LOVE AND WAR

The War We Won Apart by Nahlah Ayed, Viking, $36. On opposite sides of the Atlantic, Guy d’Artois, a French-Canadian soldier, and Sonia Butt, an adventurous young British woman, are preparing for war. Their lives intersect during clandestine training to become agents with Winston Churchill’s secret army, the Special Operations Executive.

They learn how to parachute into enemy territory and how to kill and blow up rail lines.

And they fall in love and get married in a hurry before they are deployed.,

Guy then says his goodbyes to Sonia, his bride of only five weeks.

In the short period they’d known each other, Sonia and Guy had lived a whole lifetime: celebrating their first Christmas together, their first New Year’s eve, and each other’s springtime birthdays only five weeks apart.

They are then despatched to the front where Adolf Hitler’s armies are on the move, rampaging through Europe. They are supposed to land in enemy territory together, but circumstances dictate that they arrive separately. They are on their own from then on, each unaware of the other’s fate.

Nahlah Ayed follows the couple’s perilous journey training hundreds of volunteers in the French resistance.

Ultimately, The War We Won Apart is a story about love. And the ravaging costs of war paid for disproportionately by the young.

THE GHOSTS OF BESTSELLERS PAST

Camino Ghosts by John Grisham, Doubleday, $41. Bruce Cable, the owner of Bay Books whom we have encountered in John Grisham’s Camino Winds, makes a return in Camino Ghosts.

Dark Isle, not far from the North Florida coast, was settled by freed slaves 300 years ago. Their descendants lived there until 1955, when the last of them, Lovely Jackson, was forced to leave. A curse has rendered the island very, very unsafe for any White visitor, and yet a powerful developer can’t resist the temptation of millions to be made and wants to build a resort and casino on the island.

Doesn’t sound like a Grisham plot, I hear you say. Couldn’t agree with you more.

The book’s jacket promises that “dark secrets of the past are about to collide with enormous ambitions of the present” – and as I plough through the pages of Camino Ghosts, I have a strong yearning for Grisham of yore, classics like A Time to Kill, The Pelican Brief, The Chamber...

SPIES AMONG US

Westport by James Comey, The Mysterious Press, $40. James Comey, the former Director of the FBI, has nonfiction bestsellers under his belt.

In Westport, his second foray into crime fiction after the bestselling Central Park West, Comey takes readers into the world of high finance and corporate espionage.

It’s been two years since Nora Carleton left the job she loved at the US Attorney’s Office to become the lead counsel at the world’s largest hedge fund. It helps her move her daughter away from the city and she also likes the people she works with.

But her new life falls apart when a coworker is murdered and Nora is the lead suspect. She calls in her old colleagues to help clear her name but it soon becomes apparent that nearly everyone has secrets worth killing for.

Who set Nora up to take the fall?

MYSTERY AND HISTORY

A Nest of Vipers by Harini Nagendra, Constable, $19.99. Death stalks the streets of Bangalore when the Circus comes to town. And a prince’s visit is imminent.

And Kaveri is stunned to discover her friend and favourite policeman, Inspector Ismail, has distanced himself from her.

Is it to protect her? His way of telling her to stay out of trouble?

But how can she, when a celebrity magician, shackled in an iron cage filled with deadly snakes, disappears into thin air?

Will Bangalore’s famous lady detective be able to decipher clues (some written on grains of rice) and see through smoke and mirrors to save an innocent man and prevent more mayhem?

Set in January 1922, against a backdrop of the freedom movement, A Nest of Vipers is part mystery, part history of the times, with the different approaches of Mahatma Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose being hot topics of discussion.

It is also filled with descriptions of how Bangalore used to be – a stadium now stands where a lake was – as well as colourful characters like Coffeepudi Lakamma.

Keenly observed details of the lives of Kaveri Murthy and her friends, including what they wear, eat (oh, the delicious recipes!) and the section on concoctions from her beauty routine, are a bonus.

TIME AFTER TIME

Remember Me Tomorrow by Farah Heron, Skyscape, $16.99. Is it possible to connect with someone from the past? Not at a seance or through someone who claims to talk to spirits, but really? As in exchange texts with them?

It would appear so. Aspiring investigative journalist Aleeza Kassam – obsessed with octopuses – moves into the oldest and least desirable dorm on campus after a falling out with her former best friend. Where she starts receiving texts from Jay Hoque, a handsome, enigmatic student who vanished five months ago without a trace.

The room she’s in used to be his room. Except that he claims it’s still his.

Aleeza: Like you’re inside the room right now? East House, third floor, room 225?

Jay: You sure you’re a journalism student? Reading comprehension doesn’t seem to be your strong suit. Yes, I’m here right now, sitting on my bed under the window.

Aleeza and Jay are sharing space if not time. They are in “parallel and almost-the-same universes, not in different times in the same timeline”.

They start working together to prevent his inevitable disappearance. Will their efforts cause a temporal paradox that could blow up the universe?

Aleeza begins investigating Jay’s friends, enemies and exes to find out what happened to him or what will happen – it helps that she’s a huge fan of Agatha Christie and used to dream that Alfred Hitchock was her uncle. She’s also willing to invoke Sherlock Holmes, Veronica Mars or...the Scooby Gang!

She’s also falling in love with the young man she may not ever meet as they go through old movies on time travel together. In a manner of speaking – Aleeza in her/his room and Jay wherever he is.

A fun, sweet, and frankly, fascinating, story with twists and turns that are an homage to one of author Farah Heron’s favourite films, The Lake House with Keanu Reeves. With plenty of references to little-known treasures in and around Toronto, where the story is set.

A WITCH HUNT

A Witch’s Guide To Burning by Aminder Dhaliwal, Drawn & Quarterly, $32.95. A witch’s work is never done when she works for the people. But what happens when she can’t keep up with the requests? She is burnt, of course. But when a burning is interrupted by rain, it’s up to the witch doctor and her toad friend to save the singed witch and nurse her back to health. A graphic novel about sacrifice and healing.

A WOMAN AND A WILD FOX

Fox & I by Catherine Raven, Hamish Hamilton, $34.95. When a book is described as an unforgettable memoir about the friendship between a solitary woman and a wild fox, I wonder if I really want to read it, if the solitary woman will tame the wild creature into a pet. But Catherine Raven is not that woman and her scientific training had taught her never to anthropomorphize animals.

After finishing her PhD, she built herself a tiny cottage on an isolated plot of land in Montana. As emotionally isolated as she was physically, she viewed her stay as a temporary stop while she gathered herself together to apply for a real job that would, in essence, be her re-entry into the world. When a mangy-looking fox began showing up every afternoon at 4:15, she set her camping chair as close to him as she dared and began reading to him from The Little Prince.

Why don’t people socialize with animals? And by “animals,” I mean unboxed animals. Like the little prince’s fox. Like my fox... Maybe we like pretending that they are not very human. Or that we are not very wild.

Friends cannot save each other from the uncontained forces of nature, but she learns that we are never alone when we are connected to the natural world. Lessons that include magical encounters with a herd of deer as well.

OLD VALUES, NEW LAND

In The Time of Our History by Susanne Pari, Kensington, $22.99. The Jahani family is struggling to hold on to their traditions as Iranian immigrants in the US while their American-born daughter steps outside the role outlined for her.

She shakes loose the family’s foundations and their secrets in this multigenerational saga that explores the meaning of marriage, motherhood, and starting anew even as we long for the place we once called home.

SPIDER-MAN SPEAKS HINDI!

Spiderman India by Nikesh Shukla, Marvel, $20. India’s Spider-Man, Pavitr Prabhakar is back! But things are terribly wrong in his universe. A new lizard emerges to threaten all of Mumbai and Pavitr is the city’s only hope.

CHILDHOOD IS AN ADVENTURE

The Islands of Elsewhere by Heather Fawcett, Rocky Pond Books, $24.49. Not many kids have an island in their backyard, but suddenly, Bee and her sisters have three.

They are staying at their grand-daddy’s seaside property for the summer which just happens to include the enticing islands Fairy, Little Fairy and Ghost. There’s pirate treasure hidden on one of them and finding it would help him concoct the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe.

A story of family and discovery, magic and adventure, heart and humour.

A FUN READ

Would You Rather Mad Libs by Olivia Luchini, Penguin random House, $9.50. “Good luck! You’ll need it.” Any book that starts you off with this phrase is bound to be hit with young readers!

A fun collection of fill-in-the-blank Would You Rather jokes that test vocabulary and spark imagination.

TEEN REVIEW

By ROMAAN BALOCH

The Ickabog by J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, $36.99. The Ickabog by J. K. Rowling is a fantasy fiction novel that tells the story of a medieval kingdom called Cornucopia. It follows two children named Bert and Daisy as they attempt to uncover the mystery of a mythical beast called the Ickabog and bring peace back to their kingdom.

Though written for young readers, The Ickabog explores many mature themes, including social and political themes of class, power, and corruption. In The Ickabog, Rowling paints a picture of a land ruled through fear and deceit, where propaganda is used to keep the population in check and demonstrates the importance and value of truth and justice in a society.

The Ickabog aims to empower young readers through its young characters, while also appealing to a more mature audience through the themes it explores. In essence, The Ickabog is a great novel that illustrates the ability of ordinary people to overcome oppression through creativity, cooperation, and compassion.

The novel is not only a fun and engaging fairy tale, but also a relevant and powerful commentary on the value of truth and tolerance in society, and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in fantasy and mystery.

• Romaan Baloch is a youth volunteer at Brampton Library.