Introducing... The Pecan Children by Quinn Connor

 Introducing books through the first paragraph or so...

A screech shreds the delicate membrane of the night. 

A great blue heron hoists itself free of the river, and Sasha winces. That sudden thrill of sound yanks every nerve-- the urgent, mechanical blare blasting in her ear.

When will this ever end?

It's the train, howling like a heartbreak as it passes into, or really through, the town. No trains stop in the old pecan town now, and no roads lead there, either, not since the storm that took out the only highway. Sasha's small riverboat, that eternal go-between, chugs doggedly back and forth, the only way in or out.

-- The Pecan Children by Quinn Connor