Truth Cursed

January 15, 2025
A young woman learns that her curse is actually her strength. After her parents' murders, 8-year-old Cressida Hoth was taken in by her aunts, who cursed her to always tell the truth. Seven years later, Cressida is sent to Miss Tepsom's School for Gently Bred Young Ladies, where she becomes fearful that her curse will be a liability after she learns that she is among the students who are being prepared to spy on the royal family. On her first mission with her classmates Rubia, Vivian, and Rosalie, she's sent to court as a lady-in-waiting. Anxious about her assignment, Cressida is relieved when Emric Theon, her former fencing tutor, unexpectedly appears and declares himself an ally. Dickinson's narrative features interesting plot twists and character developments. While the pace of the first part of the novel is slow and repetitive, the story picks up after Cressida's mission is set in motion. As the stakes are raised, the intrigue increases, and it becomes unclear whether Cressida and her friends will succeed. Ultimately, the author successfully creates an engaging adventure centering on a strong female lead. In this fantasy world, ethnic diversity is unremarkable: Some central characters, including Vivian and Emric, have brown skin, while white-presenting Cressida has "lightly freckled skin," brown eyes, and "dark, unruly hair." An intense, intriguing coming-of-age story in which the truth always prevails. (map)(Fantasy. 14-18)

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February 1, 2025
Grades 8-10 Cressida, cursed by her well-meaning aunts to always tell the truth, is shipped off to the new Miss Tepsom's School for Gently Bred Young Ladies to earn some accomplishments that may make her more suitable to marry off. After a short while, Cressida and her classmates learn that the "gently bred" young ladies are being bred as spies and assassins. Miss Tepsom, as it turns out, is an anti-monarchist, determined to lay a rash of high-class murders at the feet of the current king, and the girls she's training are meant to infiltrate the palace and prove her suspicions. How a girl who can't lie will learn to become a spy worries Cressida, but as she excels at her lessons and prepares for her first mission at the palace, she becomes more hopeful the curse can be broken. Debut author Dickinson crafts an exciting adventure for younger teens that is similar in its curse premise to Ella Enchanted, though this one takes a little extra time to really get up to speed.

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