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Shifting sands are part of life in the Mesopotamian desert, but what about shifting hearts?  

As a child, Jayden thought little about her betrothal to Horeb, the son of her father's best friend.  Now that she's 16 and he 20, with their marriage scheduled to take place within the year, Jayden's terrified.  Not just of the responsibilities she will have to take on as a wife and a mother, but of the man she's to wed.  As the next in line to become their tribe's leader, Horeb has become increasingly ambitious, aggressive and cruel.  He's changed.  Maybe she has too, because her stomach twists at the sight of Horeb, let alone the thought of marrying him.  Poised to become the people's next princess, Jayden is the envy of all the other girls in her tribe.  As the daughter of a poor camel herder, she should be thanking God for her impending reversal of fortune.  Instead, she wants to fling herself onto the nearest camel and charge into the desert, fleeing the prison of marriage to a man she has come to despise.

When tragedy strikes on the morning Jayden's tribe begins its annual trek to a far-off oasis, it compounds her trepidation about her future.  More vulnerable than ever, she must make her way through the menacing desert, even though it means marching toward a fate she considers worse than death.  Meeting a mysterious stranger—a beautiful boy from the Southern lands—only shows her how starved her heart is for true love and affection.  Arousing Horeb's jealousy is a dangerous game, one that could cost Jayden her life.  With nowhere to turn, she must make the ultimate choice between duty and love.  

Whether her novels take place on the bayous of Louisiana or in the arid deserts of the Middle East, Kimberley Griffiths Little knows how to make settings come alive.  She has a particular gift for creating rich, atmospheric story worlds that pulse with life, tantalizing the reader with vibrant explosions of sight, sound, and smell.  No matter how exotic the setting, though, Little infuses her tales with the kind of everyday emotion and drama with which we can all relate.  Her newest novel, Forbidden, is no exception.  Jayden might be a Mesopotamian princess-to-be living in 1759 B.C., but today's teens will relate to the way she worries about her sisters, fears the grown-up world, and longs to act on the desires of her heart.  As if an empathetic heroine isn't appealing enough, the novel also offers an action-packed plot, a pulse-pounding romance, and plenty of family/tribal drama.  With something for everyone, Forbidden is unique, masterful—the kind of novel that will delight anyone who enjoys thrilling, passionate tales about family, faith, and the fight to control your own fate.  The first installment in what promises to be a brilliant trilogy, Forbidden should be at the top of everyone's wishlist this Christmas.

(Readalikes:  The publisher likens it to Cleopatra's Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter and The Red Tent by Anita Diamant)

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for sensuality, mild sexual content, and references to sex/prostitution

To the FTC, with love:  I received an ARC of Forbidden from the always generous Kimberley Griffiths Little.  Thank you! 

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Dealing with demon possession is all in a day's work for the Della Torre Family.  For centuries, they've been walking the streets of Milan, "catching" the city's darkest citizens.  It's a lonely, but important profession, one that's as crucial as it is secretive.    

Mia Dellatorri, a 16-year-old living in upstate New York, knows nothing of her father's history.  He doesn't talk about his family, doesn't discuss Italy, and has certainly never mentioned demons.  Which means she's shocked and utterly unprepared when a particularly nasty one decides to invade her body.  After an exorcism she barely remembers, involving cousins she never knew existed, Mia is shipped off to Italy for her own safety.  Trapped inside an apartment with only her cousins and her history books to keep her company, Mia is restless and scared.  She doesn't want to hide from demons, she wants to hunt them, just like her relatives do.  Can she convince her relations to stop babying her and start training her?  She knows her demon will strike again.  Whether her relations like it or not, this time, she will fight him head-on.  Or die trying.

Okay, I admit it:  I made the plot of The Demon Catchers of Milan—a debut urban fantasy by Kat Beyer—sound a little more exciting than it actually is.  In truth, it gets off to a slow start (after Mia's possession/exorcism, anyway), plodding along until it gets to a very anticlimactic end.  The author spends a lot of time (a lot) building Mia's demon-catching world, which isn't a bad thing, unless it drags down the action without answering important questions, which is what happens in this novel.  Mia doesn't really form a concrete story goal until the last 3/4 of the book, which makes the rest of the tale feel sluggish and unfocused.  Since there's nothing really new or different about the premise of The Demon Catchers of Milan (although the setting definitely appeals), the novel needs something more to make it memorable—superb writing, unique characters, a never-saw-it-coming plot twist—something to make it stand out.  As is, I found it to be just another average, ordinary teen fantasy novel.  Nothing special.  

(Readalikes:  its sequel, The Halcyon Bird by Kat Beyer; the whole demon/mythical creature thing also reminded me of Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series [City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels; City of Lost Souls; and City of Heavenly Fire] and Tyger Tyger by Kersten Hamilton)

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On a summer night in July of 1942, 10-year-old Sarah Starzynski awakens to the sound of someone pounding on her front door.  A bolt of fear races through her.  She's heard her parents whispering about round-ups and camps and Jewish men being forced from their homes.  Have the police found her father, who spends every night hiding in the cellar?  Are they going to take him away?  Sarah's shocked when the policemen—French policeman, no less—demand that she and her mother come with them.  In the few minutes she's given to pack her things, Sarah locks her little brother in a secret cupboard, promising he'll be safe until she can come back for him.  

Sixty years later, Julia Jarmond—an American journalist living in Paris—is researching the Vélodrome d'Hiver roundup in order to write a story for the upcoming anniversary of its occurrence.  Although the Parisians she talks to are reluctant to speak of it—if, indeed, they've even heard of it—Julia is fascinated by this little known event in the city's history.  The more she discovers about the roundup, which involved the arrests of around 12,000 Jews, mostly women and children, the more horrified she becomes.  When she finds a personal link to one of the roundup's young victims, Julia vows to find out what happened to little Sarah Starzynski and her family.  

Urged by her family and friends in Paris to leave the matter alone, Julia becomes even more determined in her quest.  As her search for the truth becomes an obsession she can't let go of, she finds herself reevaluating her own life, from her marriage to her work to her own future.  

Since I'm probably the last blogger on Earth to read Sarah's Key, Tatiana de Rosnay's bestselling novel, I don't have to tell you what a powerful read it is.  The rave reviews the book's garnered speak for themselves.  Although the events related in the story are similar to those in other Holocaust novels, de Rosnay brings something new to the genre.  Her prose feels a little stiff, but other than that, she tells the kind of compelling, haunting tale that stays with you long after you close the book.  

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of other adult novels about the Holocaust, including Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum)

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Stillwater Bay, Maine, is the kind of tiny, close-knit community where nothing bad ever happens.  Until it does.  

It's been a month since a local teen barged into the elementary school, shooting ten kids and two teachers before turning the gun on himself.  Although the residents of Stillwater Bay are still reeling from the shocking incident, Mayor Charlotte Stone thinks it's time for the town to move past the tragedy.  Re-opening the school, she reasons, will bring some peace to the grief-stricken town.  Her husband, the school principal, feels the same.     

Her best friend, Jennifer Crowne, does not agree.  The thought of innocent children streaming through the halls where her son died so horrifically fills her with a rage so fiery and deep, she can barely suppress it.  Alcohol numbs her fury, but only so much—and only for so long.  Jenn wants the school torn down; it's the only thing that might ease her suffering.  

While residents clash over the school closure/opening issue, Charlotte struggles to keep the community together.  Not only is she losing her best friend, but her husband seems to be hiding something as well.  Jennifer knows she may be giving up everything—and everyone—she loves to fight a battle she can't win, but she has to do it for herself, for her son.  Nothing is more important.

As friends and neighbors chose sides, tempers flare and relationships are put to the ultimate test.  Can a town already so scarred come out unscathed?  Can it weather this most devastating of storms?  The odds are not looking good ...

I'm always interested in books—fictional or otherwise—that look at how communities deal with crises.  The human drama fascinates me.  That's why the premise of Stillwater Rising, Steena Holmes' newest, piqued my curiosity.  But, while the book definitely has drama, what it doesn't really have is a plot.  The story is more reaction than action, which makes it dull.  The central conflict (to close the school or not) just isn't big enough to carry a whole novel.  Plus, the characters remain pretty flat throughout the book.  Jenn is so childish and self-centered that it's difficult to empathize with her.  The other characters run together, making it tough to keep track of who's who.  Even the Big Reveal isn't much of a surprise.  It's predictable and comes so late in the story that the whole novel feels not just unresolved, but unsatisfying.  So, while I liked the idea of Stillwater Rising, overall, I found the read a disappointing one.     

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, One Breath Away by Heather Gudenkauf, and a little of And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard)

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