Selkie's lonely heart has finally found a home with Aidan. But sometimes destiny compels us to love, and sometimes it forbids us...suspenseful, romantic, and spellbinding.
When Selkie, an orphan with a gift for drawing, first meets Aidan, a stranger with an intoxicating smile, she thinks that her lonely heart has finally found a home. Unfortunately, love isn't always as easy as it seems, and Selkie soon discovers that Aidan has secrets that could alter her very existence. To make matters worse, something dangerous has been lurking around, contaminating her dreams with terrifying shadows. When Selkie learns that Aidan is somehow connected with them, she'll soon discover that sometimes destiny compels us to love...and sometimes it forbids us.
Excerpt
I automatically grimaced and closed myself off. I wasn’t used to letting people in, to showing people my feelings. My sketches were a part of me somehow. It was hard to explain, but whenever bad things happened in my life, and there had been a few, I could always open my sketchbook and draw a world that was full of joy and beauty and hope.
Whenever I set my pencil to the page, it felt like I was home. Safe. No one could touch me, or hurt me, or leave me. It was just me inside a dream world.
Now this stranger was asking to be admitted into this fantasy of mine. To enter into the one place that only one other person in my life had ever traversed. He wouldn’t have known it, but it was like he had asked me to rip open my chest and give him my beating heart.
Professional Reviews Molly REVIEWS BOOKS - molly martin
Emily K Karlewicz ‘ Lightscape The Lightscape Trilogy Book 1 introduces Readers to eighteen-year-old Selkie Reid, former foster child who has recently transitioned along with her friend Tabitha from Health Dept dependent child care to living on her own as an adult.
Selkie and Tabitha work as clerks in small local grocery store, while it is not a job either wants to do forever Selkie is pleased to have found work, have spending money and lots of free time to indulge her passion for sketching. Her sketch book is always near by.
The disenchanted teen has always felt her abandonment by her parents when just a baby must mean she does not quite measure up to having someone who loves her wholeheartedly. Years in foster care has left Selkie longing for someone to fill the void she feels in her heart.
It is during one of Selkie’s after work sketching sessions, she meets a most handsome fellow, Aidan, when the frisbee he and three others have been flinging nearby suddenly bops her on the head.
Selkie cannot believe the young man really appears to have regret for hitting her, and, even more momentous; he seems to be genuinely interested in her. Heady stuff for a girl who moments before felt herself unable to actually attract the notice of a fellow who might truly be one who wants to spend time with her.
From that opening the narrative flows a tale filled with Aidan, an intriguing character having a fascinating mission in life.
The tale is filled with Selkie and troubled dreams, troublesome Shadows, Lightscapers, Protectors, a mysterious something that frightens her terribly when it first appears in the chronicle, an understanding that her sketching’s are more than just pictures on the page, growing emotional ties with Aidan, opportunity for meeting a clan of folks she has not realized existed in the area, the truth behind her parents ‘abandonment’ as well as comprehension that Aidan is more than just a young man with a growing romantic crush on her.
Writer Karlewicz has penned an enjoyable work sure to please the upper middle grades, high school young adult readers and even adults who enjoy a tale filled with a touch of ‘perhaps’, a jiff of fantasy, mysterious entities, a bit of romance and a dollop of religious interest.
Characters are nicely depicted, I would like to see more personal elements regarding each in future works, dialog between characters is credible, settings are detailed, narrative pulls readers into the tale and holds interest from opening to final paragraphs.
Vocabulary used is dandy for the work, mystery, fantasy, really dangerous ‘bad guys’, battle, human emotions and family dynamics all done without resorting to profanity, overt sexual activity or horrifying chronicle which might cause parents pause or prevent recommendation for the school library shelf.
I found Emily K Karlewicz ‘ Lightscape Book 1 of the Lightscape Trilogy to be a thought-provoking read happy to recommend for school and public library, classroom book shelf, for gifting a back to school young teen and for the home library.
Lightscapes is the fantastic tale of Selkie Reid, an emancipated foster child with an ordinary job, but an extraordinary ability to sketch. With the help of her first love, Aiden, she learns that she is a lightscaper who is chosen by God to overcome the Shadow caused on earth by fallen angels. Aiden, her Protector, breaks the rules and reveals himself to her. He helps her to discover her powers. Together, the two brave the Shadows. The forbidden relationship faces challenges. Will it survive with Aiden's family's disapproval. Read this intriguing book to find out the fate of Selkie, Aiden, and her best girlfriend. It is a hard book to put down.
Reviewed by Stephanie Weimert (Reader)
Reviewed on April 24, 2020
This is a MUST READ! I loved it so much that I bought it as a gift immediately after reading. The details in this book make you feel like you are right there with Selkie on her journey to discover who she really is. Selkie and Aidans love story is like no other and will surprise you along the way. I am eagerly waiting for the next book and I cannot wait to see what happens next!
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