SYNOPSIS:

True love is never lost—but how much loss can it endure? Iris confronts the complexities of family and prejudice in this exquisite and searing debut novel.

Just two months after her mother abandons her family, leaving her gruff, introverted father to raise two children alone, Iris watches a family of gypsies set up an illegal camp in the paddock by her house. The gypsy boy, Trick, is restless and warm and full of life—he’ll settle when he’s in his grave, he tells Iris—and she feels as though she understands him completely.

Yet even as Iris’s secret friendship with Trick blooms into something more, tensions run high between their families. Iris’s father is bent on evicting the travelers, and her beloved brother Sam is impulsive, lost, and headed for trouble. But Trick might not be everything he seems, and as Iris struggles to find where her loyalties lie, all of the prejudice, vulnerability, and anger that surrounds her collides in an unspeakable tragedy.

WHY SHOULD YOU CHECK IT OUT?

For those of us with a soft spot for moody novels, complex adults in the lives of teens, and wrong-side of the tracks romances, Iris’ story sounds gripping.  Of especially interest is the young travelling nomad, Trick.  Secret friendships and sibling struggles gives way to what early reviews hint at as a tragedy in the final act…

While we really love original UK cover, but there’s a soft, subtle dreaminess to this US version.  Space!  Trees!  And there’s Iris, serenely taking center stage.  It’s certainly pretty.

This is C.J. Flood’s debut novel—we hope there’s more on the way from her!

EARLY REVIEWS SAY…

Its beauty, like that of the book’s rural England setting, grows on you, building with every scene. … [A]s profound and tragically brutal as nature itself.  (Booklist starred review)

Tragedy emerges from the commonplace miseries of everyday life in this evocative mood piece. … Readers who don’t need endings tied up with tight little bows will find much to think about here.  (Kirkus Reviews)

NECESSARY DETAILS

YA Romance

Hardcover & ebook, 256 pages

Published on May 29^th 2014 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers (ISBN 1481406582)

http://books.simonandschuster.com/Infinite-Sky/C-J-Flood/9781481406581