Remnants: Season of Wonder
Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle Edition
Written by Lisa T. Bergren
Blink | Zondervan Publishing House
Release Date: April 8, 2014
Cover Price: $15.99

Gifted Remnants and their Knight Protectors have been training always for the prophesied day they would rise up against the Sheol in the name of the Maker, and lead the people of faith out of oppression. Andriana’s gift of empathy is both power and pain as she feels everything that is inflicted upon her, and feels everything she inflicts simultaneously. This includes the forbidden feelings that are growing between her and her Knight Rowan.

They both narrowly escape their village on the day they are called, to journey to join the rest of the Ailith, the other gifted. The people of this dystopian world, who have forgotten the world of books and technology, are not allowed to believe in the Maker and to speak his word or exhibit his power means torture or death. The Ailith are drawn to one another and their belief in the will of their Maker guide their path to find their imprisoned prince, Kapriel.

Aldo’s Fantastical Movie Palace
Hardcover | Kindle Edition
By Jonathan Friesen
HarperCollins | Zondervan
Released Date: July 10, 2012

Jonathan Friesen‘s fourth novel, Aldo’s Fantastical Movie Palace (you can watch the trailer below), begins like this: Fourteen-year-old Chloe Lundeen has a scar. It’s a big, ugly scar given to her by her father, Crazy Ray, while testing out one of his many failed inventions. Her scar is the source of all her pain, from the kids at school who taunt her and call her Scarface, to the father whose guilt is so great that he can no longer bring himself to even look at his daughter.

The only solace in the world for Chloe is her great-grandpa Aldo’s movie theater, which she helps her mother run. She describes the movie theater as being a real New York City art deco building plopped in the middle of rural Minnesota. Chloe’s only friends are her cat and her grandpa Salvador, who has no trouble looking at her at all.