A Deadly Education

 A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik, 2020 

     Magically gifted children around the world who are coming into their magic are tempting little treats for Maleficarum, the creatures who want to eat them for the manna which is both their life-force and their magic. To try and protect their children, as well as teach them how to use their magic, the adult witches and wizards running the Enclaves (safe communities hidden from the Mals) around the world send their children to the Scholomance. 

     Four years of learning magic and fighting off the monsters which try to eat them help the magically gifted children develop their skills. The school has no teachers, no holidays, nothing more than the assignments each student receives and the monsters who prowl the halls day and night. Survival depends on creating an alliance to fight their way through the graduation hall full of the biggest and baddest Mals who cannot squeeze their way into the safety of the school. 

     El believes in the concept of balance and, when Orion Lake saves more children in their generation than have ever made it out of the school before, the balance is upset. Magic demands the balance be restored, but at what cost. 

     Novik's new world follows a misfit who has been plagued by her differences her entire life. But she finds those differences fuel her ability to make changes in their world. 

The Boyfriend

 The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden, 2024 Penguin

     Online dating is not how any young woman dreams of meeting Mr. Right, especially Sydney Shaw. When her latest potential conquest is a flop of the highest caliber - including expecting favors in return for investing his time in their dinner plans - Sydney doesn't think life could get any worse. 

     Tom is a teenager struggling with his attraction to the beautiful Daisy Driscoll. As a sixteen-year-old he knows dating the police chief's daughter isn't in line with his dark desires to cause her harm. When one of their classmates goes missing, Daisy looks to Tom for protection even though his best friend, Slug, is a little bit creepy. Tom worships the ground that beautiful girl walks on. 
     She is proven wrong when she discovers her best friend Bonnie's mutilated and murdered body in her apartment. The murder drives the thirty-four-year-old to be ever more cautious of her surroundings and back to her police officer ex-boyfriend. Jake is investigating a serial murder and keeping tabs on Sydney when she meets and begins dating Dr. Thomas Brewer. Thomas had saved Sydney from her disastrous foray into online dating, but what is his connection to the 16-year-old Tom who is in love with Daisy. 

     As Sydney's and Tom's relationships grow and develop, the parallel investigations into so many deaths around both of them lead to some shocking conclusions. Whether those conclusions are truth, only time will tell. 

     The Boyfriend is a contemporary murder-mystery suspense told from two points of view in two timelines. Sydney surviving Bonnie's murder with her friend Gretchen, ex-boyfriend Jake, and new boyfriend Thomas are in the present day. But how are they linked to Tom in the past with his friend Slug, the murdered teenage girls, and the love of his life: Daisy? McFadden's signature twist is sharp and unexpected. The novel is intended for mature readers with graphic violence and risqué content. 

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. 

Uprooted

 Uprooted by Naomi Novik, 2015 Del Rey

     In the tower at the end of the valley lives the Dragon. He is a cold and powerful wizard who keeps the people of Dvernik safe from the Wood and its corrupted magic. Every ten years the Dragon takes the most beautiful and talented young woman from the village to be his servant. Kasia is that young woman this decade. Agnieszka is afraid for what will happen to her best friend, but she needn't worry: it isn't Kasia the dragon takes, but talentless and clumsy Agnieszka. 
     The young woman discovers the stories of what the Dragon will do to her are highly exaggerated and he simply needs someone to help keep his home and keep him company. He chose Agnieszka because she has some magic of her own and begins to teach her spells. When the Dragon is away serving Polnya's royal family Dvernik is attacked by the Wood; Agnieszka discovers the magic she's learned from the notes left by previous taken girls is different than what the Dragon teaches, and it allows her to save her people and heal the Dragon when he's injured. 

     The sally from the wood results in Kasia's capture, Agnieszka and the Dragon fight to rescue her, and Polnya's Prince Marek comes to investigate rumors that someone has been rescued from the Wood. The prince demands the Dragon and his witch rescue the queen who fled into the enchanted forest twenty years before, but the drama which ensues is entirely unexpected. 

     Based on Polish folktales Uprooted examines the high-fantasy genre in a new light. The main character is not the beauty of the town, nor does she become a great beauty through some magic, but the strength of her character and the fierceness with which she fights for what she believes to be right are at the core of her story. The wizard in the tower doesn't solve all of the world's problems with a magic spell, nor does the prince save the day in this young adult novel of self-discovery with a touch of romance.