Lily Dale Series

Books in the Series

About the Series

In this paranormal mystery series, after losing her mom, Calla Delaney is uprooted to live with her maternal grandmother, a quirky spiritualist, in the real-life upstate New York village entirely populated by people who claim they can speak to the dead. She soon discovers that psychic abilities may just be hereditary…and that her mother’s death wasn’t an accident. Readers can revisit a grown-up Calla and other beloved characters in the new Lily Dale mystery series.

Lily Dale: Awakening

Lily Dale: Awakening

BOOK ONE

She may be able to see the future, but she needs to know what happened to her past.

Calla thought that her boyfriend breaking up with her in a text message was the worst thing that could ever happen to her. But just two weeks later, her mother died in a freak accident, and life as she knew it was completely over. With her father heading to California for a new job, they decide that Calla should spend a few weeks with the grandmother she barely knows while he gets them set up on the west coast.

To Calla’s shock, her mother’s hometown of Lily Dale is almost entirely populated by spiritualists who can communicate with the dead—and her grandmother is one of them. Suddenly, the fact that her mother never talked about her past takes on more mysterious overtones. The longer she stays in town, the stranger things become, as Calla starts to experience unusual and unsettling events that lead her to wonder whether she has inherited her grandmother’s unique gift. Is it this gift that is making her suspect that her mother’s death was more than an accident, or is it just an overactive imagination? Staying in Lily Dale is the only way to uncover the truth. But will Calla be able to deal with what she learns about her mother’s past and her own future?

“The Lily Dale series is an unsettling, yet captivating story. The paranormal mood of this first novel creates an enticing plot that will have readers yearning for the next addition to the series. And I was fascinated when I learned that this tale is not so far fetched; there is, in fact, a town called Lily Dale filled with mediums that say they can actually make contact with spirits. The thin line between reality and fantasy makes this book even more interesting.

“I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of mystery novels because it is eerily intriguing, and it keeps you guessing until the final page when secrets are revealed that will really excite readers for the next installation in this paranormal series.”
— Courtney Bowers for THE BOOKSHELF, Blount Today

“Wendy Corsi Staub’s Lily Dale: Awakening is a book that promises a big mystery involving the very real psychic abilities of the people who live in Lily Dale, NY…If there’s one thing life in Lily Dale makes clear, it’s that nothing is ever what it seems! I liked Calla a lot and really enjoyed her vibrant and funny grandmother… Staub was very smart setting a mystery in Lily Dale and from the cliffhanger ending it is clear that she is going to mine the village’s history for all it is worth. Good for her!”
— Eclectica Magazine

“Staub returns to the scene of her bestselling adult thriller In the Blink of an Eye for the slick opener of the Lily Dale series….When the ending wraps up one mystery only to intensify another, readers will be impatient for the next installment.”
— Publishers Weekly

“Characters are sharply drawn, and kids who like stories with psychic underpinnings will certainly appreciate the otherworldly goings-on and Calla’s reactions to them.”
— Booklist

Lily Dale: Believing

Lily Dale: Believing

BOOK TWO

Bestselling Author Wendy Corsi Staub takes readers back to Lily Dale for more mystery, suspense, and romance in the thrilling sequel to Lily Dale: Awakening.

After her tumultuous summer in Lily Dale, Calla has decided to stay, knowing there is still much more to learn about her mother’s untimely death. As school begins at Lily Dale High, Calla finally starts to feel at home in her new town. Despite her excitement over the affections of Blue Slayton and her growing feelings for Jacy Bly, Calla can’t ignore the urgency of her latest visions. Someone is desperately trying to contact her again-this time because the killer, whose victim she helped locate, has kidnapped another girl and may be after Calla next. Unless she learns to trust the warnings she’s receiving from the spirit world, Calla could be in serious danger.

“Staub builds on the background she set up in Awakening. Calla is growing. She’s learning to listen to herself and her environment. She’s got a long way to go, but the growth gained last time is a good foundation for what is to come. There’s still a lot that we don’t know. Many of the threads left over from the last book have been fleshed out and added to, but they are not resolved. The series is getting better and stronger. Calla and her friends are very much teens of today. These are the teens that you don’t read about in the newspaper — the ones that are just going about living their lives and trying to find a place for themselves, and a way to be true to who they feel they are.”
— SFRevu

“Although not much time has passed within Calla’s life, there is more suspense in Lily Dale: Believing than ever before. While the book features the unfortunate but very real topic of teen abduction, it also presents a story of the strength of family connections, even from the other side.”
— Teenreads.com

Lily Dale: Connecting

Lily Dale: Connecting

BOOK THREE

Will a shocking secret change Calla’s life forever?

Although Lily Dale is a world apart from her old life in sunny Florida, Calla has finally accepted her ability to communicate with the Other Side. But the person Calla is most desperate to connect with is the one spirit whose energy she can’t seem to feel anywhere: her mother. It seems like a lifetime has passed since her mother’s death, and she’s still no closer to finding out the truth. But as she and Jacy grow closer, his visions show Calla in serious danger. Together they must try to make sense of the signs they’ve been receiving from the Spirit world-and quickly. As long as her mother’s killer is still on the loose, Calla will never be safe.

Making her way back to Lily Dale with even more twists and turns, bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub will have readers on edge in the third book of her thrilling paranormal series.

“This installment in the series continues the story of high school senior Calla Delaney. Her mother’s death was thought to be an accident, but Calla’s visions tell her otherwise, and she is determined to discover her mother’s killer. Living in Lily Dale (a real spiritualist community in upstate New York) with her grandmother, the teen is beginning to feel more comfortable with her own gift for seeing spirits, but she misses her father (on sabbatical in California) and her old, “normal” life in Florida. Romance, friendship, and psychic powers mix as Calla tries to choose between two boys in her new town–one who is the most popular and one who tries to keep her safe. Both, of course, are extraordinarily handsome. While those who have read Awakening (2007) and Believing (2008, both Walker) will have a better immediate understanding of Calla’s situation and surroundings, Connecting stands fairly well on its own. The characters are interesting, the search for Calla’s mother’s murderer is gripping, and the dollop of romance adds just the right spark. The book never pre tends to be great literature, but it certainly fits the bill for some tingly escape reading. For those who are hooked, the ending promises that there will be more.”
— School Library Journal

“In this third title in the Lily Dale series, teen Calla is still living with her grandmother in Lily Dale, New York, “a legendary open portal between the living and the dead.” After a series of disturbing visions suggests that her mother’s death, years ago, was a murder, Calla investigates, aided by both real-world sources (the Internet) and spirit guides. Teens fascinated by the supernatural will enjoy the20vivid descriptions of psychic communication and the terminology (psychometry) in episodes framed by the larger mystery of a parent’s secret life. A cliff-hanger ending suggests the direction of the next series installment.”
— Booklist

“Connections are made, while others are weakened, as Calla Delaney tries to balance her old life with the one she currently has. Fans of Wendy Corsi Staub’s suspenseful series are in for plenty of surprises here—and there are more stories to discover in LILY DALE: DISCOVERING, which will be in stores in 2009.”
— Teenreads.com

Lily Dale: Discovering

Lily Dale: Discovering

BOOK FOUR

Having grown up near Lily Dale, N.Y., the country’s oldest community of spiritualists, New York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub always knew the place would make the perfect setting for a tween paranormal.

Now in Lily Dale: Discovering, young Calla finally knows the “who” behind her mother’s death but she still doesn’t understand the “why.” Could it involve the half sibling her mother kept secret for decades? Unwilling to share her recent discovery with anyone, including her father who just moved to town, Calla must call on the spirit world once again for help in finding her missing sibling and the final clues behind her mother’s death. Will Calla’s journey bring the closure she seeks?

“As always, Staub did a wonderful job with this installment. Her writing is flawless and flows perfectly. Calla isn’t a hormone-raged teenage girl and being able to read from the first person POV helps the reader understand why Calla feels they way she does about certain things—which make it clear to the reader what’s going on without ruining anything by spoiling the next surprise.”
—Addled Her Brain via Livejournal