Allure

Gr 8 Up—Allure picks up a couple of months after Conjure (Entangled Teen, 2012) ends. Fourteen-year-old Emma has spent the summer brushing up on her hoodoo skills (not the same as voodoo). Now that her 97-year-old mentor, Delia, is out of the hospital, the two of them can work together to perfect the right blend of leaves, roots, and other earthy finds to rid Emma's boyfriend, Cooper, of the curse that threatens to destroy his soul. Soon, Emma, Cooper, and Emma's twin brother, Jack, come across Cooper's 22-year-old stepmother's dead body. The grotesque state of the corpse bears a disturbing resemblance to Cooper's mother's body when she died years ago. When officials attribute the stepmother's death to natural causes, Emma and her capable crew know that something sinister is afoot and it is up to them to make everything right. Nolan's story is fleshed out with vivid details. The sultry heat of the South Carolina low-country summer is nearly palpable, as are the sights and scents of Delia's garden of medicinal plants. Cooper's soulless father is consistently repugnant with his loathsome personal hygiene. Magic, romance, suspense, and mystery in equal measure make this a must-read for fans of Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight." books (Little, Brown). The author does a great job of recapping events from Conjure so teens need not have read it to appreciate this sequel.—Jennifer Prince, Buncombe County Public Libraries, NC