Reviewed by elvinagb on
(ARC copy received from the publisher in exchange for a review)
Isolde “Izzy” Brannick is not your typical 16 year old. She is the last in a line of vampire slayers, werewolf hunters, witch burners and hunters of things that go bump in the night. Working for the Council that governs the monsters or “Prodigium” Isolde and her Mom were all that were left of the Brannicks. Finley, Isolde’s sister, has been missing for a year after a botched case in New Orleans when she disappeared after trying to take out a nasty coven of Dark Witches on her own.
A friend of Isolde’s mother gives them information on a particularly bizarre case of a teacher found nearly dead in a locked from the inside classroom with no clue as to how it was done. There are hints of something otherworldly being involved so they move to Ideal, Alabama to try and get to the bottom of the mystery and maybe get more information on what happened to Finley.
For the first time in her life Isolde is going to go to a real high school, with real teenagers. All she knows about school she is learning from old TV series of teen soap operas. The school she enrolls in has had some bizarre hauntings, plus that teacher who was attacked and she has to make friends fast to get to the bottom of what is going on, get rid of a ghost and move on.
Isolde is a wonderful character, she loves her mom, misses her sister, and finds she really wants to make friends and maybe even have a boyfriend. As she tries to navigate the new world of a normal teenager, she also has to find a witch and defeat an increasingly powerful ghost bent on revenge. This is a great story and left enough of an open ending that maybe we will see more adventures with Isolde.
My only gripe is one that will hopefully be corrected in the final edition. Someone twirling spaghetti on a fork shouldn’t take a mouthful of potatoes in the next paragraph.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 19 April, 2013: Finished reading
- 19 April, 2013: Reviewed