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Zodiac #3
Into the Light
When she is attacked by a group of thugs, young artist Lily is rescued by a handsome fellow artist and falls in love with him, but Lily fears that she will lose her chance for a career in art when a mural she painted is slated for destruction. Original.
176 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1995
36 people want to read
About the author
Jahnna N. Malcolm
100 books75 followersJahnna N. Malcolm is the pen name for husband-and-wife team Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner. Together they've written four musicals, two movies, three CD-ROM games, and nearly one hundred books, including the popular series The Jewel Kingdom. They met in the theater and were married on the stage using Marlowe's famous love letter from "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" as their wedding vows.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 7, 2025
Rounded up to 3 stars.
This is the third book in this series that only got to four entries over here in the U.S.A. but continued to be published for the whole zodiac over in the U.K.
Out of the three books I have read, this Libra one is not the best.
It started out very strong and then it started to get a little out there...even for someone who reads books with weird twists like I do.
The blurb on the back is maybe 50% accurate. While Leo and Scorpio have the creepy factors, this one is more of whimsical romance mixed with a crime story.
Lily is a young woman who goes to art school and is very talented, but her life is nowhere as beautiful as her art. Her mother, who she calls by her first name of Stormy, has been married three times and this last one, Danny, is a jerk and a pig.
He is abusive both verbally and physically to her mother, Lily and her fourteen-year-old sister Rosa. Rosa is not a shy girl, she is a smart-mouthed teenager with not the best hygiene, and she runs around with older boys in gangs. She is not happy that her mother took Danny back into their house and acts out even more.
Coming home from the art school, a handsome young man roughly warns her to stay away from the path she is about to take home. Lily doesn't listen and he runs off just before...a building explodes!
No one is hurt but Lily is shaken and finds a baseball cap that is black with silver wings, so she brings it home, recognizing it from the young man wearing it. Rosa informs her sister that this is worn by the members of the gang, The Lucifers, and Lily discovers Rosa has been dating their leader, Hero.
When Rosa lets it slip to Hero that her sister found one of the gang hats, he beats her up and tries to intimidate Lily to giving him the hat back. She doesn't bow down and then hides the hat, but it only seems to make things worse yet...better at the same time.
She is asked to paint a mural on walls downtown in not the very nice part of the New York suburban neighborhood where the Lucifers have their territory. Lily soon discovers that there is a new student in her art class, and he is the handsome young man who tried to scare her off the day the building was blown up!
He introduces himself to Lily as Nick and he has quit the Lucifers partly to pursue his passion for art and because he couldn't stand to see an innocent like her get caught in the crossfire of what was a planned explosion. Ironically, Nick seems to be Lily's guardian angel and her artistic soulmate because he starts to sketch pictures similar to the ones Lily is imagining painting on her mural!
With her harsh reality at home, Lily begins to fall in love with Nick, and they share a fantastical romance, but it is tinged with danger. Nick is about to betray his old gang, and Hero is also wanting to go after Rosa as another way to get to Lily. It doesn't help that Danny wants to put Rosa out on the street for stealing from him and take advantage of Lily.
This all makes for a compelling story, but it doesn't go the way you expect.
Into The Light is quite the appropriate title.
If it had ended completely tragic that would have been much better and even a happy ending would have worked better. This is just such a confusing and ambiguous way to end this book and then deliver on the next one.
A very uneven book that doesn't tip the scales in its favor.
This is the third book in this series that only got to four entries over here in the U.S.A. but continued to be published for the whole zodiac over in the U.K.
Out of the three books I have read, this Libra one is not the best.
It started out very strong and then it started to get a little out there...even for someone who reads books with weird twists like I do.
The blurb on the back is maybe 50% accurate. While Leo and Scorpio have the creepy factors, this one is more of whimsical romance mixed with a crime story.
Lily is a young woman who goes to art school and is very talented, but her life is nowhere as beautiful as her art. Her mother, who she calls by her first name of Stormy, has been married three times and this last one, Danny, is a jerk and a pig.
He is abusive both verbally and physically to her mother, Lily and her fourteen-year-old sister Rosa. Rosa is not a shy girl, she is a smart-mouthed teenager with not the best hygiene, and she runs around with older boys in gangs. She is not happy that her mother took Danny back into their house and acts out even more.
Coming home from the art school, a handsome young man roughly warns her to stay away from the path she is about to take home. Lily doesn't listen and he runs off just before...a building explodes!
No one is hurt but Lily is shaken and finds a baseball cap that is black with silver wings, so she brings it home, recognizing it from the young man wearing it. Rosa informs her sister that this is worn by the members of the gang, The Lucifers, and Lily discovers Rosa has been dating their leader, Hero.
When Rosa lets it slip to Hero that her sister found one of the gang hats, he beats her up and tries to intimidate Lily to giving him the hat back. She doesn't bow down and then hides the hat, but it only seems to make things worse yet...better at the same time.
She is asked to paint a mural on walls downtown in not the very nice part of the New York suburban neighborhood where the Lucifers have their territory. Lily soon discovers that there is a new student in her art class, and he is the handsome young man who tried to scare her off the day the building was blown up!
He introduces himself to Lily as Nick and he has quit the Lucifers partly to pursue his passion for art and because he couldn't stand to see an innocent like her get caught in the crossfire of what was a planned explosion. Ironically, Nick seems to be Lily's guardian angel and her artistic soulmate because he starts to sketch pictures similar to the ones Lily is imagining painting on her mural!
With her harsh reality at home, Lily begins to fall in love with Nick, and they share a fantastical romance, but it is tinged with danger. Nick is about to betray his old gang, and Hero is also wanting to go after Rosa as another way to get to Lily. It doesn't help that Danny wants to put Rosa out on the street for stealing from him and take advantage of Lily.
This all makes for a compelling story, but it doesn't go the way you expect.
Into The Light is quite the appropriate title.
If it had ended completely tragic that would have been much better and even a happy ending would have worked better. This is just such a confusing and ambiguous way to end this book and then deliver on the next one.
A very uneven book that doesn't tip the scales in its favor.
October 13, 2025
This made me cry omg, a sad romance story. Star crossed lovers with an urban and fantasy vibe. And obviously a bunch of astrology! I will say it wasn’t creepy or anything, it did have an almost twilight zone ish ending though.
November 12, 2025
This was so sad! Especially for a Libra book. They’re not people I associate with sadness. Romeo and Juliet artists set in NYC. Gang warfare. Domestic violence. Not the usual fare for 90s YA. Love interest was a Taurus.
The shoe horned astrology bits in these books always make me laugh. Libras obsessed with beauty and balance. Keeping the peace. Her Gemini mom was obsessed with men. lol.
The shoe horned astrology bits in these books always make me laugh. Libras obsessed with beauty and balance. Keeping the peace. Her Gemini mom was obsessed with men. lol.
August 2, 2018
I loved this book growing up. After I tore through Goosebumps, Fear Street and Stephen King - I was desperate for other YA thrillers. This one is dark, moody, artistic and everything teenage Marcus could have wanted. Such a pleasant re-read.
March 4, 2024
I read this book for the first time when I was 21 & I read it again when I'm 48. A beautiful story where death and despair become its end, yet it gives hope to the characters left behind. One of the works that influence my writing.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews