The Author



Gina Marinello-Sweeney is the author of The Veritas Chronicles, a contemporary YA trilogy that has been compared to the writing of L.M. Montgomery. The first book in the series, I Thirst, received the 2013 YATR Literary Award for Best Prologue from Young Adult Teen Readers.

Gina has been writing ever since she was a little girl and turned her bedroom into a “library,” complete with due date slips and a check-out stamp. As her own stories were “checked out” by family and friends, she dreamed of a day in which her work would be available in public libraries. This came true in 2013. Gina is also an avid poet in both the English and Spanish languages. In 2009, she was asked to present her original Spanish poetry at an international literature conference in Costa Rica. Although unable to attend this event, a presentation of the poems was well-received at another scholarly event that same year. Graduating summa cum laude, Gina holds credentials in both elementary education and Spanish. In her spare time, she enjoys going to the beach, reading, and dreaming of Prince Edward Island.  Gina lives in southern California with her husband, where she is at work on a fairy tale novel and short story collection. 


From the Author's Desk: Recommended Reads

CLASSICS -
Anne of Green Gables, Emily of New Moon, and Pat of Silver Bush by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

FANTASY/SCI-FI

YA
The Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle
Entwined by Heather Dixon
The Naming by Alison Croggon
The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper
Cress (The Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Children's
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Knight's Castle by Edward Eager
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede
A Walk in Wolf Wood by Mary Stewart
The Little Bookroom by Eleanor Farjeon

CONTEMPORARY -
The Fairy Tale Novels by Regina Doman
A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle

POETRY
The Place Within by Saint John Paul II

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
Sonnet 116 and other poems by William Shakespeare