HEARTWOOD BOX

A fast-paced paranormal romance
blends teen life with thrilling covert exploits.

Having traveled
extensively with her journalist parents, Araceli Flores Harper is used to
unusual experiences in far-flung locales. Senior year in exile at her great-aunt’s
crumbling Victorian home in rural New York state promises to be dull by
comparison, but nothing could have prepared Araceli for the strange,
frightening, and dangerous aspects of her newest home. Araceli, whose mother is
white and American and father is Mexican, discovers that the town’s deep-seated
racism coupled with recent mysterious disappearances are keeping everyone in
her ethnically and sexually diverse circle of new friends on edge. Digging into
the details surrounding the town’s secretive government research facility just
creates more questions—and risk—as Araceli struggles to find a connection
between the ghosts of the past and the current conflict in which she’s embroiled.
Despite juggling dance team tryouts, learning to drive, and investigating leads,
Araceli finds time to establish a romantic pen-pal relationship with an
enigmatic stranger. Add this to the ever growing list of bizarre phenomena that
she must navigate, and readers may find themselves
wondering what to focus on. Social consciousness is woven naturally into
the story, leaving readers with something more substantial to think on after
the book has ended.

Aguirre (The Shadow Warrior, 2019, etc.)
writes compelling and accessible characters who fumble through complicated
supernatural situations with humor and grit. (Supernatural thriller. 13-18)