Book 1 of the Burden Series.Clara never asked to be special. She was perfectly happy e-stalking her crush’s blog, avoiding the attention of the Bronze Brigade clique at school, awaiting the next visit from her avant-garde Aunt Grace, and dreaming of a strange young man ... who feels too real to be only a dream.But then one day, her world literally separates at the seams, as a blinding light rips her mother away right before her eyes. In one, inexplicable moment, Clara is tugged from a life where her biggest worry is how to avoid social scrutiny to having the burden of her mother's disappearance and her father’s subsequent unhappiness hoisted squarely onto her shoulders.Precisely one year later, on her 17th birthday, the blinding white light returns. This time, the light brings with it more than just grief. It ushers in a cast of Guardians who have been with Clara all along, waiting for her to awaken and remember a promise she made in another world. When Clara learns what is expected of her, and the price she must pay to restore order, she can only hope that the still dormant ancient soul that lives inside of her is truly fighting on the side of Good.Burden of the Soul grapples not only with the battle between Good and Evil, and Action and Complacency, but pits its unlikely heroine squarely against herself. Half of Clara is an ancient soul who made a promise to fight a war, the other half is an adolescent girl who never asked to be special.