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The Miniaturist

Jessie Burton

Ecco: 2014, 400 pages

Reviewed by Tori Lyons

Nella knows that she is in for a culture shock when she leaves her family's farm and arrives on the doorstep of her new husband's home in Amsterdam.  Living in the seventeenth century, 18 year old Nella's future was bleak when her father died, leaving her family penniless.  When a wealthy Amsterdam trader asks for her hand in marriage, she fantasizes about her glamorous new life in the city.  However, the reality proves quite different when she arrives at her new home and finds a husband who has virtually no interest in her, a sister-in-law who runs the household with an iron fist, and household servants who take too many liberties for Nella's taste.  While the prosperous trader seems like the model Amsterdamer, Nella soon discovers that each of the house's inhabitants has dangerous secrets that threaten them all.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

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The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce #1)

Alan Bradley

Delacorte Press: 2009, 374 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

Set in the summer of 1950 in a small British town, our protagonist is the very precocious Flavia de Luce, an eleven year old chemistry fanatic.  Living with a reclusive father and two horrid older sisters (although to be honest, Flavia isn't exactly the example of a perfect little sister), life is quiet for Flavia.  Well, it was quiet until a dead bird with a postage stamp fixed to its beak is found on the doorstep, followed by Flavia literally tripping over a dying man in the garden.  It seems that Flavia has stumbled onto a mystery and it takes all her wit and skill to solve the crime that is somehow connected to her father's past.

Finding Audrey

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Finding Audrey

Sophie Kinsella

Delacorte Books for Young Readers: 2015, 288 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

Finding Audrey focuses on fourteen year old Audrey Turner who is trying to deal with her anxiety disorders and bouts of depression after an incident happens at her old school.  She finds comfort behind her dark sunglasses and tends to stay in her house where she doesn't have to interact with people.  Readers are therefore privy to her interactions with her dysfunctional, yet hilarious, family.  Things start to change, however, when Audrey meets Linus, one of her brother's online gaming buddies.  Author Kinsella manages to take a more humorous and hopeful approach to mental illness in her YA debut.  Readers are not only drawn into Audrey's situation but they can't help becoming invested in the other characters as well.

The Wrath and the Dawn

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The Wrath and the Dawn (The Wrath and the Dawn #1)

Renee Ahdieh

G.P. Putnam's Sons: 2015, 388 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

The Wrath and the Dawn is the first in Ahdieh's series that is based off the story of Scheherazade and One Thousand and One Nights.  While the author uses a few stories from the collection, the book does a good job of creating its own unique story.  Khalid is the young Caliph of Khorasan and each night he takes a bride and each morning he has her killed.  Sixteen year old Shahrzad volunteers in order to take revenge for the killing of her best friend.  Slowly, Shahrzad starts to fall in love with the Caliph and realizes that things are not all they seem and wonders what secrets her new husband is trying to hid from her.  The Wrath and the Dawn weaves magic, mystery, romance, and suspense in this wonderful retelling of a classic story.  Readers should be aware that the second book in the series will not be available until May 2016.