Title: Lost In Thought
Author: Cara Bertrand
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance (psychic abilities)…with a contemporary flair
Tour Host: Lady Amber's Tours
Lainey Young has a secret: she’s going crazy. Everyone else thinks she has severe migraines from stress and exhaustion. What she really has are visions of how people died—or are going to die. Not that she tells anyone that. At age sixteen, she prefers keeping her crazy to herself. When doctors insist she needs a new and stable environment to recover, Lainey’s game to spend two years at a private New England boarding school. She doesn’t really think it will cure her problem, and she’s half right. There is no cure, but as she discovers, she’s not actually crazy.
Almost everyone at Northbrook Academy has a secret too. Half the students and nearly all the staff are members of the Sententia, a hidden society of the psychically gifted. A vision of another student’s impending death confirms Lainey is one of them. She’d like to return the crappy gift of divining deaths with only a touch, but enjoys spending time with Carter Penrose—recent Academy graduate and resident school crush—while learning to control it. Lainey’s finally getting comfortable with her ability, and with Carter, when they uncover her true Sententia heritage. Now she has a real secret.
Once it’s spilled, she’ll be forced to forget protecting secrets and start protecting herself.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this book!
This has been on my Amazon wish list for a while now and I don't actually remember how I found it. I think I was browsing and it came up in those recommendations at the bottom of the page. So when I saw there was going to be a tour I jumped at the chance! Let me start by saying I plan on buying this novel as I had originally intended, especially now that I know it will be worth every penny.
The internal voice of the main protagonist is really well written and while normally first person narratives are always either a hit or a miss with me, this one was definitely a hit. In fact I would say it was a home run. Part of what gives this story the unique feeling it manages to pull off, where you sit there almost feeling like you're sneaking around reading someone's diary, is the narrative and its honest tone.
You get a glimpse into Lainey's quirky personality and the secrets she keeps from everyone, amazing secrets that make her feel like a bit of a freak but are also part of what is so wonderful about her. I am really looking forward to more of Cara's work. The depth woven into the story, the strong characters and the unique execution and delivery of a very honest and raw voice convincing you that the unimaginable is in fact happening to her (well, is in fact her actually) is all simply amazing.
Truly a fantastic novel!
Cara is a former middle school literacy teacher who now lives in the woods outside Boston with: one awesome husband, two large dogs, one small daughter, and lots of words. LOST IN THOUGHT is her first novel and was one of three finalists for the 2011 Amazon/Penguin Breakthrough Novel Award in the Young Adult category.
Excerpt
Prologue
It started innocently, but isn’t that always how things start? My Aunt Tessa and I were shopping at a local antique store, pretty much my favorite way to spend free time. I picked up a heavy candlestick that looked classic, expensive, and at least a hundred years old. As I turned it over to check, I suddenly felt dizzy. I set it down, so I wouldn’t drop it, and sat on an antique bench I probably shouldn’t have. The dizziness passed, as quickly as it came, and I reached for the candlestick again.
This time I did drop it. When my fingers touched the tarnished silver, I had the oddest vision. In my mind, I saw a crying woman in an old-fashioned dress, complete with petticoats and a corset, looking down at a man in a similarly old-fashioned suit lying on the floor.
And bleeding from his temple.
I knew instantly that the man was dead and the woman, with the help of this candlestick, had killed him. I blinked and found myself right where I’d been, on the bench I shouldn’t have sat on, with the murdering candlestick dented on the floor. We bought the candle-stick, and its match, and I told my aunt that I got dizzy and needed to have some lunch. By the time I’d finished my sandwich, I believed it too. But that wasn’t the truth.
The truth was far stranger.
Terrific review, and that excerpt commands attention!
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