Katherine Harbour's Blog - Posts Tagged "school"

Dream a Little Dream
Fifteen-year-old Liv has a complicated life. She and her family have move to England because their mom's a professor and has fallen in love. Liv's London School, Frognal Academy, seems ordinary, with a classic atmosphere, and there's an intriguing school blog, The Tittle-Tattle Blog, that occasionally shows up in the story with pics. A subplot involves Liv's sister Mia attempting to discover who the blog's secret author is.

Liv has been having strange dreams of four boys conducting magic rituals. When she meets them at school, her dreams grow more vivid and she learns they can each enter one another's dreams through specific doors their minds conjure up. Liv learns that Henry, Arthur, Jasper, and Grayson (soon to be her stepbrother) have made a deal with a demon, the Lord of Shadows and Darkness. Practical Liv must solve the mystery of her dreams and the cabal of young men who believe they've made a deal with the devil.

With it's very British atmosphere and precocious characters, the story reminded me a little of Nesbitt's tales (Three Children and It, The Enchanted Castle). It's charming and dark, modern and old-fashioned.

Grey
Sebastian lives with his brother, Hugo, the owner of a tattoo parlor, and his brothers' friends, in the U.S. town of Sixes. He has a group of close friends himself and lives a good life. Then the circus arrives, and Sebastian's world changes as his true nature begins to emerge.

With elements inspired by The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Grey is a unique twist on the teen monster tale. The gypsy folklore arrives in the form of the Romany, the family who own the circus. Their daughter, Josephine, is the star, and Sebastian immediately feels drawn to her, despite being warned off by her elegant and alpha boyfriend.

Told in the first person by Sebastian, Grey is a contemporary fantasy about a young man realizing his entire life was a lie. As Sebastian learns what he is, and meets others of his kind, the urgency ramps up, ending in a devastating betrayal. Sebastian and Josephine are charismatic teens, as are Sebastian's friends. Can't wait to read more about this world.