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Valerie Biel’s most recent novel (Circle of Nine - Sacred Treasures) has been honored with a Readers' Favorite 5-Star review. The first novel in this series, Circle of Nine – Beltany, has been honored as a 2015 Kindle Book Award Finalist, a finalist in the Gotham Writers' YA Novel Discovery Contest and the Readers' Favorite Book Award Contest as well as being a B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree. In addition to the young adult stories in the Circle of Nine World, she has also authored two middle-grade novels.
When she’s not writing, she’s working on freelance publicity projects through her business Lost Lake Press or teaching about writing topics at conferences, libraries, and schools. She’s a member of a fantastically fastidious critique group through her membership in the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).
When Valerie’s away from the computer, you might find her working on community theater projects, local history preservation, wrangling her overgrown garden, traveling the world, and reading everything she can get her hands on. Once upon a time, she graduated from the University of Wisconsin with degrees in journalism and political science. Now, she lives in rural Wisconsin with her husband and children and dreams regularly of a beautiful cottage on the Irish coast where she can write and write and write.
Reviewed by Divine Zape for Readers' Favorite
Sacred Treasures is book three in the Circle of Nine Series by Valerie Biel, a story that brims with Celtic lore and mythology. Brigit Quinn is a young woman undergoing training to become part of the circle of nine, a select group that is entrusted with the mission to protect the sacred, ancient stones of her land. She could have been very happy exploring her history and the sacred traditions of her people, but the joy seems to be wrested from her so quickly that she finds herself fighting to stay alive while figuring out how to protect the treasures. A mysterious missive lets her in on a very deadly secret: someone knows about the treasures and their power, and this person will do everything to get them and use their power to destroy the circle of nine. Now, Brigit Quinn must find out who this enemy is before he strikes, but is she ready for the dangerous mission? Who can she really trust?
Valerie Biel has succeeded in doing to me what very few authors are capable of doing, what only Christopher Pike made me feel — making me remember that we are creatures of magic and that we come from a tradition that has roots in extraordinary things. This is an extraordinary story with a fantastic setting and characters that remind readers of the sacred in them. I enjoyed the way she explored the struggle between good and evil in this work and how the conflict reaches every aspect of the story. The protagonist is well designed to represent a whole tradition and readers will love to see her transformed from a neophyte into a confident guardian of her tradition. Great writing, enthralling plot, fast-paced, and utterly seductive. Giving this one a clean 5-star.
