cover image Sweet Unrest

Sweet Unrest

Lisa Maxwell. Llewellyn/Flux, $9.99 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-7387-4081-2

When Lucy Aimes’s parents drag her from Chicago to Louisiana, where her father is curating the historic plantation of Le Ciel Doux, she can’t wait for summer to end so she can return home for senior year at her arts high school. After Lucy’s new friend Chloe takes her to visit Mama Legba, the local Voodoo practitioner, it becomes clear that the plantation’s past and Lucy’s present are linked, and that her recurring dreams about drowning recall the ominous fates of Armantine Lyon, a mixed-race photographer in antebellum New Orleans, and Alexandre Jourdain, the French brother-in-law of Le Ciel Doux’s owner. More than a ghost, Alexandre now haunts the grounds, and it may take more than Lucy’s past life to free him. The too-common theme of a white “chosen one” superseding a non-white friend within her own tradition strikes a sour note, which is not sweetened by the villainy of a spiteful, ex-slave, Voodoo-practicing “witch.” But Maxwell’s debut proves her to be a talented wordsmith, and the sweet ache of lost-and-found love will appeal to many readers. Ages 12–up. Agent: Kathleen Rushall, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. (Oct.)