The House of Night series continues with book 5, with Kalona and Neferet spreading their power over the House.
What I Liked
The red fledglings have a bigger presence with Shauna Rae in the lead as their de facto High Priestess, and we start to see Neferet’s relationship with Kalona. And just for fun, Aphrodite has imprinted with Shauna Rae. I also like that Zoey retreats from the sexual maturity she developed in book 4, instead of just “okay, let’s have sex with anyone now cuz I did it with Blake”. Real consequences, real reactions to the betrayal. The addition of the Raven Mockers is a major uptick in the baddies department, all leading to a real battle at the end.
What I Didn’t Like
The book is a bit slow in places, and the whole Erik / Stark / Heath quadrangle is vomit-inducing — pick one, don’t pick one, don’t care. I’m also getting tired of the “we can’t go back to the HoN” one minute followed by “the only place we can go is the HoN” flip/flop.
Three women carry a dark secret from their homecoming dance, and an eccentric billionaire’s death may force the secret into the light.
What I Liked/Didn’t Like
The premise of the story is that an unidentified baby was found buried in a park 18 years before, and a billionaire’s widow offers a $1M lottery if people will donate their DNA to solve the case. The three girls are affected by the premise, and you know something happened with a baby that ties them somehow to the case; you’re not sure what, but they’re “involved”.
I struggled to finish the book…normally, if I’m reading a book that isn’t singing to me, I stop, and I don’t review it. Equally, if it is a debut author and I’m likely to rate it less than 3 stars, I also don’t review it. But I liked the premise of the DNA lottery. It was new, it was diffferent, how would it affect the ending? So I kept with it.
The writing was okay, but I was increasingly unsatisfied. There are multiple scenes with intentionally vague language to hide the “solution”, but it only works because the story has a slight PoV shift before each one. It’s not quite as egregious as someone thinking of a killer and using the personal pronoun “they” instead of “he or she” or “Jack or Jane”, not because it fits their actual pronoun or how they think of that person, it’s just “they” so the reader doesn’t figure out the mystery too early.
Plus, there were a couple of weird coincidences and a completely wonky character shift in a tertiary character at the end. And one deliberate misdirect to make you think one of the characters might have been raped, but wasn’t, and yet the possible rape was one of the few things explaining her weird behaviour as a high-schooler prior to the secret event. Plus, all three women are each acting “off” during the day of the secret event, to make you think they’re possibly pregnant, yet it has nothing to do with the outcome and is never explained.
By this time, I was 3/4 of the way through, so I had to finish. And yet I expected to be ticked at the ending — I thought it would either be something trite and superficially handled OR it would be a giant twist that made no sense. But then something wonderful happened.
The author tied up the story with a neat twist. Sure, part of it relied on a giant coincidence that I wish had been handled better, but the explanation explained stuff way better and didn’t end like any of the two obvious solutions. And the epilogues were pretty good. A bit short, but interesting. I had to bump it up to 3 stars. I confess that not all of the stories are tied up equally well. Some behaviour is explained, other bits are left dangling and seemingly the antithesis of the rest of the character’s behaviour, but whatever. It was worth finishing.
Disclosure
I received a free copy of this book from Amazon, however, I am not personal friends with the author, nor have I interacted with them on social media.
Zoey has become isolated from her friends, thanks to Neferet’s machinations, just as a big baddie named Kalona is trying to return to Earth.
What I Liked
Aphrodite’s role and friendship with Stevie Rae and Zoey is starting to gel at this point, and it is far better than that of the nerd herd. I don’t just mean that they’ve deserted her in the book, as they feel hurt she didn’t share certain info with them, but just that their “contribution” is highly repetitive and doesn’t add much most of the time. And the introduction of the Street Cats charity with nuns running it is a fun addition. It adds some much-needed light to otherwise dark storylines.
What I Didn’t Like
The nerd herd. Yawn. And the ending is a bit chaotic in too-short of time.
It’s time for a double celebration — Winter Solstice and Zoey’s birthday. If only she wasn’t dealing with three men after her body, friends who are beginning to doubt her, Neferet and Loren scheming, and a best friend who remains undead.
What I Liked
I liked the scenes near the start where her friends and parentals have no clue how to help her celebrate her birthday, with only her ex-bf Heath and grandma really “getting” her preferences.
What I Didn’t Like
The story isn’t as solid this time, with most of it leading up to a plan to save Stevie Rae while distancing Zoey from her friends. The various near-sex scenes are ridiculous as the virtuous and virginal Z claims she’s just overcome by her emotions but getting closer and closer to sex with three different guys throughout the story. And after three books, it rings really false at this point. The romantic confusion is mixed with the sexual confusion, but the sexual side really isn’t that confusing.
A young recruit enters a war college for dragon riders, compelled to enrol by her mother, a high-ranking military officer.
What I Liked
I had seen this book in a bookstore in Maine when I was travelling over the summer, and it seemed like a fairly normal YA fantasy novel. It had some “legs”, and sounded good for the description, so I snapped a pic of the cover and downloaded it to my TBR pile when I got home. I assumed Jacob would likely read it first; we have similar tastes in those types of books, and I knew nothing about the author Rebecca Yarros or her other books. About a week ago, a woman I follow in video clips described the book as a cross between Divergent, Game of Thrones, and Lord of the Rings. But she also talked about spicy scenes, her lingo for sexual interactions ranging from kissing to full-on sex scenes. I thought maybe I should read it before giving it to Jacob.
Holy crap. Yeah, he’s not reading it. While I hate to spoil anything, the sex scenes read more like Penthouse Forum than YA. Graphic references to insertion of fingers, slippery genitalia, etc. It apparently reflects more of Yarros’ erotica in previous romance novels.
But going back to the story itself, I found the plot solid and see why someone would see it as a cross of fantasy with Divergent. Violet may be there against her will, preferring to have become a scribe instead, and despite her own fragile physical condition, she is definitely Dauntless-class. The training is good, and you even get to see an American Ninja Warrior course built into the training, although it isn’t labelled as such, obviously, even if it is clearly a Warped Wall obstacle. I don’t know if it’s a trilogy or not, maybe ongoing, but I’ll read the next ones.
What I Didn’t Like
I found the book a bit long and slow in parts, and the constant “I love John, but I also love the bad boy Zach” angst that is common to YA romances was a bit tedious in places. I am way too old to care about that crap. The reader has no delusions about who will be the “winner” of her heart.
I also would have liked a LOT more info about the other wings, other factions (like scribes and healers), and even more so for information about the dragons themselves. They’re super cool, yet the book drops info about them like reciting a Wikipedia page.
Finally, the ending has a two-part twist for what’s really going on (easily seen) and who’s involved, and I had pretty much figured out what was coming, just not sure which “choose your own adventure” ending it would be amongst three.
FYI, the sex scenes were way over the top and more yawn-inspiring or silly than erotic.
