Legacy

In her YA debut, bestselling adult author Cochran (the Forever King trilogy) presents an exciting and well-written tale of contemporary witchcraft and romance, first in a planned series. When Katy’s negligent medievalist father sends the troubled 16-year-old off to prep school in her late mother’s hometown of Whitfield, Mass., “a village straight out of Nathaniel Hawthorne,” Katy expects the worst. And she finds it, discovering that her reputedly insane mother had tried to murder a baby named Eric and then killed herself. Katy is treated hostilely by the locals, many of whom, she learns, are witches whose ancestors fled to Whitfield during the Salem witch trials. A perennial outsider, Katy feels like she’s finally come home, and she isn’t shocked to find out that she, too, is a witch, nor that, along with the severely disabled Eric’s handsome older brother, Peter, she is at the center of a centuries-old conspiracy to bring the Darkness back to our world. Combining spectacular magic with a complex plot and believable (if somewhat stereotypical) characters, this tale should please the legions of paranormal fans looking for a sophisticated supernatural thriller. Ages 14–up. (Dec.)■