In the Empyrical Kingdom of Caldon, 17-year-old Ren Fuller has no chance to attend Stanwyck University. No chance because she’s poor and no chance because she’s a girl. Her only shot at attending the University and hopefully finding a cure to the wasting disease that is stealing her mother’s life is a contest—a scholarship offered by the mysterious Mr. Holm. If she can only best the boys in the Holm labyrinth, but to do that she must pretend to be one.
With echoes of Dr. Brennan from the TV series Bones, the author opens To Best the Boys with the heroine extracting blood and tissue samples from corpses in the local morgue. This chapter feels a little gross and unnecessary, but the rest of the plot develops nicely from there. Ren Fuller is smart, witty, beautiful, kind, and persistent. However, some supporting characters weren’t as compelling. Overall, this is a fun girl power story with some interesting twists in a fantasy realm.
Age Range: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Thomas Nelson, 2019
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