By: Alyssa Wilkinson
Format: Available in Paperback, ePub, and MOBI
Genre: Historical Mystery
Unlucky Charm Summer
Lexile Measure: 900L
For fans of Katherine Rundell’s lyrical prose and Sheila Turnage’s southern charm, this historical mystery in a colorful circus is sure to delight.
By 1968, Duke Foster had been passed from one crummy foster family to another for eleven and a half years. Since the day she was dumped on the steps of Merciful Heart Children’s home in Brooklyn, she’s had almost nothing but bad luck. She’s a pest. A nuisance. Unlovable.
But an apartment fire leads Duke to discover that not only does she have parents (the wonderful kind who would never leave their baby on a doorstep and have somehow vanished into thin air), but that she also has a sister. A twin sister. One who was adopted by a family in low-country coastal Georgia, and shares Duke’s love of Nancy Drew novels.
As their paths cross, Duke and Daisy embark on a quest of their own to find their biological parents. At the heart of the search is an extravagant circus bursting with dark secrets. The performers and animals all join the growing list of mysteries to be solved. Add in a bully, a cat with very fuzzy ears, and a southern hurricane, and the twins have a summer brimming with adventure.
But just as quickly as they unravel the mystery of their past, someone else is trying to bury the remaining clues. Finding their biological parents and the truth about their family could prove to be the most dangerous adventure yet.
Meet Alyssa Wilkinson,
the author of Unlucky Charm Summer
dasanders.is –
Unlucky Charm Summer is a charming first novel by Alyssa Wilkinson. The reader is carried from Brooklyn, New York, to the small coastal town of Roseboro, Georgia, in a story of finding family and community with adventure and mystery to the end. Delilah “Duke” Foster has been shuffled from one foster home to another since she was a baby. She longs for a real home with loving parents, but she’s convinced her bad luck will continue to keep her from what she craves most.
After another stroke of terrible luck at her most recent foster home, she has the chance to spend time in Roseboro, Georgia, with a family who had adopted a baby girl, Daisy, 11 years ago from Duke’s Brooklyn foster agency. Duke and Daisy were both abandoned as infants at Merciful Heart the same night.
Once at Roseboro Duke discovers Daisy is her actual twin sister and new clues about their biological parents lead the girls on a wild ride. Duke is determined to find their parents and why they disappeared. Mysterious clues, a wicked uncle, rampaging bears, kidnapping, circus performances, and kind strangers and new friends make this story a fun read.
Duke finds family is more than just blood ties and discovers this summer was her luckiest ever.