A grieving young woman sets out on a quest to meet her favorite reclusive fantasy writer.As a joint high school graduation gift from Jenna's parents, narrator Amelia and her best friend, Jenna, fly from their home in Texas to a California book festival so they can meet the reclusive author of the Orman Chronicles books. They leave disappointed, however, when young author N.E. Endsley-only 19-fails to appear. Less than a week later, Jenna dies while studying abroad in Ireland, a last fight between the girls left unresolved. Shortly thereafter, Amelia receives a mysterious limited edition of one of the Orman books, sent from a bookstore in Michigan. Jenna's parents, who have the financial means and have been treating Amelia for years, pay for her to go investigate; in a somewhat fairy-tale setting on Lake Michigan she meets and befriends Nolan Endsley, who's grieving losses of his own. Schumacher's debut meanders through vague fantasylike settings-a fort on the sand dunes, a mysterious room inside the bookstore-and a sort of half-felt emotional landscape of its characters. Nothing's really at risk for Amelia-at every turn, obstacles are smoothed from her path. Some of her relationships, especially with her parents, who mostly stay off-camera, are shown instead of felt. The timeline of Nolan's own tragedies and wild successes seems oddly compressed. Main characters are White.Like a meringue-sweet and decorative but doesn't really satisfy. (Fiction. 12-18)

Schumacher centers storytelling as a means of expression, connection, and keeping the dead alive in this emotionally immersive debut. Shortly after the death of her best friend, Jenna, 18-year-old Amelia receives a mysterious package containing a signed copy of her favorite book-the first of the Orman Chronicles fantasy series, written by 19-year-old N.E. Endsley. Sure that the book was sent by Jenna, Amelia heads to the lakeside Michigan town where it was posted to find answers about its provenance and Jenna-s death. Her search for meaning takes Amelia to a rambling, colorful bookstore, somehow both delightfully cozy and endlessly rambling, run by a wise bookseller named Val, her son Alex, and the reclusive N.E. Endsley himself, who Amelia soon discovers is harboring a painful loss and secrets of his own. Employ-