Book Review: The Reckoning

TITLE: The Reckoning
Book 3 in the Darkest Powers Trilogy
AUTHOR: Kelley Armstrong
PUBLISHED: 2010
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: urban fantasy, werewolves, romance, adventure
SHORT PREMISE: Chloe and friends return for a final showdown.
MY REVIEW: I fell in love with the Darkest Powers trilogy and consequently the whole Women of the Underworld universe when I picked up The Summoning about two years ago. That was my first Kelley Armstrong book and thus I had no clue what to expect because at that point I hadn't heard much about her. The rest is history and I have really grown to love this whole universe that Armstrong has created. It's creative but with set rules and bounderies and the characters are all interesting and entertaining in their own way. For some reason this jives more with me then the adult series and maybe it's just that it's my first intro so I'm more familiar with it. I don't know. Either way I loved this trilogy and the ending was a nice ride.
In this one, Chloe and company are staying with a guy they're not sure they can trust. He brings in more people to help "train" them so to speak but it quickly becomes clear that they are not trusted and at some point even feared. Chloe also meanwhile solves her feelings once and for all about Derek and Simon.
I liked this conclusion. Was I totally satisfied? No, but there's a spin off trilogy starting so I'm assuming more concrete resolutions will be in there. As always I liked the complicated characters and emotions going on here and how not everything was black and white. I also liked the logical way the love triangle quickly resolved itself because lets face it, Simon didn't have a chance and he knew it and didn't make a huge fuss a la Jacob Black from Twilight. I just liked that they handled it maturely and went on their way.
On the whole this was an immensely satisfying third book. I love how the characters developed and I am definitely intrigued by this new trilogy starting up. Armstrong has made me a big fan of hers I can't wait to read whatever she writes next.
WHO SHOULD READ: those that have read the first 2 books, fans of Women of the Underworld, Patricia Briggs fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five ghost