Title: Salem Falls

Author: Jodi Picoult

Rating <3 <3 <3 <3

Summary: A handsome stranger comes to the sleepy New England town of Salem Falls in hopes of burying his past: Once a teacher at a girls' prep school, Jack St. Bride was destroyed when a student's crush sparked a powder keg of accusation. Now, washing dishes for Addie Peabody at the Do-Or-Diner, he slips quietly into his new routine, and Addie finds this unassuming man fitting easily inside her heart. But amid the rustic calm of Salem Falls, a quartet of teenage girls harbor dark secrets -- and they maliciously target Jack with a shattering allegation. Now, at the center of a modern-day witch hunt, Jack is forced once again to proclaim his innocence: to a town searching for answers, to a justice system where truth becomes a slippery concept written in shades of gray, and to the woman who has come to love him.

Review: This book by Picoult is a twist on the Salem Witch trials.  It involves four young teenage girls who are involved with wicca, and are just learning to navigate in the world of adults; and when they don't get what they want from the new stranger in town they aim to show him what 'witches' in todays age can be capable of doing to someone.  Jack has been accused of one false crime and after moving to Salem Falls, falling for the local waitress, and starting the threads of a new life he finds himself involved in a new scandal that might send him to jail for the rest of his natural life if he cannot convince the local populace or perhaps a jury to believe in his innocence.

Salem Falls explores the darker side of sexuality and lies that happen everyday in the lives of teenagers, adults and people around the world; have you ever wished someone ill and then heard they were in a car wreck and wondered just for a moment if your thought could have had some link to it? This book explores the possibilites of magic and how they are still active even in today's society.  Salem Falls, opens your mind to looking closer and listening more to the people around you.  People and events may not always be what they seem.  The book was a pretty quick read; the characters were flatter for me than other Picoult novels but the storyline kept me reading.  It was the plot of the book that I enjoyed more than anything.  I would recommend it but I have other books by this author I've enjoyed more.