Review: Cornerstone by Misty Provencher

Cornerstone by Misty Provencher
Genre: Supernatural, YA
Publisher: Amazon Digital
Date: November 7, 2011

Nalena Maxwell appears to be a typical teenager. She spends her days with her head down hoping that the popular kids will just ignore her. When she does end up on their radar, things turn vicious pretty quickly.  As much as Nalena wants to be just like everyone else but no matter how hard she tries, that’s not gonna happen. You see her mom has this unique…problem. She is a hoarder. But not your typical hoarder. She hoards paper. And stories. She’s constantly writing. In fact, she’s sacrificed a huge amount of parenting time to write. It’s obsessive. It’s weird. And Nalena worked really hard to keep it a secret. It didn’t work. And when the info at school got out, she got a new nickname. She’s now known at her school as Waste.

So when she goes to the library and a really hot, really popular guy approaches her, she’s pretty convinced she’s being punked or that it’s a joke. As much as she tries to keep him at arm’s length, he keeps trying to get closer.

And then things take a turn for the REALLY weird. One day when she’s being confronted by one of the mean girls, things shift and she can suddenly see outside herself. It’s like she has a shield and super strength or something. It’s so far beyond the already weird life she has, that she tries to bury it. But she can’t. Because Nalena is really, truly far from your average kid. She’s got a greater destiny. A really wild, really big Harry Potter sort of destiny.

This book isn’t in my usual genre. I am not a huge fan of supernatural type books unless it’s Bible based spiritual warfare sort of thing. I love Ted Dekker books and Frank  Peretti’s Present Darkness series. But I heard that Misty had some great books so I got in touch and requested some review copies. I have a stack of books from her and I’m working my way through all of them. J

That said, the characterizations, the plot and the writing in this book were all fabulous. As much as this genre isn’t my speed, it did keep me engaged from beginning to end and all the twists and turns in the plots were creative and imaginative. I turned pages pretty quickly to see what would happen next.  There were a few things I was able to see coming, but the end surprised me.

Cornerstone was a pretty wild ride and if you’re into the  supernatural realm, I’d give this one a try. It’s a solid story that entertains from beginning to end. (Though the end is a bit of a cliffie – so if you’re enjoying it, you might want to line up the next one and have it ready!)