Author Spotlight: Christine Norris!

Christine Norris is the most super talented multi-tasker we've ever seen.

Here's a brief list of Christine's accomplishments: teacher/library media specialist, author of 10 published middle grade and young adult books, contributor to two short story collections, blogger, mom (to both human and animal children).

Oh yea, and she also has three degrees from three different colleges, studied theater and has performed in musicals and children's theater, and sells beautiful handcrafted pieces in her Etsy shop.

I will not live long enough to accomplish even *one* of those things, and she did all that (sometimes simultaneously) in the first 30 or so years of her life. I'm in serious awe of this woman.

So like I said before, most of the books she's written are for middle graders, but her YA novel, A Curse of Ash & Iron, is an amazing steampunky Cinderella retelling in 19th century Philly. For her first YA venture, she came out swingin' and is batting a thousand.

Visit Christine all over the interwebz (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, website, blog, etc.) and be at the Palmer Branch when Christine graces us with her greatness at YA Fest 2017 :) 

A Curse of Ash and Iron

Benjamin Grimm knows the theater is much like real life. In 1876 Philadelphia, people play their parts, hiding behind the illusion of their lives, and never revealing their secrets.

When he reunites with his childhood friend Eleanor Banneker, he is delighted. His delight turns to dismay when he discovers she has been under a spell for the past 7 years, being forced to live as a servant in her own home, and he realizes how sinister some secrets can be. She asks for his help, and he can’t refuse. Even if he doesn’t believe in ‘real’ magic, he can’t abandon her.

Ellie has spent the long years since her mother’s death under the watchful eye and unforgiving eye of her stepmother. Bewitched and hidden in plain sight, it seems no one can help Ellie escape. Not even her own father, who is under a spell of his own. When she sees Ben one evening, it seems he is immune to the magic that binds her, and her hope is rekindled along with her friendship.

But time is running short. If they do not find a way to break the spell before midnight on New Year’s Eve, then both Ellie and her father will be bound forever.