TEEN: Dark Elite: Firespell and Charmfall - Chloe Neill

Release Date: 01/03/12

BOOK BLURB:

As the new girl at the elite St. Sophia's boarding school, Lily Parker thinks her classmates are the most monstrous things she'll have to face. When Lily's guardians decided to send her away to a fancy boarding school in Chicago, she was shocked. So was St. Sophia's. Lily's ultra-rich brat pack classmates think Lily should be the punchline to every joke, and on top of that, she's hearing strange noises and seeing bizarre things in the shadows of the creepy building. The only thing keeping her sane is her roommate, Scout, but even Scout's a little weird - she keeps disappearing late at night and won't tell Lily where she's been. But when a prank leaves Lily trapped in the catacombs beneath the school, Lily finds Scout running from a real monster. Scout's a member of a splinter group of rebel teens with unique magical talents, who've sworn to protect the city against demons, vampires, and Reapers, magic users who've been corrupted by their power. And when Lily finds herself in the line of a firespell, Scout tells her the truth about her secret life, even though Lily has no powers of her own - at least, none that she's discovered yet ...

REVIEW:

As a huge reader of Urban Fantasy and a keen reader of YA fiction I love it when the two worlds collide. As such this title by Chloe Neill sets itself up by the blurb to be something that not only intrigued me, but demanded that I spent the time upon it. Not only that but findind out that the second book in the series was already available pretty much made it a get it now type of pick up.

Whilst for me the book started quite slow, the pace picked up and began to take the reader deeper into the world of Chloe’s imagination. It did take its time and to be honest I was left wondering if it was going to happen at all, but at the end it all came good. There was key action sequences, great prose and an author that from hindsight, wanted to get the reader to know the character prior to throwing a lot of the supernatural our way.

All in, a fun book, one that did manage to hook me and with a lead character accompanied with a strong supporting cast, its made the second book a must read. The only thing I can hope is that Chloe does a bit more building and allows the characters to grow, otherwise it won’t be a series that stands out amongst the masses already available.







Release Date: 01/03/12

BOOK BLURB:

Protecting Chicago from the dark side can be an exhausting job, especially when you're a sophomore. So when the girls of St. Sophia's start gearing up for Sneak, their fall formal, Lily decides to join in on some good, old-fashioned party prep - even if it means not giving demons, vampires and the twisted magic users known as Reapers her undivided attention. But when a Reaper infiltrates the school, Lily doesn't forget what she's sworn to protect. She reaches deep into herself to draw out her magic - and finds that it's gone. And it turns out she's not alone. A magical blackout has slammed through paranormal Chicago, and no one knows what - or who - caused it. But Lily knows getting back her magic is worth the risk of going behind enemy lines ...


REVIEW:

Having neither truly loved nor hated the previous book I wanted to give Charmfall a fair crack of the whip, so having been lucky enough to have recently finished Firespell, I thought that I’d crack on with this one and see what it did for me as a reader. Sadly it left me with the same impressions as the original and whilst its certainly not the worst out there its pretty mediocre as the world hasn’t increased and the characters sadly didn’t get the opportunity to grow which will keep a lot of the readers with no attachments and therefore the Emo reaction to what befalls them.

Don’t get me wrong, there will be people out there that love this, but for me with no character growth and a pace that struggles to get going, it was a real struggle to make my way through. A great shame all in.