Immortal by Gillian Shields

Sixteen year old Evie grew up in southern England with her grandmother, Frankie.  Her mother drowned in the ocean when Evie was a babe and her father is in the military, stationed abroad with his men.  When Frankie takes a bad turn and ends up in a nursing home Evie is sent unhappily to Wyldcliffe Abby School For Young Ladies in the north.  Thus is the concise beginning of Immortal by Gillian Shields.  Before Evie can arrive she collides with a mysterious young man with an intense gaze and shadows under his eyes.  At Wyldcliffe Evie arrives as a scholarship student and is confronted with unfeeling and unfriendly faces in the form of teachers and students.  As she makes friends, and enemies, Evie is cast into a world of unknown, and she tries to make sense of the visions shes sees, the mysterious people in her new life, and her past.

I read Immortal in about 6 hours.  It's light, easy reading, and from the perspective of a 16 year old, so there isn't much of an intellectual challenge here.  I like Evie, she is always sensible, but yet ready to take risks and try new things.  She suffers quietly and follows the rules, both traits I identify with.  The cast of characters aren't too well developed as this is mostly a romantic mystery, but the story doesn't suffer from it.  I found the plot a bit predictable, but I am about 5 years older than the demographic here.  I'd recommend this to girls interested in witchcraft, the Victorian era, fantasy tales of old dreary boarding houses, and teens or pre-teens.

3 out of 5 stars