Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

The premise of Every Heart a Doorway is that the universe extends an invitation to certain children: a door to a new world. This new world, whether it be called Confection, or Prism, or Halls of the Dead is a magical place where the individual feels completely at home.

Some of these children are never seen again. Others are for whatever reason forced or told to return to real world for a short time. These children who have made this magical journey are heart-broken when they find themselves back in the real world

All of the students that end up at Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children want desperately to find the door and the world that claimed them. 

Eleanor tells the parents of these children that she will offer group therapy and that she will shatter their delusions. Eleanor actually sees her school as a “way station.” She wants nothing more than to help them find their door again, even if the odds are against it. 

Just as Nancy, a new student, learns to navigate her way around the school, the unthinkable happens. Her roommate, Sumi, is murdered, the body mutilated. 

Everyone suspect Jack (short for Jacqueline) because she has been to harsh world called the Moors. She and her twin sister were both in service to a Lord Vampire. 

When two more bodies appear, the magical fantasy becomes a mystery.

Seanan McGuire who also writes horror as Mira Grant blends genres in this slim, yet well-plotted fantasy.

Every Heart a Doorway won a Nebula award in 2016 for best novella as well as a Hugo award(2017)and Alex award (2017).

The History of Bees by Maja Lunde

Divided into three sections, this dystopian novel looks at beekeeping from three different vantage points–Victorian England, America circa 2007, and China circa 2098.

While ostensibly focusing on bees, the novel examines the tensions that exist between family members, especially fathers and sons. This is true for the Victorian century beekeeper, William, and his son, Edmund, and in his American descendants, George, and his son, Tom circa 2007.

The sons in each case want nothing to do with father’s dream of harvesting honey and raising bees. William Savage is not only estranged from his son but also becomes more and more alienated from his mentor, Rahm. The only child who understands William’s dream is Charlotte yet he coldly dismisses her achievements. She is the wrong gender.

In the last time period, which takes place in China, bees and other pollinators are extinct. Their absence which leaves a void in the world further alienates family members. Without bees, everyone is undernourished and forced to work long hours hand painting pollen onto flowers.

In this horrific time, parents can only see their children one day a week. Children are forced to leave school and work as pollinators at younger and younger ages. Tao and Kuan can barely speak to each other, especially after their son disappears. Tao leaves her husband and goes off into unsafe areas of Beijing in search of her child, Wei-Wen.

Tied into all three stories is The History of the Bees, a book written by Thomas Savage who is distantly related to the Victorian bee keeper. Tao read the book and insists that the leader of the Committee, Li Xiara, read it as well.

The army and Chinese government finds a new colony of bees near the site where Wei-Wen goes missing. Knowing and acknowledging the past, however, is necessary before they can move forward. Tao’s boy becomes a symbol of hope.

What is fascinating is the way Lunde compares the disappearance of bees, also known as colony collapse disorder, with the disintegration of family and natural bonds. This is a chilling speculative novel about what may happen if red flags about pollinators and the climate are ignored.

The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin.

Sensible Alice always thought she would become a farmer. Even though she took a safe job in a county planning department, she always knew she would inherit the family orchard. After a series of losses, however, Alice finds herself alone and bereft of the family farm.

In a chance encounter, Alice meets another troubled person, Jake. A gifted musician, Jake has been paralyzed by a freak accident. When Alice realizes Jake has an affinity for bee keeping, she offers him a job. Before long she realizes she needs another employee to do carpentry work.

Alice not only gives the two young men jobs, she also offers them a place to stay at her small farm. This goes completely against her character. Multiple times in the novel Alice refers to herself as “Alice island,” or “Alice All Alone.”

Opening her home and her heart to these two young men is a big risk that pays off. Jake is able to tell her facts about the bees she missed. The seoncd one, Harry, is a nervous ex-con, yet he proves his worth when she needs him.

When a conglomerate, SupraGrow, threatens the small community’s livelihood, Alice and her new friends work together to protect the bees and orchards.

This novel which is about taking chances and building connections is an uplifting read that entertains and informs.

Eileen Garvin’s latest novel is Crow Talk.

300 Days of Sun by Deborah Lawrenson

Taking some time off from a stalled journalism career, Joanna never expects to be chasing another story in Faro, Portugal. That is exactly what happens when she enrolls in a language course and meets Nathan.

He alerts her to some underground activities that reignite her interest in investigative journalism. Joanna also realizes she has feelings for Nathan, even though she is convinced he is hiding something. His name, she discovers, is a false one.

Joanna’s story is tied to that of an American woman who lived in Portugal decades before, Esta Hartford. The wife of a war correspondent, Esta wrote a novel based on her life in Portugal in the 1940s. Though not widely read, Joanna discovers that the novel, The Alliance, is mostly a true account with some names changed.

To find out what is true and what is not, Joanna and Nathan embark on a dangerous quest to confront Algarve’s shadowy past. They confront criminals with ties to organized crime and shadowy figures from the intelligence community.

Neutral during the second World War, Portugal was a hotbed for espionage. Spies regularly met in hotel lobbies in Lisbon and in smaller cities, e.g. Estoril. Portugal was also a conduit for Nazis escaping capture at the war’s end. In more recent times, the area was the site a much publicized child abduction–the Madeline McCann case.

Lawerenson weaves all of this together in 300 Days of Sun. In the novel, the fairly recent child abductions are related to the pro and anti-Nazi factions that coexisted in Portugal. Nathan may have been an unwitting victim. Though he was adopted in England, he recently discovered that his birth certificate said that he was born in Portugal.

Novels where the past and present are inextricably linked can be fascinating. Joanna finds a kindred spirit when she reads the book The Alliance by Esta Hartford. Though they end up making different choices, Joanna can see many parallels between her own life and Esta’s.

by Chantal W.

The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell.

Cornwell continues Uhtred’s story in the 2nd of the Saxon stories series and follows the battle of Cynuit. Brave, yet flawed, Uhtred continues to make rash decisions and incites King Alfred’s anger.

The complexity of the psychological development in Cornwell’s novel is startling. Uhtred is at war with himself almost as much as he is at war with Danes.

Uhtred is a stranger in Wessex, a pagan amongst Christians, who knows he will never be fully accepted, “I was an outsider. I spoke a different English. The men of Wessex were tied by family and I came from the strange North.”

Alfred, the only English king that would be known at ‘the great’, also has his own set of flaws. He often makes a hasty peace with the Danes rather than fighting them. He does not know how to rouse his men to battle and risks alienating those who would help him.

Even though he distrusts Uhtred for being a pagan, he realizes his importance and appoints him defender of his family after Cippanhamm falls: “Here and now I appoint you as the defender of my family.”

Against incredible odds, Alfred and the Saxons, who are marooned in a swamp, work together to build a fort and succeed in destroying Svein of the White Horse’s ships. The Danes, however, still control the area and outnumber the Saxon forces. To succeed, the Saxons will have to unite in a way they have never done before.

Iseult, yet another complex and intriguing created by Cornwell, predicts that Alfred will succeed. She claims there will be a “fight by a hill” and that the Saxons will defeat the Danes.

She alludes to the battle of Ethandum where the Saxons face two Danish armies, Svein and Guthrum. In this version of events, the Saxon army becomes dispirited until Uhtred bravely fights Svein outside of the shield wall. His actions turn the tide of the battle, resulting in the recovery of Alfred’s kingdom, Wessex.

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

Just as there may be an under painting hiding under a painting, nothing is as it seems in this novel. Everything is a trick of the eye. The singers that sing so well are actually eunuchs. The assistant that is supposed to be mute actually speaks a Neapolitan dialect. Alfonso is not a doting husband who treasures his new wife.

The Duchess realizes something is amiss when she hears him describe her as “my first Duchess.” This is the first moment that ascertains that she is disposable.

She always knew that she would be married to aggrandize her father’s rule:

“[H]ad it not been Alfonso it would have been someone else–a prince, another duke, a nobleman from Germany or France, a second cousin from Spain. Her father would have found her an advantageous match because that is, after all, what she has been brought up for.”

She expected him to command and she knew she would have to produce a male heir. She also knew that he surrounded himself with devious, heartless people like Leonello. What Lucrezia did not foresee was that the Duke of Ferarra is capable of killing those who would thwart his power.

The Duke wants a male heir so badly that he has Lucrezia follow a cruel regimen. Consequently, Lucrezia looks completely diffferent from the woman il Bastianino painted for the Duke, his marriage portrait of them.

When she fails to produce a son, the Duke takes her to his fortezza, a hunting lodge. The opening pages of the novel take us to this horrifying moment when Lucrezia knows she is in grave danger followed by a series of flashbacks.

O’Farrell constructs an illuminating portrait of Renaissance Italy in which women were traded among influential families. The Duchess is this story is so intuitive that recognizes the Duke’s machinations. Like a good thriller, this suspenseful story ends in a surprising way.

The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld

Naomi’s earliest memory is of herself as a ten-year-old running naked in a strawberry field. She runs towards migrant workers who take her to a sheriff.

Twenty years later, Naomi is a thirty-year-old private investigator trying to find a child who has disappeared while out on a family trip. Naomi has become a private investigator to atone, as she puts it, to “atone” for her past. 

The child she seeks to save, however, has been lost for three years in a remote part of Willamette Valley. There’s no evidence to suggest that the child is alive. The case is inactive and its assumed she has perished in the snow. 

Naomi learns from each case and this case gives her most valuable insight yet. Glimmers of the past return as she finds the living conditions of the girl, a cave in a remote claim.

Denfeld, a former private investigator, writes a taut, psychological mystery with details that ring true.  

A harrowing work of psychological fiction set in Oregon’s Willamette Valley where fur trapping is still commonplace in remote towns. In one such town, a mysterious figure lives in obscurity. Years ago, he had been kidnapped and tortured by someone he calls simply “The Man.”

Could this be mysterious figure be tied to the missing girl?

As Naomi reaches out to her foster bother, some of her lost memories return. After solving the case of the missing girl, called the “Snow Girl,” Naomi vows to solve a more personal missing person case. 

The Butterfly Girl is the second novel in the Naomi Cottle series. 
https://renedenfeld.com/author/

Normal People by Sally Rooney

In this novel, two teenagers avoid each other at school yet are also fiercely, strangely attracted to one other. 

The two come from different worlds. Marianne has a much higher socioeconomic status than Connell. Her parents are barristers whereas Connell is raised by a single Mom. Connell’s mother is, in fact, a housekeeper for Marianne’s parents. 

Due to some quirk on her part, Marianne has a lower social status in school than he does. Connell is a popular football player while she is lonely and ostracized.

In spite of this, the two teenagers come together for secret trysts. Terrified, though, that anyone would find out about their affair, Connell treats Marianne coldly. He invites someone else to the Debs.

At Trinity University, the pair become friends and lovers once again. She is now more popular than he is yet they still struggle to communicate. Their relationship continues to be passionate, volatile, and heart-breaking.

After a misunderstanding, the two start seeing other people. Marianne, intelligent yet damaged psychologically by her family, seeks out boyfriends that are cruel to her. 

Connell feels Helen is a better choice until a funeral at his home town bring his illusions crashing down. 

This novel, which was long listed for a Man Booker prize, will soon become a 12-part half-hour drama on BBC3.