The Brilliance of Stars (A Jack and Ivy Novel)
In 1914, teenage orphans Ivy Olwen and her friend Phillip barely survive on the streets of Washington, DC, by selling newspapers. After an encounter with a vicious policeman who steals their money and threatens them with jail, they flee into the rain-soaked night. As luck would have it, while in hiding, they overhear a meeting between a man who seems to be an American traitor and a Russian anarchist. When the pair are discovered eavesdropping, they fear certain death. Instead, they are recruited into a covert agency of assassins, called Talon, who turn the orphans’ survival skills toward a new purpose, which is defined as: “Seek and ye shall find. Find and ye shall protect.” Talon’s mission, according to their manifesto, is to protect the oppressed. Interestingly, their first target in the book only wants to free his country from the tyranny of the Tsar. No matter. Like any group operating outside the rule of law, Talon gets to decide who comprise “the oppressed.”
After three years of training in the art of assassination, studying multiple languages (including dead ones), and reading a library’s worth of books, Ivy goes on assignment to Russia with agent Jack Vale, who is reckless, brave, and madly in love with her. Their rapport is established by witticisms as they handily defeat thugs and dash about the Russian countryside in search of a shadowy villain named Balaur.
The often-overwrought language depicts such marvels as Fates gathering in “their malevolent cluster of stars,” and the pits of hell “unleashed in an all-consuming torrent of fiery destruction.” Fans of adventure/romance stories may well enjoy the fantastical storyline and over-the-top characters, but historical fiction fans will find the connection to real-world events wanting.
