The Astral Traveler's Daughter

February 1, 2019
A budding psychic expands her powers and searches for the truth about her past in this sequel to A School for Psychics (2018). Twenty-something Teddy Cannon is beginning her sophomore year at Whitfield Institute for Law Enforcement Training and Development. This isolated school on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay does more than train the next generation of elite government operatives: It recruits the most talented psychics from across the country and teaches them to hone their powers for top-level jobs in the FBI, Secret Service, and elsewhere. Teddy has spent the summer researching a terrorist group of rival psychics known as the Patriot Corps, which she thinks might be involved in deadly acts of violence around the world. The "good guys" at Whitfield, who include her mentor, Clint, her sometime-lover, Pyro, her roommate Jillian, and her best friend, Dara, want to stop the PC at all costs. But what if the rumors are true--that Teddy's birthparents, whom she presumed dead, are connected to the mysterious and nefarious group? A pendant that belonged to her mother helps Teddy discover a new skill--astral travel--and this necklace may be the key to finding out how and why Teddy's family seemingly failed to use their powers for good. Where the first book in the series wobbled between genres, with one foot in a supernatural YA-style boarding school drama and the other in thriller, Archer has found better footing here, aiming for a fast-paced Mission Impossible-esque story with an otherworldly flair. (Think out-of-body experiences and mind-reading plus explosions.) However, the many storylines this time around will make the most sense to those who've started with Book 1.Readers who can relax into the tangle of plots will find this a breezy, suspenseful read.

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February 25, 2019
Showing some signs of maturity, this teen-friendly urban fantasy brings back ex-cardsharp Teddy Cannon (introduced in A School for Psychics) to search for her birth mother, Marysue, suspected terrorist and astral traveler. Teddy, a second-year student at Whitfield Institute, pushes her fellow students further into the plot of Derek Yates, escaped fugitive psychic, to find evidence that will exonerate her mother and free her from a secretive psychic cabal. But Teddy’s friends have their own issues, including finding a missing classmate and stopping a plan to use an experimental drug that removes or adds psychic abilities. Matters come to a head with an attempted bombing and a kidnapping that trigger Teddy’s power to time travel and change the past. Archer plays fair, laying out clues so that a savvy reader will realize the identity of the cabal’s hidden mastermind probably before the heroes do. The frenetic, supernatural detective work will likely provide a nostalgic glow, though, for readers hoping to hear foiled villains mutter about getting away with it if not for those meddling kids. Agent: Amelia Atlas, ICM Partners.

April 1, 2019

The discovery of her psychic abilities has started Teddy Cannon down a road she never expected. Now in her second year at the Whitfield Institute, a covert training school in San Francisco, she and others are learning not only how to master their skills but also the fighting and investigation techniques that will land them in top-level government jobs. After spending the summer looking into the psychic terrorist group Patriot Corps, thought to be causing deadly attacks worldwide, Teddy receives her mother's pendant from a member of the corps who knew her birth parents--as corps members. Struggling with her school duties and a need to uncover the truth about her mother's actions, Teddy uses her newfound power of astral travel, her mother's necklace, and a lot of help from her friends to get some answers. Yet these revelations may be among the worst of Teddy's life. VERDICT The sequel to School for Psychics pulls together the loose threads from the first novel to create a fast-paced fantastical thriller that is fully entertaining and features a delightful cast of characters.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

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