Review: A Good Little Read
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 16, 2014
In the quaint small town of East Applegate, Donna Young is an ordinary 16 year old girl who has a secret she doesn’t even exists yet. With her father they make yearly trips to New York on the hunt to find her missing brother, every year they come home alone without any clues to his whereabouts.  But last year in New York something changed for Donna, something she doesn’t fully remember.Life seems to be normal but she cannot shake the feeling something has changed, something is much different and when the accident happens her whole world is plunged into a real life Marvels comic world where is able to turn into electricity! Her new abilities scare her and in order to figure out who how they work, she has to first figure out who she really is.Ryan Applegate was her childhood best friend, she yearns to talk to him again but he is holding back from her. Ryan senses Donna’s heartache at their torn relationship but in order to keep her safe he needs to get her to stay away - Just what secrets is he keeping?This is a Y.A fantasy novel that is written well and was enjoyable. Slow to start but once it gets going it does hold your imagination. The town and surrounding world that Ashley Harris has created is well constructed allowing you to easily understand the homes of each of the characters, see the lake, fort and surrounding forest in your mind’s eye as well as imagine the interior of the Applegate Powerplant.The ideal of a girl turning into electricity immediately brings to mind a Fantastic 4 style feel with Marvel Comics in combination. The relationships between the main character Donna and her two friends Spencer and Rebecca are brilliant and you can really feel the raw emotion there especially as the novel progresses with each character individually growing emotionally as well as a group. Acceptance is a huge theme throughout the novel which is shown in the majority of the High School situations and also when they learn about Donna’s new powers.I feel that this novel will appeal to the younger teen market as it does have a slight romance undercurrent theme among the fantasy tale as well as a mystery that you do not even know is a mystery until much later on even though you are fed more and more information regarding it.  It does make the ending very interesting and catchy for those looking to buy book 2 in this series. All in all the raw ingredients are there but with a little more work developing the story I believe Ashley Harris has the makings of a good solid fantasy author.