“Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales
Quick & Dirty: Caitlyn never knows when she goes to sleep if she will be gripped by her nightmares or a gorgeous Italian boy in her dreams.
Opening Sentence: “Is she the one?”
The Review:
This book was one of the books I most longed to read in my current pile of review books. The book art fed my desire to read this book but the topper was the book synopsis. What reader can pass up on a dead mother’s telling the future, amazing castle setting, gorgeous Italian boy, dreams, nightmares and ghosts? This story takes all of that and weaves an impressive story that spans time and space.
The level of talent that is currently writing for the category of Young Adult continues to astound me and this is no exception. The story has depth and character while maintaining a forward motion of the over arching story. There were a number of places that I need to put this book down but every time I attempted to I got hooked back into the story.
Our heroine, Caitlyn, is a delightful mix of uncertainty and spunk that makes you root for her from the beginning. She has failings that in the over reaching story make her that much more believable and an absolute delight to watch her go on this epic journey through time.
Raphael is a hero that transcends his circumstances to capture Caitlyn’s heart. They then both set off in a treasure quest to find the heart in darkness. The questing side of this story was very engaging and reminded me of Indiana Jones movies or National Treasure because we are given a clue but then must decipher it and then proceed to the next part of the puzzle and so on. This pushed the plot along and in part was why I was so determined to finish the book as quickly as I did. I had to know how it all panned out.
The history that is weaved into this story is the icing on the cake. I appreciated the Epilogue from the author describing the actual people that she incorporated into her tale. In looking back at this story, the author gifted us with a little bit of smoke and mirrors to allow us to lose sight of what is real and what isn’t.
If you are looking for a lazy Sunday afternoon read, then I highly recommend this book. But be warned, you will not want to put it down.
Notable Scene:
“You think you’re so special that no one here can understand you?” Jacqui asked, one eye-brow raised.
“Not special. ‘Freakish’ is more like it,” Caitlyn said glumly.
“You’re not a freak,” Sarah insisted, but her words carried no conviction.
“Yes, I am,” Caitlyn mumbled. “You two both know it.”
Jacqui grinned and held up her thumb and forefinger, pinching a half inch of space. “Well, maybe you’re a leettle freaky. But we put up with you anyway.”
“Great. Thanks.” Caitlyn subsided into silence. They weren’t going to understand.
She barely understood, herself. For as long as she could remember, she had felt certain that her future boyfriend was far from rural Oregon and her present life, thousands of miles away, living a life completely different from her hum drum one here. This unknown guy was her soul mate, and someday, where she least expected it, they’d find each other. It would be love at first sight, because they would have been seeking each other for all their lives.
FTC Advisory: Speak/Penguin provided me with a copy of Wake Unto Me. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.”
Dark Faerie Tales wrote this review Tuesday, February 5, 2013.
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