Crewel - by Gennifer Albin

Synopsis:  Book 1 in the Crewel World trilogy:  Adelice is gifted with the ability to weave time with matter and is chosen as a Spinster.  It is a life of privilege, laced with secrets and lies.


Genre:  fantasy

Pages:  368

Level:  ages 12 and up, intermediate difficulty

Author's website:  genniferalbin.com

First 5 paragraphs:

I can count the days until summer draws to a close and autumn seeps into the leaves, paint them ginger and scarlet.  Right now, though, the dappled light of mid-afternoon is glorious emerald, and it's hot on my face.  With sun soaking into me, everything is possible.  When it is inevitably gone--the seasons programmed to begin and end with smooth precision--life will take its predetermined route.  Like a machine.  Like me.

It's quiet outside my sister's academy.  I'm the only one waiting for the girls to be released.  When I first began my testing cycle, Amie held her pinkie finger up and made me swear to meet her each day after I got out.  It was a hard promise to make, knowing they could call me anytime and sweep me away to the Coventry's towers.  But I make it, even today.  A girl has to have something constant, has to know what to expect.  The last bit of chocolate in the monthly rations; the tidy ending to a program on the Stream.  I want my little sister to be able to count on a sweet life, even if the heat of summer tastes bitter now.

A bell tolls and girls pour out in a surge of plaid, their giggles and shouts breaking the perfect stillness of the scene.  Amie, who's always had more friends than me, bounces out, surrounded by a handful of other girls in the awkward stages of early adolescence.  I wave to her and she dashes toward me, catching my hand and pulling me in the direction of our house.  Something about her eager greeting every afternoon makes it okay that I don't have many companions my age.

"Did you do it?"  she asks in a breathless voice, skipping ahead of me.

I hesitate for a moment.  If anyone will be happy about my mistake, it will be Amie.  If I tell her the truth, she'll squeal and clap.  She'll hug me, and maybe for a moment I can leach her happiness, fill myself up with it, and believe everything is going to turn out fine.

Read more - click here.