By Jocelyn Davies
HarperTeen, $17.99, 390 pages

Seventeen-year-old Skye is looking forward to the upcoming year – applying to colleges, racing on the ski team and spending time with her best friends, Cassie and Dan. She is also intrigued about her attraction to the gorgeous and mysterious new boys at school, cousins Asher and Devin. What she doesn’t realize is that their presence is a signal that her life is about to change in ways that she could never imagine – and in ways that have lasting consequences for the world.

A Beautiful Dark is the first book in a new trilogy by author Jocelyn Davies and it is an entertaining, if not ground-breaking novel. The main character, Skye, is nicely written and will be relatable to the teen audience and the supporting characters, too, a solidly written, if a little one-dimensional. The plot drags on a bit toward the end due to Skye’s drawn-out perseveration about the choices she must face, but other than that it moves along fairly well and has some nice twists toward the end. This series will likely be a hit for fans of teen or young adult fantasy.

Reviewed by Barbara Cothern

[amazon asin=0061990655, B004V51CCK&text=Buy On Amazon&template=carousel]