The Shadow Prince by Bree DeSpain - ESSENTIAL

DeSpain, Bree The Shadow Prince (Into the Dark), 512 p.  Egmont, MARCH 2014.  

Violence: PG-13 (three deaths, fighting, one graphic scene); Language: PG (8 swears, 0 ‘f’); Mature Content: G.  

Since the day his mother died, Haden has been banished from the Underworld court, an outcast.  However, when time comes for the Oracle to choose the best candidate to ascend to the World to bring back a girl, a very special girl, Haden is the one sent, not his angry, father’s-darling brother.  Daphne is a girl who has lived in the same small town with her mother all of her life.  She has been absolutely nowhere.  When her birth father, a famous rockstar, shows up out of the blue, Daphne jumps at the chance to head to California with him, against all of her mother’s pleadings.  Daphne and Haden are about to collide, physically and emotionally, and the results will not be pretty.  

'Nuf said.  While the Persephone myth has been a reoccurring theme in YA lit lately, DeSpain’s book does not feel like same-old, same-old.   Instead of being derivative or a copy cat, DeSpain brings a whole new look at the myth and creates her own spin that will suck your girls in.  And maybe they will share with the boys, because Haden story is just as important as Daphne's.  You can’t go wrong buying this.  

MS, HS – ESSENTIAL.  Cindy, Library Teacher