YA fans will be drawn to the blend of magic and mythology that takes the established teen-witch premise in new directions.
The first of three YA fantasy books from debut novelist Allen introduces the magical coming-of-age story of Katrina Summer.
Katrina is 15 years old when her mother, Grace, unexpectedly dies of a heart attack, leaving Katrina in their North Carolina apartment. Abandoned by her father at birth, Katrina has seemingly nowhere to turn until her estranged paternal grandmother, Rose Summer, offers to step in as guardian. This means leaving behind her life in North Carolina for the quaint seaside town of Apollo Beach, Florida. As Apollo’s newest resident, she catches the eye of Alec, the boy next door. His companionship gives Katrina the glimmering hope of finding happiness again after her mother’s passing. But their budding romance makes her the target of local mean girls’ jealousy, while the town develops an unflagging interest in her every move. Katrina also learns that her grandmother is a wealthy local celebrity who exerts a mysterious influence over the community and local businesses. As part of her guardianship, Katrina’s grandmother takes it upon herself to educate Katrina on the branches of their family tree, a divine bloodline with origins in ancient Greece and legendary ties to the supernatural. The revelations come on the precipice of Katrina’s 16th birthday, which lands on the summer solstice, historically a significant seasonal event. Katrina learns that 16 is a threshold age when she becomes eligible to learn all of the Summer family secrets her mother worked hard to hide. But she’s shaken by a recurring series of dark visions that manifest as reality in Apollo Beach. Katrina finds herself torn between a desire to explore the origins of her newfound powers and the chance to be a normal teen who flirts and falls in love. These magical occurrences fold neatly into the story thanks to Allen’s natural dialogue and an emotionally accessible protagonist who easily shoulders the burden of entertaining the audience. Yet due to some late introductions, a few secondary characters—particularly villains meant to be feared—don’t seem to earn their significance. Likewise, Allen’s decision to favor Katrina’s character-building over plot development contributes to the novel’s somewhat meandering pace. However, unlike in many slow-burning narratives, the lack of denouement is rather satisfying since it manages to intriguingly pique interest in the series’ next chapter.
YA fans will be drawn to the blend of magic and mythology that takes the established teen-witch premise in new directions.Pub Date: June 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-5001-6052-4
Page Count: 188
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 22, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Portrays rich cultural details and displays significant research but needs more character depth and conflict.
Deol’s debut novel chronicles an Indian woman’s personal journey across cultural boundaries.
When the parents of Malti, a young Indian woman, marry her to an Indian doctor and send her to New York, she finds herself adrift in a foreign land, struggling to find her place. In a loveless marriage, Malti yearns for a child, but when she becomes pregnant, her husband announces he has always been in love with another woman, and he abandons her. Thus begins Malti’s evolution from a sheltered girl to a strong, independent single mother who uses her dedication to her son and her career to hide the depth of her hurt. The novel follows Malti through four decades—from America to India and back again—and Malti’s son, Amit, as he experiences his first love. After spending his youth obsessing over a fantasy woman that will complete his soul, the fully Americanized young man finds the woman he considers his soul mate during a work retreat on Cape Cod. Nursing a bizarre obsession, he zealously pursues Zeena, a traditional Indian woman from Bangalore. Zeena’s capitulation to his pursuit and their resulting romance feels forced and unrealistic, though the interplay of their different societal traditions is interesting and well-researched. The novel explores the conflict between Indian and American cultures, as well as the complexities of Islamic extremists and different Muslim sects. Although the underlying theme of the story is Malti’s journey, we don’t learn enough about who she is as a person. Secondary characters are intriguing, including Malti’s grandmother and her hopeful beau, but are also incompletely realized. Occasionally, conflicts resolve too easily. For example, when Malti attempts to change the beliefs of a young Muslim father who has taken up with the Islamic extremists, she finds little resistance, and a chance to explore complicated issues is lost.
Portrays rich cultural details and displays significant research but needs more character depth and conflict.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2012
ISBN: 978-1936085651
Page Count: 238
Publisher: Decent Hill
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An appealing plot isn’t enough to support thinly drawn characters.
An ex–beauty queen, along with her teenage daughter, leaves a hardscrabble life in Oregon for Los Angeles, where she hopes to become a psychic to the stars.
Debbie Allen, a former Miss America contender, and her 17-year-old daughter, Lindsey, scrape by with waitressing and the psychic-reading business they conduct in their garage. Lindsey can read tea leaves and tarot cards and is in on the con, but she would rather devote her energies to school and winning a scholarship to study astronomy in college. But Debbie, equal parts blindly optimistic and perpetually dissatisfied, has other plans: After a mysterious fire burns down their house, they drive to LA, where they can live the life Debbie has always dreamed of. Settled in at the Sepulveda Apartment Complex, with an up-close view of the 405 freeway, Lindsey is soon enrolled as a scholarship student at a Christian school, the same one Paco, her hunky neighbor, attends. At school, Lindsey is mentored by her scholarship benefactor, Joan Fields, a lonely widow whom Debbie marks as their ticket to the good life. Debbie and Lindsey ingratiate themselves with Joan, so when a storm makes their apartment soggy and destroys Joan’s Malibu estate, the three end up living together in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel. This is only the beginning for Debbie, who plans to hold a séance for Joan’s dead husband while fleecing the widow of her considerable savings. Meanwhile, Lindsey is trying to fit in at school and plan for college while conducting an implausibly chaste romance with Paco. Though the novel has some light, sweet moments, the characters feel underdeveloped; while Lindsey and Debbie are essentially small-time grifters (though there's none of the excitement of that kind of novel here), there's little exploration of their inner lives.
An appealing plot isn’t enough to support thinly drawn characters.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62914-751-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2014
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