Every day this week, I am featuring a different author on my blog as part of the Blogger Book Fair. To start things off, I’d like to introduce you to Penelope Reece and her novel, Phantasma (check out the end of this review for how to get this book for $.99!!!).
Phantasma is a Young Adult Fantasy Romance set in our modern world. It follows the story of Alphie, a young girl suffering from Narcolepsy. This condition causes her plenty of misery in school and her social life, and leads to two specific girls bullying her. The book starts with Alphie and her sister holding a yard sale, where Alphie discovers a mysterious amulet. The amulet is the catalyst for Alphie discovering that there is more to her world than she ever suspected, and that it also holds clues to her past, one that she cannot remember.
While Alphie is just trying to fit in at school and keep her head down, but her problems are exacerbated when the amulet summons a spirit from Limbo. Noer needs to possess a body to remain in our world, and he knows things about Alphie that she can’t remember. Worse, she identifies him as a leech, stealing her energy for his own strength.
Phantasma has many of the elements that you expect from a paranormal romance – a girl uncomfortable in her own skin, unable to fit in, meeting a boy she’s crazy about – all while the paranormal world seeds its way into her life. What makes this book stand out, at least for me, were the ties to dreams and out-of-body experiences. Both Lucid Dreaming and OBE’s are subjects that I find very interesting, and I enjoyed seeing how well the author tied them into the story. Astral travel is an important part of what makes this story work.
All in all, I very much enjoyed Phantasma. It is well written with believable characters that are outside of the norm for other books in this genre, with a nice twist to the main character. I highly recommend it to anyone that enjoys Young Adult fiction. There is nothing inappropriate in this book that would turn away readers of any age.
As part of the Blogger Book Fair, Penelope Reece has graciously made her book available through Smashwords for $.99, and it is well worth it. You can get it at this price until July 28th, 2013. Smashwords lets you download digital books in the format of every type of ereader out there (kindle, nook, sony, kobo, pdf, etc.), if you aren’t familiar with them.
Get the book here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/319112
…with this coupon: WT44L
Penelope’s blog:
G.S. Wright 