An Adventure

I've just finished The Queen Jade by Yxta Maya Murray, the first in the Red Lion series (the second has been published recently, and I enjoyed The Queen Jade so much that I'll pick up the second, The King's Gold, as soon as my pile diminishes somewhat--down to two library books and Rumors, the second Luxe novel that I bought and have yet to read), about Lola, who owns the Red Lion bookshop. Lola doesn't really envision herself as an adventurer; she's content to let her mother, an archaeology professor at the University of California, do the exploring and the adventuring. Her mother, Juana, and her father, Manuel, who curates a museum in Guatemala, explored the Guatemalan jungles, trying to find the source of the mysterious blue jade, and the legendary Queen Jade. Juana decides to head to Guatemala, telling Lola she wants a vacation. Lola is immediately suspicious of that, as her mother never takes just a vacation. Juana goes, spends time with Manuel, and then, as she reveals in an email to her daughter, heads out into the jungle because she thinks she knows where to find the Queen Jade. Of course, when Lola receives this email, a hurricane has just swept through Guatemala. In her email Juana reveals that she didn't even tell Manuel where she was going, so Lola determines it's up to her to track her mother down. Erik, one of Juana's colleagues, goes with Lola, and there they pick up Yolanda, the daughter of a rival archaeologist and explorer. It's a well paced book with short chapters that keep you reading (and keep you feeling like you're making progress), and a storyline mixed with legend, history, adventure and a little bit of romance. A fantastic read with a surprising and clever ending. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, and I highly recommend this title.
Just begun another fairy tale retelling and will post when I finish with that. In the meantime, I remain your Savage Librarian.