Corey

Author: Jane Claypool Minor
Genre: Historical Fiction / Sunfire Romance (#22)
Publisher: Scholastic, 1987
Pages: 184
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Freedom gave her the right to live, the chance to love. She escaped from the South to the North, where a boy captured her heart.

In 1846, 16-year-old Corey has known only slavery. But she is courageous and spirited, and though Ned, a handsome slave from the same South Carolina plantation, hopes to marry her some day, Corey longs for a better life. Then the Civil War tears Corey's family apart, but Corey escapes from slavery.

Freedom isn't easy, however. Corey can't find her family, and Ned tells her is running off to fight. Corey has no one left she can trust, so she heads north to Philadelphia. Here she finds a new home and new friends. And she meets Penn Wilson, a dashing young man who captures her heart and introduces her to a new, free world. But when Ned asks Corey to go West with him, the choices of freedom brings seem harder than ever. Will Corey join Ned? Or will she return to the South to help her people - alongside Penn.

Review: This series was a favorite of mine in middle and early high school. I aged out and my tastes changed before I could buy all of the books for myself. However, when I read Paperback Crush, it renewed my interest. 

While this is a simplistic story, appropriate for middle school, I can say I honestly enjoyed this as a 48 year old women. I felt sympathy and empathy for the heroine and I love historical fiction in general. You may see more books from this series as I revisit these stories here and there, if only for the purposes of nostalgia.

Agent 355

Author: Marie Benedict
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media, Inc., 2024
Pages: 82
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: During the sweltering summer of 1779, eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Morris attends the social events of the British-occupied city, but the forced merriment holds no charm for her. She finds herself in the company of enemy soldiers, who think nothing of discussing matters of government and war in front of mere women. This invisibility becomes Elizabeth's greatest asset as she offers her services to Robert Townsend, a Continental sympathizer. Her bravery will bring down one of the most notorious traitors in American history and ultimately seal her fate as a woman willing to sacrifice everything for love and country.

Review: I've been fascinated with the Culper Spy Ring since I read Washington's Secret Six in 2014. Marie Benedict's novella dives into the unknown story of Agent 355, and is probably the least imaginative version of who Agent 355 actually might have been. Fun fact - it is possible that Agent 355 was actually several women who provided useful information to the American cause.

Paperback Crush

Author: Gabrielle Moss
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: Quirk Publishing, 2018
Pages: 256
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Those pink covers. That flimsy paper. The nonstop series installments that hooked readers through their entire adolescence. These were not the serious-issue novels of the 1970s, not the blockbuster YA trilogies that arrived in the 2000s. Nestled in between were the girl-centric teen books of the 80s and 90s - short, cheap, and utterly adored.

Review: I absolutely loved this trip down Memory Lane. I lived on a steady diet of The Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley Twins/Sweet Valley High through middle school and even a bit into my freshman year of high school. And, who can forget the Sunfire historical fiction novels that started with Amanda, teenager on a wagon train to Oregon. So much nostalgia, and more, in this book. Don't be surprised if some of those novels pop up in future blog posts. I should revisit some old favorites that, in some way, shaped who I am today.

Stars, Stripes, & Summer Nights

Author: Celeste Dador
Genre: Teen Fiction
Publisher: Random House Children's Publishing, 2026
Pages: 320
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Abigail Cary-Alzona, eldest daughter of President Constance Alzona, just wanted one normal night as a teenager. But after an impulsive pizza order later makes her front-page news, Abby is officially exiled to a Wi-Fi-free country inn for the summer, along with her little sister, Elle.

The inn belongs to Gabriel Calabrese's family. Gabriel is sarcastic, camera-obsessed, and definitely not dazzled by presidential perks (also, kind of the reason for the whole pizza fiasco). But Abby's determined to make the most of her time away from the White House - with a summer bucket list full of things real teens get to do. Pool parties. Picnics. Maybe even a first kiss.

As she and Elle dive into small-town life, Abby starts to see what makes Gabriel tick. An maybe, just maybe, she's falling for him. . .

Review: We have the Goodreads, It's Literally Summer Challenge, to thank for this one. This prompt includes books with the word Summer in the title, and there's a long list from which to choose. I was scrolling in the challenge, taking note of different books. When I took my son to the library that same day, Stars, Stripes, & Summer Nights was on a Teen Display we passed on our way to his favorite section. I took it as a sign.

This was cute. Obviously it's a summer romance book written for teens, and it's exactly what you'd expect it to be. A fun little read to get away from the heavier themes I've been reading lately.

Julie Chan is Dead

Author: Liann Zhang
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Atria Books, 2026
Pages: 320
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: Julie Chan has nothing. Her twin sister has everything - except a pulse.

Julie Chan, a supermarket cashier barely scraping by, finds herself thrust into the glamorous yet perilous world of her late twin sister, Chloe VanHuusen, a popular influencer. Separated at a young age, the identical twin sisters were polar opposites and rarely spoke, except for one viral video that Chloe initiated (Finding My Long-Lost Twin and Buying Her A House #Emotional).

When Julie discovers Chloe's body, she doesn't call the police. Instead, she slips into her dead sister's meticulously curated life; luxury fashion, high-end skincare, and a devoted online following who never noticed they weren't quite the same.

At first, the transformation is seamless. Julie relishes the perks of influencer fame, but quickly learns that behind Chloe's flawless feed lay secrets far darker than she imagined. Her sister's final days were shadowed by paranoia, manipulation, and something far more sinister.

Now trapped on a private island retreat with Chloe's inner circle - an elite clique of influencers obsessed with status and secrecy - Julie is forced to keep up the act while being haunted by her sister's untimely death. As events spiral out of control, Julie uncovers the sinister forces that may have led to her sister's demise and realizes she might be the next target.

Review: Let's start with what I liked about this novel - the commentary, actually satire, on social media and influencer culture, entertaining. The author's writing style - highly readable. I would give this author another chance if she were to writer a second book.

The story itself? I don't know what happened. It started out strong and then around the midway point, it fell apart. It's as if the author didn't know what to do with this story she was crafting so she took it off the deep end. It's two books in one, as though the author's twin took over her manuscript. It's not a bad book, just weird, disjointed, and leaves the readers with weak explanations and, as a result, loose ends. Read at your own risk 😝

Sinking the Sultana

Author: Sally M. Walker
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Candlewick Press, 2017
Pages: 208
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In 1865, the Civil War was winding down and the country was reeling from Lincoln's assassination. Thousands of Union soldiers, released from Confederate prisoner-of-war camps, were to be transported home on the steamboat Sultana. With a profit to be made, the captain rushed repairs to the boat so the soldiers wouldn't find transportation elsewhere. More than 2000 passengers boarded in Vicksburg, Mississippi. . .on a boat with a capacity of 376. The journey was violently interrupted when the boat's boilers exploded, plunging the Sultana into mayhem; passengers were bombarded with red-hot iron fragments, burned by scalding steam, and flung overboard into the churning Mississippi. Although rescue efforts were launched, the survival rate was dismal - more than 1500 lives were lost.

Review: Something came across my Facebook newsfeed about the Sultana, and it conjured up a hazy memory about learning of this tragedy years ago. My interest was piqued so I searched my library's card  catalog and Sinking of the Sultana was the one result it returned.

The question of the Sultana is who is responsible for its sinking, and unfortunately, there's no definitive answer. In the end, the answer is probably many people. There were moments where multiple people at different points in the Sultana's story that a difference decision or choice could have been made and wasn't.

A Single Thread

Author: Tracey Chevalier
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2019
Pages: 336
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: 1932. After the Great War took both her beloved brother and her fiancé, Violet Speedwell has become a "surplus woman," one of a generation doomed to a life of spinsterhood after the war killed so many young men. Yet Violet cannot reconcile herself to a life spent caring for her grieving, embittered mother. After countless meals of boiled eggs and dry toast, she saves enough to move out of her mother's place and into the town of Winchester, home t one of England's grandest cathedrals. There, Violet is drawn into a society of broderers -- women who embroider kneelers for the Cathedral, carrying on a centuries-long tradition of bringing comfort to worshipers.

Violet finds support and community in the group, fulfillment in the work they create, and even a growing friendship with the vivacious Gilda. But when forces threaten her new independence and another war appears on the horizon, Violet must fight to put down roots in a place where women aren't expected to grow.

Review: I have more criticisms of this novel than I do praise, unfortunately.
Firstly, if I had to hear Tom call his sister "Old Girl" one more time, I might have screamed. It was awful and at 38 Violet was hardly old. If she had been, it would have been worse.

One criticism directed at the editors - one of the characters mentions something is as normal as routine as "brushing their teeth." While I understand the reference and ubiquitous nature of brushing teeth in the 21st century, I remember my grandmother saying that people really didn't when she was young. She was born in 1918 so this minor detail didn't ring true to me.

If I'm being honest, I don't know if I would have stuck with the print version of this book. I am far more tolerant of slow-plot novels when they're audiobooks. The metaphor of Violet stitching herself a new life while working on her embroidery for the Westminster Cathedral was not lost on me, but every character bears a certain sadness.

Violet is a surplus woman, thanks to the number of men killed and severely wounded during WWI. Her mother, a widow and grieving the loss of a son killed in the war. Even a newborn baby doesn't escape Chevalier's pen of pity when Violet mentions her new niece's unfortunate name - Gladys.

I'm torn on whether or not to recommend this novel. Violet is a strong character, belling ringing and embroidery are well-researched topics, and I imagine life in 1930s England for this class was described accurately. However, there are better post-World War I historical fiction novels available, for example check out author Jennifer Robson.

Also, because I was curious, I googled. The original embroidered kneelers and cushions from the 1930s at Winchester Cathedral are still in use. The cathedral still has an embroidery corps who clean, repair, and reupholster the pieces. This was perhaps the most interesting part of the novel. While the designers of the embroidered pieces drew on the history of the area for their designs, I would have preferred they chose religious themes.

Tracey Chevalier Novels
Girl with a Pearl Earring