Mystic series - Book Review

Jo Michaels, author of Yassa and The Abigale Chronicles, now gives us the Mystic series, a young adult paranormal tale geared towards finding strength from within. I read Mystic: Bronya (book 1) and Mystic: Lily (book 2), the series will include five novellas and one novel that will bring everything together.

The premise behind the Mystic series touches upon the paranormal. Markaza, a teen-aged tattooed blue hair girl has visions of a powerful being trying to destroy the Earth. Markaza has one year to go all over the U.S. recruiting specially selected women with powers they don't even know they have. From the first book in the series Mystic: Bronya, we learn who are these women, though I've only read the first two and can only guess at the story behind the rest of them:

• Bronya Thibodeaux from Houma, LA, she has physical strength and as a Lesbian suffered prejudices in her small town. 
• Lily Conyers from San Diego, CA has the ability of sight control, her glamorous life was destroyed by a car accident.
• Sheila Morgan from Chattanooga, TN - Mood control - Child abuse.
• Melody Acworth from Atlanta, GA - Sound control - Anorexic.
• Coralie Meyers from New York, NY - Cunning - Abortion.
• Markaza Turner from New York, NY - Future seer - Depression.

The series aims to give positive messages emphasizing themes like how cruelty can hurt people, the dangers of drinking and driving, and how beauty and strength come from within. The situations the heroines face are not sugar coated and the characters themselves have flaws that make them relatable.  

In the case of Bronya, her problems come from being a Lesbian in a small town in Louisiana  where she suffers ridicule and a humiliating heartbreak. On the other hand Lily is on top of the modeling world, beautiful with great life and handsome boyfriend. It all ends when she decides to drive drunk, crashes her car and her face is disfigured.

In both cases Markaza appears at just the right time, her mission is to befriend them and in some way convince them to leave their current lives and move to New York, where they unknowingly join WSTW - Women Save The World.

As the stories unfold we get to see glimpses of the future, in Mystic: Lily we see the terrible danger Sheila is in, as well as the reason why all these women are being recruited. The women all have a special ability they don't even know they have and they will need to dig very deep down in order to find it...plus the clock is ticking because the danger has a due date, Markaza'a 18th birthday.

The novellas are written in a way that you will read them in one to three sittings, the stories have a way to keep your interest and the description of each hometown is dead on - at least I know it is with San Diego since I live here!

In a way this review is incomplete because the series is just starting, there are many questions, character and plot development to look forward to in the months to come. Mystic: Bronya is available on Amazon and will be free from 10/27 to 10/31 in celebration of the publishing of Mystic: Lily on October 30th.

You can read the interview with author Jo Michaels or connect with her through the following sites:

Website: http://www.writejomichaels.com/#!home|mainPage
Blog: http://jomichaels.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/writejomichaels
Twitter: https://twitter.com/writejomichaels
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5833874.Jo_Michaels