Legacy of Lies (Dark Secrets #1) by Elizabeth Chandler

Something is haunting Meghan...

She has seen Scarborough house only in her dreams. Now Meghan was here, visiting the grandmother she'd never met and her new-found cousin Matt, too handsome by far, who wanted her to disappear. Grandmother was so cold, so distant. Why did she finally reach out to Meghan after all these years? And why was Matt so determined to call her his "almost" cousin? For all her prophetic dreams, nothing could have prepared her for Matt's astonishment when he first saw her... or the reaction of perfect strangers who looked at her with fascination - and fear.   

Meghan thought she knew who she was. Until she came to Grandmother's house. Until she met Matt, who angered and attracted her as no boy had ever done before. Then she began having dreams again, of a life she never lived, a love she never knew... a secret that threatened to drive her to the grave.

Paperback, 182 pages
First Published October 1st 2000 by Simon PulseMy Rating: 4.5/5
Genres: Young Adult-Paranormal
Read from September 1 to 2, 2014

My Review:


Legacy of Lies is scaresly a novel - it's lenght felt to me quite like a novella would. This is not nessecerily bad though, because the story was a great deal more than interesting this way and it was not tiring at all - I would happily re-read it. The characters had no exceptionary depth, but this is something easily forgiven as they still held my interest. There were small doses of romance, mystery and paranormal - focusing on the subject of reincarnation.



Plot:


16 year old Megan, daughter of "blue-blooded" Caroline and afro-american Kent, receives a letter from her british grandmother Helen which expresses the wish of meeting her. This is more than strange, as Helen once had disowned Carolin, accusing her for "marring" the family by marrying a black man. When Megan arrives to the Scarborough house, things follow a strange turn - she is confronted by Helen whose words ar sharp as a knifes, and by her Matt, a cousin she had never heard of and is more attractive than he should be.
As if those worries are not enough, Megan experiences a series of dreams that feel too real for being just dreams, and she is scared to death. With no one to turn to, she is happy and enstranged when a girl from the village, Sophie, befriends her. Together, the try to uncover the secret that lies behind her grandmother's sharpness, Matt's hostility and the eerie visions.







The Characters:


As I previously said, the characters where a bit shallow - don't mistake me, I liked them a lot. Megan is a heroine whose point of view kept me on edge, as she is sharp-tongued, polite and quick to think when she has to. The same with Helen, although she mistreated Megan a lot, whereas if she had had helped her the outcome would be positive for her too. The sole reason that she acted as she did, was out of the prejudice that misled her all along. Matt acted like a jackass half the story, upsetting Megan without obvious reason and ignoring her most of the time. My issues with Matt are resolved though, as the book's ending held all the explanations needed.  

The romance between the cousins was thrilling, as it was forbidden and always there. The ending was tailor-made to the rest of the story - although it was a happy-ending, the atmosphere of secrecy never dissolved. Legacy of Lies makes it easily to my list of favorite books.