Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite

Scott Everett’s The Rocking Horse Agreement follows Emmy Pen, a kindergarten teacher whose life changes when a British solicitor identifies her as the heir to a historic American estate. Alongside the inheritance comes an unusual obligation requiring Emmy to search for a missing trunk tied to the legendary Pendragon bloodline and a secret wartime pact between President Franklin Roosevelt and King George VI. Accompanied by Myrla, her closest friend since childhood, Emmy enters a guarded castle whose employees have maintained the property for generations. Its library has already attracted seventeen-year-old Aliki McCord, who studies old navigation records to investigate her parents’ mysterious disappearance at sea. As scientists begin reporting falling ocean levels, American officials revisit the wartime agreement, placing Emmy’s unexpected royal connection within a mystery reaching far beyond her inheritance.

Scott Everett’s The Rocking Horse Agreement is an incredible contemporary fantasy, and its Arthurian world is as inventive as it is expansive. Emmy is remarkably compassionate, commissioning a play area for employees’ children and taking Aliki hang gliding for summer fun. I love Myrla, Emmy’s mischievous friend, who flirts shamelessly with Secret Service trainee Skoldolfr by calling him Jack. Everett’s world-building is massive, particularly where ancient customs meet modern security. For example, a stone dragon clutches a globe above the library doorway as Secret Service agents guard the entrance. Still, it’s Everett’s near-cinematic descriptions of landscapes that steal the scenes, from the sun-bleached boardwalk beside Aliki’s beach house to sunrise over the boats moored at Watch Hill Harbor. Beautifully written and bold, readers who enjoy political intrigue with an Arthurian twist will adore this.