by Karsten Knight
Available July 26th 2011
Ashline Wilde never received an instruction manual on how to be a 16-year-old Polynesian volcano goddess. If she had, it might have contained helpful warnings such as:
• Dreaming about your (thankfully) mortal boyfriend may cause your bed to spontaneously combust
• Oven mitts should be worn at all times during heavy make-out sessions
Instead, Ash has to learn these life lessons the hard way as her dormant powers erupt at the most awkward times. In the wake of a hometown tragedy, Ash transfers to Blackwood Academy, a boarding school nestled in California’s redwoods, where a group of fellow gods-on-earth have mysteriously convened. As if sophomore year couldn’t get any worse, her storm goddess older sister, the wild and unpredictable Eve, resurfaces to haunt Ashline. With a war between the gods looming over Blackwood, Ash must master the fire smoldering within her before she clashes with her sister one final time, which leads us to life-lesson #3:
• When warm and cold fronts collide, there’s guaranteed to be a storm.
Sure at first you read this and you say, "A Polynesian volcano what now?" But ever since I read American Gods by Neil Gaiman a few years ago, I've always thought that gods (unlike vampires, werewolves, and fairies) were an underutilized genre. There is so much potential here, the cast of charcters and storylines are limitless. This should be a book with a new and rich mythology all its own. I cannot wait!
