The Flame Never Dies by Rachel Vincent

Series: Well of Souls (bk. 2) Duology likely, final book

Genera(s): Dystopian/Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy

Subjects: supernatural, demons, demonology, exorcists, abilities, magic, souls, possession

Setting: Badlands of Oklahoma?, Kansas, Colorado

POV/Tense: 1st person, past tense: Nina Kane

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 342 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Summary/ product description: “Nina Kane was born to be an exorcist. And since uncovering the horrifying truth—that the war against demons is far from over—seventeen-year-old Nina and her pregnant younger sister, Mellie, have been on the run, incinerating the remains of the demon horde as they go.

In the badlands, Nina, Mellie, and Finn, the fugitive and rogue exorcist who saved her life, find allies in a group of freedom fighters. They also face a new threat: Pandemonia, a city full of demons. But this fresh new hell is the least of Nina’s worries. The well of souls ran dry more than a century ago, drained by the demons secretly living among humans, and without a donor soul, Mellie’s child will die within hours of its birth.

Nina isn’t about to let that happen…even if it means she has to make the ultimate sacrifice.”

My Review:  The Flame Never Dies is the sequel to The Stars Never Rise. The author had said this is a duology, so I guess this was the final book. I feel like this series could have been longer. The author’s Soul Screamers series lasted seven books, but a trilogy would have been nice at least.

If you have not read this series I recommend it to those who enjoyed The Demon Trapper’s Daughter series, Incarnate by Jodi Meadows, Unbreakable by Kami Garcia and urban fantasy books.

It’s written in first person point of view and the main character Nina Kane is a natural born exorcist. She can send demons back to Hell with the holy fire she can conjure from her hands. Demon eat the souls of those they posses and when exorcised the host body dies because there is nothing to occupy the body and there’s a bid burning hole in the chest. If a demon is in a body too long it starts to degenerate and become twisted. If you have not read the first book, then spoilers are ahead.

Nina, Melanie, Maddox, Finn, Devi, Reese, Grayson, and Anabelle are in the badlands (not the South Dakota one, but Oklahoma or Kansas) trying to survive, hiding from the Church. In the previous book Nina discovered the Church was ran by demons and that her mother was a demon possessing a human body. Nina is public enemy number one and a demon named Kastor wants her as a host.

Finn, a soul who doesn’t have a corporeal form, is possessing a guard temporarily. Nina is in love with Finn, no matter what body he’s in. Melanie is still pregnant and due in about a month, and since souls are hard to come by, it’s possible the baby won’t last an hour after it’s born. Nina plans on sacrificing her own soul for the baby if it comes to it.

The something unexpected happens that changes everything and sets Nina on a course for revenge and for an even more meaningful sacrifice. Can she and her friends save humanity from the demons who are destroying it?

So, this was a great sequel. I wish it was longer or that there was a third book. I really love it when there’s an interesting cast of characters, but I feel like some of them were under-used. I wanted more dialogue from them. And I wanted more romance. Despite that, it was a good sequel. Action and paranormal stuff and cool discoveries and scary twists. I enjoy the way Rachel Vincent writes. She has complex narrators that face terrible dilemmas, interesting love interests (both Todd and Finn were incorporeal most of the time), interesting world building and humor. I will miss the characters.

There was a moment I considered this being set in the same world as Soul Screamers, but in the future and that the demons were hellions, since both could posses people, but the demons in this book don’t have a natural shape in Hell, and the hellions did in the Netherworld. So that theory didn’t last long.

Cover Art Review: Beautiful cover. Too bad it’s not metallic. I love the feather, but there are no angels in this book. The title treatment is cool.

Calamity by Brandon Sanderson

Series: Reckoners (bk. 3)

Genera(s): Dystopian Sci-fi

Subjects: super powers, abilities, supervillains

Setting: The city of Ildithia, which used to be Atlanta, Georgia, but was turned into constantly moving salt and now is in Kansas

POV/Tense: 1st person POV, past tense: David

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 417 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $18.99

Publisher: Random House: Delacorte Press

Summary/ product description: “When Calamity lit up the sky, the Epics were born. David’s fate has been tied to their villainy ever since that historic night. Steelheart killed his father. Firefight stole his heart. And now Regalia has turned his closest ally into a dangerous enemy.

David knew Prof’s secret, and kept it even when Prof struggled to control the effects of his Epic powers. But facing Obliteration in Babilar was too much. Once the Reckoners’ leader, Prof has now embraced his Epic destiny. He’s disappeared into those murky shadows of menace Epics are infamous for the world over, and everyone knows there’s no turning back...

But everyone is wrong. Redemption is possible for Epics—Megan proved it. They’re not lost. Not completely. And David is just about crazy enough to face down the most powerful High Epic of all to get his friend back. Or die trying.”

My Review:  This is a truly EPIC finale! It’s like a rollercoaster through a zoo filled with unicorns, dragons and puppies, while you eat ice cream, and listen to you favorites music. Sadly, the ride’s over, and I don’t want to get off. (How that for a metaphor….I mean simile.) I’ll miss David’s ridiculous metaphor-similes and his Epic obsession and his adorable geekiness.

This series has been one of the most constantly entertaining series to date. Seriously, these books never bored me and always left me wanted the next one. I’m just so mind blown by this finale, I don’t know what to say. I wish we could see more of what happened later on, after the end of the book, like a novella or story at least.

The characters in this series have been so unique, set apart from each other. I never had trouble remembering their traits, abilities or quirks. The character relationships were amazing. David and Megan, who I totally ship because they’re made for each other, remind me of other romances in YA series from a male POV, in which the girl’s the tough one in the relationship, and the guy’s a bit more nerdy or sweet. Think Percy and Annabelle, Alex and Darla (Ashfall), or Gray and Bree (The Taken Trilogy). Megan is an Epic and can pull shadows of parallel worlds into ours to make an illusion of reality.

I love the Reckoners team. Prof was cool, in a Xavier from X-men sort of way, until Prof went dark in the previous book. What a super villain. Abraham is an African-French-Canadian who’s ex-military and pretty reserved, but he’s still cool. He’s get a chance to work with some awesome Epic-derived technology in the book. Cody is a southerner who obsessed with Scottish stuff, and makes up tall tales about his people, the Scotts. Mizzy, an African-American with poufy hair, is very perky and uses words like “Groovy,” that David’s never heard. Tia, an older redhead and Prof’s girlfriend (who’s missing, or dead possibly) was an expert on Epics.

Of course if you read the previous books, you know all that, or just needed a reminder. If you hadn’t read them, you you should probably stop reading this review and look for spoiler free reviews on Steelheart, ya slontze. (That’s not an insult, that was a made-up word from the book, which was set in Chicago, now Newcago).

The Reckoners are in Ildithia, which used to be Atlanta and used to be in Georgia. Well now’s it’s made of salt that grows and disintegrates over a week, moving like mold, by growth and decay. It’s currently near Kansas City, Kansas. Weird, I know. I didn’t get it at first either. It’s pretty cool though. I like the idea of a building made of a crystal. Though, having to move each week would suck.

They set up a base there, avoid Epics until the mission. Stuff doesn’t go so well. They have quite a few run-ins. The make plans. David in currently leading the group and coming up with crazy ideas and persuading the other Reckoners to go along with it. Everyone’s skeptical of David’s farfetched plans. David’s eternally optimistic, sometimes in an annoying cheeky way. I like him for that. He almost reminds me of Ray from Arrow/Legends of Tomorrow, (who get called “boy scout” a lot).

The ending of the book is crazy. I kind of suspected what Calamity was, but didn’t know who he was. A what happened to David was what I was hoping for, but I didn’t expect what exactly would happen. If you think I’m being vague, I am doing so to not spoil it. I really want to talk about it though. OHMYGOSH!!!!!! EERRRR!!!! I just…loved it too much. Seriously, why can’t there be more series like this?

Recommend this to fans of Marvel and DC comics and movies and TV shows. Books like Illusive, V is For Villain and Shatter Me.

Cover Art Review: Cool cover. Love the colors and the bullet hole. Very representative of the series.

Public Enemies by Ann Aguirre

Series: Immortal Games (bk. 2)

Genera(s): Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy

Subjects: supernatural, magic, wishes, horror, immortals, revenge

Setting: Boston, Massachusetts

POV/Tense: 1st person POV, past tense: Edie (Edith) Kramer

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 372 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: MacMillan: Feiwel & Friends

Summary/ product description: “Learn the rules of the game…and then play better than anyone else.

Through a Faustian bargain, Edie Kramer has been pulled into the dangerous world of the Immortal Game, where belief makes your nightmares real. Hungry for sport, fears-made-flesh are always raising the stakes. To them, human lives are less than nothing, just pieces on a board.

Because of her boyfriend Kian’s sacrifice, she’s operating under the mysterious Harbinger’s aegis, but his patronage could prove as fatal as the opposition. Raw from deepest loss, she’s terrified over the deal Kian made for her. Though her very public enemies keep sending foot soldiers—mercenary monsters committed to her destruction—she’s not the one playing under a doom clock. Kian has six months…unless Edie can save him. And this is a game she can’t bear to lose.

My Review: Public Enemies is the sequel to Mortal Danger. I sadly didn’t enjoy it as much as the first book (that I gave 4.5 stars). I was often confused, maybe because I forgot what happened previously. Lots of the stuff in this book is too unbelievable and hard to imagine. The best part was the romance between Kian and Edie. Edie and Kian both are interested in intellectual things, like science, classic movies, and poetry. It’s set in modern day Boston. Edie goes to a private school called Blackbriar Academy.

To recap, Edie used to be the school laughing stock: ugly, overweight and friendless, but very smart. She attempts to end her own life, but is stopped by Kian, who makes her an offer that changes her life. Kian tells Edie she can have 3 favors, like a genie giving 3 wishes. When she burns her first favor, she asks him to make her beautiful. Edie spends her summer leaning about science and getting used to her beauty and planning her revenge on the popular crowd she calls the Teflon Crew. Edie learns that getting revenge isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and that everything comes with a price.

Edie is dealing with immortal who were created by the collective conscious of human beliefs and imagination. Their existence is owed to us. Edie is being watched by the Harbinger, a trickster who made a deal with Kian to keep Edie alive. In exchange, Kian only has until he’s 21 to live and will be eaten (drained) by the Harbinger. Harbinger is kind of like Loki or other trickster gods. He’s kind of ridiculous in the way he acts and dresses. Chaotic, I guess.

There’s Dwyer, who’s the enemy and the Sun God (Apollo/Baulder). Wedderburn who’s a winter god and also who Kian used to work for. There are other kinds of creatures and being too. There’s Buzzkill, the killer clown who was an Internet urban legend. There’s a creature called the Chuthulu. There’s mythological monsters and there’s even demons.

You may enjoy Mortal Danger if you enjoyed: Any books by Brenna Yovanoff, Gretchen McNeil, Josephine Angelini, or Kendare Blake. Also mythology series like Darkness Becomes Her or Percy Jackson or Fury.

Cover Art Review: Not a fan of this cover. The girl looks like the evil queen from Snow White/Once Upon a Time.