Review--The Reckoning

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 also on the run from an evil corporation that wants to get rid of us--permanently.

DEFINITELY NOT NORMAL.

And finally, I'm a genetically altered necromancer who can raise the dead, rotting corpses and all, without even trying.

AS FAR AWAY FROM NORMAL AS IT GETS.

I flew through Kelley Armstrong's The Reckoning because it was so good and I could NOT put it down. OMG! It was fabulous!

Granted you have to have read the first two, The Summoning and The Awakening to know what the heck's going on, it's not like her adult series where you can pick up any book and be okay. This is the conclusion to the Darkest Powers trilogy. I want to say the next trilogy--which will feature a whole new set of characters, just to warn you, but Kelley did say that this group might catch up with the new one somewhere down the line in the next 3 books--that are dealing with their own supernatural powers and whatnot. Very hush-hush really, there are some bits of into of on the web and a sneak peek at the back of the novel, but still as to WHAT really happens, is unclear.

Moving on. This is the conclusion as I said before to Chloe's story and picks up right where we left off with the gang at Andrew's safe-house, but there are still doubts to the whole matter. as we know Derek is hard at trusting people, even Chloe at times. The BOC talks about Chloe developing feelings for Derek and it really is a slow gradual thing in some ways, I mean her feelings are pretty much there in the book, but overall in the series it was a gradual thing.

But there is a LOT of tension, because after all Simon is still there and Chloe does like him, but as we know she's leaning towards Derek. Plus the gang is going through hell trying to escape the Edison Group. And trying to figure out who their enemies are and where they are. They soon realize what is really going on.

I don't want to go too far into those details because it will ruin the suspense, but it's good. A LOT of surprises! Of course there always are!! And as usual I won't go into them because I hate ruining surprises for people, still can't forget when a friend of mine spoiled a huge spoiler for a movie for me.

The plot moves rather fast, but not too fast too leave you disappointed. I'm a fast reader but I could not, did not want to put this book down! It was soooo good, the way Kelley writes her YA differs from her adult by word choice, yes, but also things seem to move more quickly for the teenagers, the problems are always dire, but the teens have to move faster or else they'll get caught. With her adult series, usually the characters are the ones trying to do the catching. And Elena and her gang were briefly kind of sort of mentioned here. They weren't there, but I do believe this person was referring to them when speaking of this "group".

Anyway, there's not much else I can say without giving away something. But the plot was good and still leaves you hanging for more! There's been talk about the ending, some good, some not, but I liked it. It's what I expected anyway! That way it's a must to read the next trilogy in the series! The characters were all good, the reluctant moody werewolf, the cheerful sorcerer, the temperamental witch and of course the necromancer who has her own confusing set of feelings to deal with! Everyone was great and if there was more time in the days and whatnot I would so go bad and read all the books back-to-back just to get the full effect. 3 years for us was just not nearly as long as it was for them being on the run!

A highly recommended read! The Gathering is up next for this series which will be some time next year. For me, it's Jenna Black's The Devil's Playground!