The Conjurer’s Riddle
Hardcover | Kindle
Sequel to The Inventor’s Secret
By Andrea Cremer
Philomel Books | Penquin Random House Young Readers
Release date: November 3, 2015

What would have become of North America had the British won the Revolutionary War? That’s the premise of Andrea Cremer’s The Inventor’s Secret book series, which creates an alternate 19th-century history where the British Empire has dominion over the New World as an underground Resistance rebels against it. The exiled children of the rebellion reside in the Catacombs in the New York Wildlands, where they stay in hiding from the Empire as they grow up without their parents until they come of age and can join the fight.

In The Conjurer’s Riddle, the second book of the series, 16-year-old Charlotte returns to the Catacombs after the caverns are set ablaze, leaving the children no shelter. She has no idea what happened to cause the destruction of their home, but there’s no time to figure it out, as she now must lead the young refugees to safety. Her final destination is New Orleans, the rendezvous point for the Resistance, but first she must find a way to get there.

The Nethergrim
Hardcover | Kindle Edition
Written by Matthew Jobin
Philomel Books/ Penguin Young Readers Group
Release Date: April 8, 2014
Cover Price: $17.99

Poor Edmund Bale…..all he wants to do is read, practice a little magic, and get the girl. But he is the eldest son of a tavern-keeper and must learn to inherit that trade. Therefore, books are only useful as kindling and the girl sees him as just a friend. Ah, but maybe Edmund can prove himself to her!

Strange things are happening in Edmund’s village. A wizard visits the tavern, yet no one remembers him after they encounter him. Pigs go missing and just their pile of bones are discovered. There are whisperings of the Nethergrim’s return. But that’s impossible, isn’t it? The heroes, Tristan, John Marshall (father of Edmund’s crush Katherine), and Vithric the wizard, defeated it and saved the village Moorvale years before. Edmund’s pain-in-the-neck little brother and equally pain-in-the-neck friends disappear into the hands of the Nethergrim’s monster servants, and while the village almost mourns them for dead, Edmund, Katherine, and slave-no-more Tom set out to save them from the returned horror that is The Nethergrim.