Release Date: 05/09/11
BOOK BLURB:
Aimee and Alan have unusual pasts and secrets they prefer to keep hidden. Aimee's deceased mother struggled with mental illness and hallucinations, and Aimee thinks it could be hereditary. After all, she sees a shadowy river man where there isn't one. And then there was that time she and her best friend Courtney tried to conjure a spirit with a Ouija board ...Alan is Courtney's cousin. His family moved to Maine when Courtney's father went missing. It's not just Alan's dark good looks that make him attractive. He is also totally in touch with a kind of spiritual mysticism from his Native American heritage. And it's not long before Aimee has broken up with her boyfriend ...But it's not Aimee or Alan who is truly haunted - it's Courtney. In a desperate plea to find her father, Courtney invites a demonic presence into her life. Together, Aimee and Alan must exorcise the ghost, before it devours Courtney - and everything around her.
REVIEW:
Having enjoyed Mary Hooper’s Falling Grace, I was wondering where she would take the reader on her next excursion. Whilst we stay in the same time frame, we get the opportunity to explore the world of the Victorian/Edwardian Medium.
As with her other books, Velvet relies on the principle female character to draw the reader in. She’s brave, she knows her own mind and she is more than confortable to struggle to achieve her goals.
Add to this a sense of doing what’s right with Mary’s identifiable writing styel, solid prose that draws you in and a plot that bring the ruthlessness as well as manipulations of the Confidence Trickster to the fore in a world of silks, satins and the genteel upper classes of the period. Great stuff.
BOOK BLURB:
Grace Parkes has just had to do a terrible thing. Having given birth to an illegitimate child, she has travelled to the famed Brookwood Cemetery to place her small infant's body in a rich lady's coffin. Following the advice of a kindly midwife, this is the only way that Grace can think of to give something at least to the little baby who died at birth, and to avoid the ignominy of a pauper's grave. Distraught and weeping, Grace meets two people at the cemetery: Mrs Emmeline Unwin and Mr James Solent. These two characters will have a profound affect upon Grace's life. But Grace doesn't know that yet. For now, she has to suppress her grief and get on with the business of living: scraping together enough pennies selling watercress for rent and food; looking after her older sister, who is incapable of caring for herself; thwarting the manipulative and conscience-free Unwin family, who are as capable of running a lucrative funeral business as they are of defrauding a young woman of her fortune. A stunning evocation of life in Victorian London, with vivid and accurate depictions, ranging from the deprivation that the truly poor suffered to the unthinking luxuries enjoyed by the rich: all bound up with a pacy and thrilling plot, as Grace races to unravel the fraud about to be perpetrated against her and her sister.
REVIEW:
In the world of Young Adult fiction, the majority of tales that you come across these days tend to be pretty solidly set within the latest trends. So it takes a pretty strong author to branch out and create the type of offering that they not only want others to read but one to make them stand out from the crowd. What is portrayed within this title is an almost Dickensian world that is not only bleak and harsh but also one that will keep the reader glued as they hope and pray that the characters within manage to make their own way through the trials and tribulations thrown at them. The characters are outstanding, the dialogue crisp and the overall arc is one that will stay with you long after the final page. A truly memorable reading experience.
Release Date: 05/09/11
