Review: Wake Unto Me by Lisa Cach

Wake Unto Me by Lisa Cach

A haunted castle, a handsome young man dead for four hundred years, one heck of a scary portrait of a witch, and a treasure hunt -- not to mention a princess for a roommate! -- all await 15 year old American girl Caitlyn Monahan when she earns a scholarship to a French boarding school.

There are secrets behind the stone walls of Chateau de la Fortune, buried for centuries along with the mystery of who killed Raphael, the charming ghost who visits Caitlyn at night. But as Caitlyn unearths the history of the castle, nothing scares her as badly as the secret she learns about herself, and the reason she was chosen to come to the Fortune School.

And nothing breaks her heart as badly as falling in love with a dead guy.

Review:

Wake Unto Me was a beautifully written and complex young adult debut for Lisa Cach. There were so many wonderful twists and turns in the plot that kept me guessing and I was on the edge of my seat until the very last page.

Our protagonist Caitlin leaves her home and goes to attend boarding school in France and a sea of adventures and mysteries welcome her at the Chateau de la Fortune. Ghosts, death, love, friendship... Caitlin was a very relatable and likable main character. She was ordinary (or so she thought) and had her head firmly on her shoulders. Readers discovered things alongside Caitlin and my heart stopped when she got into a dangerous situation.

Caitlin arrives in France to attend boarding school only to discover that nothing is what she expected. The plot was just... wonderful. The small details made the biggest impact and I was immediately drawn into the majestical world Lisa described. Reading about the rolling French country sides and the enormous, old fashioned castles was one of my favorite aspects of the story. Wake Unto Me was more than just a typical girl-goes-to-boarding-school-girl-meets-guy-girls-falls-in-love story. I loved watching the relationship between Caitlin and Raphael unfold. He was such a gentleman and so different from any other male YA lead.

The secrets and plot twists in this story were unlike any other. While the beginning started off a little slow, soon I was on a roller coaster ride. What was real life? What was a dream? Who could we trust? I LOVED never knowing what was going to happen next and being completely thrown towards the end. You may think you know what's going to happen but I never could figure it out!

Lisa Cach has a great writing style and she introduced a lot of cool facts about history, architecture, and figures from times past. The summary didn't really tell me much, so be prepared for a terrific combination of mystery, romance, and intrigue, all alongside the fantastic Caitlin and Raphael. There are several secondary characters who I liked as well!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. While it wasn't perfect, it was full of mystery and suspense and I adored the two main characters. I am eager to read more by Lisa Cach, especially if it involves Caitlin and Raphael!

Overall: 4.25 out of 5 stars

March 31, 2011/Speak/304 Pages/Young Adult

Source: Publisher/Author (ARC)

Blog Tour: Lisa Cach Interview

Please welcome Lisa Cach, here to celebrate the release of her YA debut, Wake Unto Me! Read on to find out about how she came up with her title and why she got tired of writing sex scenes ;)

1. In what ways do you relate to Caitlyn? Did you put parts of yourself or people you know into any of your characters?

I always felt like an outsider in high school, which is a feeling I drew on for Caitlyn. Actually, all my characters come from myself in one way or another; there’s a quote from Maya Angelou that has always struck me as describing this well:

"We are all human; therefore, nothing human can be alien to us."

From villains to heroes to minor secondary characters, their emotions are all emotions that I have felt at one time or another, even if only for a moment. You cannot imagine or understand something unless it has a basis – however tenuous - in your own experience of life.

That said, I do get sparks of character inspiration from people I meet. Strangely, it’s easier to build a character based on someone I met only briefly, than it is to use someone I know well.


2. "Wake Unto Me" is such a unique and intriguing title. How did you come up with it?

Oy, it took forever to find that title! I still have the sheets of paper covered with possible titles, scrounged from my Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, from songs, from poems, from my imagination. My editor and I went back and forth for weeks before finding this one, that we could both agree on. It comes from the old-timey Stephen Foster song, Beautiful Dreamer. I always imagine Bugs Bunny singing it:

Beautiful dreamer
Wake unto me,
Starlight and dewdrops
Are waiting for thee.

3. Your YA debut is set in France. What made you decide to host it there? Do you have any favorite places to visit in France?

I wanted to set it in Europe because I needed the deep history of the continent. I decided on southwestern France because I can speak a little bit of French, and because the weather wouldn’t be too atrocious through winter; my original plan had been to set the story in Geneva, Switzerland, but then I realized that my characters would be stuck indoors for most of the school year.

I’ve only been to France twice, but would very much like to go back, and see different regions. I did of course love seeing some of the palaces in the Loire Valley, and would like to go back and see more of them. One of the things that astonished me was all the art that’s in them, by famous painters. It’s almost better than going to an art museum, because you see these great paintings hanging in rooms that people once lived in; it’s a more intimate experience than seeing them on blank walls in an impersonal gallery, amidst gobs of tourists.

4. Considering you used to mainly focus on adult fiction, what made you decide to switch to YA?

The brutal truth is that I got burned out on writing sex scenes. I was writing a romantic erotica (“My Summer as a Sex Vixen,” which comes out February 2012), and every time I started writing a sex scene, I would hit a mental wall and abandon the book for months and months. I thought I was going to have to chuck my writing career out the window, move on, do something new. Maybe enroll in art school.

It was my agent who suggested I try writing a YA. She said I had a young writing voice, so why not give it a shot? Wake Unto Me was the result, and it has revitalized my enthusiasm for writing across the board. I even finished writing the romantic erotica — and I like the result! It’s naughty and funny, and I’m glad I wrote it.

I want to concentrate on YA for the foreseeable future. I feel a little freer to focus on the heroine’s search for identity in YA, and on the plot, than I do in an adult romance where the relationship with the guy is all-important.

5. What's next for you writing wise?

I have several YA story proposals making the rounds, including a sequel to Wake Unto Me. The sequel is almost a sure thing, but I hope I get to write one of the other ideas, too.

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Thanks so much for stopping by, Lisa! Be sure to check out her website and to read my review of Wake Unto Me: coming soon!