Soulbound

Gr 7 Up—Raised in the tiny village of Kessler, Kaya knows nothing of the outside world her parents fled in order to be together, a world in which Barrons and Healers are bound to one another-Barrons fight the evil Graplar King and Healers cure their wounds. After her best friend is killed by a Graplar, a fearsome beast with a ravenous hunger for human flesh, the Zettai Council of the Shadow Academy tracks down Kaya and her parents. Unknown to her, her Barron parents have been living outside the law in a relationship anathema to their society. By threatening the lives of her parents, the Council forces Kaya to leave home and enter the Shadow Academy, where she begins training as a Healer. But Kaya wants more out of life than to just heal her assigned Barron. She wants to learn to fight. However, finding an instructor who will train her violates Protocol and may result not only in her expulsion from the academy but also jeopardize the safety of her family and home. This first novel in the series is an action-packed fantasy with terrific complex characters, bloody battle scenes, and a cliff-hanger ending that will leave readers waiting anxiously for the sequel. This will appeal primarily to girls who like the strong female characters of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games (Scholastic, 2008), Alison Goodman's Eon (Viking, 2008), and Malinda Lo's Huntress (Little, Brown, 2011).—Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK