At Camp Refuge, a Christian summer camp run by her family’s church, Clarity (who’s Black) grows closer to fellow camp counselor and classmate Hannah (who’s cued white), discovering a part of herself that just feels right. But when they’re caught kissing by other counselors, Clarity experiences the sting of her peers’ disapproval of her sexuality—something she still doesn’t have totally figured out. One thing she knows is that she’s not ready to come out to her Baptist parents, so she avoids Hannah for the last week of camp. Clarity’s senior year becomes a series of obstacles, testing her ability to keep her secret: Her best friend, Kristen, tries to set her up with a boy; the camp director, Mrs. Patricia, who knows about what happened with Hannah, wants Clarity to be her Sunday school assistant; and Clarity is forced to be around Hannah because they’re co-presidents of their school’s festival committee. While aspiring to embody her name, Clarity also yearns to figure things out at her own pace, offering a refreshingly honest reminder that developing self-knowledge is a complex and nuanced journey. Her anxiety over being outed, her struggle with faith, and the impact of hiding her true self from the most important people in her life unequivocally tugs at the heart.

In this story “of love in a time of violence,” the narrator never reveals his name; he’s an octogenarian who reasonably expects that “terrible, powerful, soulless people are coming to kill me.” Yet his own soul is at peace. He loves the “hum of Brooklyn roads, the muffled roar of the BQE, and the sound of air whistling through the steel weave of the bridges…” Brooklyn is “embraced by the ocean, the harbor, the East River,” and its deep blue sky is a rhapsody that calms the heart. Yet with rhapsody comes tragedy. The narrator recalls with melancholy his wife, Clare, their son, Charles, and the joy they all once brought to each other. But Charles died fighting in Iraq and Clare’s own violent passing nearly strips the narrator’s life of meaning. The couple—he once a rich investment banker, she a lawyer—enjoyed long walks from Brooklyn into Manhattan until one day a crazed man wielding a machete began butchering people. The narrator, then a 70-something Vietnam veteran, killed the attacker, but at a heavy and permanent cost. The ensuing events are nothing he could have anticipated, which is much to the readers’ benefit. A few years later, he saves a friend from the clutches of a drug gang, and he knows the gang is now coming for him. But he feels he’s lived his life and isn’t about to skip town to escape his likely death: “Emily Dickinson stuck like a limpet to Amherst,” he says. “Brooklyn is good enough for me.” The narrator reflects deeply on the family and possessions he once had, on his love of his family and his city, and on the ghosts to whom he owes allegiance. Had he known what was going to happen, would he have interrupted the machete attack? He and Clare could have kept walking, but they didn’t, and he is forever haunted by the consequences.

Young Christian—a stand-in for the author—is such a soccer enthusiast that he carries a mini-ball with him everywhere he goes. But team tryouts turn disastrous when he finds himself surrounded by much taller, stronger kids. His family springs into action—proclaiming the next morning a “Super Soccer Day,” challenging him to earn his breakfast by beating his sister at a quick match, and cheering him on. When Christian complains that his family members are bigger, they respond that strength and size are not soccer superpowers, but focus and determination are, particularly when backed up by an internal “wall of confidence”—sound advice for young athletes, delivered clearly. The next day at practice, he passes the ball when it comes his way, cheers on his fellow players, and, when an opportunity to score presents itself, triumphs at last by believing in himself. In a personal afterword, Pulisic explains that the episode was inspired by his family, and though specific events are invented, photos of him as a young player and of the actual “Confidence!!” sign on the wall of the garage in his childhood home in Pennsylvania provide autobiographical links. In the sunny illustrations, Kissi depicts the protagonist joining his likewise light-skinned mom, dad, and big sister in athletically booting the ball around their kitchen and yard; other team members are racially diverse.

After the events of Shadow and Tide (2025), Mira finds herself imprisoned in the royal council’s court and forced into a deadly competition along with a boy named Kell, who’s also a captive. Each territory sends champions to the Trials, and victory brings power, alliances, and influence. To ensure Mira’s obedience, the council is holding her best friend, Agnes, hostage. As the trials commence, Mira and Kell, determined to stay alive, make deals with other contestants. Elsewhere, Brielle, separated from the powerful Coven Septern, forges her own path, building a new coven with two fledgling witches. Meanwhile, Lowri, teetering on the edge of burnout, is stranded in another world with Eli. As they unravel Eli’s father’s secrets, they discover the council’s hand in the realm’s ruin and realize they must return to their own world before it meets with the same fate. As the characters’ paths collide, the truth emerges: The council has wicked plans and together, the heroes must stop them from coming to fruition. The series closes with an explosive finale. Readers should be familiar with the earlier entries if they hope to follow the sprawling cast and their tangled relationships. Even returning fans may be challenged by the late reappearance of characters introduced in earlier books. Main characters are cued white.

Acclaimed painter Laura Adams is known for her solitary ways. So Annie is perplexed, and a little piqued, to learn that her mother has taken art student Felicity Rowe under her wing, even allowing Fliss to share her Chelsea town house. Annie isn’t hard up for lodgings, since she inherited a fortune from her great-aunt Frances, but her concern over her mother’s new living arrangements brings her down from rural Dorset to assess the situation in person. That concern rises to the level of panic when Felicity turns up dead in a dumpster behind the house. Laura’s clearly hiding something, and to unravel the complex puzzle, Annie needs the help of her old friend, police Detective Rowan Crane. Felicity’s murder turns out to have roots in the decades-old death of socialite Vera Huntington, who partied with Frances in London’s jazz clubs back in the 1960s. Perrin handles the twin narratives deftly, giving careful attention to each and permitting their connection to develop richly. She allows the love interest in each story to follow their own peculiar trajectory. And she draws a vivid picture of London, both past and present. The solution to the puzzle, on the other hand, is easily foreseen and too long in coming. Perrin is at her considerable best when she concentrates on drawing sympathetic, believable characters facing tough emotional issues.