Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis

What would you do if you could feel another person in your head?

Amulet Books sent me an ARC of this book to read for review (thank you).  It will be published June 17th, so make a note to pick up then.

Ms. Duyvis takes a very different premise for the basis of her story.  It's one I've never run across before and it's interesting.  She takes a boy living in present day in Arizona who has epilepsy and mixes him with a female servant in another world.  This is story of possession, but not by choice.

Every time Nolan closes his eyes, he travels to Amara's world and her life.  He can be out of it for a long time and the people around him attribute it to his disease.  That may be part of it but the new pills he's on really help send him there.  He can even make Amara move now.

At first, he scares her badly.  Then she's really mad at him; she doesn't need his help.  She has her own job to do.  Cilla is a princess and there is curse on the land that will kill her if she bleeds.  Amara is a healer and she can take Cilla's blood and her pain as her own, and then heal herself to do it all over again.

The mage traveling with them has secret plans, nothing is what it seems, and the overall plot doesn't come out until the final chapter.  This is complex mixed tale being told in two different worlds and the ending isn't really.  It's like a new point of beginning for all the characters.  This is quite a fantasy tale.  It got dark enough in it to be done by the Bros. Grimm.

Happy reading.