Sarah Kurz

 The following is a chapter from Tiny Sparks , the novel I'm working on.  It's a YA fantasy about a girl who has the power of the sun flowing through her veins.  This chapter focuses on Jonah Smith, one of her very best friends.  I absolutely adore Jonah and this was one of my favorite chapters to write.  Warning: If you plan to read the entire book someday there are a few spoiler-ish bits.  My apologies if the spacing is awkward.  Copy and paste didn't quite transfer as I wanted it to.  Enjoy!      Jonah didn’t know what to do with himself.  He sat in the middle of Lily’s floral print couch and stared at the grandfather clock across the room.  The couch was ugly, but he’d never tell Lily that.  Zera sat beside him.  He didn’t know if Lily allowed the massive dog on the couch or not.  After some consideration he decided that, after all this time, Zera should know the rules.  If she was breaking them it ...

 "I try not to smile, but I've missed the rush of power that comes with playing a game like this, of strategy and cunning." Jude is a mortal girl living in a fairy world.  She was brought there at a very early age after her now father figure murdered her real parents.  Above all else, she desires power.  She wants to fit in among the Folk and be more than a mere mortal.  And there's isn't much she won't do to obtain that power. Cardan is a somewhat sinister prince of Faerie.  He's hard to love and cares little for responsibility.  When Jude, his long time nemesis, plops a crown on his head and makes him High King of Faerie to help her attain power he isn't exactly thrilled.  But finding a place on the throne and getting to know Jude turns out to be exactly what he needs. The Cruel Prince, The Wicked King , and The Queen of Nothing make up Holly Black's Folk of Air series and it was a lot of fun to read.  Like so many other well known YA fa...

"Rage is a dirty fuel, but it burns hotter than grief ever could."    Cara has died on nearly every Earth in the multiverse. Bad news for the other versions, but good news for her because it makes her the perfect candidate for multiverse travel. She leaves behind her life in the wastes of the rurals for a fancier one in Wiley City. This new life comes with a shiny apartment, an important job at Eldridge Institute with an attractive co-worker, a decent wage, and a chance at citizenship. However, when Cara uncovers a dark secret on another Earth she is willing to risk her life and jeopordize all she's worked for to bring the truth to surface.    The Space Between Worlds is Micaiah Jonhson's first novel as well as my August Book of the Month pick and it was fascinataing! I've always been one to love a good multiverse theory and this book did not disappoint. One of the biggest questions asked when thinking in regards to the possibilities of multiverse is how wo...

  "I always thought I was pretty remarkable as far as mysterious creatures go." It's been five years since 10-year-old Livy visited her grandmother in Australia.  There's not much she remembers from the previous trip to Gran Nicholas' house despite the efforts of her mother and grandmother.  Just as she is starting to become convinced that she won't remember anything from the last time she stayed with Gran Livy meets Bob, a small green creature wearing a chicken suit and living in the bedroom closet.  He's been waiting for Livy to return for five years and he most certainly remembers her.  Together they uncover Livy's forgotten memories in hopes of discovering who (or what) Bob is and where he came from.   Bob , by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead, was such a sweet middle grade book!  I read it aloud with my 11-year-old son and we both really enjoyed it.  Bob is a charming and funny character and we both wracked our brains the entire time trying ...

 "Nikolai had been told hope was dangerous, had been warned of it many times.  But he'd never believed that.  Hope was the wind that came from nowhere to fill your sails and carry you home." Ravka is in trouble.  Its king is plagued by by a demon deep within his heart, its general is desperately trying to rebuild the Grisha army, and its favorite spy has headed north with a heart full a grief and a calling she can't ignore.  The throne is being threatened, Grisha are being used against their will, and a brand new group of worshippers has shown up hoping for the return of the Darkling.   King of Scars is a continuation of Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse.  If you are unfamiliar with her works they are excellent.  The magic and world building captured my heart instantly.  If you aren't sure where to start I would read the Shadow and Bone trilogy first and then the Six of Crows duology second before moving on to King of Scars , although I rea...

 "I raised my arm to shoot the bitch, but Eli had already hit her with his magic.  I didn't know what spell he was using, but it was effective." Lizbeth Rose is back to doing what she does best, being a gunnie.  She's got a new job, a new crew, and a new slew of problems as she tries to transport a mysterious chest into Dixie.  It's smooth going until someone blows up the train she and her crew are on and steals the chest.  Now Lizbeth is stuck in Sally, a town where women are soft, wear skirts, and definitely don't carry Colt pistols.  It's also a town full of racists who think they world owes them something.  With Eli, her very likable wizard friend, by her side, Lizbeth sets out to recover the chest and help set the backwards town of Sally straight.  A Longer Fall is the second book in the Gunnie Rose series by Charlaine Harris and it's just as fun as the first!  I've been a huge fan of Charlaine Harris' books for many, many years and this...

"He laughed.  Then his expression turned serious.  "One day, someone should tell you how beautiful you are in the moonlight," Bastien said softly." Celine Rousseau killed a man.  And now she is forced to leave Paris, the city she loves, for a new world in hopes of creating a life that isn't haunted by her past.  Her journey takes her to a convent in New Orleans where she hopes to someday meet a nice man, marry, and be a respectable lady in society.  The problem with that is Celine isn't attracted to nice, respectable men.  She finds herself infatuated with Sébastien Saint Germain, a very important member of La Cour des Lions.  Celine discovers that New Orleans is full of dark, terrible things.  And one of those things wants her dead. The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh was an absolutely delicious vampire story.  And I love a good vampire story!  It's set in 1872 in New Orleans.  (Side note...New Orleans vampire stories are my favorite ty...

"Hate is loud, but I think you'll learn it's because it's only a few people shouting, desperate to be heard.  You might not ever be able to change their minds, but so long as you remember you're not alone, you will overcome." Linus Baker lived a quiet life in the city.  He worked hard at his job as a case worker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, he kept to himself, and he came home at night to his cat, Calliope.  It wasn't much of a life, but it was his and he did what was expected of him until one day he was called in to speak to Extremely Upper Management.  Linus was given the assignment of investigating an orphanage on a remote island.  An orphanage that was home to several magical children including 6-year-old Lucy, son of Satan.  He was to stay there for a month and observe the children and their guardian, a man named Arthur Parnassus, and report back to DICOMY on whether or not he believed the orphanage was fit to remain opened.  Arme...

"He shouldn't look.  He knew that.  You should never look into the face of the uncanny, but had he ever been able to turn away?  No, he'd courted it, begged for it.  He had to know.  He wanted to know everything." Galaxy Stern isn't like other girls.  She sees ghosts.  Dead souls that linger on this side of the veil longing for a sense of what it is to be alive again.  Seeing ghosts makes life difficult for Alex.  So difficult that she runs away as a teenager, searching for ways to escape and numb her mind.  It's not much of a life and Alex wakes up one day in a hospital bed to find out all of her friends have been brutally murdered and the dean of Yale has a tempting offer.  A chance at a new, normal life.  All she has to do is use her ability to see ghosts to work for Lethe society, a Yale organization that keeps the other societies in check.  In return she can be a Yale student.  She can start a new life.  Ale...

"There was a flash of light as Jame's seraph blade arced through the smoke and plunged into the demon's middle.  Black ichor sprayed as the demon shrieked in a high, chittering voice." Chain of Gold is the first book in Cassandra Clare's latest Shadowhunter series, The Last Hours.  If you are no stranger to the world of Shadowhunters you will love this book.  And if you are a stranger I highly suggest you make yourself acquainted with them.  They are wonderful.  I own fourteen of them and love them all dearly. In her latest series, Clare introduces us to James and Lucie Herondale, son of Will and Tessa.  We also meet Cordelia Carstairs, the brave and fearless female that wields Cortona during the beginning of the twentieth century, and Matthew Fairchild, Jame's best friend and parabatai, and a few of their friends as they try to figure out why demons are suddenly attacking Shadowhunters after London has been quiet for over a decade.  Just like Clare's ...

"Her house wasn't my home.  This town wasn't my home.  Yet when I looked at the coffee cup again, that warm sense of belonging lingered.  I wanted to hold on to that feeling.  But I didn't trust it, either." When Emily's sister, April, was injured in a car accident and needed help she didn't hesitate to pack up and move to the small town of Willow Creek. Why wouldn't she?  As a newly dumped college dropout things weren't exactly booming.  And she'd get to do lots of fun things with her teenage niece, Cait.  Things like volunteer to spend the entire summer working at the local Renaissance Fair. Well Met , by Jen DeLuca, is an adorable little romantic comedy about a twenty-five year old woman that moves in to help her sister and niece.  She volunteers at the small town's large Renaissance Fair where, of course, girl meets boy.  Girl despises boy.  Girl makes out with boy in a bar wench costume and falls madly in love.  It was won...

"She kept whispering the words over and over again.  They morphed together into one sentence, a prater, a challenge.  My friends are with me and I am not afraid." Bryce Quinlan is living a pretty great life as one of Crescent City's biggest party girls.  She works days at the gallery and spends her nights high and dancing with her best friend Danika Fendyr.  And while her half fae/half human blood doesn't always make her feel like she fits in, Dankia's pack adores her and her asshole of a father, the Fae Autumn King, leaves her alone.  All of that changes one night when Bryce comes home in a stupor to find that Danika and the Pack of Devils have been brutally murdered in her apartment.  Bryce spends the next two years with guilt and pain eating away at her, not sure what to do with life anymore.  It isn't until she meets and enslaved angel that's just as broken as she is that things start to change.  With the help of Hunt Athalar, Bryce sets out t...

"For the first time in years, I was going to write a book that absolutely no one was waiting for.  And I'd get to watch Gus Everett try to write a love story." January Andrews thought the world was full of happy endings.  Nothing could go wrong because there was always love and things would always end up perfect in the end.  Until the day that everything went wrong and her perception was shattered. Struggling to deal with her father's death and the secret affair he'd carried on for years, January finds herself broke and facing a deadline with no books.  Quickly running out of options, she moves into the beach house her father had shared with That Woman with only two things on her mind...write a book and sell the house.  It seems like a great plan until she realizes her next door neighbor is her super sexy college nemesis, Augustus Everett.  She quickly discovers that she isn't the only one with writers block and strikes up a deal with Gus.  He'll w...

"But for now Bridie smokes her pipe and lets everything she knows, and doesn't know, and thinks she knows, wash over her.  The cast of this pantomime present themselves in the playhouse of her mind.  Bridie watches them file onstage." Bridie Devine isn't quite like the other ladies of Victorian London.  She spends her days solving mysteries.  Her latest mystery, the kidnapping of six-year-old Christabel Berwick, takes her on a journey through her past.  With the ghost of Ruby Doyle by her side, Bridie unearths secrets and legends to get Christabel back where she belongs. Things in Jars , by Jess Kidd, was my November Book of the Month pick and by far one of my favorite books this year!  I know...I say that all the time.  It's always true.  The world of literature never ceases to please and amaze me. Things in Jars  offers a nice little mix of history and folklore.  It's a mermaid tale like none I've read before.  And Bridie is...

"The problem is that I've been stumbling about in the dark." In the city of Elendhaven a monster lives.  Born of the dark sea, a taste for violence, and constantly asking one question...who am I?  Johann never understands himself. Not until he meets Florian, an important aristocratic member of the community with a secret of his own. The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht is a beautifully written and delightfully dark little tale.  It was a quick, exciting read.  It reads like a nice short story, concise and to the point, rather than a lengthy novel, which I found surprisingly refreshing.  I was left with a bit of a book hangover after The Winternight Trilogy (So. Good.) and wasn't ready to jump back into something heavy.  This little book proved to be the perfect cure.  Sometimes we cling to books and their long, drawn out stories.  We don't want them to end.  This was not one of those books and that's a very good thing.  ...

“I’d never met a “why not?” person before. In the city, there’s generally more of a “why should I?” kind of vibe.” Everything is fine in Tristan's life.  He lives in an amazing city.  He has a great best friend.  Things are awesome.  Then his parents pack him and his sisters up and move to Petersville, a tiny mountain town with one street and a super old house that they are now the proud owners of.  Tris's awesome life has taken a turn for the worse.  It isn't until his dad suggests he come up with a project to fill his free time that Tris learns to love the quaint little town.  With the help of his new friend, Josh, Tris is on a mission to bring Winnie's famous chocolate cream doughnut's back to Petersville.   The Doughnut Fix  by Jessie Janowitz is one of the 2019-2020 nominees for the Nebraska Golden Sower Award.  My 11-year-old son and I have been diligently working our way through the list together since September and t...

"There was a pause.  Vasya's face hurt, and her sight had begun to fracture.  The snowy countryside tugged at the edges of her vision." Vasalisa Petrovna is not like other girls.  She runs free and wild through the forests on her father's lands.  She rides bareback on great stallions.  She sees things.  Things that no one else sees.  Things that many call demons.  She is so similar to the mother she never knew, and Vasalisa's father and brothers want nothing more than to keep the girl safe.  They want Vasalisa to forget her wild ways and settle down and marry, but Vasalisa would rather soon die than give up who she truly is.  Or who she is about to become when she meets Morozko, the frost demon of death. The Bear and the Nightingale is the first book in the Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden.  Set in Russia, it's a beautifully written tale of magic, folklore, and religion.  The beginning of the book is a bit slow, fill...

"It was easily a hundred metres from the stripe to the plinth: a long way to walk.  It looked simple enough, which was how Gideon knew it was probably a huge pain in the ass." Gideon Nav, wielder of swords and reader of dirty magazines, wants nothing more than to escape from the Ninth House.  Sure, it's been her home her entire life, but it's not exactly a happy one.  So Gideon devises the perfect plan to leave, and her plan is destroyed by her nemesis, Harrowhark Nonahesimus, necromancer and heir to the House of the Ninth.  Harrowhark has her own plans.  Plans to ascend and become an all-powerful immortal, but she can't do that without a cavalier.  Gideon is less than thrilled when she is picked to be that cavalier.  Gideon and Harrow venture to the First House, along with the heirs and cavaliers from the seven houses, to have their try at ascending.  It quickly becomes clear that this is no easy task, even for someone as powerful as Harrowha...

"But last night, Aurora had realized something.  There were some things in life she did not get to choose - who she loved, how she hurt, or what she was born.  But she could not run anymore when things became too painful." Rage , the second book in the Stormheart   Series by Cora Carmack is the continuation of the story of Aurora Pavan, the princess without Stormling magic who is desperately trying to save her kingdom. This book was just as good as the first.  Possibly even better.  However, I'm not going to go into great detail (spoilers!).  I'm just going to say that there are lots of lovely twists and in book two and Cora Carmack does an excellent job of expanding the other characters.  I felt like they were a bit vague in the first book, but I can see why she left them to book two. The two books flow smoothly into each other, so I highly recommend reading them back to back over the course of three nights like I did.  My only regret is t...

"Maybe everything.  Or nothing.  Maybe none of this was real, and she was back in her bed having an herb-induced dream.  Or maybe everything she'd been taught, everything she thought she knew, was absolutely wrong." Aurora Pavan has always found it difficult to fit into her family and her kingdom.  A princess who lacks Stormling magic, she spent the majority of life hidden away playing the role of the good, quiet girl eager to please her mother.  Roar has never questioned her life.  She knows the role she is to play.  Or at least she thinks she does until her mother arranges a marriage to save the kingdom and Roar finds that life isn't as simple as she thought.  Each time she seeks the answer to a question and new one pops up and Roar suspects that a royal marriage isn't the only way to save her people. In her quest to find answers Roar meets Locke, a storm hunter with a misfit crew that can teach her a thing or two about magic.  Togeth...