In Indigo Springs, a small town in Oregon, a magical apocalypse is brewing, and three young people are right smack-dab in the middle of it. Astrid, the book’s protagonist, has inherited a lovely old blue house from her ne’er-do-well father. She doesn’t even have all the moving boxes unpacked when her manipulative friend Sierra, fleeing a broken relationship, shows on her doorstep, cat in hand (because nothing says “hey, let’s catch up on old times!” like “hey, let me move in rent free!”) Astrid, however, seems thrilled to see Sierra (because she had a huge crush on her in high school) and is all like, “Hella to the yeah! Mi casa, su casa! Take the nicest bedroom! Can I rub your feet? How about a muffin? Can I get you a muffin?”

The house is also home to sweet and sexy Jacks, son of the local fire chief and Astrid’s step-brother. Jacks doesn’t like Sierra (which made me like him immediately) but he *does* like Astrid (who kinda likes him back, because he’s totally hot in that scruffy Oregon backpacking whitewater rafting guy who lets his chocolate lab ride in the back of his 1990 Toyota pickup with the peeling-off Phish stickers kind of way) … so you can see where the sparks are going to start to fly.

Me, I was rooting for Jacks all the way, not because I’m a flaming hetero partisan, but because I just did NOT like Sierra. I’ve known people like Sierra. They make my teeth ache. But for much of the book, Astrid carries a Lady-Liberty size torch for the girl. I hate it when a character I like goes all silly over a character I don’t like. It makes me want to shake my little fists in rage. Which is probably *exactly* what author A.M. Dellamonica intended.

It shows just what an expert Dellamonica is at managing reader emotions. Even though I didn’t *like* Astrid’s feelings for Sierra, I *understood* them. I happily stayed to watch the train wreck, even though I felt so powerfully for the characters that I wished it could be avoided.

While I’d say INDIGO SPRINGS is really a character-driven book, it’s also tightly plotted, and kept me reading with its fascinating intersection of the magical with the mundane. In the book, mysteries pile on mysteries, and finding the answer to anything just leads to more questions. By the end of the book, Dellamonica ties everything up quite neatly, but also takes the lid off several bigger mysteries which (one guesses) will be tackled in the next book in the duology, BLUE MAGIC.

While this book has been called an “eco-fantasy,” don’t let that put you off (if, like me, you are completely unable to separate the term “eco-fantasy” from the 1980s movie “Ferngully”). It does, indeed, make subtle connections between the magical apocalypse facing the town of Indigo Springs with the ones we face on a global scale, but not in a preachy or pedantic way.

Overall, I thought INDIGO SPRINGS was a really powerful debut from an author who’s talent I greatly respect and admire. I’m looking forward to BLUE MAGIC!

P.S.

TEAM JACKS!