The Edge of Over There

This book is AMAZING!! It made me like the first one better. It is the kind of book you want to read slowly because you want to savor the language and also because you are so emotionally invested in the characters you just can't take more than a few pages at a time. You need to buy a copy of this to mark up all the amazing quotes and so you can come back to it over and over again.

This book focuses on Abra and we meet some awesome new characters, Leo, Mr. Henry, and Ruby. We also meet some pretty scary new characters, Koli Naal, Beatrice, Jerimiah, and even Amos. The setting, mostly the Edge of Over There, is a tense and wonderful place. I just don't have words for all the emotions I had reading this book.

Go buy a copy, read it, mark it up, read it again, and wait impatiently for what comes next.

The Edge of Over There by Shawn Smucker is the sequel to The Day the Angels Fell.  While it would be helpful to have read the first book in the series, it's not essential to do so to understand this story.

A new Tree of Life has been planted, and evil forces have plans to use it for their own ends.  Abra Miller must find it and destroy it, before it can be used for nefarious purposes.  The story is told, not necessarily in sequential order, from Abra's viewpoint, as well as from that of her friend, Sam Chambers.  I don't want to give away anything, as that's the author's place, to tell the story. But I really enjoyed this book.

The story has heroes and villains, adventure and intrigue, and enough suspense to keep it moving along nicely.  It also has elements of Christianity in it, but doesn't beat the reader over the head with religion.  (As a Louisiana girl born and raised, I found the New Orleans/Marie Laveau connection fascinating.)  I'm going to pick up the first book in the series and give it a read, and I'm eager to see where this goes in the third book.

I received an advance copy from the publisher and NetGalley.  All opinions are my own, and I don't say nice things about books I don't like.