• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2020 July #1
  In high school, Josie Pie had everything. She was the top of the social chain, she knew her boyfriend was crazy about her, and she was always the lead in the school musical. But now she's a high-school dropout working as a nanny in Missoula after her attempt at a career on Broadway humiliatingly crashed and burned. Feeling aimless and isolated, Josie throws herself into caring for five-year-old Mia. Then, after a trip to a bookstore, Josie's surprised to find herself getting lost in books—like, literally. She's transported into bodice rippers, dystopian adventures, even a graphic novel. Though it's unsettling at first, fantasy quickly starts to seem a lot better than reality and Josie begins to wonder—what if she finds the perfect story and stays? Hale, ever versatile, skilfully illuminates the struggles of a girl faltering on the threshold of adulthood. The post-high-school setting pushes this into the still woefully scant new adult category, and it's a solid pick for readers who are finding that the course they're on isn't the one they'd planned for.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Hale's written widely and popularly across multiple genres and styles (Graphic memoir? Real Friends, 2017. Illustrated chapter books? The Princess in Black series. YA fairytale retelling? The Goose Girl, 2003.) If anyone's equipped to write a story about the power of stories, it's her. Grades 10-12. Copyright 2020 Booklist Reviews.

Shannon Hale is the New York Times–bestselling author of over thirty books, including fantasy novels The Goose Girl and Book of a Thousand Days, science fiction novel Dangerous, Newbery Honor winner Princess Academy, graphic novel memoirs Real Friends and Best Friends (with LeUyen Pham), and romantic comedy Austenland (now a major motion picture starring Keri Russell). She lives in Utah with her husband and frequent collaborator Dean Hale, their four remarkable children, and two ridiculous cats named Misty Knight and Mike Hat.