Infinity Key

Tzavelas continues the Senyaza series—set in a modern-day Los Angeles, where faeries are real, angels are dangerous, and human events are silently shepherded by angelic descendants called the nephilim—with this fast-paced second installment. Branwyn, a human artist who acquired the second sight in Matchbox Girls, is looking for a way to wake her friend Penny from a magical coma. Unwilling to trust the nephilim, Branwyn tries to find her own way to heal Penny, but that will require dealing with the faeries, whose interest in Branwyn’s artistic skill goes far beyond aesthetics. New readers may find the first few chapters heavy with exposition, but Branwyn’s gruff, rude, and unrelentingly loyal character is engaging enough to carry them. Branwyn frequently rebuffs the attention of attractive monsters and fairies in order to rescue or support her friends and family; in a genre that tends to emphasize young women’s romances with male supernatural beings, this focus on female friendship and solidarity is deeply refreshing. (Nov.)