Loved by myself and my students.

FROM AMAZON: Inspired by the classic folk ballad “Scarborough Fair,” this is a wonderfully riveting novel of suspense, romance, and fantasy. Lucy is seventeen when she discovers that she is the latest recipient of a generations-old family curse that requires her to complete three seemingly impossible tasks or risk falling into madness and passing the curse on to the next generation. Unlike her ancestors, though, Lucy has family, friends, and other modern resources to help her out. But will it be enough to conquer this age-old evil?

FROM PUBLISHERS: When seventeen-year-old Lucy discovers her family is under an ancient curse by an evil Elfin Knight, she realizes that to break the curse she must perform three impossible tasks before her daughter is born in order to save them both. ( )

If there were 10 stars, it would get 10. I have never had a book I went back to multiple times in my high school days than I did this one. LOVE IT!!!!!! ( )

This book was truly thrilling, imaginative, romantic, supernatural, and suspenseful. I've never read a book with a story line and characters like this one. I would definitely recommend this book to others. ( )

In this young adult retelling of the traditional ballad “Scarborough Fair,” seventeen-year-old Lucy Scarborough discovers a curse which has haunted the women of her family, including her mother, Miranda. Lucy has been raised by Leo and Soledad, two of Miranda’s good friends, after being abandoned by her mother, who occasionally comes around, insane, homeless, and refusing any sort of treatment. But after disaster strikes on the night of Lucy’s prom, she, her best friend Zach, and her foster parents begin to unravel the true meaning of Miranda’s insanity. Discovering Miranda’s teenage diary helps them to realize what they are up against, and the four of them set to the difficult task of fighting against the supernatural.

Although the premise of this novel is intriguing, the mesh of teen girl novel and ancient curse is a little uneven. Some parts of the novel seem too forced, especially certain scenes of Lucy and Zach’s romance, which seems to arise simply to counteract the threat in the ballad. I wish it had been better written, since I think it could be a lovely novel, but in its current form, it is weak and unconvincing. ( )

How do you tell if someone is insane or telling the truth? It’s an accepted fact that Lucy Scarborough’s birth mother went crazy shortly after Lucy’s birth. Lucy has had a fairly normal upbringing with loving foster parents, with an occasional run in with birth mom Miranda, who seems to be a homeless schizophrenic. Then on prom night, Lucy is raped by her date, who up to then had been a sweet, innocuous guy. Between the weird actions of her date (he looks possessed, mutters in a strange language and calls her “Fenella”) and the discovery of Miranda’s diary, Lucy begins to question the nature of reality. Especially when she finds herself a pregnant teen. One in a long line of women who have become pregnant at seventeen and bore daughters. Miranda’s diary indicates that this is the result of a curse put on an ancestress call Fenella, by a wicked Elfin Knight. Is this just Miranda’s craziness talking, or could there actually be a fairy curse on Lucy and her family? Lucy must decide whether to try and break the curse by completing three impossible tasks mentioned in a version of the song Scarborough Fair. Allegedly, if she does not break the curse, she is destined to go insane like her mother before her, and her unborn child will continue to bear the curse. As if being a teen mom is not hard enough.

Six word review: Breaking a curse, sane or insane?
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