Book Review: Darkest Powers 2

TITLE: The Awakening
PART IN SERIES: Book 2 of 3 in the Darkest Powers trilogy
AUTHOR: Kelley Armstrong
PUBLISHED: 2009
GENRE: Young adult, Urban Fantasy, trilogy
PREMISE: In the second book of Darkest Powers, Chloe is on the run with Simon, Derek, and Tori.
MY REVIEW: Second books are tricky things in trilogys. Some can be good but most lag because they are mostly used to set up the story for the conclusion. Luckily, The Awakening is one of the really good second books. Armstrong doesn't let it lag and has character growth as well as plot growth.
I was pleasantly surprised by the turnaround of Tori for instance. After the first book, I figured she would be resident bitch queen and we would probably get nothing more from her character. But Armstrong managed to not only make her part of the story but actually give her depth and let us see that maybe she isn't the best of people but she has issues too and by the end of the book I actually kind of liked her. I don't love her but I do find her funny at times and she made a lot of good points about Chloe and how the two boys treated her. A lot of the points she made forced Chloe to take a look at herself as well.
As for the love triangle bit...I'm not actually sure there IS one now. I honestly think Simon sees Chloe as a sister, he just hasn't realized it yet and vice versa with Chloe. But I have high hopes for Derek and Chloe. I'm on that ship all the way. All in all an exciting book that keeps you guessing and I can't wait to find out what happens in the next book which I believe comes out either end of April or beginning of May.
WHO SHOULD READ: Kelley Armstrong fans, if you liked the first book, urban fantasy fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five ghosts

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