Awakened (House of Night #8)

Just released January 4th it took me one weekend to read P.C. and Kristin Cast's latest installment in their House of Night series. A quick and easy read it was sexy, fun and exactly what I expect from the Cast duo. This series has it's obvious flaws but I'm still completely addicted to it. And this was a good addition.

::SPOILER ALERT::

Zoey and Stark are back from the goddess Nyx's Otherworld and fully healed from their battle with Kalona (well as fully healed as you can get after what the Casts put them through in book 8, Burned), they are happy, safe and completely in love on Sqiach's magical island, while back in Tulsa Neferet is fully aligned with Darkness and has full control Kalona (although he is less than happy about the situation.)  After the sudden and violent (I cried) death of sweet Jack at Neferet's hand (although no one can prove it)  Zoey and Stark return to Tulsa to find their home in complete chaos. All I'm going to say is that it gets so crazy that finally Nyx, the goddess herself, steps in, showing her self to everyone at the Tulsa HON, including Neferet, who some how regains control of the HON, this is one of the things that I did NOT like about the book. I mean the Goddess, the one they all worship and follow, shows her self and basically says that Neferet is evil and she will not forgive her for what she did and yet the Tulsa HON, who were all there for this, stupidly listen to Neferet obviously twist their Goddess's words around then blindly follow her and help her kick Zoey and her gang out of the HON, of course they will be back for classes. So other than the sometimes immature dialogue (which can get a bit annoying) and the "heart warming teary eyed made for family tv" life lessons/discussions that seem to fill the novel (which are nice but can also be a bit annoying) and the incredibly frustrating way the other vampires and fledglings blindly accecpt Neferet back as their high priestest, even after everything that happened, everything she did and NYX HERSELF SAYING SHE'S GUILTY (I mean you would think they are smarter than that but nope), so other than those things, I still really enjoy this series. This was a good installment, with plenty of "YAY!!" and "OMG!!" moments, enough for me say that I can't wait for Destined to come out on November 5.

Inspiration: "You know how it is with cats: They don't really have owners, they have staff."  P.C. Cast (Chosen)


TV Guide: Psych Marathon