Lily Dale: Awakening
by Wendy Corsi Staub
Published by Walker Books for Young Readers
Click on book
cover to order
at Amazon.com
Reviewed by Andrea Sisco
When Calla Delaney’s mother died in a freak accident, life changes dramatically for the teenager. Her grief is magnified because she recently broke up with her boyfriend, the brother of her best friend.
Calla’s father is a teacher starting a sabbatical and can’t take Calla with him to California right away. And Calla doesn’t want to visit her uncle and his family. The only other place she can go is to her grandmother’s home in Lily Dale, New York. Even that’s not the best choice as far as Calla is concerned. She barely knows her grandmother (it seems there was an estrangement between grandma and her mother).
Soon after Calla’s arrival in Lily Dale, she learns her eccentric grandmother, Odelia, is a medium in a town of psychics and mediums. Calla is skeptical, but soon experiences some strange events that trigger memories of growing up ‘knowing things.’ Could she be a psychic? Her awakening provides clues to a missing girl. She also begins to examine her mother’s life and death. And in between, she meets several interesting boys and begins to accept her gift.
Lily Dale: Awakening is the beginning of a series and is the ‘set-up’ book for the others that will follow. There are unanswered questions that leads the reader to believe will be answered in the next book, Believing.
This is a satisfying read. It’s not exciting or compelling, but perhaps, due to the subject matter, requires the lengthy set-up. I enjoy the authors adult novels and will give Believing, the next in the series, the benefit of the doubt.
Armchair Interviews says: Teens will like the paranormal setting and the romantic elements.
Author’s Web site: http://www.wendycorsistaub.com