The Gathering (Darkness Rising #1) by Kelley Armstrong

Strange things are happening in Maya's tiny Vancouver Island town. First, her friend Serena, the captain of the swim team, drowns mysteriously in the middle of a calm lake. Then, one year later, mountain lions are spotted rather frequently around Maya's home—and her reactions to them are somewhat . . . unexpected. Her best friend, Daniel, has also been experiencing unexplainable premonitions about certain people and situations.

It doesn't help that the new bad boy in town, Rafe, has a dangerous secret, and he's interested in one special part of Maya's anatomy—her paw-print birthmark.

-Amazon product description.

This latest YA book from author Kelley Armstrong is the start of a new trilogy, while at the same time being a continuation of her Darkest Powers trilogy (The Summoning, The Awakening, and The Reckoning). You do not have to have read the first trilogy to understand The Gathering but it is fun to have knowledge of things that Maya and her friends can only guess at. Eventually, Armstrong plans to merge the two trilogies, but as of now they're separate stories.

I read this book at a very fast pace. It's around 360 pages long, but the chapters are broken up so that it flies by rather quickly. The story is engrossing from page one, and I'm so eager to read the second installment! The second book is called The Calling and it will be out April 2012.

-Sam.