Scintillate (Light Key Trilogy Series #1)

by Tracy Clark

Overview

Scintillate by Tracy Clark is a 2015 Desert Rose RWA Golden Quill Winner.

A mighty flame follows a tiny spark

Cora Sandoval's mother disappeared when she was five and they were living in Ireland. Since then, her dad has been more than overprotective, and Cora is beginning to chafe under his confines. But even more troubling is the colorful light she suddenly sees around people. Everyone, that is, except herself-instead, she glows a brilliant, sparkling silver.

As she realizes the danger associated with these strange auras, Cora is inexplicably drawn to Finn, a gorgeous Irish exchange student who makes her feel safe. Their attraction is instant, magnetic, and primal-but her father disapproves, and Finn's mother orders him home to Ireland upon hearing he's fallen in love. After a fight with her father, Cora flees to Ireland, both to follow Finn and to look for her missing mother.

There she meets another silver-haloed person and discovers the meaning of her newfound powers and their role in a conspiracy spanning centuries-one that could change mankind forever...and end her life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781622661459
Publisher:	Entangled Publishing, LLC
Publication date:	02/04/2014
Series:	Light Key Trilogy Series , #1
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.04(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Tracy Clark grew up a "valley girl" in Southern California but now resides in Nevada with her daughter and son. She is the recipient of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Work-in-Progress Grant and a two-time participant in the prestigious Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program. Her debut novel was inspired by her enchantment with metaphysics as a teen, seeing it as the real magic in life.

Editorial Reviews

“A lush and atmospheric debut with a scorching romance and a metaphysical mystery. It had me hooked from the start.” —Suzanne Young, New York Times bestselling author of The Program

“Beautifully written. Keep your eye on author Tracy Clark. She's going places!” —Ellen Hopkins, New York Times bestselling author of the Crank trilogy

“Clark's novel is laden with standard tropes: a bookish, unpopular heroine; a family secret; and, of course, a rakish, mysterious boy inexplicably drawn to the heroine. Yet these all provide a foundation for an intense story that expands on aspects of real history and mythology. Cora's personality and deadpan humor pop off the page, as do the novel's evocative, emotionally charged descriptions of people and places...Clark's novel is a powerful, heart-wrenching adventure.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2014-07-28
In this debut YA novel, a teenage American girl goes back to Ireland to find the truth of who she is after she discovers a family secret and a new, supernatural ability. When a sudden, debilitating illness places 17-year-old Cora Sandoval in the hospital, she wakes up with the unsettling power to see other people's auras and judge their feelings by the colors she sees. She always sees herself, however, as glowing bright silver. To make things more confusing, Cora soon captures the attention of Finn, a handsome Irish exchange student who may be hiding secrets of his own. Unable to get any answers from her suspiciously tight-lipped father, Cora goes to Ireland to seek the truth, eventually uncovering the mystery of a special race called the Scintilla, of which her mother was a member. Scintilla are hunted by other beings called Arrazi, who gain power by taking other people's life forces; this, it turns out, is what really happened to Cora's mother, who vanished in Ireland when Cora was 5. Clark's novel is laden with standard tropes: a bookish, unpopular heroine; a family secret; and, of course, a rakish, mysterious boy inexplicably drawn to the heroine. Yet these all provide a foundation for an intense story that expands on aspects of real history and mythology. Cora's personality and deadpan humor pop off the page, as do the novel's evocative, emotionally charged descriptions of people and places ("Do houses have memories, too? Can they recall the squeal of a little girl chasing after a grasshopper in the grass?"). Cora is an active heroine, using her aura-reading power, as well as a quickly developing ability to read the histories of objects, to traverse an unfamiliar country and discover illuminating treasures. The love story sometimes distracts from the plot, although it's full of passion, as well as irrational jealousy when Cora meets a man with a silver aura like hers. However, it eventually becomes an integral part of the tale. Despite typical paranormal teen traps, Clark's novel is a powerful, heart-wrenching adventure.

Kirkus Reviews