FIRST REVIEW OF NEW NOVEL ALPHA WAVE BY ANDREW DEMCAK

Alpha Wave picks up where A Little Bit Langston, the first book in the Elusive Spark series, left off. If you bonded with James, Paul, and Lumen in A Little Bit Langston, you’ll be glad to see them all again. I loved both books, but I’m a sucker for a mighty girl hero, and Alpha Wave delivers. And three cheers for a YA book with a totally believable cast full of boy-loving boys and girl-loving girls. 

Keira, the main character, is a Southern California teenager with a troubled family situation and a major attitude. The adventure starts right away when she discovers her supernatural powers through a conflict with her foster father. Keira encounters a caring mentor in the form of a Tibetan monk who has assumed the shape of a talking rat and appears in time to save her from a demon who works for the government—and that’s just the first surprise. Originality is a huge strength in this story, which takes the bones of a classic coming-of-age plot and fleshes it out with all-fresh twisty details. There are plenty of funny and sexy moments, plus a few that will have you biting your nails or putting on your sunglasses on the bus so people can’t see you getting misty. 

Demcak’s writing is infused with a gentle spirituality that reminds me of the best of Madeleine L’Engle. I had the good fortune to be one of Alpha Wave’s beta readers; this is definitely one of those books that holds up nicely to being read twice, and both reads left me with a wonderful sense of trust in his world’s design and his characters’ ability to choose love over fear, no matter how risky. - Skye Alexander, Goodreads.