TOKEN OF DARKNESS

Ever since Cooper woke up in the hospital, the result of a mysterious multiple-car pileup, the former high-school football star has been followed everywhere by twisting, menacing shadows—and a cute, easygoing ghost named Samantha. As much as Cooper wants his normal, popular, pain-free life back again, Samantha would be happy to live with any human form. With the help of fellow students Brent, a telepath, Delilah, a flirtatious cheerleader and sorceress, and their 26-year-old mentor, Ryan le Coire, “heir to the most powerful human magics in the Western Hemisphere,” Cooper pieces together the details of the car accident and learns the origins of Samantha’s form. Despite his new friends’ initial distrust, Cooper and his ghost may achieve at least part of their wishes. Although her characters remain flat and the concluding explanation resolves rapidly, Atwater-Rhodes’s quick read will entice her long-time fans and those of the supernatural with its suspense, the possibility of romance and magic that’s easy enough to understand. (Supernatural romance. YA)