When Daiyu, a St. Louis high school student adopted as a baby from China, lives an ordinary life - she is spending her summer volunteering and getting ready for high school to begin. Then she purchases the ring, she is transported, not back in time – but to an alternate universe. The universe is a near replica in terms of geography to her home in St. Louis but the buildings and modes of transportation are different and the people all look Chinese, they speak an unknown language (which the ring enables her to understand). Daiyu learns that she has been called upon to complete a mission to send an evil leader back to his own universe. The only problem is that Daiyu likes him and cannot commit to the act. I enjoyed this teen alternative reality novel. It wasn't overly complicated but the issues that Daiyu deals with felt very real. Is she allowed to have free will or is her fate already decided? She is starting to forget the world she came from but finds her self caring little about that as she is falling in love with Kalen. Kalen is a native boy who helps Daiyu adapt to this strange place. But when by fate she actually accomplishes her mission there is little reason for her to stay so will she follow her heart and return to her parents and the world she knows or stay and make a life for herself with Kalen?
One of my favorite movies is Made in Heaven starring Timothy Hutton and Kelly McGillis and the ending of this book reminded me a lot of this movie. Not a great teen book but a decent one and maybe it will open a new world to teens who only want to read vampire books.