Prophecy of Days, The Daykeeper's Grimoire Book 1 by Christy Raedeke + Contest!

Published 2010.

When her safe-cracker mom and code-breaker dad inherit a dreary Scottish castle, sixteen-year-old Caity Mac Fireland is not happy. Ripped from her cushy life and friends in San Francisco, Caity's secret fantasy of being discovered by a Hollywood agent, talent scout, or even just a pageant coach seems more unlikely than ever.

But when Caity stumbles across a hidden room in the castle, its walls covered in strange symbols, her life takes a bizarre turn. She find herself center stage in an international conspiracy involving warring secret societies, assassins, the suppressed revelations of the Mayan Calendar and the year 2012, plus the fate of humanity.

With the help of her friend Justine back home, and Alex, a gorgeous and mysterious Scottish boy, Caity must race to decipher the code and reveal its message to the world before time runs out. (book back blurb)

This was a very weird book for me, not in regards to content but how I felt about it overall. The writing I felt was both kind of dull and yet compelling. I had a hard time connecting to the plot yet I couldn't stop turning the pages. It's an odd juxtaposition and it kind of made the reading slow but at times I could plow through chapters. I don't get it myself.

Caity's your typical teenager: kind of bratty, kind of spoiled and kind of hard to like at the beginning. Although I did like the beginning. Why? Because it makes fun of itself. Yeah, it's one of those books about the family inheriting the castle and the fate of the world lies on the daughter's shoulders. And it's Caity poking fun at herself which is pretty cool. That's why I was able to tolerate Caity's character a little more; because I knew she would come around. If I didn't have that prologue, I don't know if I would have had the patience.

The "action" in the castle itself with the inspector seemed kind of forced and out of left field. It just happened out of nowhere and then it was gone. It kind of made my head spin. I'm not sure if that was the point but I wasn't really scared at all for Caity like Caity was for herself. I was just thrown off balance by it all. This wasn't the only action moment that had me feeling like this.

How everyone fell into place for Caity was both convenient and compelling. Yeah, it all happened really easily but the underlying message (really, it's not all that underlying, actually, the weird Mayan dude pretty much just comes out and says it) of the story itself is creating a harmony. Once you strike one fork, the rest will follow in tune, as the book says. One fork was struck in Caity's life and each subsequent fork played right along. So it was both self-serving to the story and fueled the story even more. See what I'm talking about with these juxtapositions?

I just wish I could have connected with Caity a little more. She's a pretty great character but even going through what she went through, I didn't feel for her. I was compelled to keep turning the pages to find out what happened to her, but I didn't feel it, you know?

It's all very strange. But the Maya were an interesting people. I even downloaded a 3D Mayan calendar app onto my iPod and I check it every day now. It really is amazing just how accurate these "primitive" people were and maybe, just maybe, we are missing something they already knew.

So while I was pretty much all over the place with this story, I do know I want to read the next one. I can totally sympathize with the fact that the planet is nine different levels of fucked up and something needs to be done to fix it. Soon. I also want to see how Raedeke ties all of the Mayan stuff to Caity and hopefully more of her family's past will come into play. It's only kind of alluded to in the greater picture but I know there's a lot more story there.

A good, and much more entertaining, edition to all of the End of Days stuff coming out now.

Contest Time!!!

Want my copy? You know you do! Just fill out the form below to enter. Open to US residents 13 years of age and older only. One entry per person per email address. Duplicate entries will be deleted. Contest ends August 10th at midnight, EST.