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Teardrop    by Lauren Kate Amazon.com order for
Teardrop
by Lauren Kate
Order:  USA  Can
Delacorte, 2013 (2013)
Hardcover, CD, e-Book
* * *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

Lauren Kate is deservedly well known for her haunting Fallen series. Now she embarks on a new YA fantasy trilogy, building it around the Atlantis legend. The first episode (and series name) is Teardrop.

Seventeen-year-old Eureka Boudreaux was very close to her archaeologist mother Diana - they travelled together and enjoyed each other's company. So Eureka was devastated when a freak wave washed their car into the ocean. Though badly injured, Eureka survived. Her mother did not. A boy (Ander) in a fishing boat watched the whole thing and intervened, against his Seedbearers clan's wishes.

Now Eureka lives in Louisiana with her caring but ineffectual father, her unsympathetic stepmother Rhoda, and their small, adorable twins, William and Claire. Rhoda forces Eureka to see a therapist after her suicide attempt. All that keeps her going day to day is friendship - with lively Cat and with Brooks, her close friend from childhood.

It's a car accident that causes Ander to enter Eureka's life again - his vehicle rear ends hers - and she keeps seeing him after that; is he stalking her? When a single tear falls from her eye (her mother made her promise to never cry) Ander catches it. As she wonders about him, Brooks begins to change, especially after they kiss. And Ander warns Eureka that her life is in danger.

Eureka receives a legacy from her mother - her locket, an ancient book in a strange language, and a mysterious thunderstone. Cat helps her find someone to translate the book and they start reading Selene's 'tale of catastrophic passion', describing her relationships with two princes of Atlantis, Atlas and Leander. But what has this to do with Eureka?

She learns more when her life erupts in a storm of violence, people die, and Eureka finally cries a storm of tears. What has she unleashed on the world? I guess we'll have to read the next episode to find out, and to learn Brooks' dark fate. Fallen fans will dive into Teardrop with great enthusiasm!

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