Anathema (Causal Enchantment, #1): K.A. Tucker

Evangeline has spent her teenage years in obscurity. Her foster parents have the emotional aptitude of robots and her classmates barely acknowledge her existence. About to turn eighteen and feeling like a social pariah, she is desperate to connect with someone. Anyone.

When Evangeline meets Sofie after literally stumbling upon her café, she believes she’s found that connection. Willing to do anything to keep it, she accepts a job as Sofie’s assistant and drops everything to fly to Manhattan, where she is thrust into a luxurious world of Prada, diamonds, and limitless cash.

With such generosity and kindness, it’s easy for Evangeline to dismiss certain oddities . . . like Sofie’s erratic and sometimes violent behavior, and the monstrous guard dogs. She’s even willing to dismiss her vivid dreams of mob-style murders, beautiful homeless people living in caves, and white-eyed demons that haunt her each night as figments of her imagination—especially when one of those figments is the gorgeous Caden. When she wakes up with bite marks on her neck, the fairy tale quickly turns into a nightmare. She slowly unravels the mystery surrounding Sofie and friends, and the reality of the bites and the “dreams.” What she discovers is far more mysterious and terrible than anything she could have imagined.

In a world where everyone has motive to lie for personal gain, Evangeline must decide which deception is least likely to get her killed.


Good Reads Summary

If a reader is looking for exciting dialogue and constant action, then this is the book for him/her!  Evangeline begins the novel as a typical girl yearning for typical things in life; she progresses drastically after meeting Sofie.  She begins to dream of events that are sort of...crazy and slightly off.  However, she meets Caden, who quickly draws her into this dream world; she becomes obsessed with the dream world.  The best quality of this novel was the main character.  Evangeline was distrusting when she should be-the reader need not yell at this character to think harder; she was calm and in control the majority of the novel.  She seemed to have a level head on her shoulders.  The plot of this novel is fantastic, although the plot is not entirely unique-the reader will enjoy it very much.  The author is very skilled at pulling readers into the novel, the dialogue really keeps the book lively and a page-turner.  This book is recommended for young adults who enjoy stories containing adventure. 

4 stars