The Curse Breaker (Isle of Ever, book 2) by Jen Calonita, for Timeslip Tuesday

The Curse Breaker, by Jen Calonita (March 10, 2026 by Sourcebooks Young Readers), takes us back to the scenic bit of Long Island where a young girl, Everly, stands to inherit a grand estate if she can solve the mystery left behind by her 19th century ancestor, Evelyn.  The mystery centers around the Isle of Ever, which appears briefly during the "orange blood moon" and which calls to Everly, just as it did to Evelyn.

Everly assumed that finding her way to the island (as told in the first book, Isle of Ever) would be enough to satisfy the conditions Evelyn place on her inheritance, but this is not so.  There are new riddles to solve, and new dangers and complications. Not least of these is that Evelyn took a group of her friends over to Island years and years ago, to save them from the sickness that was killing them.  The catch was that they would be cut out of time until the island next appeared in our world.  And that time is now, and suddenly Everly is shepherding one of these 19th century kids, a boy named Gil, through 21st century life.

Gil adapts surprisingly well and becomes a valuable team member in the hunt for a way to save the kids from the past still on the island, foil the plans of ruthless pirates who want the immortality that the island's treasure can grant, and solve the clues that Evelyn has left behind before the clock runs out on the inhertence.

Ts a time travel book, the main interest is Gil experiencing modern life and coping with being an orphan out of time.  There's another character introduced in the first book, a 17th century man who cursed himself with immortality who desperately wants release, which adds more time travel interest.  That being said, the time travel is just one more flourish of the flourish filled story, and not the main point.

There are more twists and turns than I've mentioned; it's a fun adventure that will appeal lots to kids who enjoy mysterious hunts and foiling bad guys!  But it is also a cliffhanger, which is too bad because I would have happily kept reading....