Reviewed by Nicole

You’ll quickly find out that I have a serious thing for the paranormal. Which is strange, to me, that this would be my preferred genre within Teen and YA lit, since in the adult world I’m strictly a classics sort of girl - Austen, Tolstoy, Hemingway. I don’t know what it is. Wait - yes I do! It’s watching the love and passion unfold between two characters who have to overcome their physical and societal boundaries. But most of all, for me anyway, it’s sitting on the edge of my seat as these characters struggle against ancient rivalries, jealousies, prophecies - love. More than werewolves, witches and vampires, the idea that there is some sort of the destiny moving the characters forward rather than just themselves seems to be the common thread between many of the really great (or my favorite) teen fantasies.

Prophecy of the Sisters is the first in the trilogy. Lia and her twin sister, Alice, have just become orphans. In the days following their father’s bizarre deatj, Lia has noticed a new circular scar forming on her wrist. It is a Jormungand and it connects both sisters to an ancient prophecy - the Prophecy of the Sisters - that put both girls against each other in a race to either save or doom the physical world. The prophecy begins to be explained when Lia’s boyfriend, James, finds an old book hidden in her father’s library. It talks of twin sisters, one the Guardian, one the Gate, and a set of four Keys that have been born “in the first breath of Samhain.” The Gate is the sister through which the Lost Souls can travel from the Otherworlds to the physical world to form an army as they wait for the fallen Angel, Samael. The Guardian has the power to protect the physical world. Still, both Lia and Alice have a choice. With the help of her friends, Luisa and Sonia, Lia works to figure out her role in the prophecy and to find the Keys before Alice does so that she might bring about the prophecy’s end.

Michelle Zink’s novel is unique in that it focuses on the relationship between two sisters more than it does the relationship between Lia and James. James is a rock for Lia and a guy I really liked, in an Edward sort of way. He’s well read and romantic. Simply swooney. But he isn’t central to the plot. Instead, the plot was full of kick ass feminine energy. We have Lia and Alice playing out their roles in a prophecy that has been handed down through generations - their mother and aunt having been locked in the same struggle until their mother’s death released them - fighting between the trust and love they’ve had for each other all their lives and the distrust they must have for each other now. And, Lia - instead of turning to James or any other man (let no man put us under! Ya Ya!), turns to two strong and quirky lady friends, Sonia and Luisa, to help her figure out the prophecy.

Anyway. I really, thoroughly enjoyed Prophecy of the Sisters and am eagerly awaiting my ARC of the second novel in the series, Guardian of the Gate. If Prophecy is any indication, Guardian can only be just as, if not more, intense and full of intrigue. (And hopefully just a little bit of James.)

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