(1) YA Mortal Engines series. This prequel to Reeve's acclaimed postapocalyptic, steampunk Mortal Engines series opens some two hundred years earlier, during the peaceful Golden Age of Traction, as the city of Thorbury is violently boarded and captured by villain Gabriel Strega. History tutor Miss Lavinia Torpenhow determines to make her way to Paris to bring home Max Angmering, son of the just-assassinated mayor, in hopes of restoring order -- setting off a multilayered adventure that will encompass a prison break, multiple betrayals, Revenants (old-tech reanimated dead warriors), a plunge into the sea from an aloft "Air B&B" (with the swimming pool as a lifeboat), a submarine rescue, a kidnapping, and more. Along the way Miss Torpenhow is joined by the young Revenant fighter Tamzin Pook, rather hapless Max, over-the-hill mercenary Oddington Doom, bombastic painter Giotto Trubshawe, and still-partly-human Revenant Eve Vespertine to form a ragtag band of companions. Readers will be swept away by the nonstop action and the sheer inventiveness of the plot; intrigued by the companions' around-the-world exploits; and pulled in by the depth of the characterizations and of the humans' (plus Eve's) relationships. In the end, though Strega is vanquished, his plans to make Thorbury a less civilized and more predatory city are adopted, setting up the machinery that will usher in the "brutal new age" of the later Mortal Engine books.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

(2) YA This epic-length fantasy novel (the start of a new duology set in the world of An Ember in the Ashes and sequels) follows three disparate characters: Aiz, who fails to assassinate her oppressor and is taken to prison along with fellow religious devotees of Mother Div; Quil, heir to the throne, whose empire is falling to invaders and who has been sent to fetch a secret weapon; and Sirsha, a magical tracker who takes a job to find a killer. Sirsha and Quil's paths intersect first; they flee a besieged city together, and a blood oath that binds them magically to each other becomes the only thing protecting Sirsha from execution. Meanwhile, Aiz (whom Quil loved in the past but now believes to be dead) has a connection with Mother Div that drives the rest of the story in ways the author judiciously pieces out. The sweep of the narrative is vast and sustains its tension well even over multiple shifts in point of view, greatly aided by the luscious sexual tension between Quil and Sirsha. Aiz's journey from scrappy underdog hero to portentously tyrannical antihero will take readers on quite a ride. This impressively constructed novel ends with its characters in a predicament, setting up a challenge for a sequel to resolve.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2025

(2) YA Gael, a highly trained assassin, is the male alter ego of Valencia, companion to the ruler of Eliana. Cade is the half-brother of the ruler of Adare, in a war against Eliana. Gael and Cade meet when Gael gets caught behind enemy lines, and Cade (himself in disguise as his royal brother) doesn't execute him but instead returns him to his own court, taking a first step toward peace. Covert identities and revelations keep readers on their toes: for instance, Cade will not hurt Gael because he's sworn an oath to "harm not our own," meaning men and boys who, like him, had not been assigned male at birth. With both Cade and Gael/Valencia skilled in hand-to-hand combat and strategic thinking, their sparring, told from alternating points of view, is always engaging, while an injured knee (Cade) and a hypermobile spine (Gael) humanize them, sympathetically showing athletic characters living with chronic pain. Magic is omnipresent (luminous foxes, quetzals born from tapestries), lending an extrasensory dimension to the tale, and astute readers will pick up on Irish and Mexican elements from the two kingdoms. Everyone's happily-ever-after is threatened by a climactic revelation, but those hoping for a feel-good ending will not be disappointed.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2023

(2) YA Along the medieval Silk Road, a boy is cast out from the temple and nearly stoned to death by monks. He is purchased as a servant by a fast-talking merchant named Samir, for the price of six bolts of silk, and dubbed Monkey. Monkey watches Samir spin tales and make enemies everywhere he goes. In fact, the man is being hunted by six different "killing lines," from a Viking berserker to a Mongol gunner--though at the end of the first chapter it's Monkey who tantalizingly confesses: "That is why I killed him." The book is warmly funny, with folkloric commitment to larger-than-life characters, exaggerated perils, and plenty of jokes, punctuated by Miyares's lively and colorful illustrations. The formula of the six killing lines encourages readers to anticipate the unspooling of the tale; the twist regarding Samir's eventual death is more a reward than a shock. ­Celebration of the cultural riches of the Silk Road, along with the geographic, ­religious, and material diversity of the setting, make for engaging historical fiction--and a rollicking good yarn.

Reviewer: Anne St. John | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2023

(2) YA On April 14, 1865, just days after the conclusion of the Civil War, John Wilkes Booth shot (and killed) President ­Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater. Booth would die more than two weeks later during the attempt to apprehend him, and attention shifted onto his accomplices and co-conspirators. Caught up in the plot was the widow Mary Surratt, who ran a Washington, DC, boardinghouse that Booth and other conspirators (including Surratt's son) frequented. ­Surratt's guilt by association and the hearsay surrounding her role in the plot were enough to condemn her to the ­gallows after one of the most unusual trials in American history. Miller (The Borden Murders, rev. 1/16) finds the unlikeliest of protagonists in Surratt. Using court transcripts and contemporaneous secondary sources, Miller pieces together information surrounding Surratt, her family, and her boardinghouse guests during and after the assassination of the sixteenth president. Extensively researched, the narrative is carefully organized to give readers the bearings necessary to follow specifics of the many witnesses and their multiple versions of events. The story lays bare the shocking disregard for judicial normalcy as Surratt and her co-defendants were tried in a peacetime military court while simultaneously tried by the newspapers of the day. True-crime fans will be enthralled by this compelling nineteenth-century case and the woman at its emotional center. Appended with an author's note, list of sources, and an index (unseen).

Reviewer: Eric Carpenter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2022

(1) K-3 Illustrated by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh. In 1968, a grandfather and grandchild wait for the train carrying the slain Robert F. Kennedy's body to pass by, in order to pay their respects. As they wait, the grandfather tells the story of "Bobby's" life, from a small boy in a rich, ambitious family, acting tough to please his father; to campaign manager for brother and presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, determined to "WIN" at all costs; to his own candidacy for the presidency--undertaken to change things for the better, and working in concert with others. "This time, he didn't grab at victory to win. Instead, he reached out his hand... Hands of all colors, hands in all neighborhoods, hands of all sizes...reached back to him." Wiles (the Sixties Trilogy) manages to cover all the outward milestones while making the heart of the book Kennedy's growth as a human being; her account, suffused with compassion, respect, and melancholy, communicates all that was lost with RFK's assassination. Fazlalizadeh's soft, textured illustrations, in graphite and colored digitally, variously convey time, place, and zeitgeist; evoke emotion; and capture personality. The book ends back at the railroad tracks, with the grandfather urging the child to reach out their own hand, to use their own "tough, fierce, mighty" heart to change the world. Appended with an author's note, suggestions for further reading, and a selected bibliography; quotes sprinkled throughout give further insight into RFK's character. Superb.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2022

(2) YA In the second book of a duology (Courting Darkness, rev. 1/19) set in an alt-historical world of fifteenth-century Brittany and France (also the setting of several of her other novels), LaFevers returns to the tangle of intrigue and danger in which she last left Sybella and Genevieve, both trained assassins of the convent of Saint Mortain, patron saint of death. Ensconced as attendant to France's new queen, Sybella fights to keep her young sisters safe from her half-brother, a powerful and sexually predatory viscount. Meanwhile, Genevieve has become a sometimes-trusted lover and friend to France's king, but has endangered the convent she serves by telling him of its nature. And, pressed as he is on all sides by seditious, power-greedy advisors, the king's indecisiveness and insecurities are the greatest threat of all. LaFevers wraps up the romances and story lines of escape and treachery first set in motion in the previous volume, in part through a broader arena of rebellion and national misalliance, which culminates in the (literal) pyrotechnics of Sybella, Genevieve, and their band of friends and allies. Aside from their formidable efficiency in killing and routing much larger forces--skills the novel values highly--Sybella and Genevieve are characterized as finding healing and resolution from traumatic pasts through romance and through their own sisterly solidarity.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2021

(4) YA Zafira, a hunter, is sent by the Silver Witch to Sharr, a magical desert island, to retrieve a book that will return magic to the kingdom. Nasir, the sultan's son and an assassin, is sent to take the book and kill Zafira. Although the fantasy lacks cohesion, an unusual Arab-inspired setting and a growing romance redeem this picturesque series opener.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(2) YA In LaFevers's alt-historical fifteenth-century Brittany, Sybella (from the His Fair Assassin trilogy), the trained assassin and daughter of Saint Mortain, becomes attendant to the Queen of France. Not far away, Genevieve, a novice from Saint Mortain's convent who had gone missing, is making the hazardous journey back to the French court. Alternating between Sybella's and Genevieve's voices, LaFevers maintains an intense pitch of intrigue, with murders, assaults, romance, and betrayals.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2019

(3) YA After seventeen-year-old alchemist Mirabelle unintentionally helps assassinate King Louis XIV, she renounces the uprising led by her mother's Shadow Society to brew curatives for the impoverished masses in secret. Meanwhile, Josse, the king's bastard son, must flee to the sewers of Paris to protect his beloved younger sisters and decidedly not-beloved half-brother, the crown prince. An exciting debut novel packed with poison, rebellion, action, and romance.

Reviewer: Rachel Marsh

(4) K-3 I Can Read Book series. Illustrated by Chin Ko. These early-reader biographies offer simple narratives that touch on highlights of these (frequently covered) subjects' lives. Large font is surrounded by plenty of white space to aid emerging readers. The cartoonlike illustrations are slick but occasionally emotive; an appendix includes photographs and/or period paintings as well as contextual information. Timeline. Review covers these I Can Read Book titles: Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Reviewer:

(3) YA Fourteen authors representing a range of races and ethnicities reflect on this tumultuous year's historic events, including the assassinations of Dr. King and Robert Kennedy, anti–Vietnam War demonstrations, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, etc. The contributors incorporate personal memories, interviews, archival material, and scholarship when presenting their stories chronologically. An excellent, timely contribution considering today's political and cultural upheaval.

Reviewer: Rita Soltan

(3) YA Mia resents her political marriage to Prince Quinn, but when an assassination attempt occurs at the altar, she helps him escape. Their journey unsettles everything she has ever learned about herself, her family, and the laws that govern her country--especially the tradition of killing women who work magic. Barton explores oppression, power, and corruption through a fast-paced fantasy with plenty of plot twists.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(3) YA Seventeen-year-old Katherine seeks to avenge her Catholic father's death by masquerading as a male actor to kill Queen Elizabeth I. She and Toby, the closeted-bisexual royal spy charged with foiling the assassination, become mutually attracted while performing the leads in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, a play of disguises, deception, gender, and love. Told via dual first-person narratives, this entertaining historical novel deals with many still-relevant topics. Bib.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(3) YA In a magical, Italy-inspired setting, the Capo takes over Vinalia and poisons Teodora di Sangro's powerful father. Teo hatches a plan: with the help of a genderfluid strega named Cielo, Teo will shape-shift into a boy, impersonate her brother, travel to the Capo's Palazza, and find the antidote. Told in rich metaphorical language, this high fantasy offers a compelling interrogation of gender, power, and familial duty.

Reviewer: Rachel Marsh

(3) YA Elsa leaves Veldana--a world written into existence through "scriptology"--to find her abducted mother; she ends up in an alternate nineteenth-century Italy, where scriptologists, mechanists, and alchemists wield great power. Elsa's own polymath powers make her a political target, but a society of young scientists, including charming mechanist Leo, may be able to help. Lush steampunk world-building and plenty of action characterize this alternate-history fantasy.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(3) YA When Ang's boss is framed for the murder of Bar-Selehm's prime minister, the seventeen-year-old former steeplejack is determined to clear his name. But with a racist coalition government at the helm and a mysterious illness sweeping the nonwhite neighborhoods, it won't be easy for her. This conclusion to the timely alt-history fantasy trilogy (Steeplejack; Firebrand), led by a remarkable female protagonist of color, is both eloquent and exciting.

Reviewer: Lana Barnes

(2) 4-6 Readers meet the German theologian and pastor who was executed for participating in a failed assassination attempt on Hitler. Hendrix deftly contrasts Bonhoeffer's and Hitler's biographical details against the larger World War II backdrop. The book effectively employs hand-lettered typeface, comic-panel layouts, spot art, vivid two-color illustrations, occasional maps, and striking political-cartoon-style editorial illustrations. The result is that this heavily textual book is also a highly visual one. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2018

(4) YA Twin brothers Charlie and Alex belong to a secret society that employs time travel to manipulate, even assassinate, historic figures. Sent to the Tudor court to stop Jane Seymour's marriage to Henry VIII, they find themselves entangled in romances and intrigues from both their own era and the one they're visiting. Hosie's fast-paced, ambitious adventure occasionally overreaches with too many complications and not enough character development.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(3) 4-6 "This one is special," says the note accompanying a sharp-edged tin robot from twelve-year-old Alex's grandfather. Soon Alex and his urbane, mysterious grandfather are pursued from Paris to Prague by robotic assassins after Alex's robot, which hides the secret to reanimating the legendary Golem. The entertaining plot proceeds at full tilt with multiple chases, fights, and escapes; some mysteries remain unresolved, suggesting a sequel.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute