4 STARS

This is the first book that I have read from Marcia Mickelson. I liked it. Though I was surprised where the story ended up going. I have to admit to shedding some tears while reading the book. It is a clean read. I really like Ellie and Gabe. They were both likeable, smart, with their own strengths and flaws. Some of the other characters were not so likeable or at least the things they did.

Ellie is in her junior year at school. She is sitting by herself at lunch because her best friend Sarah was mad at the thing that Ellie did. It was all Ellie's fault. She had the nerve to take information Sarah told her about her possible boyfriend committing a crime and report it to the police. So a lot of the teens were shunning her.

Gabe comes up to Ellie at lunch and tell her thank you for helping him. Gabe is shy and different. The rumors around him that he cuts himself, that he lives in a haunted house by himself. Ellie had not really known much about him before, Now all of a sudden he is sitting by her and talking to her.

Ellie's friend Sarah has always told her what to wear and talking her into buying the expensive brand name stuff. So they would fit in. Now Ellie is not ready to fall back into that place. Ellie's mom was murder this past year her killer was never found. Now its just her and her dad. Ellie is good in school except for history she has a hard time understanding the different civilizations like Inca, and Mayan. She has to do a oral report on the Inca and it was worth a quarter of her grade.

Gabe is a loner. He is part of the track team and good. That is why on prank night the seniors broke into his house took their couch outside and set it on fire. Gabe works at a grocery store. No one ever sees his mom or talks to her. His father's family came from Peru and was part Inca. He is willing to share about the Inca to Ellie. He can communicate with the dead. He wants to share with Ellie but scares her.

I was enjoying the relationships with all the different characters and how they were changing as their experiences, wants take them to different places in their lives.
Their is lots of drama, some of it is typical and some is not. It shows a little about the Inca. Talks about depression and how some cope with it. How some grieve and how different it is for different people.

I had a hard time putting the book down till I had finished it. I would like to read other books by Marcia in the future.
I was given this ebook to read and asked to give honest review of it when I was done by Netgalley.
publication: May 14th 2013 by Cedar Fort, Inc. Sweetwater 256 pages ISBN:9781462111909

Description below is taken off of Goodreads.

Seventeen-year-old Ellie Cummings just wants to be a regular teenager, but after her mother’s mysterious murder, she isn’t sure if she’ll ever be normal again. Her mother’s death has left Ellie and her father worlds apart. And when her best friend abandons her, Ellie has no one else to turn to—except for the strange boy who says he can help.

Gabe de la Cruz seems to know way too much about everything,
and her instincts tell Ellie to stay far away. But when he claims that he can communicate with the dead through an ancient Incan artifact, Ellie can’t resist the temptation of seeing her mother again. In the hanan pacha—the Incan afterworld—Ellie’s mother sends a message to help Ellie understand what happened the night of the murder—a message that may be better kept a secret . . . ( )