate Spencer recently discovered that the life she lived was a direct result of being kidnapped from her family home at the age of three. Her newly discovered family includes two older brothers, a loving mother, and a generous father. When her brother and best friend have married the bride, Taylor's, older brother comes back into Kate's life. 

     Hunter was a former cop who was falsely convicted of his pregnant girlfriend and her terminally ill mother's murders. Three years in prison have made Hunter believe that he is no longer worthy of compassion or care. 

     Kate and Hunter decide to seek out the woman who kidnapped and raised her in a series of motel rooms across the state of Florida. When Kate was taken from the only mother she had known and placed in a series of foster homes at seven years old she bounced around until the Spencers form a strong bond and the only thing stopping her adoption was her "mother's" refusal. 

     Kate and Hunter drive from Utah to Florida to search for the woman. Along the way, the doctor-in-training and her former-cop escort help a young woman deliver her child, save a blind man from a couple of street thugs then deliver him to his granddaughter's dance recital, and stop a couple of drunk frat boys harassing young women. 

     The two fight their attraction until they decide to give a relationship a try. Their story follows the traditional romance trope for a quick and easy read. 

The Gates of Sleep

 

The Gates of Sleep by Mercedes Lackey, 2002 DAW Books

     Hugh and Alanna Rosewood are happily married and happy to be celebrating the birth of their first child: a daughter named Marina. The two Earth Masters are surprised that their child has water-magic, but their close friend and powerful water-mage, Elizabeth Henstridge, confirms the baby will be a powerful mage. 
     Upon the child's christening, Hugh Rosewood's estranged sister surprises the family. With a thinly-veiled familial connection, Arachne invades her family home, but the schism makes Hugh and Alanna suspicious of her motives. Their fears are founded when Arachne tries to steal away the baby's powers. 
     The Rosewoods' friends, and little Marina's godparents, immediately recognize the curse but are unable to remove it. One of her godmothers' talents as a water-mage allows the Elemental Masters present to subvert Arachne's curse - putting it to sleep. Fearing Arachne will reactivate the curse Hugh and Alanna send Marina with three of her godparents to be raised in secret. 

     Even the Rosewoods have no idea their beloved daughter is raised in Cornwall with pre-Raphaelite artists. Marina loves her aunt and uncles and respects the magic they teach her, but as she nears her eighteenth birthday and the looming deadline of the curse her education in water magic requires additional support. Her fourth godparent--a respected lady--comes to Cornwall under the pretense of research to train the young mage. 

     Although her studies are incomplete Marina is forced to return to her parent's home when they die mysteriously abroad: Arachne has managed to arrange her brother's estate in order to take control of Marina's life. With her aunt and cousin managing the Rosewood heir's every move, Marina has little ability to continue her studies. Their intent becomes more clear and more sinister Marina is unable to contact her godparents and must face alone her new guardian and the curse she still doesn't understand. 

     Marina's story in The Gates of Sleep is a creative retelling of the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale. Set in the world of Lackey's Elemental Masters magic abounds and those who are gifted with magic are both good and evil. This story is more mature than the popular tellings of Sleeping Beauty and includes elements of Satanism and intentional harm to disadvantaged populations. 

Flunked

Flunked by Jen Calonita, 2015 Sourcebooks for Young Readers
 
     Gillian Cobbler lives with her mother, father, and five siblings in a large drafty boot. After Cinderella’s Godmother rips off the glass slipper design (made famous by the princess) all of the kingdom’s orders go her way and Gilly’s father’s shop suffers. To help feed her younger siblings Gilly begins stealing from minor royals.
     When Snow White’s dwarf squad catches Gilly for her third offence it’s off to Fairy Tale Reform School to be taught how to stop her law-breaking ways. Gilly is completely removed from her family for at least three months –and every moment away she worries for their survival.
     At FTRS Gilly meets some fellow students: a fairy locked away for using magic underage and without a license, a young man who seems to hate the royals just as much as Gilly does, and an Ogre with a predilection for jewelry. At Fairy Tale Reform School the teachers are the villains of the fairy tales. The Sea Witch teaches deportment; the Evil Queen teaches psychology and runs therapy sessions; Flora is Cinderella’s step-mother and headmistress; and the Big Bad Wolf – of Little Red Riding Hood fame – teaches history.
     Gilly finds herself making friends as she worries about her family. When the Evil Queen sends her home early, just before the Royal Ball celebrating FTRS’s fifth anniversary all of Gilly’s dreams have come true. But she can’t leave: something about the events leading up to the ball have made Gillian Cobbler suspicious and she is going to figure it out.

     Fairy Tale Reform School’s motto is “Turning villains into heroes” and Gilly, with her friends, is going to make it happen in this introduction for middle-grade readers. Similar stories include Ella Enchanted and the Pennyroyal Academy series.