The exciting third and final book in the Juno series of gripping, sci-fi / fantasy YA novels.
Heart of Danger is a rollicking good read that veers between quite terrifying situations and Juno's discoveries about love and the powers of her own mind.
Juno and her family arrive at their new home, but almost immediately danger threatens Hera and they move to Willem's protection in New Plymouth, the city Juno most hoped to avoid. Fairlands school is too like Taris, and Hilto's son Thomas is a pupil there.The handsome Ivor is also there, and soon begins to pay attention to Juno in a way she finds both confusing and exciting.
Juno's special mind powers are called upon to help her save Hera.
Juno of Taris (the first in the series) won the Esther Glen Award and Fierce September (the second book) won the NZ Post Book Award (YA) 2011.
Behind The Book…
Again, I had no intention of writing sequels to Juno of Taris but there ended up being three books in this series too. The idea for Juno of Taris came from being in New York about a month after September 11. Ground zero was still smoking. People were still leaving flowers at fire stations where crew had died when the twin towers fell. In a way, the city felt to me as if it was in a lockdown situation where it was focussing its energies on trying to recover. I started to think about what it would be like to be in a place entirely cut off from the outside world, somewhere you couldn’t move away from and where there was no input that could get in from the outside world – no messages, no goods, no news. I finished the book. What next? And after a bit of nagging from a few people, I rather grudgingly had a go at a sequel, but much to my surprise it was fun to write once I got into it. I finished Fierce September then wanted to find out more about what happened so I wrote a third book: Heart of Danger. But I discovered there was a bit more to find out so I wrote Nash’s Story. It’s short – more a novella than a novel and it’s only available on the web here.
- Fleur Beale
Reviews for Heart Of Danger
Juno in Fleur Beale’s Heart of Danger is a protagonist in the classic sense: she is both the focus of, and instrumental in, much of the book’s densely-packed action. Heart of Danger is Juno’s reward, her happy ending. Indeed, Juno is arguably the protagonist of wish-fulfilment fantasy in the grand tradition: the story takes common YA tropes – being disaffected, misunderstood and growing up super-powered – and spins them out in ways that affirm her special status.
- Angelina Sbroma, NZ Books
This was not the story I was expecting to read, but as it ended I realised why Fleur Beale had written this way – it is not the end of the story of Taris and Juno. Fleur Beale keeps you interested by revealing more of the history of Taris and those responsible for it’s creation, but she doesn’t give you it all. Intermediate and secondary students will love this but it pays to read the whole series.
- Bob Docherty, Bob’s Books Blog
I’m a new-comer to the Juno books and I really liked the way that the books didn’t labour over events from the previous books. You get a brief summary of each of the first two books at the beginning and the first chapter from each at the end of the book (read these before you start if you haven’t read the other books) and then it’s straight into the action. I liked the premise of the book. The idea of ‘outsiders’ is very topical at the moment and I could definitely see this book as a way of entering into a discussion about immigrants and particularly refugees. Juno is a believable teen- growing up but still needing guidance and this will work well with readers. She’s not too clever or too silly and in this, Beale shows real control over her character.
- Rochelle Gribble, Kiwi Families
Heart of Danger is the perfect conclusion to this brilliant trilogy. There is a sense of impending doom from the opening chapter which builds to a thrilling climax, but there are also a lot of questions answered about the establishment of Taris, the extent of Juno’s powers, and Juno’s biological family. I know I’ll miss Juno, her family and her friends, but I’ll enjoy starting from the beginning again and taking that journey with them once more.
- MyBestFriendsAreBooks.com
I very much enjoyed being mesmerised by this book. Every time I picked it up it took me to a whole new world, each time more exciting than the last.
- Nelly, GoodReads
Teachers Notes
Download the PDF with the Teachers Notes for Heart Of Danger here.