THE FOREVER GIRL by Rebecca Hamilton

Author's Creative Brand: 
"The Forever Girl, sophia's journey"
Genre:  An Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Romance Novel of the Occult
Length:  352 Pages
Immortal Ink Publishing

My 9 Reader 'Hot-Button' Considerations

1. World's Immersion:  
We arrive in Sophia's "ordinary world" of Belle Meadow, Colorado, an isolated mountain-town, inside Sophia's ostracized P.O.V. working at a diner surrounded by small town scrutiny. We follow Sophia into her private world, inside the generations old house she inherited from her Grandfather, or to Paloma's intriguing metaphysical shop with its special curiosities.  We learn of Sophia's world as she stumbles on the realization, that supernatural beings are converging all around her, and her supposedly ordinary, small town.  This gradually opening aperture into the world of "The Forever Girl" is how Rebecca Hamilton introduces her new series to enthrall Readers...

2. Characters/Icons:  
In SOPHIA, we have a heroine who instantly identifies Readers with the outsider icon, a status many of us can empathize with.  Sophia's core secret grants both an emotional 'Achilles Heel' as well as seeds for expanding into her personal mythology. Sophia's adherence to Wiccan practices and ethical considerations offers Readers a female character with a refreshing, positive-minded Occult P.O.V.

CHARLES, Sophia's romantic challenge, is a refined supernatural being.  He captivates Sophia's intrigue with his knowing sensuality.  He is the first guy who gets what Sophia is thinking and feeling. The other mix in this cocktail, is that Charles' very nature poses risk, even threat toward Sophia's ultimate love or doom.  RH takes time in exploring the magnetism between Sophia and Charles as two very different supernatural beings.  Can Sophia and Charles safely co-exist, in a dangerous relationship they are both intent on deepening?

IVORY:  She is Sophia's friend, the reflection character who defies such designation, with her own complexity of emotional journey.  Ivory is not just there listening to Sophia as her BFF sounding board.  Ivory, as a supporting character, surprised me with the depth to which her own mystery eventually unfolds.

PALOMA:  Sophia has a mentor-figure in Paloma, her guide with access to mystical items beyond the reach of just any ordinary shop-keeper, and indispensable to the heroine on a mythic journey.

MRS. FRANKLIN:  The counter-point to Sophia's gentle approach to Spirit...in the form of judgmental bile and Mrs. Franklin's own orchestrated perversion of religious orthodoxy.  This cult figure has her baleful eye set on righteously striking Sophia down for 'the good of the town.'

THALIA:  A vampiric vixen with a fang for Charles, and a harpy's derision for Sophia.  When Thalia discovers Charles and Sophia's secret, she is fully capable of driving a stake through the heart of their relationship.

VALERIA & HENRY LIETTE:  Charles' parents made him what he is; and what he is, becomes a key to the warning between he and Sophia.  The Liettes appear in Sophia's life like a visitation from some dark fairy-tale...passing by for creature comforts and a mysterious exchange.

3. Structural Appointments:  
RH oscillates between Sophia's first person view-point, and breaking away into historical back-story branches, following supporting characters in third person narrative.  With this structure, RH simultaneously involves Readers in Sophia's personal quest, also freeing perspective to advance the story in broadening strokes.  Historical layers add substantial support to the core, modern-day story.

4. "Visuality":  
RH is adept at capturing essential details.  When in more intimate scenes, dialogue and gesture rule, focusing awareness into noting emotional/psychological details shifting behind what is expressed.  RH is selective and tasteful with beats of sensory awareness or aesthetic richness.  RH capably displays her flair for writing with a sense like a movie lens, as dramatic action takes the stage.

5. Thematic/Mythic Appeal:
Is "Forever" desirable...unattainable...or a curse?  Facing an unbalanced relationship of secrets kept, becomes a possible deal-breaker in Sophia's emotional opening.  How does Sophia bridge the vast gap between 'here today, gone tomorrow' and 'forever?'

One key to my higher interest in Rebecca Hamilton's "Forever Girl," is the theme of Personal Inner Power.  It is the way that RH directs this journey of a young woman transforming her curse into currency, that fills this story with promise.  The author accomplishes this Occult tale with good taste intact.  I have had my own positive experiences with Wicca, and understand The Craft to be empowering for women and men, nature-based, and benevolent.  Sophia is a heroine I could identify with on this level:  magic manifests from within.

6. Story Flow:  
"The Forever Girl" unravels in a gradual unfurling of mysteries comprising its elements; but RH's telling of it, is economically achieved.  Readers are kept involved with pace, clarity, immediacy of details, and progression of a world's depth.  There are no bogged-down sections where one may lose connectivity.

I enjoyed my discovery of what lay in wait, because the details were freshly devised.  I naturally wanted to journey with the characters' discoveries, as the story deepened its scope while maintaining its mystery.  I trusted in Rebecca's vision, and went along for the fantastical ride.

7. Innovation/Genre-Blend:  
Rebecca has added an extra dimension to her hybrid-genre, "An Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Romance," with "of the Occult."  There has always been an under-the-surface cultural fear of this supernatural being, the Witch, as it has been expressed in popular literature.  It is only in recent years, that progressions have been made by writers such as Rebecca Hamilton, looking for the depth in this Wise Woman Iconography.

How to connect the vampire, were-creature, ghost, witch and any other supernatural creatures of diverse differences, into a frame-work that is fantasy-grounded, and more significant, than arbitrary inclusion?  HOW the author accomplishes this creation, is also what I feel is fresh about "The Forever Girl."

8. Author's Voice/Language:
Rebecca Hamilton expresses an indie alternative view-point, rare to be depicted in mainstream publishing.  RH's writing-style displays lyrical details with an elegant clarity.  RH shows her writing range, in that she confidently shifts between intimate character exchanges, to a narrator's  unraveling of historical back-story, to a surprising ferocity in the violence depicted when ever it arrives.  RH strikes harder in an action sequence than I actually expected, granting a gravity of threat to Charles and Sophia's challenges.  "The Forever Girl" is not a gory reality, but still an appropriately dangerous one to enjoy.

9.  The After Resonance:
Sophia is an inspired avatar for demographics of younger and older Wiccan/Goth/Alternative sub-cultures. These are Reading audiences that have always sought out edgy, underground Books to exemplify their cultural P.O.V.  Sophia taps into a very large Reading audience, which when considered separate, may at an earlier time have been considered 'Fringe.'  They are in fact, cultural prime movers, and a big part of making Comicon such a mainstream phenomenon.  Sophia's journey to personal empowerment through recognizable growing pains and opening sexuality, gives her universal New Adult appeal.

I want to point out that RH's book is in the "New Adult" range of audience, a flex-period in maturing growth experiences or life experimentation.  Key characters are seeking their adult lives, chiefly between late teens to the mid 20's, or just before entering their 30's.  In New Adult, RH was able to offer a more sophisticated Occult angle, a more adult sensuality between Sophia and Charles, graphic conflict; and yet, a YA audience would be entirely in range for appreciating the novel's youthful voice in Sophia.  Rebecca tweeted about the "New Adult Genre," being the first to inform me that this range has a niche designation in publishing, as "Young Adult" popularly has.

I feel that in Sophia, Readers have a feminine character with heart and mystique, an accessible vulnerability to identify with, yet a willful heroism so as to engage a Reader on numerous levels.  Sophia is also not being constantly saved by Charles, her male counterpart; because Readers will find, in all key points where actions must be taken, that it is Sophia herself who rises to the challenges of her own growth arc.  RH has also fashioned a world of cohesive, supporting mythology that opens a well-latticed capacity for fulfilling further stories.  It is easy to foresee "The Forever Girl" series deepening its supernatural potential...and fan-base.

"The Forever Girl" is the first novel from Rebecca Hamilton, one half of Immortal Ink Publishing.

"The Forever Girl: sophia's journey" by Rebecca Hamilton, 
with Immortal Ink Publishing, may be further discovered at: 
http://www.amazon.com/Forever-Girl-ebook/dp/B00729GQ0A