Abandon by Meg Cabot

Abandon by Meg Cabot
Publisher:Point
Release Date: 4/26/11
Pages: 320
Grade: B

GoodReads Synopsis:  Though she tries returning to the life she knew before the accident, Pierce can't help but feel at once a part of this world, and apart from it. Yet she's never alone . . . because someone is always watching her. Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible when someone there wants you back.

But now she's moved to a new town. Maybe at her new school, she can start fresh. Maybe she can stop feeling so afraid.

Only she can't. Because even here, he finds her. That's how desperately he wants her back. She knows he's no guardian angel, and his dark world isn't exactly heaven, yet she can't stay away . . . especially since he always appears when she least expects it, but exactly when she needs him most.

But if she lets herself fall any further, she may just find herself back in the one place she most fears: the Underworld.

My Review:  Let me say, first, that this was my first Meg Cabot book. I knew her as the writer of the "Princess Diaries" which Disney made into a couple of movies I loved. It was probably more because of those movies that I ended up picking this book up.  I'm so glad that I did.

I had read another, decidedly different, retelling of Hades and Persephone earlier in the year. I had loved that book and found I loved the Hades/Persephone story so I went into Abandon with some knowledge of what was likely to happen. What I didn't expect was how much I was going to love Cabot's storytelling style. Throughout the book I felt like I was a friend, huddled in close, hearing an amazing story told in an excited whisper...the kind where when someone walks by you stop talking until they are out of hearing range.

Cabot's style is like the proverbial onion with mere pieces of back story and main story being peeled back tantalizingly slow layer after tantalizingly slow layer. And where she stopped that story...WOW! I'm going to call her the "Queen of Cliffhangers". Absolutely loved the book and really can not wait to see where she goes with the second installment of this planned trilogy. Now I just have to be patient.