Title: The Waiting Booth
Author: Brinda Berry
Genre: YA, Paranormal, Fantasy
Publisher: Etopia Press (Jul. 15th 2011)
Get it: Amazon | B&N
Goodreads Synopsis
A missing boy, government agents, an interdimensional portal...
Mia has one goal for her senior year at Whispering Woods High--find her missing older brother. But when her science project reveals a portal into another dimension, she learns that travelers are moving in and out of her woods in the most alarming way and government agents Regulus and Arizona are policing their immigration. Mia's drawn to the mysterious, aloof Regulus, but it's no time for a crush. She needs to find out what they know about her brother, while the agents fight to save the world from viral contamination. But when Regulus reveals that he knows Mia's secrets, she begins to wonder if there's more going on than she thought...and if she was wrong to trust him..
REVIEW
Mia Taylor is your average 17 year old high school senior. She's working on a science project to test whether moon phases influence feeding patterns of wildlife and her and her friends are really into online gaming. But there is something special about Mia very few people know about ... she has a condition called synesthesia. The same condition her missing brother Pete was diagnosed with.
Cameras set up throughout the woods around her house to capture pictures for her science project, reveals more to Mia than she expected. She is intrigued by the picture of the two guys in her woods but thinks nothing of it, until she meets them unexpectedly. And when one of them informs her that her brother is still alive, she's determined to learn everything she can about what happened to him, who these two guys are, and why they seem to know so much about her and her brother.
The Waiting Booth is Brinda Berry's debut Young Adult novel and I found it rather interesting. I liked the fact that Mia has synesthesia, a neurological condition, where her sensory perception overlaps and she sees colors within sounds, smells, and written words. Austin and Em are Mia's best friends, though Austin has developed deeper feelings for her that she's not ready to deal with. And, of course, she meets Regulus and Arizona, the two guys she photographed in the woods.
I enjoyed the story and the characters. Mia comes to a point where she doesn't know who she can trust but she never would have suspected the one that betrays her, putting her in danger. That's where a very surprising twist to the story comes into play. As for the characters, my favorite is Arizona because he seemed like such a playful, flirtatious, fun guy. And he's honest with Mia even when he probably shouldn't be all the time. Mia and Regulus develop feelings for each other, though it's against the rules for Regulus to have a relationship with her. And then there is Austin, who seems determined to not only keep Mia safe but to fight for her affections.
Though I did enjoy The Waiting Booth, it did have some errors in it that at times had me backtracking a bit to re-read some things but overall didn't hinder my enjoyment of the story too much. I'm actually looking forward to finding out what happens in the next book, Whisper of Memory.
** I received a copy of The Waiting Booth for review as part of the Knights of the Round Table group on Goodreads.**
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I've always thought synesthesia was really interesting - that alone tempts me to read this book.
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