ARC Review--Recreated by Colleen Houck

From Colleen Houck, New York Times bestselling author of The Tiger’s Curse, comes Recreated, the second book in the epic Egyptian-inspired Reawakened series, in which a seventeen-year-old must literally go to hell to save the love of her life.

Lily Young thought traveling across the globe with a reawakened sun prince was a grand adventure. Now she’s about to embark on the journey of a lifetime.

When Amon and Lily part tragically, he transports himself to the Netherworld—what mortals call hell. Tormented by the loss of his one true love, he’d rather suffer in agony during Lily’s mortal years than fulfill his duty to protect humanity.

Heartbroken, Lily seeks refuge on her grandmother’s farm. Yet she can feel Amon’s pain, and she has been having dreams—dreams of Amon continually suffering.

For before he departed, Amon gave Lily something very special, an item that connects them even though they are worlds apart. Now Lily must use this object to free him, and to free their realms from darkness and utter chaos. She will do whatever it takes. 

I received this ARC from the publisher for being apart of the blog tour, and in exchange for an honest review. I was in no way compensated for this review.


I have always enjoyed Colleen Houck's books! They are so rich in culture and mythology! Especially of cultures I feel less informed about! Her latest, Reawakened series explores Egypt and of course the mystery behind mummies! Recreated is the second installment of the series and follows Lily's journey as she races to rescue her lost mummy love, Amon.

We pick up a short time after we left Lily. Amon has died and before he could be judged, ran off to the netherworld. He longs to be with Lily as well, but contents himself with waiting for her to live out her lifetime before they can be together. Which kind of aggravates me on a minor level, because it's like Titanic all over again, go live a full life with love and lots of babies...and then when you die, say screw it to your husband and be with me in the afterlife. But that's just nonsense that aggravates me and really has no effect on my enjoyment of the book, let's move on!

Anubis quickly comes crashing back into her life saying that she must go find Amon because he's close to being captured by the Devourer of Souls. As the name lets you know, this is not someone who wants to be best friends! But in order to take on the big nasty, Lily will have to undergo a set of trials to become the sphinx and then transverse the netherworld to find Amon. 

And so begins yet another action packed journey filled with frights and trials that will keep you hooked in suspense! It's not long before we start to see some familiar faces, I would say about halfway-ish, and really that's just when Asten and Ahmose join her as they travel the terrifying realms of the netherworld. She's also joined by a "spirit" of sorts named Tia who was a lion and long story short, Tia is now apart of Lily and the two share her body. It definitely made for interesting scenarios because there are moments when Lily is in control and then suddenly Tia takes over! Tia definitely has an interesting outlook on life too! It was fun being "inside" her head, of sorts, as she has her own interesting philosophy for life.

I'm fairly certain I sensed a possible love triangle last time in this book, one I had hoped really wouldn't turn into anything, but alas, we seem to have a further possible love triangle on our hands. As Lily travels with Asten and Ahmose, she starts to have feelings of a different kind for Asten. And basically, things get really intense and complicated!

The ending, oh that ending! It pretty much killed me because I feel like there are no clear answers. We're given a taste, a small taste of answer, but that's never good enough for me! LOL! I NEED TO KNOW! I need confirmation of what I am thinking what happened really just happened!! And ah!! IT was crazy and insane, which normally I am totally all for! But eek!! Do you realize I now have over a year until the next book?! This is the downside to reading ARCs I tell ya! LOL!

Recreated was an amazing and exciting followup to the incredible Reawakened! Colleen Houck is known for (to me) exploring untreaded territory! She brings to life the lesser known mythologies and I always walk away knowing more mythology than I knew before. I love it! I was a huge Greek mythology fan as a kid and now I'm growing fond of learning about these new cultures! Colleen writes in such a fascinating way, that while you may feel like the pacing might be slow or bogged down, but it's really not! It's rich and thick with oddles of storytelling and naturally, all the other wonderful story elements we have come to love from adventure to romance! This is a series that should not be missed!


Overall Rating 4.95/5 stars--a teeny tiny bit off the top because I am left sooo discombobulated after that ending! Normally I feel agonized with the waiting and wondering when the next adventure will start. This time, I feel like I'm missing a step of what exactly I am agonized about. But I am definitely still agonized! LOL!


Recreated releases August 2, 2016


CONTEST TIME! Since I received an extra copy of this for being on the blog tour, I decided I will gift 1 winner my ARC of Recreated!! All you have to do is leave a meaningful comment on my review here! Open to US readers only, sorry. But be sure to check out the blog tour that's starting up soon! I'll be a stop on there as well! I'll pick a winner on July 22!