This is one of those delicious YA Paranormal books that begins in an ordinary way and then ends with a huge BANG!!! Renee Winters is a typical high school student just beginning to explore her independence and her first boyfriend. She lives in a really neat California coastal area and loves her friends and her school and her life. Then…tragedy upsets her family and she is left in the care of her grandfather. She has not seen her grandfather since she was a small child. Before she knows what is happening she is whisked away by her rather wealthy and eccentric grandfather to Maine…first to his home and then to Gottfried Academy… which will be her new boarding school. Just before school begins she stays with her grandfather in the huge palatial home where her mother was raised. She discovers that her mother’s room has remained untouched and is filled with her mother’s clothing, books, and all of her other possessions. This is extremely interesting to Renee as she discovers that there are huge gaps in her knowledge of her mother’s early life. Oh…she also learns that both her mother and father attended Gottfried Academy. There are even more secrets surrounding this discovery.
So…just as Renee is making these discoveries about her parents she is sent to school where her new life literally becomes one huge mystery. Everything at that school is subject to many questions and Renee has them and is thought to be quite outspoken by her peers and teachers. The school is old and odd…lots of funny rules and restrictions and lots and lots of unusual students. She meets a magnificent looking fellow student named Dante who at first tries to avoid Renee but later can not stay away from her…literally…she is his “soul mate”. Enough said about that… There were enough mean teachers and weird students and mysterious deaths in this novel to keep me interested and sort of on the edge of my reading seat.
I loved reading this book. It was wonderfully unique and different. I had ideas about where the plot was headed but I was enjoying reading this book so much that I loved the slowness the author took to get me there. The writing was lovely. The story was a new one. The ending literally took my breath away. I do recommend it to you, highly.
