Senshi

Gr 8 Up—Senshi and Yoshido were powerful samurai in 15th-century Japan. Murdered by one of their own, their souls spent 500 years searching for one another. Finally, Senshi was reincarnated as Rileigh, Yoshido as Kim, and they were reunited, overcoming evil forces to be together again. Only it hasn't exactly been a fairy-tale ending. Ninja attacks are escalating-and they seem to be especially focused on killing Rileigh. Typically Rileigh would love a good fight, but she's having trouble controlling her ki, the power that flows from her soul. Then her heart shatters along with any control she had left when Kim does the unthinkable and chooses Sumi, who claims to be his reincarnated betrothed, over her. Her new friends and band of samurai warriors are also giving her the cold shoulder, probably to avoid the post-breakup fallout. You'd think that would be enough for any girl samurai to take, but it seems that Whitley, her arch nemesis and ex-boyfriend, didn't die in the fiery inferno as everyone assumed. Whitley's alive and wants to team up. Rileigh may be forced to take Whitley up on his offer in order to save the world. Gibsen's action-filled sequel to Katana (Flux, 2012) puts Rileigh center stage once again, but the secondary characters are fleshed out enough to lend credibility to their actions and to the story line. The plot moves quickly and weaves in romance, teen angst, and samurai vs. ninja fighting sequences. Fans of the first novel won't be disappointed, though readers who pick this one up without reading Katana first may be a bit lost.—Heather E. Miller Cover, Homewood Public Library, AL