Legend Seeker. Part-time Ghost Hunter. Time Traveler.

Thirteen-year-old Rose Skylar sneezed a magical storm cloud at birth, and it’s followed her around ever since. But when “Stormy” causes one too many public disasters, Rose is taken to Heartstone, an asylum for unstable magic. Its location? The heart of a haunted forest whose trees have mysteriously turned to stone.

They say the ghosts are bound to the woods…then why does Rose see them drifting outside the windows at night? And why is there a graveyard on the grounds filled with empty graves? Guided by her future selves via time traveling letters, Rose and Marek—best friend and potential figment of her imagination—must solve the mystery of the specters and the stone trees before the ghosts unleash a legendary enemy that will make their own spooks look like a couple of holey bed sheets and destroy Heartstone Asylum.

Letters from the future are piling up. Rose can’t save Heartstone herself. However, five of herselves, a magical storm cloud, and a guardian angel who might very well be imaginary? Now that’s a silver lining.

But will they find what killed the ghosts before what killed the ghosts finds them?

Book 1 of the The Stormwatch Diaries series.

When your magic is so unstable that it accidentally causes electrical fires, even your home and school might rethink their welcome. In Legend of the Storm Sneezer by Kristiana Sfirlea, eleven-year-old Rose meets another magical misfit, and feels at home. But this unsettled haunt of mystery is surrounded by a petrified forest full of unhappy ghosts and zombies. Can Rose and Marek bring peace? Letters from their future time-traveling selves offer clues and humor in the nick of time, while the story hints at a creator God and shows recurring themes of self-sacrifice.

Best for: Teen readers fond of lengthy, lighthearted ghost-and-zombie tales.

Discern: Rose’s depiction as an “angel,” basically a human with wings, may differ from Scripture’s portrayal of non-human ministering spirits.