Nancy Werlin uses a variation of the folksong "Scarborough Fair" as the backdrop for an interesting combination of mystery, fantasy, suspense, and the paranormal.

Generations ago an angry elfin knight placed a curse on the young women of the Scarborough clan. Each girl became pregnant as a teen and upon giving birth to a daughter, each girl went insane. The only way to break the curse was to complete three tasks described in the lyrics of the song. Until now it seemed the curse would carry on forever.

Lucy Scarborough, now seventeen, has always known her birth mother was Miranda Scarborough, but luck brought her into the lives of Leo and Soledad Markowitz. They have raised her since birth and understand the complications of her life story. Through the years they have been plagued by visits from Miranda. Her insanity has been the cause of many embarrassing situations. Now, as Lucy is approaching her last year in high school, she hopes that she can avoid anymore encounters with her crazy mother and get on with her life.

Early in the story, Lucy is preparing for her prom and her date with Gray Spencer. Her adopted parents are nervous about the date since it is one of her first, and they haven't actually met Gray. As the couple is posing for pictures and is about to leave for the evening, the unthinkable happens. Miranda shows up in her baggy T-shirt and flowing skirt, pushing her rusty shopping cart full of bottles and cans. Everyone is shocked when she begins to attack, throwing glass bottles at everyone in the yard. She is finally hauled away by the police, but not before Gray makes a get-away in his new car, leaving Lucy humiliated and dateless.

Just when Lucy is ready to give up on him and attend the prom with a long-time childhood friend, Gray returns, apologizes for running off, and begs her to still be his date. She happily accepts, but it proves to be the beginning of yet another horrible experience. As the two are leaving the prom later that evening, Gray takes Lucy aside and forces himself on her. The experience is not only terrible, but also puzzling as Lucy tries to connect the gentle high school boy with the vicious act and the sinister voice she hears during that attack.

Weeks after the prom, Lucy discovers she has followed in the footsteps of the Scarborough women and become a pregnant teen. Will her fate be the same? Will she give birth to a daughter, and will she lose her mind?

Werlin creates an interesting mix of past and present. Lucy seems one moment to be a typical teen, and the next, the victim of an ancient evil. The turning of each page reveals another fact about the family curse. The lyrics of the song provide the clues necessary to break the curse, but those clues are not crystal clear and require creative solutions from Lucy and her helpful family and friends. Encouraged by hope and love, Lucy fights to change the direction of her life at the same time as she learns to accept the hand fate has dealt. Werlin fans will not be disappointed.

Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"

Lucy Scarborough feels very lucky to have wonderful foster parents Soledad and Leo Markowitz, who took her in when her mother Miranda, only eighteen when her child was born, went insane and left.. Lucy sees her sometimes as a bag lady with a shopping cart. Right now Lucy looks forward to going to the Junior Prom with Gray Spencer, who she likes. The date turns miserable because he rapes her, but she does not believe her predator was Gray as his eyes changed and he spoke in another language; he also called her Fennala.

Her caring parents and her childhood friend Zach get her through the next four months. Zack finds her biological mother's diaries in which he reads that the Scarborough family line including Lucy has been cursed; to lift the elven curse, each female must accomplish three impossible tasks or go mad. None including her mom has succeeded at even one task. However, Lucy has something unique to aid her on her quest that her ancestry never had; she has three people who love her very much, who willingly risk their lives to help her. Three people she loves back as a daughter who cherishes her parents and as a girlfriend to Zach; so she prefers to keep them safe and go it alone but they won't let her.

This is an outstanding young adult fantasy thriller based on the Scarborough Fair ballad with a Brothers Grimm Grim like spin that older readers will appreciate due to an excellent tense story line and strong characterizations. Zach and Lucy are determined obstinate individuals who in his case is willing to die for his beloved and in her case she is not willing to accept his help as she wants him to live (proving Mickey & Sylvia right that "Love is Strange"). The antagonist demonic elf is evil punishing generations of women due to the first sin of an ancestor rejecting him; affirming that adage that Hell has no fury like an elf scorned.

Harriet Klausner

For generations the Scarborough women have been doomed to live eighteen years in sanity, until the birth of their first and only daughter, and then continue the rest of their lives in madness. Their only hope in avoiding insanity is to solve three tasks laid out for them in the Ballad of Scarborough Fair. None of the women have ever come close to solving them.

Until Lucy. Unlike her ancestors, she possesses a loving foster family, and Zach, her childhood friend who has loved her from afar for years. When she finds herself seventeen and pregnant, her unconventional family will band together, with the aid of Lucy's mother's diary pages from before insanity overtook her, and find a way break their curse once and for all--Lucy's future, and those of her mother and unborn daughter, depend upon it.

The haunting and mysterious words of the Ballad of Scarborough Fair take on new meaning in Impossible as Lucy, a young, determined, and modern heroine is faced with insurmountable odds. Werlin's prose is wonderfully magnetic; a pervading mix of magic, romance, and apprehension. Suspense is skillfully built throughout the book, and is sure to make readers squirm in excitement. Further knowledge of Lucy's ancestors might have added some appeal and interest to the story, but the lack of information on them does not detract from the story in any way. Werlin proves not only to be a captivating writer in Impossible, but also a uniquely clever and sensitive one as well as this unusual, romantic, and enchanting novel unfolds.