Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore YP FIC CLEMENTM

Amy Goodnight is the normal one in a most abnormal family.  And not even normally abnormal, witches with special powers abnormal. She stays away form magic as best she can by ranch sitting at her Aunt’s West Texas ranch.  she thinks her biggest problem is the incredibly annoying and annoyingly attractive cowboy, Ben, but  bodies start turning up near the ranch and a persistent ghost convinces her to solve the crimes she steps in the middle of the worlds of magic and murder.

This is a nice mix of spookiness with a light touch.  Our heroine isn’t a waifish lost soul with a tortured past and is actually quite witty and relatable.  Even better is the VERY tired cowboy romance actually works quite well hear due to Clement-Moore having a great ear for witty dialogue.  I actually found myself rooting for this couple (something that almost never happens for me in a paranormal romance). I love that the author invests as much effort in accurately capturing ranch life as well as telling a unique and often quite spooky ghost story.  It makes for s surprising good mash-up.  Texas Gothic has enough humor, creepiness, romance, and interesting characters to please almost any paranormal romance fans and may make some new ones.

My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent

Fans of the Twilight series and Melissa Marr’s faerie series Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange, and Fragile Eternity will devour Rachel Vincent’s My Soul to Take, the first book published by HarlequinTeen, a division of the legendary romance publisher. My Soul is the first of the Soul Screamers series.

High school student Kaylee Cavanagh seems to have a gift, but how special that gift is could be debated. The ability to predict things would be cool if you weren’t predicting when people were going to die. What makes this “gift” even more regrettable is the blood-curdling scream that accompanies it. Kaylee, although she doesn’t consider herself beautiful or extraordinary, just wants to try live normal life, which includes hanging out with her best friend, Emma, and finishing high school. Her young life has already faced the obstacles of her mother’s death and her father leaving her with her aunt, uncle, and snobby cousin and classmate, Sophie. Kaylee’s life veers far left of normal when she begins predicting the deaths of strangers and classmates, who just seem to drop dead for no reason.

Further complicating this issue is Nash Hudson, a gorgeous jock, who takes an interest in her on the same night as the death premonitions begin. Kaylee, a social zero at her school, wonders why Nash, one of the hottest seniors, would want to hang out with her. What could they possibly have in common? (More than you know.) And, why does he have such a calming effect on her, especially when the premonitions take place?

There are many secrets that have been kept from Kaylee, and her ability to predict death will soon force the truth to be revealed.

My Soul to Take will interest Twilight fans, but this story contains no vampires or werewolves. Instead Vincent uses legends in Irish folklore to shape her series. The book is a healthy mix of romance, paranormal, and mystery, and the author keeps the reader in engaged with plenty of twists and turns. The topic of death is in the forefront of the novel; therefore, it may not be appropriate for younger teens. The physical romance is fairly limited because of the age group for which it is intended and the heavy topic of death.

Down Garrapata Road by Anne Estevis

A first effort by a Texas teacher, this collection of stories about 4 different families tells about Mexican-American families living in South Texas in the 1940’s and 1950’s. The stories are told from the child’s point of view, when they are leaving childhood and becoming teenagers. The first family’s stories are all told by one daughter, and those stories are the best, especially about the relations between her mother and father – how the mother obeys the father, but makes her feelings felt in spite of his opposition. These young people had a simpler and harder existence then teenagers today, but teens can still relate to their problems of wanting to dress a certain way, and to have freedom in their social life. It’s also a good book for recording a cultural history that otherwise might not be remembered.

Dark Water Rising

Dark Water Rising

by Marian Hale

(YP FIC HALE)

Set during the Hurricane of 1900, which completely devestated Galveston, Dark Water Rising presents a coming of age story amidst horrifying circumstances. Seth is not happy when his father decides that their family will move to Galveston. His father wants Seth to go on to college and become a doctor. Seth already knows that he wants to become a carpenter. After arriving in Galveston, a night's stay at his uncle's home provides him both with the chance to work as a carpenter and his first glimpse of Ella Rose Montgomery. Seth quickly settles in to his new job as a carpenter working with Josiah, the grandson of his uncle's servant. When the storm sets in, people come to the beach near where Seth works to watch the turbulent water. Finally the water gets too high, and Seth and Josiah must cross flooded streets and flying debris to make it to his uncle's house.

The historical details seem acurate. There are mentions of many of the more well known details about the storm, such as the the wall of debris that scraped away everything in its path. The variety of dangers people faced, such as a man dying, not from drowning, but rather from climbing a tree that was already full of snakes. And the things that lingered in memories long afterwards: the stench of mud and decaying bodies and the bodies that washed up on the beach for days afterwards.

Seth's desire to chose his own destiny and prove himself to his father very much become part of Seth's expereience. The author keeps the story from becoming too dark by alotting some of the worst horrors to the people around Seth. Even so, as a capable young man, Seth sees enough of the devestation to convey the tragedy and misery of the disaster that changed Texas forever. The author touches on racial inequalities as well as the role of women during that time. An author's note at the end of the book explains the author's interest in the events and also gives more detailed information.

For further reading on the Hurricane of 1900, visit our local history collection. Moore Memorial Library has several books about the hurricane, including Isaac's Storm, (976.4139 LARSON) which provides an interesting account of the representative of the National Weather Bureau, Isaac Cline, who was working in Galveston at the time of the storm.