Lily Dale: Discovering by Wendi Corsi Staub

Because this is the fourth in a series, this review may contain spoilers of earlier books. If you haven’t read the previous books, you may want to skip this review

author: Wendi Corsi Staub
release date: October 12, 2009 (Paper back June 7, 2010)
appeals to: Young Adult
length: 304 pages
overall rating: 4 Stars

*the inside flap*
After learning who was behind her mother’s death, Calla still doesn’t understand why it happened. Could it be related to the half sibling her mother kept secret for decades?
Unwilling to share her recent discovery with anyone, including her skeptical father, Calla must once again call on the spirit world for help in finding her missing sibling and the final clues behind her mother’s death – even if it means searching for a stranger who might not want to be found.
Will Calla’s journey lead to the closure she seeks, or will it force her to accept yet another loss and forever wonder what might have bee? The spine-tingling Lily Dale series continues as new mysteries unfold and old ones are solved.

*my review*
This book jumps in to the story right where the third book left off. However, it has been almost a year since I read the other three books in the series, so it was a little hard to remember some of the small details that would have helped. As I kept reading, those details started to come back to me, which helped my enjoyment of the book.

*short and snappy*
writing: this story is written in the present tense, which is different, but it makes you feel like you are experiencing the story with the characters.
plot: serial – because the book is part of a series, reading it as a stand alone novel will be difficult. If you’ve read the series, the plot is great because it continues the complex plot that has been presented so far.
characters: Calla (the “lead”) is well developed, but there are quite a few well developed minor characters that enter the story and add to the plot.
judging by the cover: The cover is interesting (and slightly scary), but it doesn’t tell much about the plot of the story.
miscellaneous: This is the fourth in a series. The other titles are: Awakening, Believing, and Connecting.