Behind Every Illusion

by Christina Harner

"All creatures born of human parents must be human and therefore must be ordinary."

Even timid eighteen-year-old Tatiana Lewis wholeheartedly accepts this logic. So when she begins to experience unusual changes, she has no clue where to turn and instead keeps her new abilities a secret. But her best friend and brother, Isaac, sees past her illusions and together they explore the significance of her differences and search out the meaning behind them.

Amidst tragedy, unimaginable transformations and an unexpected friendship, Tatiana has to learn to reveal the girl hidden behind her illusions and what it means to face the world in order to preserve not only the forest but her very existence.

(snatched from book website)

I don't want to give anything away, but Behind Every Illusion is a unique take on a traditional story line. It's a clever mix of fantasy and realistic fiction (with maybe a little sci-fi thrown in). In my opinion, all of the characters were pretty relatable, despite the fact that I share hardly any similarities with them. I really liked the plot progression in the story; it didn't move along too slowly, but instead moved at a pace that really helped make the story more realistic. There are some shockers in this book too, which just made everything more suspenseful.

The only thing that bugged me was that sometimes, there was a little more "tell" than "show" in the writing. I thought some sentences were a little too blunt and could have maybe been phrased a little better.

Other than that, a lovely debut (with a pretty cover) from a promising author! I'm looking forward to more books in this series.