Twin Daggers

?A taut, emotionally arresting fantasy.? -KirkusIn this first book of a YA fantasy duology, magic-wielding spies and twin sisters Aissa and Zandria want nothing more than to take revenge on the society that conquered their people ? but for Aissa, completing her mission could mean choosing between Zandria?s freedom and saving the life of a sworn enemy who has stolen her heart.Twin Daggers is:a fantasy spin on Romeo and Juliet, filled with forbidden love and dangerous stakesan action and adventure page-turner featuring a strong female protagonistperfect for fans of Elly Blake, Sabaa Tahir, and Sarah J. MaasAissa?s life is a web of carefully constructed lies. By day, she and her sister Zandra play the role of normal young Technocrats eager to fulfill the duties of their new apprenticeships. By night, they work for the Magi?s spy organization, which seeks to overthrow the Technocrats who subjugated their people. Soon Aissa is given her greatest mission: find and kidnap the heir to the Technocrat throne, who is rumored to be one of the Heartless-a person born without a working heart who survives via a mechanical replacement-and has been hidden since birth.Aissa has never been one to turn down an assignment, even if the hunt is complicated by a kind Technocrat researcher who is determined to find a cure for the Heartless. But when Zandria is captured, Aissa will do anything to get her sister back. Even if it means abandoning all other loyalties ? and risking everything by trusting the enemy. From School Library Journal Gr 6-10-A hundred years after their people were supposedly destroyed by the Technocrats, 16-year-old Magi twin spies Aissa and Zandria are given the task of infiltrating Technocrat society to find the Heartless Technocrat heir. According to legend, a Magi curse caused some Techno children to be born without a heart, relying on machines to pump blood through their bodies. Upon entering the palace disguised as a mechanic, Aissa meets Aro, a Technocrat boy who wants her help in finding a cure for the Heartless. Although the twins are loyal Magi, they also have their own agenda: find the lost Magi library while hiding the true extent of their powers even from their own people. The plot of this book fails to create any tension or sense of urgency as it meanders through a continuously shifting set of objectives which all seem to be equally unimportant to narrator Aissa, whose main activity consists of going to work each day. The dialogue is stilted and repetitive, with characters frequently repeating actions and concepts readers have already seen. All the characters feel undeveloped; Aissa is meant to be 16 but possesses the hopeless naivety of someone much younger, and everyone, be they Magi or Technocrat, views the opposing side as completely evil, without any nuance or shades of gray. There is no mention of skin color in the book, though Aissa is described as having red hair, and Aro has pale hair and blue eyes. VERDICT Readers looking for spy thrillers with powerful heroines should instead try Tamora Pierce's Trickster's Choice or Justina Ireland's Dread Nation.-Aaren Tucker, Univ. of Illinois Review Kirkus Reviews: 'A taut, emotionally arresting fantasy.' By day, Aissa and Zandria are hardworking citizens of the Technocrat city of Palinor; by night, they are Magi spies and assassins-in-training. The twins scour the city for any remnants of their people's former power. Their mission: to find and kill the Technocrat heir, a hidden child who is one of the Heartless--people born without a heart. Aro, an attractive young Technocrat researcher, tasks Aissa with helping find a cure for the Heartless, but not everything is as it seems: Old friends cannot be trusted, new emotions cannot be ignored. When Zandria is captured by the Technocrats, Aissa must weigh loyalty to her mission against her sister's life and her own burgeoning love in the ultimate moral quandary. Eac