(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Miserable with this new twist in her life, Shelby's ecstatic when she finally makes a friend. True, Gwen's a little odd. She hangs around the town cemetery, doesn't go to school, and says her family left her behind when they moved to New Orleans. Shelby can't make any sense of the girl, but she still likes being with her. Then, things start to get weird. Shelby spies a girl she thinks is Gwen stalking around the bayou at night, she finds a series of mysterious messages left in her mother's blue bottle tree and she realizes that Gwen knows things, things that could explain the profound sadness Allemond carries with her. In spite of herself, Shelby gets caught up in the eerie magic of the bayou, where the secrets of her mother's past still haunt the swampy waterways. As Shelby struggles to understand, she learns some powerful lessons about faith, family and, ultimately, forgiveness.

With colorful bayou settings, rich in wonder and magic, Kimberley Griffiths Little brings her poignant family stories to vivid life. Her debut, The Healing Spell, touched my heart, but her newest engaged both my ticker and my imagination and, really, there's nothing I like better in a book. Just in time for Halloween, Circle of Secrets is a Cajun ghost story that's spooky enough to send delicous little shivers down the spine, but not scary enough to cause nightmares. In fact, it's the perfect blend of natural terrors (gators, bullies, abandonment) and supernatural frights (ghosts, bumps in the night, etc.), which combine to make this a shivery, atmospheric read. Mostly, though, it's a warm, enchanting story about a young girl coming to terms with her imperfect family and, of course, herself. In case you can't tell, I loved it.