From the author's website(http://www.dianapeterfreund...) :

Forget everything you ever knew about unicorns…

The sparkly, innocent creatures of lore are a myth. Real unicorns are venomous, man-eating monsters with huge fangs and razor-sharp horns. And they can only be killed by virgin descendants of Alexander the Great.

Fortunately, unicorns have been extinct for a hundred and fifty years.

Or not.

Astrid Llewelyn has always scoffed ather eccentric mother’s stories about killer unicorns. But when one of the monsters attacks her boyfriend in the woods – thereby ruining any chance of him taking her to prom – Astrid learns that unicorns are real and dangerous, and she has a family legacy to uphold. Her mother packs her off to Rome to train as a unicorn hunter at the ancient cloisters the hunters have used for centuries.

However, at the cloisters, all is not what is seems. Outside, the unicorns wait to attack. And within, Astrid faces other, unexpected threats: from crumbling, bone-covered walls that vibrate with a terrible power to the hidden agendas of her fellow hunters to – perhaps most dangerously of all – her growing attraction to a handsome art student… and a relationship that could jeopardize everything.

RAMPANT, a tale of killer unicorns, will be released in August of 2009 by Harper Collins.

When I read this on the back of the ARC, I was instantly intrigued. Like most red-blooded girls, I've always like horses, and unicorns are an extension of that. Being a mythology buff, I'd bump into unicorns in my readings a lot. And I have to say, that's where this book really hooked me.

The unicorns portrayed in the book aren't the sparkly white horses with perfect spiral horns that are the boiled-down and sweetened unicorns popular today. They are based on the historical record of unicorns from around the world. No two unicorns from any region were alike, and that is reflected in this story. These guys are vicious! And yet, somehow, some of them are still quite adorable (like that little stinker Bonegrinder!)

The pacing is excellent, the excitement level is on the ceiling through most of the book, and the characters are completely developed and become like actual, real-life friends. I love Astrid and her cousin, and her mother drives me nuts! Even more than my own mother does! This novel is completely original and different from anything else I've read (and I'm ALWAYS reading) and I can't wait until she writes more-- this NEEDS to be a series!

The only problem I have with it, and it is truly the ONLY problem, is that I can't recommend it to everybody. There are some rather frank discussions about virginity, sex, and rape that while being well-written, tasteful, and accurately realistic (I don't think anybody anymore can pretend that teenagers aren't constantly thinking about sex) I wouldn't feel comfortable suggesting it for any one under 16, unless they were very mature. Especially not in our conservative town of Bakersfield.

Me as a young adult? I could totally handle it. Most young adults I know? Could totally handle it. Some of the young adults I've helped at the store? There's no way, some of them are way too immature and their mama's are way too cranky. Otherwise, this book is so much fun, so different from anything else out there, and so well done, I'd be pushing it into everybody's hands as a must-read.

As it is, although it is a young adult book, I'll be selective about which young adults I suggest it to and I will foist it on as many adults as I possibly can once it comes out. It'll be on displays and on my recommends page on the store website. You should be able to find it with ease.