At seventeen, Sylvie Davis had the world at her feet. She is the youngest principal dancer for the American Ballet doing the one thing she loved more than anything. All it takes is one misstep, an error in balance, for her world to come crashing down. Now recovering from a career ending injury, Sylvie is sent to rural Alabama to spend two weeks with an aunt she barely knows to "dry out" while her mother and new step-dad honeymoon.

The secrets of Bluestone Hill begin almost as soon as Sylvie gets off the plane in Alabama. Rhys Griffiths is staying at Bluestone with his father while on sabbatical from university in the UK. Handsome and guarded as he is, Sylvie still gets the sense of knowing him, but her dislike for her exile and general bad attitude toward the world has her butting heads with him. Sylvie also believes he is hiding something from her, much like most of the community of Maddox Landing.

It seems Sylvie's family is some type of royalty to the community, and expectations are high for her and the resident golden boy, Shawn Maddox. Shawn's charisma could charm a snake out of its skin, yet Sylvie fights to resist him. Shawn's Teen Town Council just doesn't seem right to her.

Sylvie has never believed in magic or ghosts, but with the events unfolding around her at Bluestone Hill, Sylvie is questioning both her sanity and the existence of magic. Crying from the forest, spectral images, and folklore and history in the area lead Sylvie down a dangerous path; one where she must choose between what she truly wants, and what is right.

THE SPLENDOR FALLS, written by Rosemary Clement-Moore author of Prom Dates from Hell, is a wonderful read from beginning to end. The main characters are distinctive, the settings are written beautifully, and the flow of the story carries a reader easily from chapter to chapter. It is a mystery, a coming of age, and a bit of suspense story all rolled up into a neat package. Even though this is written with a young adult audience in mind, this story is done well enough that it spans into the adult genre as well, making it an enjoyable read for all.

Book Summary

Sylvie Davis is a ballerina who can't dance, she lost everything important to her in one missed step.

Uprooting her from her Manhattan apartment, and shipping her to Alabama is her mother's solution for Sylvie's unhappiness. But life might not be any more simple down south. As it turns out, her family has a lot more history than Sylvie ever knew. More unnerving, though, are the two guys that she can't stop thinking about.

Then Sylvie starts seeing things. A girl down by the lake. A man peering into the window. And a graveyard with an oddly placed headstone. Sylvie's lost nearly everything—is she starting to lose her mind as well?