When stars come out by Scarlett St. Clair

Anora can see the dead, is even able to turn the spirits she meets into gold coins. Moving to a new school, this is something she is keeping to herself, and needs to convince her mother that she isn't crazy - therefore, no more spirits into coins. But, by the end of her first day, she has managed to turn a spirit into a coin, and somehow lost the coin - which has never happened before. On top of this, Anora mourns the passing of her Poppa, and is fielding the advances and attention of two very interesting guys at the school. One of them is even in a secret society, whose sworn duty is to protect humans and guide the dead to the next part of their journey. Navigating all this in amongst the school gossip app and dealing with overly eager students, and the constant threat of being sent to an asylum if her mum gets any whiff of ghost talk, things aren't looking great.

This supernatural fantasy has an almost Twilight meets Wednesday (Netflix show) vibe. With interesting characters, drama and intrigue, the novel moves between the two main characters viewpoints, Anora and Shy, developing the story. The first in a new series, readers will eagerly await the next book as the series promises more twists and turns. Evenly paced with plenty of action and multiple layers to the story, Scarlett St. Clair has written a hit, which she kindly includes a trigger warning at the beginning of the book regarding suicide (suspected suicide in story).

Themes: Fantasy, Supernatural, Romance, Relationships, Secret Societies, Death.

Melanie Pages