Another goody to read before July16th

[sandra87b]

I didn't realise we could recommend books here, so here goes with my all 
time favourite book - The Odessa Stone.
It's funny, gripping, scary, emotional, and above all its magical. It's about 
Linda, a girl who's life is totally run by superstition and obsessive-compulsive 
disorders. I saw a lot of myself in her! She's like it because of the impact 
losing her mother at an early age caused, but she's actually just sensitive to 
spirit-activity and sees things that most people don't know are even there.
So her revolting father (a politician) drags her on a government visit to 
Odessa, so that she can be used for family media-photos at the nuclear 
power stations - and one day in the city she encounters an evil spirit, who 
leaves her with a 'gift' - a matroshka doll which contains Avalon, a slightly 
mad fairy who leads Linda on a quest to find the Odessa Stone. It's a 
'mythical' gemstone which carries out the bidding of 'gifted' people - and 
there's never been many of those in 800 years.

She finds the Stone about a third of the way in, so its not a quest for the Holy 
Grail slog. The problems happen when the evil spirits want her, the 
governments want her, religious groups are after her and the military get 
involved. And all the way through, all that matters to her is the love and 
friendship of Avalon - and that's why it works so well. I've never felt so 
attached and involved in a story, and the characters became so real to me. I 
loved it, I cried like I don't know what when I finished it (it's not a sad ending, 
its just so moving!) and I've read it twice since I first finished it last year.

If you want something to keep you ticking over and really get into, I'd say give 
it a go. I hope this doesn't sound weird, but I feel like Avalon left the pages of 
the book, and kind of stayed with me!

Sandra, (who tells everyone about this!)