Sophomore Shayla Hainsworth recommends: “The Inmate” by Freida McFadden.
“[The Inmate] is basically about a woman who works at a prison, and she ends up having to treat a prisoner that she used to date. She put him into prison, and she had her kid but he doesn’t know about it. It’s a nice balance between thriller and romance,” Hainsworth said. “I just like the feel of the book, and the mystery, because you don’t really figure everything out right away. You kind of figure everything out towards the end, and you only get bits and pieces in between.”
Senior Cecily Heisey-Terrell recommends: “World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments” by Aimee Nezhukumatahil.
“It’s about a multicultural girl who’s growing up in America, and she’s what people call a ‘third culture kid.’ She’s one of those, except back in the late 20th century, so she’s not as connected, or her culture isn’t as easily acceptable in America as it would be today, and it’s really interesting seeing how she navigates her personal identity within her culture while also being an American,” Heisey-Terrell said.
Sophomore Ella Henzel recommends: “Throne of Glass” series by Sarah J. Maas.
“This girl is moved from a camp in the salt mines to a game in this kingdom where she’s competing to become the king’s assassin, and she basically just faces a lot of challenges and discovers herself along the way,” Henzel said. “I really liked all the characters, and I thought it was a really fun world to read about. The characters really evolve throughout the whole series, and it was like a whole new world at the end.”
I recommend: “One Dark Window” by Rachel Gillig.
This book follows a girl named Elspeth, who’s living in a dystopian fantasy society where people are contracting a plague that causes them to gain magic, and then slowly devolve into insanity. People who catch the plague are immediately executed before they gain magical powers. Elspeth contracted the plague when she was young, and her parents successfully hid her before she could be captured and killed, and she lives with powers– but nobody knows. She’s been hiding it from the aunt and uncle she lives with for her entire life, but there’s a monster inside of her head. She eventually meets others with powers, and readers get to follow her on a journey to save the kingdom. I loved all of the characters, and I love fantasy romance, they never fail to keep me entertained. The book just made me happy, and I thoroughly enjoyed every page of it.
