Werlin’s new book is a very well-writ­ten com­ing of age nov­el, and is also an excel­lent fairy tale.

Phoebe Roth­schild, whose extreme­ly com­pe­tent moth­er is a descen­dent of the Roth­schild fam­i­ly, becomes friends with Mal­lo­ry, a new girl who has appeared in sev­enth grade. Mal­lo­ry is awk­ward and does not know how to dress, and Phoebe leaves her pop­u­lar clique to befriend Mal­lo­ry, who becomes her new best friend. Four years lat­er Mal­lo­ry informs Phoebe that she has a half-broth­er who is 24, whom Phoebe can­not resist. Unknown to Phoebe, Mal­lo­ry and Ryland are mem­bers of the faerie king­dom who have been sent by the Faerie Queen to trap Phoebe, based on a promise made by Phoebe’s ances­tor, May­er Roth­schild, over two hun­dred years ago. Until Ryland’s arrival, Phoebe and Mal­lo­ry have a love­ly rela­tion­ship, which changes dras­ti­cal­ly when Ryland arrives and uses his faerie guile to kid­nap and bring Phoebe back to the faerie king­dom in order save the king­dom from dying out. The char­ac­ter­i­za­tions of the pro­tag­o­nists are well-delin­eat­ed and Phoebe’s char­ac­ter devel­op­ment as the book pro­gress­es is noth­ing short of amaz­ing. The book is sus­pense­ful and con­sis­tent­ly keeps the reader’s atten­tion. The only Jew­ish con­tent is the infor­ma­tion about the Roth­schild fam­i­ly. This book will be enjoyed both by fan­ta­sy lovers and those who j ust like a good read. Ages 12 and up.