Holly Cathers lives an ordinary enough life in San Francisco until her parents are killed
in an accident. She is sent to live up in Seattle with her Aunt Marie-Claire and twin cousins
Amanda and Nicole. But things are anything but ordinary here. Why do the wishes only her cat
hears come true for one thing, and why is she drawn towards a boy she does not know? Waiting
in the wings, ready to engulf the family, is an ancient family feud that has been going on for
rather a long time...
This is a somewhat uneven pair of books that are the start of a five book series. The story
gets off to a flying start in the first, but then becomes somewhat lost in the second volume.
I couldn’t put the first book down, as there was just so much happening and had high hopes of
the second part, but was rather disappointed. For one thing, there is a scene involving an
animal being killed, which seems unnecessary and very out of character.
For a teen book there are some adult themes, including suicide. The magic itself has a
darker tone than in many other books aimed at this age group. There is a lot in here and it
veers from being impressive to being rather the opposite, which is a pity. If you like your
books dark and don’t object to reading about animal cruelty then this might be up your dark
alley. Overall, however, the word that kept coming up when I read it was uneven.