FOREVER TWELVE

A mortal, a psychic, and a 217-year-old in a 12-year-old’s body meet at boarding school and work to solve a disappearance.

Talented, determined Ivy is driven to succeed by a deathbed promise to her mother, who died of cancer; she sees boarding school as the first step on her path to becoming a Supreme Court justice like Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ronan wants to escape his hometown, where everyone knows that his mother is a psychic, but he can’t escape the abilities he’s inherited. Abigail is an Ever: forever 12 after being saved (or cursed) following a near-death experience. Their lives intersect as students at West Archer Academy, and the story unfolds in short, tightly paced chapters that switch between Ivy’s, Ronan’s, and Abigail’s third-person perspectives. Abigail befriends roommate Ivy immediately, partly because she looks like her best friend, Grace, who’s been missing since 1944. Abigail wants Ivy’s assistance in investigating what happened to Grace after her disappearance from West Archer. Ivy reluctantly agrees to help Abigail, and they make a surprising discovery. But Este, the oldest Ever of all, is protective of the Ever family and wants to keep Ivy out, ultimately leading to a clash and a cliffhanger ending that sets things up for a sequel. An intriguing premise, complex characters, and a compelling mystery make for a series opener that will leave readers desperate for the next entry. Main characters are cued white.

Fantastic.