Forgotten Hills by Renee Lake

From the publisher: What do you do when you find a centuries-old dead woman in the basement? Come to Forgotten Hills Cemetery and Mortuary and find out! When Thana and her sisters reclaim their ancestral home, they have dreams of making it a thriving business. Little do they know they’ll also be dealing with a curse and a ghost and will uncover a family legend. Together they must expose the secrets buried in Forgotten Hills—without killing anyone in the process.

Things I liked:

• An Own Voices title
• Hispanic main character
• Bi and lesbian representation
• Engaging story that was easy to read
• A predictable but satisfactory HEA ending
• Deliciously creepy rather than graphically horrible

Things I didn't like as much:

• Some clichéd language (e.g., “She tasted like booze and cranberry, he tasted like…home.” p. 20 of the ARC)
• Breaking of the fourth wall (e.g, “Thana reached back out to the police and tried to pester Draven again, but both were, excuse the pun, dead ends.” p. 38 of the ARC, and “‘Earth to Thana,’ Lola said, throwing a flower, but let’s be honest, it was really a weed, at her head.” p. 112 of the ARC)
• Although it is pretty polished, there are areas that would benefit from a good editorial review

Setting aside some predictability and implausibility (really, your family has a curse and you don’t make sure to pass on all the relevant info to your descendants?), this was a fun read that was spooky without being too scary.

I read an advance reader copy of Forgotten Hills from Netgalley. It is available through the Galesburg Public Library as an ebook, and a print copy is on its way.

A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd

A Snicker of Magic is slow starting, but I enjoyed it once it got underway. Sixth-grader Felicity Pickle is cursed with a mother who can't stay in one place. Literally cursed, if the stories of Midnight Gulch, Tennessee are true. Two magical brothers dueled and everyone lost when the woman they both loved cursed them. Their descendants are still affected by the curse.

Felicity's gift is to see words. She seems them over people's heads, in rooms, along roads, in the stars. Her mother decides to return home - not to stay, just to visit. But Felicity feels like she has come home. She meets her first best friend, Jonah, a boy in a wheelchair with a delightful secret.

Midnight Gulch is known for Dr. Zook's Famous Ice Cream Factory. It stays frozen without ice, and the Blackberry Sunrise flavor is the most popular because it brings back memories.

But there is hope, found in the verses of the curse: "Cursed to wander through the night,/Till cords align, and all's made right./Where sweet amends are made and spoken,/Shadows dance, the curse is broken." Felicity, Jonah and a host of other 'do-gooders" set out solve the curse and make things right. Felicity is sure she can break the curse and keep her mother from wandering.

This is not a very magical book. Midnight Gulch has remaining only a snicker of magic. At times, I wondered if there really is any magic at all, and that's part of the book's charm. There are interesting characters of many different ages. This is a great book for new vocabulary, and for helping the reader see that everyone has secrets and fears. I definitely recommend it for the right reader.

A Snicker of Magic can be found in the Children's Room under the author's name, LLOYD, Natalie.