The Calling by Kelley Armstrong

Genre: science fiction
Series and Book #: Darkness Rising Trilogy #2
Pages: 326
Summary:

Maya Delaney’s paw-print birthmark is the mark of what she truly is—a skin-walker. She can run faster, climb higher, and see better than nearly everyone else. Experiencing intense connection with animals that roam the woods outside her home, Maya knows it’s only a matter of time before she’s able to Shift and become one of them. And she believes there may be others in her small town with surprising talents.

Now Maya and her friends have been forced to flee from their homes during a forest fire they suspect was deliberately set. Then they’re kidnapped, and after a chilling helicopter crash, they find themselves in the Vancouver Island wilderness with nothing but their extraordinary abilities to help them get back home.

--------

The Calling was jam packed with action and suspense! It just kept coming! Armstrong left nothing for review as she jumped the reader from action scene to action scene.

I loved the mixture of mythology Armstrong intertwined with the novel. Not only Maya's skin-walker heritage, but also Daniel and Sam's banadanti ancestors. That plus the science made this a unique clash of traditional and modern beliefs.

Maya is such a complex character who is always willing to make sacrifices for her friends. Unlike other heroines, she's also willing to accept that she did something wrong, and that she can fix it. She's a nice, head-strong girl that makes this story even more interesting, because you know that Maya will never go down without a fight.

Overall, this was kind of the awkward second book when nothing truly happens. The best part about this, that will fuel my need for the final book The Rising, is that Armstrong is going to bring Maya and Chloe together! :D *dances with joy* I can't wait to see how she mixes the two trilogies!

The Cover: I love how the model is staring at the reader, as if she's daring them.

The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong

Genre: science fiction, folklore
Series and Book #: Darkness Rising #1
Pages: 359
Synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old Maya is just an ordinary teen in an ordinary town. Sure, she doesn’t know much about her background—the only thing she really has to cling to is an odd paw print birthmark on her hip—but she never really put much thought into who her parents were or how she ended up with her adopted parents in the tiny medical-research community on Vancouver Island.

Until now.

Strange things have been happening in this claustrophobic town—from the mountain lions that have been approaching Maya to her best friend’s hidden talent for “feeling” out people and situations to the sexy new bad boy who makes Maya feel…different. Combine that with a few unexplained deaths and a mystery involving Maya’s biological parents and it’s easy to suspect that this town might have more than its share of skeletons in its closet.

--------

Just like in the Darkest Powers Trilogy, Kelley Armstrong's made another strong trilogy that I'm so excited for! My favorite part of this novel was the inclusion of Native American folklore. Obviously Armstrong did her research, because the myths and the beliefs of Maya's Native background were in depth and descriptive.

Armstrong did an excellent job of making the secluded area of Salmon Creek come alive. The small town idea was well played. Maya described the place as having nothing nearby, and there was literally nothing. A couple small stores and one restaurant with the nearest town one hour away. The wilderness then became a very strong point of the book, and this is where Maya's rising "special talents" were excellently shown.

I thought the cues that Armstrong placed throughout the novel suggesting who Maya was kind of ruined the climax. Maya was smart and she pieced together everything just as I did. So when Rafe (the sexy bad boy described above) tells who she is and what that means, she doesn't freak out and she doesn't doubt it. She totally accepts it and this, I think, made the novel less about what Maya was and more about where she came from. As with the Darkest Powers Trilogy, medical research was a key part of this novel. I would have preferred if it was more supernatural and less of a scientific reason for everything.

Overall, another strong novel with another strong cast of characters. This book came off better than The Summoning. I'm more animated and excited for the next novel, waiting for Maya's upcoming Shift and her sparking romance with Rafe. The Calling's calling me!

The Cover: like the covers of the Darkest Powers, I don't really get the significance of the earring. But the darkness and the model definitely grab my attention.

The Reckoning (Darkest Powers Trilogy #3) by Kelley Armstrong

Genre: teen fantasy and science fiction

Age Group: Young Adult

Book #: three
Pages: 391
Synopsis: My name is Chloe Saunders. I'm fifteen and I would love to be normal. But normal is one thing I'm not. For one thing, I'm having these feelings for a certain antisocial werewolf and his sweet-tempered brother--who just happens to be a sorcerer--but, between you and me, I'm leaning toward the werewolf. Not normal. My friends and I are on the run from and evil corperation that wants to get rid of us--permanently. Definately not normal. And finally, I'm a genetically altered necromancer wh ocan raise the dead, rotting corpses and all, without even trying. As far away from normal as it gets.

~~

Oh, my goodness! The Reckoning was, in my opinion, the best one out of the three in the Darkest Powers trilogy! (See my reveiws of The Summoning and The Awakening.) The plot was amazing, the twists were surprising, and the mysteries were nail-biting thrillers.

Chloe is no longer innocent and immature in this book, which I found to be gratifying. I can only stand so much of a wimpy main character. This book was the one I was expecting throughout the entire Darkest Powers Trilogy. There were perfect twists (and, trust me, there were a LOT of twists) and the mysteries keep piling up.

There are half-demons, full demons, telekenetic demons, werewolves, murderous shamans and necromancers, witches, sorcerers, and, of course, ghosts. That is also something that I got more of in The Reckoning than in the other two. Ghosts! They were everywhere! It was amazing!

Over all, Armstrong hit it dead on in The Reckoning. It was at-a-lose-of-words amazing, with gripping scenes and on-the-edge-of-your-seat action. A swoon-worthly and hilarious romance and hair-raising spectacles! Need I say more? Add these series to your TBR piles, people. It's gonna be worth it!

The Cover: Again, the cover really had nothing to do with the book. But we do find out what the necklace is used for! It kind of summed up my guesses, too. But the necklace isn't purple. I believe it's still blue.

P.S.: this counts for yesterday! Oops :)

The Awakening (Darkest Powers Trilogy #2) by Kelley Armstrong

Genre: teen fantasy and science fiction

Age Group: Young Adult

Book #: two
Pages: 357
Synopsis: If you had met me a few weeks ago, you probably would have described me as an average teenage teenage girl--someone normal. Now my life has changed forever and I'm as far away from normal as it gets. A living science experiment--not only can I see ghosts, but I was genetically altered by a sinister organization called the Edison Group. What does that mean? For starters, I'm a teenage necromancer whose powers are out of control; I raise the dead without even trying. Trust me, that is not a power you want to have Ever. Now I'm on the run with three of my supernatural friends--a charming sorcerer, a cynical werewolf, and a disgruntled witch--and we have to find someone who can help us before the Edison Group finds us first. Or die trying.

~~

I had hopes for this book, and those hopes did come true. The Awakening was better than The Summoning (see my review here). It was more action packed, there was more side character and main character interaction, and it was just better.

Chloe is stuck in the Edison Group's lab where she plays innocent until she gets a chance to escape. Derek and Simon haven't been found, and she just found out that Liz is a ghost. Tori is also there because of her mother's connections. Chloe is looking for a way out, when Dr. Davidoff (the man doing this to everyone [that is, the kidnapping, the interrogations, the manipulating]) gives her a perfect opportunity. When Chloe is sent to the library, she opens up Dr. Davidoff's computer and finds out that she, Derek, Simon, and Tori are all a part of a Genesis project to heighten their powers. Chloe finds out that Liz, Brady (another boy from Lyle who left before she got there), Tori, Simon, Derek, she, and others, are all a part of the project. And that Brady and Liz were killed because of it. It was so awesome, I couldn't put the book down by this part.

Then Dr. Davidoff recruited her and Tori to help find the boys (Derek and Simon) so that they could come back to the lab. And they take that as their chance to run. A few brawls later, Chloe and Tori are huddled in a warehouse until Derek and Simon come to save them. That's when they break out and head for a hiding place that Derek and Simon had set up ahead of time. But when they're discovered, they're back on the run and Derek and Simon tell them of an emergency contact that their dad had left before he'd disappeared. A man named Andrew who could help them. That's when it all gets more and more interesting.

The entire book is generally Chloe, Simon, Derek and Tori on the run from the Edison Group while trying to find Andrew without looking too suspicious. Derek and Chloe get separated from the group when Derek gets sick and needs to Change (into his werewolf form, that is). Chloe stays with him and they head out together where they get into more brawls and run from truck drivers, werewolves, and the Edison Group. They eventually make it to Simon and Tori, but that's at the near end of the book. I got my times mixed up throughout the book, mostly because times seemed longer than they were.

Over all, The Awakening was far better than The Summoning. I loved the action, the mystery, and the side character-main character interactions. Chloe seemed less opinionated  and considered other ideas more. She seemed to grow more in this book, taking in the rough surroundings and street-smarts as she went along with Derek. I really liked this book and am very excited for The Reckoning.

The Cover: her necklace does come up more in this book and it does turn blue, but the model is wrong again. This time, Chloe has to dye her hair black because her father has a reward put out for her. There's still no answer to the talisman, but this cover is my favorite of the three in the Darkest Powers Trilogy.

The Summoning (Darkest Powers Trilogy #1) by Kelley Armstrong

Genre: teen fantasy and science fiction

Age Group: Young Adult

Book #: one

Pages: 416
Synopsis: She sees dead people--and they see her. Chloe Saunders used to have a pretty normal life. But that changed on the day she met her first ghost. Locked up in Lyle House, a group home for troubled teens, she finds out that there's more to the home's teen residents than meets the eye. Will Chloe be able to uncover the dangerous secrets of Lyle House...or will its skeletons come back to haunt her?


~~

Maybe my expectations for this book was too high, but this was not one of my most favorite books. It bugged me most of the time, and the ending left me going, "Are you serious?" Hopefully the rest of the trilogy will be better.

It starts out with a young Chloe and her encounter with ghosts in her basement. That's when I said, "This book is going to be amazing!" Then it got into Chloe's life as a teenager, undergoing school and such, and I thought, "OK, just giving me a feel for Chloe." But then she got sent to Lyle House and nothing happened. The entire time, she talked about Liz, Rae, Tori, Simon, and Derek (the other inmates), but there was nothing mysterious about Lyle House until they go into the closet in the basement and up into the crawl space. That's when I said, "This is going to get really lame if nothing interesting happens." And nothing interesting did happen until the last couple of chapters.

There were hardly any ghosts to! That's what probably bugged me the most of this book. It says, right up there, first line in summary, "She sees dead people--and they see her." But there are only the ghosts in her basement as a child, the burned janitor, and the one in the basement at Lyle House. Other than that, zilch! Three ghosts in a book about a necromancer (someone who can see and talk to ghosts). Another thing, Chloe was so willing to accept her "condition" even though the facts were staring her in the face that she wasn't mentally ill and that they were lying to her! Ugh, frustrating!

Over all, The Summoning was not one of the best books I've ever read. But I wouldn't be setting it aside just yet. As annoying and frustrating as Chloe is, the book had its strong points. The idea that the home is a place for paranormal teenagers is very creative. There is mystery surrounding the home itself, but Armstrong pushes it aside with Chloe's thoughts about the home and Chloe's conclusion about the home. The Summoning was frustrating, but the sequel (The Awakening) has been very interesting so far. I have hope for the trilogy yet.

The Cover:  This cover hardly has to do with the book. Chloe is described as a petite girl with strawberry blond locks with red streaks. Her necklace does pop up in the book, but it's only barely brushed upon and hardly comes up. I do like the models position, though. And I think it would get my attention at a library or book store.