THE DARK WORLD

A teenage girl is drawn into a secret supernatural war.

After a terrible accident, Paige Kelly sees dead people. Watching her talk to invisible people has led everyone from schoolmates to family members to think she is mentally ill. The only people nice to “Bellevue Kelly” (as her tormenters call her) are a hot new boy who borrows pens from her and Dottie, who died in the 1950s in the school’s third-floor bathroom. Paige’s narration is delightfully funny—it’s not snarky for the sake of snark but genuinely witty. When new transfer students show up and reveal demonic powers in attacking Paige, the hot pen-borrower—Logan—swoops in for the rescue and expository revelations. It appears that Paige’s supernatural abilities have caught the attention of demons in the alternate version of New York—the titular Dark World—so their enemies, the warlocks, sent demonslayer Logan to protect her. He falls for her, of course, but the relationship between the two develops slowly; their combined romantic inexperience leads to natural, hilarious and awkward fumbling. The demonic storyline, which is moved to the back burner as the romance blooms, hints at double crosses and intrigues, to be explored (hopefully) in the next book. The cliffhanger ending is less a conclusion and more a temporary stopping point.

A sweet romance with a quick sense of humor and supernatural action.