I wanted to start the year off with a book recommendation. I was with family a great deal of the holidays, and had more down time to read than usual. I read a number of new books, but as I always do, I re-read some of my favorites.
One of them is a series called The Glass Wall. Madison Adler and Carmen Caine are the authors. There are four books in the series – The Glass Wall, The Brotherhood of the Snake, The Inner Circle, and The Egg. There’s also a short called Behind The Mirror – and it’s worth reading. Gives great background information.
I loved every single one of them. It’s young adult, and it’s paranormal. I’d even call it a romance, although that’s not the main point. As with many of the YA series I read, the romance is mixed up with everything else going on in the story.
Sydney is the heroine of the series – a seventeen year-old who is headed for yet another foster home. There’s no whitewashing the truth she deals with in regards to her mom. Mom is a character you want to throw something at the few times she turns up on the page.
The difference with this foster home is that she really likes her foster parents. They are both very likable and engaging. I love that her foster mom is an Ebay queen. I won’t spoil it for you.
The relationships develop well, and it’s not merely the romance I’m referring to. There’s a scene at Christmas with all the kids that will make you weepy.
The language is a little formal at times, but if you’ve read my Sisters Of The Curse series, you’ll know that doesn’t bother me one bit. I like formal. My favorite books are Jane Austen. To me, the formality is appropriate with the characters using it.
Here’s the breakdown – Sydney gets to her foster home, and learns that she has a smokin’ hot neighbor named Rafael. He’s got some weird parents. Then she meets Jareth, another smokin hot guy who is also the Big Deal in the music scene. Jareth hangs around, being snarky (my favorite kind of guy) and you get the sense there’s a chance for romance with both of these guys.
Then Sydney learns that they are Fae, and their hotness quotient shoots off the scale. She’s appealing to them because she is part and parcel of Fate in the Fae world.
I love how the author manages to show all these world-ending issues (and they are there in all four books) along with the normal crap one has to deal with as a teenager.
I read through these books like a shot, and the instant the last two in the series were available, I got them. I think one of them was the first pre-order I bought.
If you like YA, with a hint of dystopian, and the always present chance at romance, this is a series for you. I can safely say that as I read it again, and loved it as much as I did the first time around.
For the record, I’d love to have a Jareth lurking about my local Starbucks.
I’ll have to add this to my reading list. Thanks for the recommendation Lisa.
It’s a really fantastic series. I got the first one on a free day and I was hooked. I hope you like it!