The high concept pitch for these books is as easy as it is exciting: Five is Harry Potter meets Twilight, set against the mythos of the Dresden Files.

Paige is a preacher’s daughter who accidentally discovers her own magical powers when rescuing her dog from a sadistic pack of boys.  When her father finds out, he doesn’t take it well, and rather than be strong-armed off to some de-magicization camp (shades of gay-straight conversion therapy?), she knocks the church thugs off their feet with her power and heads to Seattle.

In Seattle, Paige finds herself in the Underground.  She teams up with Johnathan, a young man with similar gifts to her own, and under Johnathan’s leadership, a group of five magically gifted teens coalesces.  They study and develop their own arts, while at the same time looking for opportunities to fight evil — interfering with Goblin robberies, investigating rashes of suicides, stopping a faerie from replacing a human baby with a changeling, and so on.

In the course of saving this last-mentioned human baby, Johnathan gets bitten by a changeling.  Although the initial effects fade, Johnathan begins transforming into a dangerous beast with the changing moon.  Which means that Paige has to worry about saving him as well as defeating the group’s real enemy — a Warlock intent on raising a dark army to conquer and rule.

Five Out of the Dark is the first of a series.  Book two, Five Out of the Pit, is available now, and I understand that book three is on the way.  The adventure of Harry Potter, the romance of Twilight, and the complex world of Harry Dresden, wrapped into quick YA reads — what more could you want?

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