It took me a few chapters to get drawn into the plot and writing, but once I did, I didn’t want to set down the book until I was finished. I do with we had gotten to see a little bit more of the forming of a relationship between Eli and Kaja, but what was there was well done. I adored Iris’s character and their friendship. Eli had a unique voice, and I never felt disconnected from her. This is an incredible, strong debut by Nicole Lesperance and I can’t wait to read what she comes out with next. Written from Eli’s point of view with multi-generational stories written like twisted bedtime stories sprinkled in, I was captivated by the world and story. It follows Eli as she returns to the secluded Norwegian flord at the top of the world where she lived as a child as she searches for the truth about what happened the night her mother disappeared. The Wide Starlight is a story containing Norwegian mythology/folklore. (Jan.Overall: 5 stars (I rounded up because it deserves it) Agent: Kathleen Rushall, Andrea Brown Literary. She also folds a satisfying sense of wonder into the quaint town, balanced with a chilling element of darkness.

Lesperance crafts a resourceful heroine whose loyalty forces her to confront a difficult situation and come out stronger. But when her grandmother is kidnapped, it’s up to Maren and her former best friend, Amos, to rescue Gran-Gran and thwart Malo’s scheme. As the inhabitants of whimsically magic-infused Rockpool Bay begin suffering odd mishaps, Maren struggles to escape her tormentor’s demands. Malo, an insect-wielding enigma with a “hearty appetite” for nightmares: in exchange for an escalating supply of horrifying dreams and forbidden ingredients, she’ll keep Maren’s secret to herself.

Maren is blackmailed for the act by sinister Ms. Desperate to help her older sister, Hallie, who’s in a coma following an accident, 12-year-old Maren Partridge breaks her dream-making family’s number one rule-no giving dreams without the receiver’s consent-by sneaking Hallie a pleasant one on her birthday. Employing sensory details and potent imagery, Lesperance ( The Wide Starlight) constructs a fanciful world in which dreams and nightmares are a commodity, created, bought, and sold.

The Wide Starlight by Nicole Lesperance