Revelations are well-paced, though astute readers are apt to pick up several of the dropped clues (but some are dropped and not resolved). The first-person narration is unreliable due to the protagonist’s ignorance of the society in which she moves, while surreptitious behavior by the supporting characters forces the reader to be as wary as November ought to be. When a fellow student turns up dead, November must expose the truth, including her own connection to the victim and the influential Council of Families, while navigating a minefield of misinformation. Guileless November quickly allies herself with her studious Egyptian roommate, Layla, and Layla’s handsome brother, Ash. Instead of mathematics and literature, students at the Academy Absconditi learn how to wield weapons both physical and psychological, and history is taught so they might manipulate the future. That is until, due to a family emergency, her father sends her away to a covert boarding school.

Though she tragically lost her mother at age 6, she has an enviable life in small-town Connecticut, a strong relationship with her dad, and a mentor in her Aunt Jo. Seventeen-year-old Italian-American November was born in August. Subterfuge is the name of the game at an elite and secretive prep school. (author’s note, photos, research notes, poetry citations, further reading) This historical romance is a fast-paced, plot-driven tale with feminist main characters whom readers will root for from the very beginning.Ī charming Jewish love story set against the bleak backdrop of the Spanish Inquisition. But when handsome aristocrat Diego warns Isabel that she is in grave danger from the Inquisition and especially from her husband-to-be, Isabel is determined to save her family, herself, and the man she loves-and live an openly Jewish life filled with poetry. When Isabel is betrothed against her will to the powerful and ruthless alguacil, or sheriff, Don Sancho, Isabel’s parents believe that the upcoming marriage will save them from persecution. They think their secret is safe, but the head Inquisitor, Fray Tomás Torquemada, is now targeting conversos for their private Judaizing. However, like many other Jews in Spain at the time, they privately practice Judaism-attending church on Sundays but conducting Shabbat dinners every Friday night. The family converted to Christianity and were baptized in the hope of making their lives easier and more secure. The Inquisition is gaining control, but 16-year-old Isabel, who has a passion for writing poetry, thinks that as New Christians her family is safe.

In Trujillo, in the Spanish Kingdom of Castile in 1481, Isabel is a Crypto-Jew she and her family maintain their Jewish faith in secret.

The Poetry of Secrets by Cambria Gordon