The Gathering Review

Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥

Sixteen-year-old Maya is just an ordinary teen in an ordinary town. Sure, she doesn't know much about her background - the only thing she really has to cling to is an odd paw-print birthmark on her hip - but she never really put much thought into who her parents were or how she ended up with her adopted parents in this tiny medical-research community on Vancouver Island.
Until now.
Strange things have been happening in this claustrophobic town - from the mountain lions that have been approaching Maya to her best friend's hidden talent for "feeling" out people and situations, to the sexy new bad boy who makes Maya feel . . . . different. Combine that with a few unexplained deaths and a mystery involving Maya's biological parents and it's easy to suspect that this town might have more than its share of skeletons in its closet. 

I loved this book!! It took a little while to get into it with all the blah blah that was at the beginning, but once the story actually got started, it was really good! Maya is an animal lover, she keeps a shed for wild injured animals she finds in the park-almost like her own little animal shelter. She even has a lynx that acts like a house cat and she's the only one he generally likes being around. Then there's the thing with the cougars, it's like they understand her somehow, and she knows this, but doesn't totally understand it. The story really starts to pick up in the last few chapters when a big fire goes tearing through the town. Then there are the secrets throughout the book that slowly start to unravel, like the clinic that's used in the town, isn't really being used for what they say it is. Maya also starts to truly understand her odd shaped birthmark, that it's not just a birthmark but a symbol to who she really is. This is the first book in the spin off series from the 'Darkest Powers Trilogy'. So far, it's just as good as the first trilogy and I hope it stays that way!