Kate is a twenty-six-year-old reporter working for the local neighborhood newspaper in Brixton, London. After writing mostly about lost pets and trying (unsuccessfully) to keep her anxiety and panic attacks at bay, she is assigned to write about the closing of the lido, or local swimming pool. At the lido, she meets Rosemary, an eighty-seven-year-old widow who swims at the pool every day, and has for most of her life. Kate asks Rosemary for an interview, to which the older woman agrees only if Kate goes for a swim in the pool. Together, the women begin not only a friendship, but a campaign to save the lido.
This novel is a touching tribute to relationships and community. Through flashbacks, we see Rosemary fall in love with and lose her husband George, the presence of the lido all the while in the background. As Kate spends more time with Rosemary, she is able to find confidence and strength, create new friendships, and reach out to family she hasn’t spoken to in a while. Between the two of them, they bring a community together with a common purpose, in an effort to save one of the last true community centers in the neighborhood.
For fans of heartwarming, character-driven fiction, and authors like Fannie Flagg and Sophie Kinsella.
It all begins with a family on vacation in Ireland. On their way back home to New York, the husband grows sick. By the next day, he's in the hospital, dying. The sickness spreads quickly-- worldwide. Governments collapse, mayhem reigns supreme. Only instead of a zombie apocalypse, people start seeing things out of fairy tales: people flying, unicorns in the street, monsters in the subways.
As with any tool, magic can be used for good or evil, and a war is brewing between the two while people try to survive in the ruins of the world. Lana and Max, two witches, leave NYC on a quest to find Max's brother and safety. Arlys and Fred, two journalists running from what's left of the government, leave the city to find a tech genius named Chuck. Rachel and Jonah flee the NYC hospital where they work, bringing along a new mother of three to find a safe haven down south. In a world where it's harder than ever to trust anyone, these characters head towards an unknown purpose that will shape the lives of survivors everywhere.
If you're looking for a dramatic, fast-paced fantasy series, this isn't it. With fairies, magic, and elves, it is certainly fantasy, but those elements trickle into the story slowly. The style of the writing is less "high fantasy" than it is "urban fantasy" or "magical realism." Fans of Nora Robert's realistic fiction will still find a lot to like here.
Year One is the first in the Chronicles of the One trilogy. The sequel, Of Blood and Bone, was released last year, and the conclusion, The Rise of Magicks, is scheduled for later this year. Now that the 'new world' is set up in the series, it will be interesting to see how the story manifests in the sequels.
There have always been stories of children disappearing into other worlds-- fairylands, wonderlands, netherworlds, and more. But what happens when those children come back? What happens when their families no longer know what to do with them, when all they want is to jump back down those rabbit holes?
If they're lucky, they end up at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, where they can be among others who understand. Nancy, who visited the land of the dead and learned the ways of stillness, is one such lucky girl, but it doesn't feel so lucky when right after she arrives, other students start turning up murdered and dismembered. As the new girl, from an underworld no less, it's not the best first impression.
This is an insanely creative, surprisingly short novel (or novella, technically) with an impressively diverse cast of characters. The worldbuilding is unlike anything I've ever read before. While the "fantasy boarding school" setup might appeal to teens, the gruesome deaths of the children officially makes this an adult read. There are currently four books in the "Wayward Children" series, with more on the way, and a TV show is in the works.
