A mysterious school of ancient knowledge, a portal to another universe, and a society of scholars dedicated to harnessing the power of one simple truth: art is magic.

When Cassie Cole is accepted into the prestigious Governor's School for the Arts at Walnut Grove on full scholarship, she knows she has to attend even if it means leaving her sister Charlie behind. She's just relieved that she doesn't also leave behind her talent for lucid dreaming, or the seemingly impossible skill of bringing any art she creates in her dreams into the waking world.

After an embarrassing display at the welcoming ceremonies, Cassie begins her first semester as a member of the Visual Arts Society. She's surprised to find herself immediately at the bottom of the pecking order as the oldest first-year and one of the few attending on scholarship, held apart from the rest of the wealthy pedigrees of her fellow scholars. As a result, Cassie's first week is spent navigating unfamiliar traditions and mocking students determined to bully her in the name of initiation. Eventually, she cobbles together a loose set of friends from other misfits like herself, including Sarah Dawson, her roommate who's determined to earn recognition, Whittle Apple, an upperclassman with a brash attitude and an unfortunate name, and Ludwig Van Ness, a writer haunted by menacing dreams of his own.

It doesn't take long for Cassie and her friends to figure out the school is hiding something sinister as they're drawn into the mystery of the wave of disappearing students and whispers of portals to other worlds. At the same time, Cassie's artistic talents begin to garner interest from the faculty, catapulting her into their good graces at the cost of inciting even more hard feelings from her fellow students. Soon Cassie can no longer ignore the strange occurrences surrounding her art, even beginning to suspect that the recurring lucid dream she's always taken for granted is more real than she ever could have imagined. When Cassie finds herself in the middle of a complex nexus of intrigue and danger, she must use all her courage and talent to uncover the truth about herself and the nature of art itself, a truth that will either break all of reality or restore what has been lost.

From the author of the award-winning Charlie Saves Christmas comes the first in an all new trilogy set in the world of Eridul. Cassie and the Spectral Shade is a gripping fantastical mystery about the danger of conforming and the power of art to transform, illuminate, or destroy.

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