Earthbound

May 20, 2013
Pike (the Wings series) opens a new series with a plane crash, and soon lays out more themes popular in recent YA—inexplicable survival, loss of memory, an unknown stalker, apocalyptic showdown, and the protagonist’s transcendent secret identity. Tavia, the 18-year-old survivor, is in rehab and finishing her senior year online. She has time to look at the world with attentive eyes, and what she sees is often unnerving: glowing triangles on the historic houses of Portsmouth, N.H., or pedestrians who flicker. She tries to attribute these visions to the brain injury she sustained in the crash, but she can’t dismiss the stalker with a blond ponytail so easily. Nor do the important people in her life—Elizabeth, an uncannily insightful therapist, and Benson, a sympathetic library intern—encourage her to ignore the growing strangeness. Though Pike’s plot points may riff a little too blatantly on the zeitgeist, her solid writing, particularly in her descriptions, will have readers hooked. Tavia’s low-tech revelation via ChapStick works better than any superbattle to convey what’s at stake in her life and choices. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House.

June 1, 2013
A supernatural adventure blends a present-day manhunt with a 200-year-old romance. At 18, Tavia realizes that after her miraculous escape from a plane crash that killed everyone onboard, including her parents, there is little chance of returning to normal, especially with the media overeager to capture her survival story. So after relocating to New Hampshire to escape the reporters and live with her aunt and uncle, Tavia is lying low. She spends most of her time shuttling among rehab, her therapist and the library--although at the library, she is more interested in Benson, a hot library clerk, than the best-sellers. As Tavia's relationship with Benson heats up, she begins having visions of the distant past. Although she can't quite place these visions, she is drawn to know more, especially about the mysterious character Quinn Avery, whom she can't help falling for despite her love for Benson and the sense of foreboding that warns her to stay away. Pike builds a world that, once established, is captivating but that does not come clear until quite late, running the danger of alienating readers. Readers might also get tangled up in the text's purple prose; while adding to the overall romance, it can be distracting. A mostly promising start to a new series that offers history, romance and action to patient readers. (Fantasy. 14 & up)

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June 1, 2013

Gr 7 Up-Eighteen-year-old Tavia Michaels is currently living with an aunt and uncle she just met after surviving the plane crash that killed her parents. She has cut ties with everyone from her past and is starting over. The only people she talks to, besides her aunt and uncle, are her psychiatrist and Benson, her crush. While trying to adjust to life after the accident, Tavia begins seeing a mysterious boy dressed in Revolutionary-period clothing to whom she is inexplicably attracted. She soon finds herself torn between her feelings for this stranger named Quinn Avery and those for Benson. While trying to decide between them, Tavia discovers that she has special powers, that things are not what they seem, and that everything she thought she knew was a farce. This is an action-packed novel filled with longing and secrets. The characters are well developed and the narrative is easy to follow. At times, Tavia's vacillations are tediously drawn out, and Pike does take a while to get to the heart of the matter, but overall the story is compelling. Readers of supernatural romances will be clamoring for this one.-Kristyn Dorfman, The Packer Collegiate Institute, Brooklyn, NY

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2013
Grades 9-12 Eighteen-year-old Tavia Michaels is the only survivor of a plane crash that killed her parents and everyone else on board. Kept from the media by her aunt Reese and uncle Jay, Tavia is recovering from physical and mental injuries while under the care of her therapist, Elizabeth. She has even cultivated a best friend, Benson, a nerdy college student. But at the same time Tavia realizes she can make tubes of Chap Stick that disappear after five minutes, she begins to see Quinn, an attractive man dressed in eighteenth-century clothing, beckoning her to follow him, and a menacing man in dark sunglasses stalking her. When she overhears Aunt Reese and Elizabeth call her Earthbound and insinuate she is in mortal danger, Tavia suddenly doubts everything she has been told about her survival. This complicated, riveting page-turner takes readers back seven generations to a sweet, sensuous love affair between Tavia and Quinn that threatens Tavia's new attraction to Benson. With carefully crafted characters and plot, readers will be unable to sort the good guys from the bad. Sure to satisfy romantics, mystery fans, fantasy aficionados, and thrill seekers alike. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Pike is the New York Times best-selling author of the Wings series, a fact that will surely draw readers to this novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)