It's been a magical reading week, thanks to two delightful middle-grade novels that take place in magical realms: THE WATER AND THE WILD by K. E. Ormsbee and MONSTROUS by MarcyKate Connolly. They're both really wonderful (and they're both 2015 debuts), so if you like fantasy starring girls who don't know their true power and who must learn where they came from and where they belong, pick up these books.
And check out these two gorgeous illustrated covers!!
THE WATER AND THE WILD is about Lottie Fiske, an orphan who lives on the island of New Kemble. Her best friend, Eliot, is sick, and shortly after his situation becomes very serious indeed, strange things start happening around town. She ends up being whisked down into the roots of the local apple tree, where she discovers a place almost like her home, but filled with sprites and wisps and other magical creatures. One of the sprites she meets is a healer, and he might have the cure to Eliot's illness—but that cure could come at great cost. Lottie soon finds herself on a dangerous journey with the healer's two children and their friend, where the stakes aren't just Eliot's life, but the fate of entire land of New Albion. THE WATER AND THE WILD is a beautifully written, imaginative fairy tale with a classic feel. Definitely pick this one up when it releases on April 14.
MONSTROUS is also about a girl on a mission, but Connolly turns many common fairy tale tropes on their head by making Kymera the monster instead of the heroine. The book starts with Kym's very first day of life. She's been reanimated, built from human parts but also given wings, claws, and a venomous stinging snake-tail. Her father, the scientist who built her, says she's been created for a purpose: to help the girls of the city of Bryre escape a terrible fate from a terrible wizard. And so Kym begins saving girls, one each night, from the prison where they're being held. But when she meets a boy named Ren—a boy that for some reason, she might remember from her former life—things get murky. She starts to wonder about her father's experiments, as well as about the girls they're saving. What's really going on? Is her father being honest with her? Like THE WATER AND THE WILD, MONSTROUS offers an imaginative twist on a classic story. It's on sale now!
What are you reading right now? Any recommendations? :)
~Kathryn