6) Awakened by P.C & Kristin Cast

The Blurb -

Exonerated by the Vampyre High Council and returned to her position of High Priestess at Tulsa’s House of Night, Neferet has sworn vengeance on Zoey. Dominion over Kalona is only one of the weapons she plans to use against Z. But Zoey has found sanctuary on the Isle of Skye and is being groomed by Queen Sgiach to take over for her there. Being Queen would be cool, wouldn’t it? Why should she return to Tulsa? After losing her human consort, Heath, she will never be the same – and her relationship with her super-hot-warrior, Stark, may never be the same either…

And what about Stevie Rae and Rephaim? The Raven Mocker refuses to be used against Stevie Rae, but what choice does he have when no one in the entire world, including Zoey, would be okay with their relationship? Does he betray his father or his heart?

My Thoughts -

The House of the Night series is going strong and this 8th book in the bestselling series was, to be honest, disappointing. Many fans will not agree with my views and many others will wonder why I am not praising this book/series when everyone else is loving it in so many ways. There are many little reasons why this series is starting to frustrate and annoy me and I can only wonder if I am the only person who wishes the story would go back to being as good as it was when it all began eight books ago.

I think the first time I started to think something was wrong was when the story started being told from different perspectives and not just from Zoey's. It was confusing at first and while I have dealt with the change of format I still don't like it. Which brings me on to another reason I am getting fed up with this series...the huge amount of characters.

Keeping track of many different characters isn't really difficult. I do it all the time with the various books and series I read each year. However I am finding it really hard to keep up with the who is who, who did what, why and when etc. Which leads me to my next problem - The story! It seems to have grown and spiralled out of control. The plot keeps twisting and changing all the time making it hard to understand what is happening and why. Is there even a real plot any more? It feels like things are just being thrown in there to keep the story going in anyway possible and to fill up the pages. It is starting to remind me of what I did watch of LOST.

Why did I even finish this one then? Well I was still interested in seeing how things played out and see if the mess was cleaned up by the end of the book. Actually the ending just kept going and going. Each time I thought it was done there seemed to be more. However when the end finally came I just felt nothing. No 'I need to know what happens next' and definitely no 'wow what a great ending'. It was over and that was it.

There are many more little things that bugged me this time around but I don't want to nitpick. To sum things up I am just not happy with the direction things have taken and I am not impressed with the format. The style seems different and the plot is wild and unstable. There should be more doing and less beating around the bush. Was there really any progress made in Awakened?

Fans may hate my views and I don't blame them. I will still recommend this series and this new book to friends and fans. My views are my views and I am aware that I may be the only person in the world who didn't really like this book. Maybe I can stop myself from ordering book number 9 when it comes out. Although for some reason I know I am going to end up reading it anyway.