Between the Lions (Baker)

When you're being chased down a magical staircase by mythological monsters, your survival depends on knowing whom you can trust. But the only person Anna ever trusted was her mother, who lied about everything. Called "The YA Series to follow" by The New York Times and "Must-Read YA" by USAToday. Author Jodi Baker brilliantly weaves together mysticism, forbidden romance, action, diverse characters, secrets, lies, ancient truths & fantastical Libraries in her Between Lions Series. Everything begins in Book 1: "TRUST." That's what the voice inside my head kept repeating when I woke up between the infamous lion statues of the New York Public Library, with no idea how I got there and no memory of the last year of my life. The only person I ever trusted was my mother, who lied about everything. I want to trust myself, despite my missing memories. But hearing a voice inside my head obviously wasn't a good thing, especially since it knew things I didn't... like how to speak Ancient Sumerian, the fact that yellow-eyed people aren't actually people, and that my mother's Egyptian ankh necklace was the key to unlocking the truth she hid from me: I'm the last in a long lineage of powerful women whose secrets date back to the ancient Library of Alexandria. Now I'm fighting like hell to stay alive while searching for my missing mother and the truth, desperate to find something or someone I can trust.

TRUST is a young adult, mythological, urban fantasy thrill ride about the darkly fantastical, supernatural Museion that has secretly protected humanity's greatest treasures for millennia, and Anna, the sixteen-year-old New York girl who is the unknowing Heir to it all. Everything begins in Book One: "TRUST." That's what the voice inside my head kept repeating when I woke up between the infamous lion statues of the New York Public Library, with no idea how I got there and no memory of the last year of my life. The only person I ever trusted was my mother, who lied about everything. I want to trust myself, despite my missing memories. But hearing a voice inside my head obviously wasn't a good thing, especially since it knew things I didn't… like how to speak Ancient Sumerian, the fact that yellow-eyed people aren't actually people, and that my mother's Egyptian ankh necklace was the key to unlocking the truth she hid from me: I'm the last in a long lineage of powerful women whose secrets date back to the ancient Library of Alexandria. Before she disappeared my mother trained me to be an academic centurion. But it doesn't take a genius to figure out that it's a terrible idea to accept protection offers from shape-shifting, Were-assassins that despise you, or that you shouldn't take advice from a mysterious, hot guy with a habit of disappearing right before he tells you exactly what you need to know. You also don't have to read a lot to know that when a supernatural stairway appears behind your closet door you should immediately run the other way. Now I'm fighting like hell to stay alive while searching for both my missing mother and the truth, desperate to find something or someone I can trust.

Survival comes at a steep cost... when you're being chased down a magical staircase by shape shifting mythological creatures that want to kill you. With Styx gone, Anna's only ally against the ancient powers is Cax, a charming thief she can't seem to fully trust... or trust herself with. Each spiraling step towards her ultimate destiny as The Heir leads to shocking revelations about Cax, the darkly fantastical Libraries, and the mysterious voice within herself. Will the answers Anna is searching for get her killed, or set her free? Only TRUTH will tell.