Ever since the first time I heard Stephanie Morrill (founder of the oft-refrecenced Go Teen Writers group) mention the new project she was working on, I’ve been looking forward to reading it.

I just did what was supposed to be a quick search on the Go Teen Writers blog to see if I could figure out when she first mentioned the book. The search ended up lasting ten or so minutes because the posts I was skimming through held so much good information. In an effort to blog on time I’ve put reading-through old posts on hold, but I did leave the tab up so I could go back to it. (Really, if you’re wanting to become a better writer that blog is practically gold and you should totally check it out.)

September 22nd, 2014 was the earliest mention I came up with that Stephanie made of her historical fiction novel, The Lost Girl of Astor Street. That means I’ve been waiting to read that book for 841 days. Which, in turn, probably explains some of the excitement I felt when I found out I had been approved to be one of the participants in the launch team to get the word out about the book.

It wasn’t until yesterday that I was able to get much reading done on the book (life you know, plus a previous book-to-review I was in the middle of reading). Last night I fell into Piper’s world though, and so far have throughly enjoyed it.

The fact that the main character’s best friend is named Lydia is really cool, and slightly disconcerting, at the same time. Lydia is a rather unused name in most of the books I’ve read, although it does come up time to time in Historical Fiction. (Or, in Pride and Prejudiced, but that Lydia is basically the worst example of a Lydia ever.)

In addition to the book being really interesting so far, I also think the cover is totally delightful. That means I’ll most likely be buying a copy of the book once it’s released, because I only have the e-version. (I suppose I must have a “thing” for blueish covers, because this cover is not only beautiful but looks so intriguing.)

I haven’t gotten very far into the book yet, but I look forward to hopefully reading more later on today. My permeant retainer broke recently, which means a trip to the orthodontist, which means waiting room time, which means reading time. So yay!

Thank you, Miss Stephanie, for letting me read Lost Girl of Astor Street. I’m delighted at the privilege!