The murder of her parents has left Silla damaged and lost, and Silla's insistence that her father is not to blame only alienates her further from her friends and family. When a mysterious spell book arrives, Silla hopes it will lead to some answers about her parents' killer. In her first attempt at magic, in an old graveyard near her home, Nick, the new boy in town spies on her; he recognizes the magic that Silla is performing as the same magic his mother performed with him, before she went mad. Before long, Silla and Nick connect, though Nick is unwilling to share his history with blood magic with Silla. When Silla's friends start showing signs of possession, Silla, Nick and Silla's brother, Reese, must contend with a deadly, immortal woman who will stop at nothing to take the book of spells from them.
This is the second book I've ever read where I feel like I need to change ALL my other five stars to 4 or 4.5 to give justice to this one!
All I can say is WOW, I love Silla and Nick, Reese and Judy. What a wonderfully tangled story, with such believable characaters, who are both strong and weak, wonderful and awful, brave and scared. The magic part was truly magic, and the way both Silla, Nick and Reese had to deal with so many things left me without breath for most of the book.
So many things happened, and the plot was really well thought out - I could not guess in advance what was going to happen next.
This is one of the few wonderfully dark, but still hopefull YA novels I have read in a very long time.
And I recommend this book to ALL people I know who like reading - there is suspense, magic, romance, teenage angst, hope for the future, all the ingredients needed for a wonderfully twisted tale that left me hungry for a lot more.
