Willow is just your average sixteen-year-old girl. Okay, maybe not so average. She can heal animals. But for her own safety, her veterinarian parents have made her promise not to use her powers. Unfortunately, sometimes her compassion takes over, and she can’t help … well … helping. Willow is a Droit, but hides her Droitism because people like her are feared and hated by those without special … without special abilities. Two of Willow’s schoolmates, rumored to be Droits, have simultaneously disappeared.
When Willow’s non-Droit friend, Rain, is targeted, Willow wonders whether she should get involved–even if that means putting herself in the line of fire.
A mysterious new friend, Trae, just might be the key to unlock her courage.
In the end, she has a choice: she can deny who she is or declare her ability to heal, but either way, her life will never be the same again.
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I consider this story a kind of Parable which is defined at Wikipedia as “A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, whereas parables have human characters.[1] A parable is a type of metaphorical analogy.[2]”
Acceptance of the difference in others is core to this novel about Droits and non-Droits. Droits are feared beause of their special abilities. They are sometimes even hunted down and murdered as happened to two of Willow’s classmates. It is also about acceptance of who you are. Willow tries to hide the fact that she is a Droit so that she will “fit in” in school.
Her special ability is to save animals from pain and suffering. Even though her parents have forbidden her to use her healing powers–Willow can’t seem to stop.
Her parents go on a vacation and she stayed with her Aunt Fifi who is a character to say the least! She meets a guy in school and there is an immediate attraction. Someone is out to hurt Willow and this guy tries to shield her as best he can. He is also a Droit–
Lots of things happen which you will have to read or I will be giving the whole story line away.
Just know there is a happy ending and possible next book in the future-I hope!
This book should be read by all teenagers and adults in my opinion!!
Willow is different. She has the power to heal. But this is dangerous for her. There were others who thought it was unnatural and had possibly killed two missing teens from her school. Willow promised her parents that she would never heal any more but her compassionate personality proved that to be an impossibility.
This is by far my favorite book by Ms. Weidenbenner. Yes, she writes other genres, but this is closer to what I like and she did a great job. The characters were interesting and likeable. The plot flowed easily. I can’t wait for the next in this series.
This was a great read, so much so I read in a day! This is book one in a new series from Michelle Weidenbenner and already I am patiently waiting the next book, whilst this one doesn’t end on a cliffhanger it does leave a lot of questions that I hope will be answered in book two.
Willow discovers she is a Droit – a person who has special abilities – when she heals her sick cat Random. She promises her parents never to do it again but when her friends guide dog falls ill at school she uses her ability to bring the dog back, only she thought no one has seen her but it turns out the biggest loudmouth in school saw her and from here her life takes a turn. In the space of a few weeks her life changes for ever, she loses a close friend and potentially discovers family she never knew she had! All whilst dealing with being a Droit and falling for a fellow Droit Trae who was sent to her town to locate missing Droits.
Dorits are people who have special abilities, like Willow can heal for example, and we discover that non-Droits are scared and prejudiced toward what they do no understand and fear what they think are abominations of creation.
There is a strong message in this tale that is relevant to cases today and throughout history on how we treat those who are different from us.
Willow must come to terms with who and what she is and decided to attend a school for Droits – the Reese Academy, to receive training to better protect herself and those like her from Tridents.
Michelle Weidenbenner has weaved a great tale and I cant wait to see where she takes this series and I really hope we get more back story on Droits when Willow starts to attend the Reese Academy.
5 stars