Steampunk Soul Sucking Good Time!

A Novel of Vampires, Werewolves and Parasols. 

There is something about parnormal books.
I think, in a way, it allows us to infuse imagery to the mystery we find in the world.

And then, there is steampunk.
Steampunk is this growing movement that is one parts magic, one part science and all parts creative genius. It allows the imagination to wonder and create new landscapes for dialogue and action.

Now, fuse the two.
Add parasols, treacle tart and very uptight, Victorian-era mannerisms.

What do you have?

Synopsis:

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire -- and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

I saw this book cover on one of the book bloggers I follow, just a few months ago, before Christmas holidays. I saw the straight backed woman in the shiny purple dress with the parasol and the bright hot pink title and thought to myself: Oh dear, I think I shall have to have that. Then I read that synopsis, and was like: Must. Have. Now.

So I typed it into the Store Locator for Indigo and wouldn't you know? The city where I live while in school had no copies (I am half convinced the population of this city is predominantly illiterate though, unfortunately) but as luck would have it - my favourite place int he world - the World\s Biggest Book Store on Yonge in Toronto did! And I was going home for Christmas! Lucky me! :)

Unfortunately, I only got to it during Reading Week in February - the whole time, this cover and the synopsis plaguing my mind with absurd teasers that left me so frustrated. I was mildly worried that I was building up the anticipation too much, and so when I started, I was pleasantly and instantly surprised to see:

CHAPTER ONE:

WHERE PARASOLS PROVE USEFUL

Miss Alexia Tarabotti was not enjoying her evening. Private balls were never more then a middling amusements for spinsters, and Miss Tarabotti was not the type of spinster who could garner even that much pleasure from the event. To put the pudding in the puff: she had retreated to the library, her favourite sanctuary in any house, only to happen upon an unexpected vampire.
She glared at the vampire.
For his part, the vampire seemed to feel that their encounter had improved his ball experience immeasurably. For there she sat, without escort, in a low necked ball gown. 

Never-you-mind the awesomness that is the title of the chapter - but right away you get the sense you're in Victorian England - the heroine is calm, cool collected and so stuffed full of manners that she cannot even wonder at the oddity of the fact that an errant vampire wheedled his way into the library before thinking of his cheap clothes, disheveled appearance and bad manners.

But even though the story sometimes walks along these tangental lines of mannerisms and fashions, it is by no means a frilly read. Instead, the characters are well developed, and they get more complex as the layers are peeled off, the general sense of which being that the reader knows very little of this new world.

And it is definitely a new world - which is probably my most favourite thing about this book: it's new. Like, entirely new. Sure, there are vampires, werewolves, ghosts, the British, disdain for Italians (and all foreigners), a Scientific society, dirigibles, Hyde Park and special powers - but it's the way these single elements are put together and assembled that makes this a wholly novel novel!

Let me explain a little about this world: This is a world on the brink of science as we understand it. And as such, the dark ages are over and the supernaturals of the world have been unmasked and given calling cards to all the great parts of being out in the ton. But how is it that these types exist? Well, it is theorized early on - they have an excess of soul. Yes, soul.

As for Miss. Tarabotti ... well, she doesn't. She's a preternatural - or a soul sucker, in Vampire vernacular. That means that she has very little or no soul - it's never really determined - and so she would never be able to survive a transformation into any of the supernatural classes (of which there are three: Vampire, Werewolf and Ghost). But this does give her some cool abilities - well, a cool ability. None of the Supernatural's abilities work when they come into contact with her. So that Vampire in the library? Won't be able to take a chunk out of her neck.

Of course, that just means that when Alexia is in danger - it really is a big Bad. And isn't she lucky that she has the sexiest BUR - that is, Bureau of Unnatural Registry - agent, Lord Maccon, who is Earl, Scottish and Werewolf. And super sexy.

The tension between Alexia and Lord Maccon is one part comical and one part endearingly sexy - they are always at odds with one another, he being a traditionalist (and yet, such a free thinker) and she being a blue stocking. Of course, there is always the problem of her constantly getting into trouble with things, and him being the agent on duty to get her out of it, and then there is the fact that he is Scottish and thus only barely civilized.

The jewels of this book are the points of humour that are so well placed that you cannot miss them and relish each one. There is nothing safe - the Scots and Italians get a wollop through the book, then the mannerisms (sometimes absurd) that are strictly adhered to by all well-respected British citizens, and then there is a lot of poking fun at our own interpretations of vampires and werewolves and how they work.

And underneath all of that, and maybe more powerful because of the direct contrast - is the raw power and animal-sex of the culture. Against all the posterings of society, Miss. Tarabotti runs with her feelings, displaying an alarming amount of modernity. Her sexual life is seen in a very modern light. As for Lord Maccon who oozes sex, his sexual life is seen as part of the woldness and the woods and nature, from which he hails. I think that is particularly powerful between the two of them since they tend to match one another in all ways ... and she saves him almost as much as he saves her, and that makes me happy.

The plot is somewhat slow at times, but you will not get bored! It is that full of other things to amuse you with. I love Alexia as the full bodied, dark and big nosed character she is - but my character-love for this book goes to the oochie coochie fashion-"forward", rake of all vampires, Lord Akeldema! He is amazing! He has the most interesting dialogue, and he just never quits - even as he lays in danger, possibly at death's door, he has a lovely platitude for Alexia, while ogling Lord Maccon and disparaging at the state of his waistcoat. He is, quite simply, a character I would love to study in more detail (and hopefully he is a star in the sequels!). He is a vampire and a Rove, loosely affiliated with one of the hives in the London area (Vampires collect themselves in "Hives" that are run by a Queen. Only the Queen can change others into vampires. A ROve is a vampire without a Hive, but usually has affiliations with one or another Hive, but is essentially on his or her own), and he has a penchant for pretty boys, strange fashions and gossip. Lots of gossip. He is delightful, terrifying and perfectly accomidating to my curious mind.

Not that I do not love Alexia and Lord Maccon - but honestly! Who would have thought up a character like Lors Akeldema! I have not been so excited since I discovered Miss Gwen from The Secret History of the Pink Carnation!

Lucky for me - there are two sequels already out! (One which I have and one which I won off Larissa's site and is coming for me in the mail!)

So I can continue to spend some time in this amazingly detailed and amazing world (for comparison, I have not been as excited for a new world since I read Jasper Fforde's first Thursday Next book!).

Excellent book!
Here I go off to read the next one! :)

Cheers!

Here is Gail Carriger's Website - I honestly and urgently beseach you all to visit, it's loaded with goodies on everything from steam punk to essays - go!

And for those chomping at the bit for more - the fourth book in the series will be coming out in July! *squeal* See cover up above! (The purple one, called "Heartless")

Also - for true fans (and those, like my roommate who looked like she was about to fall asleep during class...) a game for you! I am loving these book-related perks that publishers are investing in these days! Love the games especially!

2/10 books

2/20 books

8/75 books

4/12 books

2/20 books

For the Love of a Pack ...

Back a while ago, I stumbled upon a book called "Lunarmorte" by Samantha Young on one of the blogs I frequent. As a writer and enthusiast of YA Werewolves (or any Shifters of any age, really - I just think they are marvelous examples of pretty much everything), I was instantly on high alert for a kindred spirit and a book I could, heh heh, sink my teeth into (or claws, whatever). So I wrote to the author and tried to figure out how to get a copy of it. Luckily for me - she decided to send me a review copy! Score! :)

Unfortunately, exams and such hit and it got pushed to one of the book piles that ornament my room.

But it kept winking at me from beneath the tomes, and I finally just picked it up and - to hell with school,  I wanted to read this book!

So glad I did.

I polished it off within three days, this past February, and I adored the characters, the plot and especially the world. I think Young has created a world that can grow with her chaacters and her readers, which I believe is very important.

Now first, the technical information:

Love this cover!

Existing in the shadows of our world are supernatural races; children blessed by the ancient Greek gods with unimaginable gifts, and at present they are fighting a two-thousand-year old war with one another.

The Midnight Coven, an alliance of dark magiks, faeries, and daemons born of black magik, believe that the vampyres and lykans are lesser supernaturals and a threat to mankind. They are at war with the Daylight Coven, a confederate of light magiks, faeries, vampyres and lykans who believe in the equality of the races.

Into this war seventeen-year-old Caia Ribeiro is born...a lykan with a heritage unlike any other. A heritage that, whether she wants it to or not, will put her into the very heart of battle...

 

 The book is the first in a  trilogy of books about a lykan pack of werewolves, descended through a Portuguese (yay! Represent!) family that itself owes its existence to the Greek Goddess Artemis, who blessed the lykans with the ability to transform from human to wolf. Other Gods gave other gifts to their own children, but somewhere along the lines of supernaturals, a war broke out between two factions: A "light" one that wanted to live free and in peace; and a "dark" one that wanted to rule over the others. 

Into this world is born Caia Ribeiro. We're introduced to Caia ten years before the real story begins. A seven year old Caia is being taken from her home after an attack, her guardian Irini, her only link to her lykan self. As they spirit themselves away from the Pack and into safety, they leave everything they know and love behind. 

The present-day story opens with Caia and Irini being called back to the Pack by Irini's brother, and now the Pack leader, Lucien. Caia has mixed feelings about this - she's excited and scared, and indifferent and hostile - but she goes. 

Her integration into the Pack is swift, aided mostly by Lucien's insistence on the pack welcoming her, but Caia keeps noticing the people around her and feeling that her own Pack is hiding something from her. Added to that, she begins to see Lucien in a different light, and as their attraction deepens, Caia must fight against it to protect her place within the Pack. And as all hell is about to break loose, strange things keep happening to her - things no one can ... or will explain to her. 

I think the thing I liked most about this book is the characters - They spoke to me loudly from page one. Caia herself is sometimes frustrating - you want to yell at her because she seems just too innocent, but that's the part of her that is so intriguing. She's smart and crafty and very independent, and she fights all those qualities while trying to maintain a life within the Pack itself. She is so young and has to deal with a lot things in rapid-fire precision that makes the reader really delve into her. I am particularly drawn into her relationship with Lucien - very platonic at first, but as it gets increasingly more intimate, parts of Caia's character are exposed that really make her sympathetic and enticing, 

The intimate run with Lucien had given him a permanent starring role in her dreams. Sometimes the dreams were so real she felt absolutely consumed by them, finding it difficult to fight her way through the sleepy fog into reality. The fact that the dreams inevitably ended with Lucien kissing her, however, was the wake up call she needed. Kiss. Bam! She was awake and Lucien-less. Caia was trying to control her fantasies, she really was. She lived with this guy. 

Caia is struggling with her attraction, and she doesn't know what to do with it asides from ride it out. She lies to herself to protect herself, and this is where we truly see the damage that her ten year absense from the Pack has wrought. She feels abandoned by her family and she is still tenderly and timidly trying to understand her new life and her position in this world of which she knows precious little. 

I also like the way Young grounds her characters and her world in the modern here and now. I think that a story where the Pack itself is so isolated, and the main character grew up so far from them, this is necessary and almost comedic. 

My favourite example of this was the first dinner Caia had with the Rogue Hunter, Ryder.

"Sooo," Ryder drawled breaking Lucien's scrutiny and saving his brother, "Caia, you like movies?"

Everyone apart from herself and Irini groaned.

"What?" he laughed.

Lucien turned to Caia with an exaggerated look of weariness. "When Ryder isn't mutilating Rogues with his bare hands, he's strapped to an armchair in front oh his huge DVD collection."

...

"I like movies," Caia offered, grasping an opportunity to maybe bond with another member of the pack, particularly one who was so highly regarded by everyone else. 

Ryder's eyes lit up, "Yeah?"

...

He smirked. "Have you seen Underworld?" 

She chuckled now, her eyes dancing with pleasure. "Yes, I have. I swear it was written by a lykan."

"I think we could take those CGI lykans though." She laughed again and he leaned in conspiratorially towards  her. "And who do you think would win in a fight? Lucien," he indicated their pack leader with a tilt of his head. "Or Lucian?" he referred to the lykan leader of the movie franchise.

There is something so endearing about a group of lykans sitting around a dinner table, talking about fictional lykans - it's interesting and it's perfect for the mood Young is capturing as Caia tries to reintegrate into the pack. 

The climax of the book is frighteningly quick and as it hits you, you're sitting there trying to keep up with a load of huge occurrences, most of which carry deadly consequences. 

Which brings us to the title of the book - Lunamorte. As a Portuguese girl, I will translate it for you (though it is translated in the book) - Luna is latin for "Moon" - Lua is the Portuguese for "Moon" and Morte  is ... well, death. In this context, it is a challenge to the pack leader and a fight to the death for the leadership of the Pack. The twist on this is just fantastic, and I loved the way it was introduced and executed - such a well done climax to a great read! 

Now, that my review is over - and I highly recommend you pick this book up - I have some ... not good or bad news ... just news. Sam Young retained her publication rights for the trilogy and edited the first book so it fit more in line with the second and third, though she assures me that the changes are in no way massive so I can pick up the second and read it without having read the newly edited first book. But, this being the case, I thought I would add in the buying information for the new Book 1 (Now entitled, "Moon Spell").

So go forward and read, chickees!

Cheers!

Ammy

2/20 books

8/75 books

Spring Cleaning Contest Alert, via Maggie Stiefvater!

The Authoress of the Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy (That's Shiver (09), Linger ('10) and Forever ('11), as well as Ballad and Lament) is hosting a super awesome contest over at her blog! I am linking it below, for all to enter (though, I want to win it ...)! It's for US addresses only unfortunately (lucky me - I have two more months of school that allow me to be in the US!!!) and it invoves three whoppers of stacks of books!

Thanks Maggie!
Can't wait for Forever!

http://maggiestiefvater.blogspot.com/2011/02/spring-cleaning-book-contest.html

So you've survived the Zombie Apocalypse ... Now what?

I have had a Zombie thing since my first Romero movie back in the day. It was Night of the Living Dead and it was black & white and strange, but I loved it. Prior to this, I had watched the "Zombies" (i.e. green, slow-moving things that moaned about "Brrrrraiiins!") on Tales of the Cryptkeeper and Are you Afraid of the Dark? but, these zombies - these slow-moving reanimated corpses, they spoke to me on a level that was way more intense. As I grew up, watched more horror movies and got into the genre as an enthusiast, I realized why - these zombies had a message, they were a conduit of meaning, and that spoke to me somewhere inside myself.

I mean, zombies are terrifying - they never stop, not because they're stubborn - Oh no! It's because they can't - like, they just ... can't. I think the freakiness of them is summed up nicely in World War Z,

They displayed no conscious thought, just sheer biological instinct. I once watched a Zed Head go after something, probably a golden mole, in the Namib Desert. The mold had burrowed deep in the side of the dune. As the ghoul tried to go after it, the sand kept pouring down, and filling in the hole. The ghoul didn't stop, didn't react in any way, it just kept going. I watched it for five days, the fuzzy image of this G digging, and digging, and digging, then suddenly one morning just stopping, getting up and shuffling away as if nothing had happened.

How scary is that? How scary is an unstoppable force - a slow shambling unstoppable force?

Right, I thought so.

Then I began to wonder, what would happen after the apocalypse? (If you're a fan of Romero, you know - the Zombies always win, so there was no "Beat them back!" thing in my mind; I mean, again - slow shambles of unstoppable chomping power) Of course, there is Day of the Dead where they have military ... or paramilitary ... or whatever, operations and they attempt to teach a Zombie how to speak, and there's Land of the Dead and Survival of the Dead where communities thrive (heh heh, sort of?) after the apocalypse, but in general, most literature and movies focused on the direct aftermath of infection, not the long reaching societal changes that the infection could bring. Let's see - there's 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, where the fast hordes of PCP-Zombies can starve to death (er ... death?); and Dead Set the miniseries where reality TV met Zombies (Yes, I have a British movie fetish too); and then, well ... most of these will be the same - outbreak + disbelief + mad running around = zombie movie.

Then, last winter, I came across The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. This book was set generations after the Return - a time that is best reviewed after reading Ryan's contributing short story (In Unicorns vs. Zombies) Bougeonvillia.

Carrie Ryan is one of those authors who never pulls back. She begins something and lets the story roll, running along with it and shouting out a narrative that is so real and so poignant that you run alongside her. It's one of those types of stories. The Forest of Hands and Teeth began with a girl, Mary, who is at the cusp of so many things - her father dissappeared and is probably unconsecrated (the term for zombie), her mother is half mad with wanting to be with her husband; her brother is a cold guardsman, her best friend bent on marriage and growing up and then the love of her life and his brother competing for her affections. But this world is also abotu survival - it's only a thin fence of chained links that separates the living from the ... undead.

What I loved about The Forest of Hands and Teeth was the grittiness of it. It was just so tragic and sad, and you couldn't help but be swallowed up by the story and the characters. You are carried along with the action, and you know it will end badly, you know that you are reading along and you know it is going badly for your characters ... but you can't stop. It's an amazing book and I think everyone ought to read it.

But this is the review for The Dead-Tossed Waves - so let's at it! :D

Here is the synopsis from her website:

Gabry lives a quiet life, secure in her town next to the sea and behind the Barrier. She's content to let her friends dream of the Dark City up the coast while she watches from the top of her lighthouse. Home is all she's ever known, and all she needs for happiness.

But life after the Return is never safe, and there are threats even the Barrier can't hold back.

Gabry's mother thought she left her secrets behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, but like the dead in their world, secrets don't stay buried. And now, Gabry's world is crumbling.

One night beyond the Barrier...

One boy Gabry's known forever and one veiled in mystery...

One reckless moment, and half of Gabry's generation is dead, the other half imprisoned.

Gabry knows only one thing: if she is to have any hope of a future, she must face the forest of her mother's past. 

So, TDTW opens up a couple of decades after TFoHaT: Mary is all grown up, living in Vista with her daughter, and that's about it for that (I refuse to spoil!).  Our main character is Gabry, the golden haired daughter of Mary, who has lived her entire conscious life in the barrier-enclosed world of Vista. She explains soon after the book begins that she had lived in the lighthouse with her mother, cleaning up the bodies that wash up on the shore from time to time. Gabry is shy, quiet and somewhat reserved in the sense that she is not quick to act when she feels pressured, but is quick to act when she feels she has to ... that's a long way to say that, she has a tonne of regrets when she acts, but her action drives the story.

Gabry is sometimes frustrating to read: She takes forever to get to any one point. She has a huge crush on Catcher, but there are a few obstacles in the way: one being the fact that he was just bit by a mudo (Another name for the zombies in this world). This brings a new element to the Ryan Zombie Universe: immunity. Catcher is immune (this totally doesn't count as a spoiler since it's int he first five chapters) and what that means for Gabry and her friends is complicated. 

What struck me about this installment to this series was the inclusion of everything in the wider world: for Mary's story we were stuck with Mary, and she grew up isolated in this tiny outpost of civilization, where people were forcibly kept ignorant of the rest of the world. With Gabry, she was educated about the world - she was taught about the satellites that can still be seen oribiting the planet, and about the other outposts and where Vista comes from; she's been told about the various religious fanatics and groups that rove the forest recruiting, and she essentially knows how the world works ... theoretically.

Because the thing of it is, that even though she knows these things theoretically, she doesn't understand them - doesn't realize the depth of her world, until she actually has to go out into it and survive for herself. She must question herself and grow up over and again. She meets people who question her, and those she thought she knew challenge her to her most vulnerable. It's amazing.

As frustrating as I sometimes found Gabry's character, I loved her by the end - I felt her loss so profoundly, and new it so well that I didn't want to finish it - which is is why I am glad I only finished it two months before The Dark and Hollow Places comes out!

Now, before I finish it must be said: Team Elias, all the way!
That is all.

Really, though, internet people - this is such an excellent bridge book - it reignites the passion from the first book and carries it forward so that you are excited for the third! I cannot express how good the writing was, it is that moving, and I would recommend it for any Zombie enthusiast - and certainly for any Young adult addict!

Say what you want about the genre, but it is true that Zombies can be metaphors for nearly anything - and for Ryan, they really are - they represent loneliness and regret, instinct and the wild, the human animal and the fear of death. They are manipulated into certain forms until they are strikingly scary and impossible not to think of late at night.

I highly recommend this book and I think you will all love it!

PS. Love this alternative book cover from Katie at Sophistikated Reviews:

Up Next: Well ... not sure, probably a review of The Physik Book of Deliverance Dane

Cheers!

Ammy

Go big or Go Home ...

This will be my review of "Storm of Visions" by Christina Dodd.

The Post title is from a talk Christina Dodd gave at the 2006 Romance Writer's of America (RWA) National Conference. I would recommend checking it out, it is very inspiratonal for all of us who want to be writers! But at some point in the 45 minutes speech, she gets to the point of this title - you go big, and run with it. Nuclear disaster? Sure! People who change into animals because of a pact with the Devil? Hell (ha ha) yeah! Do anything, do whatever - just commit to it - and follow it through.

I think that's a remarkably good way to look at writing. And she follows it through so well, too!

This last book I read, Storm of Visions, I got from my bestie, LG, for Xmas. We exchanged at Starbucks on one of those cold, slushy January days before I had to go back to school. I unwrapped it and just grinned - I love Christina Dodd, as I am sure you're all aware. And I was so eager to begin this new book - especially since it connects to the other contemporaries she writes - and have I mentioned (well, it bears reitterating) how much I love extended universes? I reall do.

Anyways, onto my review of the first book of the Chosen Ones series:

 
Here is the Synopsis from Christina Dodd's website:

 Jacqueline Vargha has always run from her gift. Now Caleb D'Angelo forces his way into her life, demands his place as her lover, and insists she take her place as one of the Chosen. She flees, he pursues, but she can no longer deny her visions, or the dangerous man who is her downfall — and her destiny.

Enter our new hero!  Caleb. And he is fit enough to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with my favourite cursed former shapeshifters, the Wilders, and the other contemporary heroes!

The scene opens with the back story to this series, which I am reproducing below:

When the world was young, twins were born. One brought light to a dark world; the other, darkness and danger. Their powers could not be denied, and they gathered others around them, men and women destined to use their gifts for good or evil. Today, their descendents walk the earth as the Chosen… and the ultimate battle is about to begin.

So we begin with this legend and abandoned babies - a theme also visited int he Darkness Chosen series. This is a short excerpt - the longer one at the beginning of Storm of Visions is really good - heartbreaking, even.

So, we have laid the ground work and all fans already see connections with the Darkness Chosen series, and then enters our heroine, Jacqueline - who is running and hiding in California. She is sassy and she is independent - she has a lot of secrets she likes hidden, and she has a lot of baggage she likes to ignore. Her mommy issues become apparent nearly immediately, as does her huge crush on her mom's bodyguard, Caleb.

Caleb seems, at first, a little bit like Jasha from Scent of Darkness - he knows she wants him, and he pressed it - almost to the point of taking advantage of it. At first reading,  it makes me a tad uncomfortable - but when it works between the two characters, it works - and it definitely works between Jacqueline and Caleb - they start playing cat and mouse, move to fisticuffs, she stabs him with scissors, then they get onto business. And it is written with such passion, that you are instantly brought into the world, immediately drawn into the characters and their stories.

And then the action moves at break neck speed to NYC, and suddenly everything begins to get out of control. Like the first book in many series, this one wanes in and out of perspectives, establishing the world it exists in and the players in this world. Many a book have failed to do this and keep the attention of the reader - but Dodd does not need to worry about that with this installment of the Chosen Ones. She blazes ahead, never pulling her punches - she forges into the areas where there is no turning back, and she exlores them. And that is what makes it such a good book - and what makes her such a good author - she will not set you up and cater to what you want, she will give you what the story needs - what the story means.

Which makes her a good storyteller.

I liked Jacqueline's realization of her own feelings towards her mother, the dynamic of growing up with a famous and glamorous mother - and not knowing any of the history surrounding that. When it all comes down, it is so heart warming, that I was frowning, trying to control my face from pouting at the sadness in it. It was really well done!

Of course, as I alluded to before, the scenes with Caleb and Jaqueline are pure fire! It's amazing since it is in the simplest of things that you see this - like the look he gives her, the way she leans into him - it is all the visual things you see in your head while reading that make you think - "Yes, that's it, isn't it? Hawt.". They are compatible in a strange and wonderful way that works for the book. 

The other Chosen Ones are interesting: I have a particular fascination with Charisma - she speaks to stones, and she is totally awesome. This book also brings back the golden boy - Aleksander! Yes, the little boy from the Darkness Chosen series - Firebird's son! Yes! I love character connections! And bringing back Alex, was genius! Especially since he is all about the one line quips and smart ass comments. Love him all grown up. Cannot wait to see what happens to him! :)

The ending for this one, I thought could have used a few more pages of Caleb and Jacqueline. But I did like the set up - even though I saw it coming.

Oh, I cannot wait for the second one now! :)

4/75 books