Making Up For Lost Time

Since our last visit I guess I made up for lost time in my reading.

I have read three books since last Wednesday. No, I wasn't speed reading. Just my normal pace. They were really good!

Ok, so maybe the last two I did kind of zoom through. It took me a day and a half to read the 2nd and the 3rd I read directly after I finished the previous and was done at 9 last night. When I was done I felt like my brain was broken.

First, in chronological order of reading was Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh.

This is the second book in her Guild Hunter's series. For me it was the last one to read because I couldn't find it when I bought all the other books. 

The premise of the series is Angels are among us, but not as we normally think of them. The world is ruled over by 10 Archangels called the Cadre of Ten. Their subordinates, regular angels keep things going in day to day life, but what is so different is that angels can create...wait for it....VAMPIRES.

After blood tests, if the angels find you to be compatible with their toxin that creates vampires, you are allowed to be Made, but at a price. You must live as servants for a 50 year contract to the Angel that governs your area. If you live in NYC, you are under the Archangel of New York, Rafael.

The Hunters Guild is a world wide organization that was created to keep vampires in check. If one that is still under contract or has served his time and now lives among everyone else goes berserk bloodlust or is on the run from their sire, Guild  Hunters track them down and bring them back. Like supernatural bounty hunters. 

The first books have followed Elena Deveraux, Guild Hunter who is what they call Hunter Born, able to scent out vampires based on their own unique smell. 

In the first book, Angel's Blood, Elena helps Rafael, the Archangel of New York, track a rogue Angel....I won't spoil the rest of it for you.

In Archangel's Kiss, Elena is now Rafael's lover and mate. After surviving their last adventure, they are summoned by the Archangel Lijuan to the Forbidden City, Bejing, to meet her new creations....not Vampires.

This series was overall a great, great fast, fun read. I definitely recommend it for those who like to read in the vein of the Paranormal Romance genre. Lots of action and romance and intrigue.

On to the next two books I read. I say both because they are Books 1 and 2 in the YA Darkness Rising trilogy by Kelley Armstrong.

 The Gathering is book one. Follow Maya Delaney as she discovers the hidden truth about herself and her friends as they grow up in a tiny town on Victoria Island, British Columbia. Their little hamlet of Salmon Creek was created and is basically run by the St. Cloud Corporation.  (If you have read the Women of the Otherworld series, then it should ring a bell). A small drug research facility is the heart of Salmon Creek and all its residents are tied to the company in one way or another, with the exception of Maya's dad, the park ranger for the area....or so she thought.

After finding out the horrible truth of being abandoned by her birth mother, while she kept her twin brother, and being genetically engineered in a lab, Maya and her friends find themselves trapped by a forest fire and find their escape hampered by unknown gun toting assailants.

I loved it, and I am sooo glad I had The Calling with me when I finished it yesterday, because the first book ends so abruptly leaving you going...wait a minute...WHAT'S HAPPENED TO THE KIDS????

The Calling literally picks up right where The Gathering left off. After boarding a helicopter provided by the St. Cloud Corporation, the kids are whisked away to the southern end of the island to Victoria, BC. Or are they....

I hate to give any more of the second book away because there is so much involved in it. And I HATE that the third book isn't out yet. Kelley doesn't even offer a hint on her site. So I just have to be patient about it. HAHAHAHA, me patient.

Now this YA trilogy as well as the YA Darkest Powers Trilogy all tie into her Women of the Otherworld world (I hate to sound redundant, but don't know how else to word it.). You don't HAVE to read the other Women series, because it is really big, but I do STRONGLY recommend you do because it is a lot of fun to read. 

As you can see I love to read...a lot. I will have to take some pictures of all (well most) the books we have. We have stacks of them everywhere. If you have read the Dirk Pitt series by Clive Cussler (one of my favorite of all time authors), imagine St. Julien Perlmutter's home with all the books stacked everywhere. Well that is what my house feels like most of the time. As soon as we buy books, and we don't just buy a few books, we buy LOTS of them, we set them down in stacks and as soon as we are done reading one, we wind up just setting the one we finished down and pick up the next.

Oh well, whatcha gonna do...read another!