Review: Shadow Hills By: Anastasia Hopcus

Title: Shadow Hills
Author: Anastasia Hopcus
Publisher: Egmont USA, 400 pages (July 13th 2010)
From: Author & Publisher! Thank You!

Synopsis: His love captivated her... his secrets might kill her.

Since her sister’s mysterious death, Persephone “Phe” Archer has been plagued by a series of disturbing dreams. Determined to find out what happened to her sister, Phe enrolls at Devenish Prep in Shadow Hills, Massachusetts—the subject of her sister’s final diary entry.

After stepping on campus, Phe immediately realizes that there’s something different about this place—an unexplained epidemic that decimated the town in the 1700s, an ancient and creepy cemetery, and gorgeous boy Zach—and somehow she’s connected to it all.

But the more questions she asks and the deeper she digs, the more entangled Phe becomes in the haunting past of Shadow Hills. Finding what links her to this town…might cost her her life.

Review: 5 Stars - Shadow Hills was all I was hoping it to be and then some. With a mysterious yet thrilling story and characters, I found myself swept away and lost within its pages. Hopcus was able to incorporate history, mystery, magic, science, romance and much more into an exciting plot that flow and fit together with ease.

Phe is the main character and early in the book we learn how she comes to Shadow Hills and Devenish Prep school. With haunting dreams of a place she doesn’t’ know and her late sister Athena’s own obsession with getting into the school, Phe take’s it upon herself to figure out why they were both drawn to this the mysterious town.

The magnetic draw between characters either works or it doesn’t and for Phe and Zach it’s like puzzle pieces locking together. The writing is what makes the pull these two feel powerful and honest. Phe needs answers to the questions that started with her sister and Zach just might be the only one who can help her get them. He’s the all around good guy who’s a local to Shadow Hills and has links to all its secrets. Through supernatural forces they are brought together and it’s only the two and some well meaning, quirky and amazing friends, that allow Phe and Zach to work to solve a mystery of what could just be pretty epic for all in Shadow Hills. With an unknown evil and a council with all its rules against then, they need to work quickly to get the answers they’re looking for.

The mystery aspect of the book was written wonderfully with its ever twisting plot turns and left me guessing right until the end as to what the outcome would be. One thing I need to point out was that I had no clue what was going on with the people from Shadow Hills and kept questioning who or what they really were.

In the end, I can easily see this being the beginning to a series and if so, I can’t wait to see what happens next. Shadow Hills has become one of my favorite books in 2010. Anyone looking for something different when it comes to YA fiction should grab this book with both hands and not let go!

FTC Disclaimer: I did not pay for this book, nor have I been compensated at all in any way or means for reading and writing this review.