Allie, Nick, Aaron and Brooke are spending the summer at a lakeshore cabin, but Allie doesn't feel like enjoying herself. Her father left the family and remarried, and Nick is the six-foot-one son who came with her dad's new wife. Brooke is a chatty holidaymaker who's hanging around because she fancies Aaron, Nick's pal.

LINGERING ECHOES of tragedy colour Allie's expectations and a ghost story told over a campfire adds to the atmosphere. Then Brooke urges the others to come and see the site of the ghost tale, a burned cabin. That's the end of the fun for Allie. Allie can't stop thinking about her young cousin who drowned the previous year. She never wanted to come here again, but her dad insisted. Falling out with the others over mentions of the death of the little girl, Allie starts spending time with a local lad called Damien; he's got a motorbike and seems more interesting.

Allie has a lot of repressed emotions - anger at her father, resentment at his new family, distress over the drowning, guilt over having been in charge of the little girl. She's stopped trying for good grades or getting along with people. All she finds helpful is running, as she can be alone. Maybe this is why she likes Damien's company - he's an outsider. Some internet research on the ghost story cabin however provides an unpalatable truth about Damien. Local gossip confirms it. Should she drop the guy, or having alienated her friends, is it too late to change her ways?

LINGERING ECHOES by Erica Kiefer comes across as almost claustrophobic, despite being set in an outdoor location. Allie spends so much time inside her own head and feelings that she unintentionally becomes self-centred and isolated. Only when Allie makes an effort to understand what Damien might be going through can she stop thinking about herself. For teens who want an edgy romance that does not involve werewolves and vampires, but two haunted young people, Erica Kiefer has produced a readable and ultimately hopeful love story. LINGERING ECHOES is her first book, and I hope she'll write many more.