4.5/5 Stars
House of Night Series
By P.C. & Kristin Cast
St. Martin's Press
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance, Vampyre, MagickHouse of Night is a series of YA (young adult) Vampire books and novella's written by P.C. Cast and her daughter Kristin Cast. I had seen the covers to these books in grocery stores, drug stores, book stores etc... and I become intrigued because they were so lovely. I went to the library and picked up the first book Marked and read it within a few days. I then went back and grabbed as many books in the series as I could and within a month I read the series in its entirety. Since I read them before I started this blog and one consecutively after the other it's sort of turned into a big blob and I can't remember where one books ends and the other begins. Because of this I will dedicate this blog to the series and not the books individually. I will however give a short synopsis about the first book from Amazon:
Enter the dark, magical world of the House of Night, a world very much like our own, except here vampyres have always existed.
One minute, sixteen-year-old Zoey Redbird is a normal teenager dealing with everyday high school stress: her cute boyfriend Heath, the school’s star quarterback who suddenly seems more interested in partying than playing ball; her nosy frenemy Kayla, who’s way too concerned with how things are going with Heath; her uber-tough geometry test tomorrow. The next, she’s Marked as a fledgling vampyre, forcing her to leave her ordinary life behind and join the House of Night, a boarding school where she will train to become an adult vampyre. That is, if she makes it through the Change—and not all of those who are Marked do. It sucks to begin a new life, especially away from her friends, and on top of that, Zoey is no average fledgling. She has been chosen as special by the vampyre Goddess, Nyx. Zoey discovers she has amazing powers, but along with her powers come bloodlust and an unfortunate ability to Imprint with Heath, who just doesn’t know how to take “no” for an answer. To add to her stress, she is not the only fledgling at the House of Night with special powers: when she discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school's most elite group, is misusing her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look deep within herself for the courage to embrace her destiny—with a little help from her new vampyre friends.
I really like the character's and the story line, and the authors really get you hooked in and wanting more. The characters are such individuals (except for the 'twins'), and they all function very well in the story. The authors' draw you into this magical world that Zoey lives in, which is unique, dangerous, enchanting and yet still pretty believable. Cast isn't trying to cram as many supernatural beings into series as humanly possible, unlike other series *cough* Sookie Stackhouse *cough cough*. I enjoy the style it is written, the majority of the series is from Zoey's perspective and by the words selected by the authors' you feel that it is told from the perspective of a teenager. That also goes the same for the other character's, you pick up strong personalities.
My only complaints are I am older than the characters in the book so all the crying and boy drama can get tedious. A lot of bad stuff happens within a few short months after Zoey is Marked, and the character's seem to be balling through half the series. Also Zoey is constantly being chased after by multiple boys/men and half the story is about her trying to deal with that. ***SPOILER**** It goes from her being in involved with Eric/Heath, Eric/Heath/Loren, briefly just Loren, then heart broken Eric and Heath, a crush on Stark, then Eric/Kalona, then Eric/Heath/Stark/Kalona, then Heath/Stark/Kalona, then just Stark, and now we have circled around again (I'm assuming from the latest book) to back to Heath/Stark. GAH JUST PICK SOMEONE!
***SPOILER OVER****Aside from that it's a great series, a very interesting take on Vampyre's, and I would definately recommend to anyone who likes Vampyres, 'magick' and the super natural. I'm not really sure if I have a favourite book, since again it's just a big Zoey's a gifted vampyre's who's life's gone to hell blob, but I suppose I would go with Burned. If you haven't read the series, try out the first book, and if you're hooked then you'll enjoy the whole series. Cast has 3 novella's planned, one of which I've read (Dragon's Oath), the novella's give the history as to what makes the professor's the Vampyre's they are. Lenobia's Vow was just released so when I read that I will blog about it. And novel #10 is hitting shelves October of this year I believe, and it is titled 'Hidden'. I'm not sure when the Neferet's Novella is being released but that's soon also.
The books go as follows:
Marked
Betrayed
Chosen
Untamed
Hunted
Tempted
Burned
Awakened
Destined
Novella's:
Dragon's Oath
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