Name: Extraordinary
ISBN: 9780803733725

Nancy Werlin

Phoebe, a member of the wealthy Rothschilds family, befriends Mallory, an awkward new girl in school, and the two become as close as sisters, but Phoebe does not know that Mallory is a faerie, sent to the human world to trap the ordinary human girl into fulfilling a promise made by her ancestor Mayer to the queen of the faeries.

Extraordinary

Sarah Sammis

Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin proposes that the Rothschild dynasty was granted its success through a faerie pact. Years down the line, the Queen of the Faeries has decided it's time to end the alliance and take back the gift. To do that, Phoebe Rothschild (of a fictional branch of the Rothschilds) must be sacrificed.

Although the book is told mostly from Pheobe's point of view, there are chapters interspersed from the point of view of Mallory and her ersatz brother Ryland. While Werlin is up front about the Queen's plans, how and when they will be executed, though she leaves a mystery. Unraveling that timeline and the reasons behind the sudden urgency are what make Extraordinary such a compelling read.

There's one more unusual aspect to this human / faerie book, namely Pheobe's Jewishness. How that comes into play, though, is rather central to the book's climax and denouement, so I can't say much without flooding this post with spoilers. The added tough questions raised by Pheobe's faith and culture, though, bumped the book up from a well deserving four stars, to a full fledged five star read.

Extraordinary

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