BOOK REVIEWS: KELLEY ARMSTRONG – THE AWAKENING

Kelley Armstrong is a well known author and we have seen reviews from her other series. This is the second review from Kelley’s The Darkest Powers series.

Brought by OBS staff member Katlyn

Book Two: The Darkest Powers Series

Summary
If you had met me a few weeks ago, you probably would have described me as an average teenage girl—someone normal. Now my life has changed forever and I’m as far away from normal as it gets. I’m a living science experiment—not only can I see ghosts, but I can raise the dead without even trying. Trust me, that is not a power you want to have. Ever. I’m running for my life with three of my supernatural friends and we have to find someone who can help us gain our freedom back before the Edison Group finds us first. Or die trying. (Source: http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/)

Review
Another slam dunk for Kelley Armstrong in this mind-tingling action-packed novel. The book begins with Chloe in the locked Edison Group facility after revealing to her friend that she is actually dead. She soon learns that the people of the Edison Group are not as nice as they seem. I really enjoyed this novel because I already knew these characters and I was interested to see how they came into their powers when danger arose. I have to say I need to stop guessing when it comes to her novels because most of the time I am usually wrong and people are not always what they seem.

It was nice to read about the realtionship between Derek and Chloe. In The Summoning their relationship was very strained because of the secret of what Derek was, but the fact that these two are so different makes them perfect companions. We also delved deeper into Derek’s secret agenda involving the Pack which happens to live closeby. I also enjoyed the character of Liz, we missed out on a lot of her in the first novel, but this novel really showed how strong of a character she was, although Chloe was the only one to truly recognize it.

After reading other reviews about this novel, some say it was very slow and just a “middle” book, just setting us up for the end novel. I disagree. This novel explored more of the “coming of age” and power of these teenagers. Other novels explore characters already knowing their powers, but this particular series shows the troubles of learning to harness and control something that they never chose.

Stay tuned for the review of the final book after it is released May 2010.