The resulting novel is strongest when building its maddening mysteries, and it falters when its characters need to deal with the answering revelations. Bulgarian-born Zourkova draws perceptive and persuasive connections between Balkan folklore and Greek myth, especially when she identifies the Bulgarian samodivi-lethal, sensual female spirits of the forest, translated by Thea as “wildalones”-with the Greek maenads, but she fails to anchor her romantic triangle with the same meticulous conviction.

Thea also has to contend with the attentions of beautiful, wealthy brothers Rhys and Jake Estlin, whose dizzying sexual allure almost disguises their secretive, erratic behavior. Once on campus, Thea finds the memory of her passionate, talented “earlier version” impossible to evade, as one of her professors is obsessed with Elza’s theories about Orpheus and Dionysus. In the fall of 2006, Thea Slavin applies to Princeton from her native Bulgaria, unaware that her older sister, Elza-about whom Thea’s family refuses to speak-disappeared from the university 15 years earlier. TLC BLOG TOUR: The Girl With a Clock for a Heart b.Ancient Greek mystery religions, culture clash, and college romance form a heady blend in Zourkova’s poetic, striking debut.SHE READS REVIEW (Books of Winter): The Dress Shop.REVIEW: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black to go wild alone: His arms have a perpetual holiday, The happy man will creep about the fields Following his fancies by the hour, to bring Tears down.

REVIEW: Siding With Plato by Michelle Manning.

BLOG TOUR: Wildalone by Krassi Zourkova.

TLC BLOG TOUR: My Father's Wives by Mike Greenberg.

Krassi Zourkova creates an atmospheric world filled with rich characters as compelling as those of Diana Gabaldon, Deborah Harkness, and Stephenie Meyer. Mesmerizing and addictive, Wildalone is a thrilling blend of the modern and the fantastic. if she can accept that dead doesn't always mean gone, and love doesn't always distinguish between the two. In this shadow world that seems to mimic Greek mythology and the Bulgarian legends of the samodivi or “wildalones”-forest witches who beguile and entrap men-Thea will discover a family secret bound to transform her forever. Drawn to the elusive Rhys and his equally handsome and mysterious brother, Jake, she ventures into a sensual mythic underworld as irresistible as it is dangerous. Away from her family and her Eastern European homeland for the first time, she struggles to adapt to unfamiliar American ways and the challenges of college life-including an enigmatic young man whose brooding good looks and murky past intrigue her.

In this darkly imaginative debut novel full of myth, magic, romance, and mystery, a Princeton freshman is drawn into a love triangle with two enigmatic brothers, and discovers terrifying secrets about her family and herself-a bewitching blend of Twilight, The Secret History, Jane Eyre, and A Discovery of Witches.Īrriving at Princeton for her freshman year, Thea Slavin finds herself alone, a stranger in a strange land.