THE EIGHTH GUARDIAN
Book One in the Annum Guard Series
Publisher: Skyscape/Amazon Children’s Publishing
Release Date: May 6th, 2014

Amanda Obermann. Code name Iris.

It’s Testing Day. The day that comes without warning, the day when all juniors and seniors at The Peel Academy undergo a series of intense physical and psychological tests to see if they’re ready to graduate and become government operatives. Amanda and her boyfriend Abe are top students, and they’ve just endured thirty-six hours of testing. But they’re juniors and don’t expect to graduate. That’ll happen next year, when they plan to join the CIA—together.

But when the graduates are announced, the results are shocking. Amanda has been chosen—the first junior in decades. And she receives the opportunity of a lifetime: to join a secret government organization called the Annum Guard and travel through time to change the course of history. But in order to become the Eighth Guardian in this exclusive group, Amanda must say good-bye to everything—her name, her family, and even Abe—forever.

Who is really behind the Annum Guard? And can she trust them with her life?

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School Library Journal gives THE EIGHTH GUARDIAN a starred review and says, “Action, conspiracy, love, and war are just a few of the fascinating elements in McCardle’s debut . . . Give this title to fans of time travel and historical fiction . . . First-rate.”

 

BLACKOUT
Book Two in the Annum Guard Series
Publisher: Skyscape/Amazon Children’s Publishing
Release Date: January 13th, 2015

Seventeen-year-old Amanda Obermann (code name: Iris) has more on her mind than usual. As a member of a covert government organization called the Annum Guard, which travels through time to keep history on track, Iris has been getting some particularly stressful assignments. Plus, Jane Bonner, the Guard’s iron-fisted new leader, seems determined to make life as hard as possible. Thankfully, Iris has Abe (code name: Blue), her boyfriend and fellow Guardian, who listens to her vent—and helps her cope with her mentally ill mother’s increasingly erratic behavior.

When Guardians start to disappear on their assignments, Iris makes a terrifying discovery: a “blackout” squad is targeting anyone who gets in the way of a corrupt force that’s selling out both the Annum Guard’s missions and Guardian lives. Together, Iris and Blue must go undercover to untangle the Guard’s elaborate web of secrets and lies. But when Iris discovers that the terrible truth may involve her own father, a former Guardian undone by his own greed, she must decide how much she’s willing to risk to rescue her friends…and how dangerous the consequences will be for all of humanity.

A thrilling time-traveling adventure that spans from Abraham Lincoln’s assassination to the Cuban Missile Crisis and back to the present day, this pulse-pounding sequel to The Eighth Guardian reveals that playing with time can turn into a deadly game.

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PARALLEL
Book Three in the Annum Guard Series
Release Date: November 27, 2014

Amanda Obermann, Code Name Iris, hasn’t had the easiest life. Her father, a corrupt government agent, died when she was a baby, and she was raised by her mentally unstable mother. She’s also a member of Annum Guard, a secret government organization that travels through time to alter the course of history. But on her last mission, Amanda made a horrible mistake. She traveled to the past and accidentally caused the death of her boyfriend Abe’s grandfather-completely erasing Abe from existence and launching herself into a parallel universe where her father is very much alive.

Desperate to set things right, Amanda is forced to go on the defensive. She must play a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with her own father as she navigates an unfamiliar Annum Guard in order to save Abe. But the further in she gets, the more she realizes that nothing is as it seems. Her father isn’t quite the monster she’d always assumed. Her mother is stable, healthy, and loving. She has real, genuine friends. Before she knows it, Amanda finds herself in an impossible predicament-stay and live the life she’s always wanted, or return to her own timeline to give Abe the life he deserves? In this gripping conclusion to the Annum Guard series, playing with time can have deadly consequences.

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