Book Review - Deception by Lee Nichols

Six weeks after Emma Vaile's parents, owners of an antiquities store, suddenly leave in a hurry for what appears to be a business-related trip, a growing sense of the unimaginable sets in when she can't reach them: her parents have vanished, the manager of their shop has quit, and her brother is in another country. She is all alone and having visions that she hasn't had since "The Incident" when she was seven years old. As if seeing people that aren't really there was bad enough, touching an ancient relic that recently arrived in her parents' shop has Emma dizzyingly whisked away into visions of the past - someone else's past. The police are about to place her in a foster home when her brother's old college friend, Bennett, produces papers stating that Emma's parents gave him legal guardianship before they left. What she knew about her life fades into the distance on an airplane from San Francisco to Boston. Bennett drives her to Echo Point to stay at a museum his parents' own and enrolls her in the prestigious private school Thatcher Academy. It is here that she discovers her true identity and her family's relationship to the paranormal realm.

The first book in the Haunting Emma trilogy, Lee Nichol's debut YA novel is a refreshing change from the popularity of supernatural thrillers focused on vampires, werewolves, and zombies. It is a quick, light read with plenty of secrets to keep you curious and a surprise ending that leaves you wondering about the rest of the story that has yet to be told.

Recommended Grade Level: 7-12

Genre: Paranormal Suspense

Series: Haunting Emma, Book#1

Pages: 336

This book review was written by Adult Services Librarian, Chryssi Gumina.