Circle of Stones

Gr 8 Up—Long ago in ancient Briton, a leper king named Bladud was cast out by his people and later healed in the hot springs of the goddess Sulis. Bladud founded a city around the springs and built a great stone circle to honor his goddess. In 1740, a young nobleman with too many debts worked for an English architect on a development of townhouses called the King's Circus, based on the design of Bladud's stone circle. In the present day, a girl with no name lives there. She is hiding and knows too much. The girl has lived in more cities than she can count. But when she comes to the place that was once known as Aquae Sulis, now called Bath, the young woman feels at home. An exiled king, an architect's apprentice, and a girl on the run: three corners of a triangle come together as three related but distinctly stylized narratives. Events and themes are echoed over the centuries, and characters face similar dilemmas again and again, suggesting that the separate time lines are connected by more than just location. Fisher intricately weaves a haunting story about choices, perception, and greed. A well-researched novel that is unlike anything else on the young adult market. While ancient Druidic magic and 18th-century architecture by themselves will not find a wide audience in teen readers, romance, betrayal, sabotage, and an unsolved murder just might.—Liz Overberg, Darlington School, Rome, GA