by Lucy Fenton
Release Date: 08/03/15
Summary from Goodreads:
What happens when your childhood nightmares of being bitten by strange creatures in a dark wood aren’t just dreams?
Sixteen-year-old Arden St. John’s life takes a strange turn when she finds an unusual animal injured near her new house on the south east coast of Australia. When she takes it to the local vet, a terrible truth is inadvertently exposed to her.
She discovers a secret underworld, where witches are commonplace and trolls masquerade as queen bees, terrorising the other students with impunity. A world where vampires traffic in the lives of children, draining their bodies once they reach maturity. Where adults auction their own children to extend their lives.
Arden finds out she’s one of those kids, her life traded by the mother she never knew. Now she’s caught up in this ancient and corrupt economy operating just below the surface of modern society. She’s a hot commodity, and it’s only a matter of time before the vampire who bought her comes to claim his prize.
But Arden’s not going down without a fight.
EXCERPT:
The further into the bush she went, the more anxious Arden felt. If something happened to me, how long would it be before Dad noticed? I could be dead for days before someone found me, Arden thought, unhappily. The compulsion to turn around and seek out others grew stronger and her footsteps slowed.
And then through the trees, she saw something. Curiosity overcoming her disquiet, at first she thought it was a rocky outcrop and moved towards it, trying to see what was veiled by the leaves of the trees. The flash of sunlight whitened out her vision as she stepped out of the shade into the clearing. Blinded, she waited for her eyes to adjust. Squinting, the blurred shapes gradually resolved into the ruins of a stone building. The roof was gone and the walls stuck up like the blunt teeth of a fallen giant. Arden walked around what had once been a large structure that had been left to crumble back into the earth. It was built on a headland, the view of the ocean clear on the far side. A lone gum tree clung to the edge of the cliff, roots visible where the earth had crumbled away. Dead, its bare branches stood out starkly white against the dark clouds forming over the ocean. There was a storm coming in, but it was still a way out to sea. Catching sight of a marking on the stone, she moved towards it to examine it more closely. It was weathered almost flat, but tracing the rough gritty surface with her finger, she made out the distinctive shape of a convict arrow.
Amazed, she walked in through a doorway, trying to work out what type of building it had been. There had been a large central room with many tiny rooms opening from it. They were small, storerooms perhaps? Exploring deeper into the ruins, there was a room that had been more protected at the rear and the purpose became apparent. The stubbed remains of bars were still embedded in the stone in one section and in the corner of the room were cross hatched markings on the walls, counting off the days. She was standing in a convict gaol.
My Review:
I received a free copy of the book from the author for my honest opinion.
Arden lost her mom and now it is just her and her dad. Her
dad comes home from work one day and announces that he has been offered a new
job and he has decided to take it. He thinks it will be better for both of them.
I imagine her father is very sad with losing the love of his life. He probably
works all the time because he doesn’t want to come home, knowing that is wife
will never be there waiting for him. He probably hates being in that house and everywhere
he looks he sees his wife or he sees something that reminds him of her or of
the things they use to do together. He also probably thinks that it would be
better for Arden as well to live somewhere else.
But of course sixteen year old Arden doesn’t want to leave
her old school she has finally stopped being so weird and was starting to make
friends. She doesn’t want to leave but she has no choice in the matter at least
not for another two years. She hopes that maybe everyone at her new school will
be different and she can make more friends and it will be easier for her at the
new school. But it is not as easy as she so hoped for.
One day at her new school Arden is minding her own business
when a girl comes up to her and tells her leave that no one wants her there.
That she is not welcome at their school and if she doesn’t leave she will be
very sorry. Arden stands up to her and tells her that she is not going to fight
her but this bully doesn’t care what Arden wants and slams her against the
wall. She jumps Arden so fast and quickly that Arden has no idea what is
happening with no chance to fight back. After it is all over Arden is sent to
the office and gets in trouble. But the other girl Georgia does not get in
trouble. Arden is very curious as to what is going at this place. She was
attacked in front of a lot of other students and no one helped her or took up
for her. They just watched this girl beat her up and never did nor said a word.
Arden has to spend a lot of time alone at her new home
because her dad is always working. He is gone when she gets up to go to school
most days and he isn’t home by the time she goes to bed either. She hates
spending all that time alone so she decides to go to the beach and learn how to
surf. After all they do live on the beach. She meets this very hot guy on the
beach that talks to her sometimes and gives her tips on her surfing. Arden
would like very much to get to know this guy a little better but she learns
that his girlfriend is the bully at school who beat her up. So no hot boyfriend for Arden, bomber….
But things start looking up for her when she meets two girls
at school and she finds out that there is a whole other world out there that
most people know nothing about. She finds out that witches, vampires, trolls
ect… do actually exist plus other paranormal creatures as well. She also finds
out that she has powers of her own and that she is very powerful.
When she learns of this secret world and what she is. She
also learns that her life is in danger and she may not have long to live. But
she has no intentions of just lying down without a fight. She will not go down easily.
She has finally got herself a backbone not that she has a choice in the matter.
She doesn’t have anything to lose if she doesn’t fight for her life she is
probably more than likely going to die so she may as well give it her best shot
and hope she wins.
I love reading about witches and vampires. Each author has
their own brilliant imagination when it comes to vampires and witches and I
just love reading how different each one is. I have never read anything quite
like Superstition before and if you have not read it then I highly suggest you
do ASAP!
L. C. Fenton lives in Sydney, Australia with her husband and two children. In addition to her cake- making business, she works as a freelance copywriter and pens occasional articles for various online magazines.
Not being one of those people who had a burning desire to be anything in particular, L. C. worked her way alphabetically backwards through the available degrees at Sydney University. Surprisingly, given the amount of fun she had at school, L.C. finally managed to graduate with a completely unemployable degree in Philosophy. A Law degree soon followed, however, simply to make it possible for some organization to hire her.
After ten soul-destroying years wandering aimlessly in the corporate wilderness, L. C. threw it all in and reassessed. Deciding to bring the "one day I will write a book" idea to the present, she started and hasn't stopped. As a huge fan of the romance genre, she writes the kinds of books that she enjoys to read.
In her spare time, L. C. Fenton...actually she has no spare time. She sleeps or reads copious amounts of romance novels instead of sleeping.
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