An optimistic supernatural tale with both fresh and familiar ingredients.
In this YA fantasy, tragedy leads a young woman to a new life, unusual friends, and the truth about her recurring nightmares.
Eighteen-year-old Shanntal of Greyton isn’t sleeping well. Her nightmares involve pursuit through the woods, a red-eyed figure, and a craving for blood. She hopes that her best friend, 20-year-old Ginata, will provide relief. Her parents drop her off at her spunky friend’s home for a sleepover, and Ginata suggests playing with a Ouija board. When a spirit named Daray answers, the game quickly takes a dark turn. The Ouija planchette spells out “I-WILL-FIND-YOU,” and Shanntal assumes she’s the target. The next evening, Ginata’s parents drive Shanntal home only to find a dark, empty-looking residence. Inside, Shanntal’s parents and younger siblings have been killed—drained of blood. After a hospital stay, she moves in with Auntie Stephanie and Uncle Danier on Blackwood Island. Life is lonely there until she meets Jayce Fallon, who has “deep brown eyes” and a sympathetic ear. He takes her to Mystic Beach and introduces his own friends—Terran, Aiden, Makan, and Meriel—who happen to be the immortal avatars of earth, air, fire, and water. Shanntal is amazed but can’t help but wonder what she’s done to deserve such a remarkable crop of new friends. In her novel, Blyth (Stormy Saturday, 2015) teases the answer while crafting a tense romantic triangle with Jayce, the telepathic keeper of the elements; Daray, a vampire with ties to Shanntal’s past; and the protagonist, whose memories of childhood are hazy. While Jayce’s mental connection to Shanntal is intrusive and potentially domineering, he promises to behave himself and “give space whenever needed.” Their lives together could be perfect, and the author deftly conveys that first splash into love (“I felt lightheaded, and my lips burned hot”). But vampires, werewolves, and hoofed doomahorns complicate their situation. On Shanntal’s side, aside from elementals, are unicorns, fairies, and shape-shifters like Layla. Though Blyth takes readers through familiar genre terrain (like the Twilight series), Shanntal’s determination to be more than a damsel in distress is key to her appeal.
An optimistic supernatural tale with both fresh and familiar ingredients.Pub Date: Dec. 30, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-64361-213-3
Page Count: 376
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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