Nightweaver (Nightweaver #1)

After the Nightweavers were cast out of Elysia, they claimed dominion over humans, hunting them to near extinction over the next 600 years. Human 17-year-old Aster Oberon and her family are pirates who fled to the ocean to escape subjugation, until a confrontation with a Nightweaver ship results in a shadow creature murdering her younger brother Owen. Aster and her remaining family are taken prisoner by Will Castor, a teenage Nightweaver lord, who offers to protect the Oberons from other Nightweavers if they agree to work at his family’s estate. Initially reluctant, Aster soon grows closer to Will, but when violent acts begin unfolding around them, each seemingly targeting Aster, it becomes clear that the shadow creature is hiding among them. While thin characterizations and low-stakes interpersonal conflict make for a lackluster romance, the swashbuckling start veers into a tense whodunit that’s elevated by a unique mythos that recalls works by Laini Taylor and Sarah J. Maas. Main characters cue as white. Ages 12–up. Agent: Peter Steinberg, United Talent Agency. (Mar.)