Illuminate by Aimee Agresti - ADVISABLE

Agresti, Aimee  Illuminate  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.  $17.99  544 pages.  Content: Language: PG (6 swears; 4 Gods); Sexual Content: PG; Violence: PG-13.  

Haven is a brainy sixteen year old who is given an internship at a dazzling new Chicago hotel.  Because her goal is to get into a good school, she thinks this will look great on her college applications.  When she arrives at the hotel she is stunned by all of the beautiful people, especially the owner Aurelia and her right hand man, Lucian.  Haven befriends Lance, another intern, and they start to figure out that this hotel has to do with the underworld and that they are fighting a war for not only their own soul’s but for those around them.  Haven shares an attraction to Lucian, but he has already put a bargain on his own soul and originally sets out to take Haven’s soul for the devil.  However, Haven’s goodness causes Lucian to question his deal with the devil and the work that he has been doing.  Lance and Haven navigate this evil hotel in hopes to get themselves out and to figure out who they really are in the end.  

I loved the story line and the characters.  At times it is dark-it is about selling one’s soul to the devil.  My only complaint would be that at times it’s descriptive to the point of distraction, also causing it to be 544 pages long.  

MS, HS-ADVISABLE.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.