Thread: DA's Book Journal (Opinions, Discussion...nerd nerd nerd).

So, given things, I'm only going to review things starting with what I've read in 2015 and forward. If anyone is curious for my reviewdiscussion of a book I've read BEFORE then, just ask and I'll be happy to provide andor discuss. But unless I seriously get the urge to do so or just have a lapse in finding something I feel like reading at any particular time, I'm going to just be systematic about things and consider 2015 my starting point. XD That said, I'll just do my reviews and if anyone who's readinterested in the book I review wishes to discuss these books with me...can be to inquire about it, discuss, whatever...feel free to just comment or whatever in order as I've read them. So that has me starting things off with Kelley Armstrong and her Darkest PowersDarkness Rising books. To start, I'll inform anyone who is interested that these are TWO trilogy sets that work together as a whole and then there are a bunch of short stories that sort of fill in the gaps and add further depth to everything. The best order to read everything, in my own opinion, is as follows The Darkest Powers trilogy The Summoning , The Awakening , The Reckoning short stories -- Bonus Pack 1 Dangerous, Divided, Disenchanted, Bonus Pack 2 Belonging, Facing Facts The Darkness Rising trilogy The Gathering , The Calling , The Rising short stories -- Atoning other short stories -- Kat , Hunting Kat These two short stories work together and are in the same universe as everything else, however the characters have nothing to do with the ones in any of the other books...so they are total off shoots and can stand alone entirely. Now, for the meat of everything... The entire world created by Armstrong is absolutely wonderful and I adore the characters she's created to absolute pieces! I will say, however, that I found myself a bit more drawn to her characters in the Darkest Powers set vs the Darkness Rising set. As to the why of it? Not sure. Perhaps it had to do with the dynamics of the characters themselves and their personalities. All in all, they were all relateable and likeable and the stories themselves were fantastic. But, I found myself wanting more from the first bit as opposed to the second and was ecstatic when things came full circle in the final book of the Darkness Rising trilogy and all the characters were finally all together. The world itself was definitely an interesting one. It was classic paranormal--you have supernatural beings who live among humans, their identities of who and what they are a mystery as their world is wrapped up in chaos and their own set of politics. However, the way Armstrong goes about this is rather unique. Firstly, I rather liked the supernaturals she decided to focus on and I was intrigued with the politics she set up with everything. It ran pretty deep and made for a story that was certainly worthy of the 6 books it ended up becoming not counting any of the short stories. The other thing I loved was her character development. Armstrong really fleshed out her characters--even those who didn't get a lot of face time. You really felt like you had a handle on the who in this series...from the mains to the sides to the everything. So when twists came up--even for a YA series--you got a bit of a flutter, which was nice. And oh the relationships! Yeah, I can be a sucker for some of that. What can I say? I'm a girlie girl at times, lol! But the development of those were nice and slow and so very natural. I honestly loved that and found it refreshing. None of that insta-this or insta-that. It made it that much more believable. Another thing I'd really like to credit Armstrong on is her writing of first person. All of her stories were written in first person. And WOW did she do a phenomenal job of it! Never have I read such unique voices that really came off true to character! I mean, seriously...when I read from Chloe's POV...it WAS Chloe. If it was Maya's...it WAS Maya...if it was Derek's...it WAS Derek...etc. Honestly, it truly astounded me and it really went to show just how 'in the mind' this author is when it comes to her characters. It's not every day you can pick up a book and start to read and pretty much know which character you're reading the POV of just by reading over the words and not even getting a hint of their name...you just knew!! Now that is something special, if you ask me. As for the KatHunting Kat stories? They were both fairly decent, but they paled in comparison to the other booksstories Armstrong wrote for this universe known as Otherworld...she has a whole slew of regular paranormal books that are NOT YA known as The Women Of Otherworld. What they did do, however, was give some great insight about Armstrong's Vampires seeing as they were one of the supernatural creatures she did not really target in the rest of her booksshort stories. So, it was nice to get a true feel for what they were all about. Oh, and since I'm sure people might be curious.....what supernaturals were the focus of these books? Well, in the first trilogy, the main focus was necromancers, with a nice dash of werewolf and even a touch of sorcerywitchery. The second trilogy focused on shapeshifting--primarily into cougars. However, there were a few other interesting supernaturals that were touched upon, one of which was a demon hunter. Overall, I loved these booksshort stories. They were fun to read and I'd recommend them to anyone into the paranormal genre when it comes to reading anything.