Summer is a great time to lose yourself in these amazing books.
My favorites so far:
After Life by Gayle Forman, Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer, and I'll Find You Where the Timeline Ends by Kylie Lee Baker.
Great writing will draw in adults, teens, and young adults to these fabulous summer, or any time, reads. Here are my reviews:
In After Life, Gayle Forman creates such a beautiful, mysterious tale, I didn’t want it to end.
Life ended for Amber, the novel’s teen protagonist, during a hit-and-run accident seven years before the book begins with Amber’s inexplicable reappearance. Imagine how you would react to the sudden resurrection of your child or sister. Imagine how disorienting it would be to have no memory of dying, or of time passing without you. Is Amber’s return a miracle? A cruel, heartbreaking hoax? A collective hallucination brought on by grief, guilt, faith, or love?
Forman keeps readers guessing. (And I will, too. No spoilers!)
Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer
Instant Karma is an entertaining and superbly crafted enemies-to-love teen romance.
Meyer is pitch perfect in her depiction of teens, and how their passionate convictions and goals often afford no gray areas. Perfect example: Academic overachiever Pru is quick to disparage certain classmates, especially Quint, her seemingly lazy lab partner.
Pru can magically cause instant karma on others — except Quint. How frustrating the universe keeps blocking her! But when Pru’s desperate quest to improve a bad grade forces her to volunteer at Quint’s family’s sea animal rescue center, she realizes how badly she had misjudged him.
Meyer goes beyond stereotypes, giving each character emotional depth. She realistically depicts the push-pull of teenagers’ feelings. Teen concerns, including the environment, family economics, and animal welfare, are woven seamlessly into the love story.
Instant Karma takes readers on a layered, magical journey they won’t soon forget.
AMAZON BookShop.org
I’ll Find You Where the Timeline Ends, by Kylie Lee Baker
I loved I’ll Find You Where the Timeline Ends! Baker creates a fascinating world, where a shadow organization trains descendants of dragon gods to protect the timeline. In Seoul, one such descendant, Mina, is grappling with her infiltration assignment and high school calculus, when she is assigned her first field assignment. A rogue descendant had gone back in time and prevented a deadly amusement park accident. Mina, accompanied by her ever watchful and intimidating mentor, must use time travel magic to ensure the horrific accident occurs.
There can be no deviations from the original timeline. Rogue agents, when tracked down, will be “erased.” Which poses a problem when Mina falls for Yejun, a handsome, charming rogue who has infiltrated her high school and asks for Mina’s help.
Can Mina believe Yejun’s claims that the organization she and her parents work for is corrupt? Or that her sister was erased and Yejun will help Mina find her?
In less capable hands, the shifting timelines, paradoxes, butterfly principle, and “Echoes,” might be confusing. But Baker expertly guides readers, sometimes inserting jaw-dropping twists.
This is the first book I’ve read by Kylie Lee Baker, and I gather from her acknowledgements at the end of the book, it is her most lighthearted. Loaded with tension, humor, and heart, I’ll Find You Where the Timeline Ends is a beautifully crafted delight.
AMAZON BookShop.org
