Must-read romances: 'Crystal Kingdom,' 'While You Were Gone'

Crystal Kingdom by Amanda Hocking

What it's about (courtesy of St. Martin's Press):

Cast out by her kingdom and far from home, she's the Kanin people's only hope.

Bryn Aven — unjustly charged with murder and treason — is on the run. The one person who can help is her greatest enemy, the enigmatic Konstantin Black. Konstantin is her only ally against those who have taken over her kingdom and threaten to destroy everything she holds dear. But can she trust him?

As Bryn fights to clear her name, the Kanin rulers' darkest secrets are coming to light… and now the entire troll world is on the brink of war. Will it tear Bryn from Ridley Dresden, the only guy she's ever loved? And can she join forces with Finn Holmes and the Trylle kingdom? One thing is certain: an epic battle is underway—and when it's complete, nothing will ever be the same…

Why you should read it: Amanda Hocking always has interesting, intense and beautiful storylines. This trilogy is a must-read for people looking for something a bit different. We have a beautiful heroine … and trolls! Trylle fans will also love the crossover of their favorite characters and seeing them interact with Bryn. All in all, Bryn's story is engrossing and will keep readers clutching their books and e-readers.

INTERVIEW WITH AMANDA HOCKING

Please dish on Konstantin!

Amanda: Konstantin was very exciting to write. He's a complex character, and he's really a romantic at heart, which is what has gotten him in so much trouble. I think, like Bryn, he grew up believing that everything was black and white, and he's come to learn the world is so much more than that.

What can readers expect from Bryn in this installment?

Amanda: She's more determined than ever, but she's also starting to realize that she can't save everyone, which is a scary thing for her. She's not sure who to trust, so she's making uneasy alliances in hopes of protecting the kingdom she loves so much.

How did it feel writing with the Trylle characters again?

Amanda: It's like visiting with old friends that you haven't seen in a while. It was also interesting writing them from a different perspective — Wendy never saw herself from the outside, and Bryn views Finn and Loki much differently than Wendy did.

Will you be working in this world again? Or with a spin-off series?

Amanda: I don't have any immediate plans to, but I won't cross it out, either. I've only really focused on two of the five troll tribes, and the world is so vast, there's still so much I could explore.

What are you working on next?

Amanda: My next book will be Freeks — a stand-alone YA paranormal romance novel set in the 1980s that follows a traveling sideshow. I pitched it as Pretty in Pink meets The Lost Boys (but without any vampires). It will be out sometime in 2016, with St. Martin's Griffin.

Favorite line from Crystal Kingdom?

Amanda:

He laughed darkly. "Death is something that's beyond even your control, white rabbit."

While You Were Gone by Amy K. Nichols

What it's about (courtesy of Knopf Books for Young Readers):

An artist without a cause meets a rebel without a clue.

Eevee is a promising young artist and the governor's daughter in a city where censorship is everywhere and security is everything. When a fire devastates her exhibition—years in the making—her dreams of attending an elite art institute are dashed. She's struggling to find inspiration when she meets Danny, a boy from a different world. Literally.

Raised in a foster home, Danny has led a life full of hurt and hardship until a glitch in the universe changes everything. Suddenly Danny is living in a home he's never seen, with parents who miraculously survived the car crash that should have killed them. It's like he's a new Danny. But this alternate self has secrets—ties to an underground anarchist group that have already landed him in hot water. When he starts to develop feelings for Eevee, he's even more disturbed to learn that he might have started the fire that ruined her work.

As Danny sifts through clues from his past and Eevee attempts to piece together her future, they uncover a secret that's bigger than both of them... And together, they must correct the breach between the worlds before it's too late.

Why you should read it: I love the idea behind parallel worlds, and Amy Nichols gives readers something even more interesting … we get to see the couples from both parallel worlds! While You Were Gone is the sequel to Now That You're Here, and in this installment we get to see the other Danny and Eevee. The author did a fantastic job in differentiating between the two Dannys and the two Eevees. I recommend this for any fan of parallel-universe stories and YA.

INTERVIEW WITH AMY NICHOLS

How was writing this version of Danny and Eevee?

Amy: Writing this Danny and Eevee was both challenging and rewarding. The first book gave me hints at who these parallel characters were, but I didn't really come to know them until working on the second or so draft of While You Were Gone. Eevee was more difficult to get a lock on than Danny. Once I understood her relationship with art, though, her part of the story came together. Danny I understood from the start, but I didn't anticipate how his story would affect me emotionally. He really broke my heart. At one point while writing I had to walk away from the computer and go have a good cry.

What would the other "you" be like?

Amy: I recently returned from The Schrodinger Sessions, a workshop in quantum physics for science-fiction writers put on by the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland, so right now I'm totally geeked out on science. I just know one of my parallel selves didn't get bored with science in high school, but rather pursued a career in it and is actively exploring all the weird and unexplained things about her universe.

If you could tag or paint, which one would you do?

Amy: I actually enjoy painting, though I'm not trained in art like Eevee. So far I've mostly worked with watercolors and acrylics. My husband has one of my paintings (of Portree Bay, Scotland) hanging in his office. While I dabble in a lot of different kinds of visual art, I've never tried graffiti or street art. I'm fascinated by it, though, and definitely want to give it a go sometime.

Favorite sci-fi parallel book of all time?

Amy: Growing up, I loved The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. My favorite character was Lucy, and I wanted my own magical wardrobe so I could step through it to another world. Years later, I read Coraline by Neil Gaiman, and it brought back that same desire to just open a door and walk into a different place. There's something so simple and so analog about a door that really appeals to me.

What are you currently working on?

Amy: I'm working on a couple of YA sci-fi projects that I'm really excited about. I can't say much about them now, but hope to share more soon.

Favorite line from While You Were Gone?

Amy: I love so many moments in this book, and singling out a favorite line is really hard. So I'm going to cheat a little and choose a personal detail I included instead. During a conversation between Danny and his mom, she mentions how cute he was when he was little, running around the backyard with the dog.

"Aw, Holly," [Danny's mom says, putting] a hand on her chest. "Miss that dog."

Throughout all of the drafts and revisions, the dog's name was Buddy, which was a nod to the first short story I ever sold. But when the first pass pages arrived and I read that scene for the last time before the book went to production, I knew I had to change the dog's name to Holly, the name of a dog I loved dearly and lost too soon.

Jessie Potts, also known as Book Taster, adores books in all forms. She also does reviews for RT Book Reviews magazine and works in the submissions departments at Dreamspinner Press and Entangled YA. You can follow her on Twitter (@BookTaster).